DLB | AUTOMATION

We’re DLB Associates, a dynamic team of consulting engineers, collaborating in a boundary-free culture to produce optimal solutions for clients ranging from global technology leaders to retail franchise concepts.

We see the bigger picture of each engineering challenge; we employ an adaptive approach to problem solving, and tailor our broad continuum of services to meet the needs of the client where they want to be met.

Simply put, DLB is a firm like no other, producing solutions like no other.

No matter the facility or business segment, being competitive today means your infrastructure is optimized for reliability and efficiency. An automation system certainly has to control the process but that is just the beginning.

Efficiently delivering useful data to support aggregation and analysis and designing systems that allow for flexible visualization and efficient and reliable operation of your facility require a more focused approach.

AUTOMATION INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

The automation industry is broken – the current competency and focus consistently falls short of owner’s requirements. Where the hardware and software offerings have kept in step with increased industry requirements and more complex mechanical and electrical designs, the traditional approach to automation systems has been repetitiously applied without much thought or adaptation.

Owners are often uneducated or inexperienced with automation and don’t know what they need. They are reliant on vendors / contractors to provide a quality system; they often just get what they get.

An exceptional level of experience and insight into automation best practices exempts the majority of firms from implementing a system that will meet the increasing demands of the new facility.

All facility automation systems are more interdependent than ever and whether commercial or industrial, require a new focused holistic approach to reliability, performance, efficiency and operations.

A full comprehension of the traditional shortcomings and a unique approach is needed to optimize reliability while minimizing TCO, exceed industry standards, adapt to challenging environments, and ensure performance requirements and reliability metrics are met.

AUTOMATION INDUSTRY OVERVIEW | 1

DLB has an extensive range of experience in all aspects of automation. We have been involved with automation planning, hardware and software engineering, installation, component verification, and system commissioning for nearly 300 projects in 16 major market segments. All of this has given us great insight and understanding of the industry challenges and areas needing improvement.

We have found the following to be consistent challenges:

1. Automation system development must begin at the birth of mechanical and electrical design. The systems are interrelated and must be considered together to sure optimum reliability and take advantage of all visibility opportunities.

2. Low commercial grade instrumentation is typically provided and greatly reduces opportunities for system optimization, troubleshooting, and design verification. Low confidence in the data eventually leads to the control system being overridden and controlled in manual, placing enormous stress / responsibility on operators and bypassing redundancy and fail-safe automated responses.

3. Most control system vendors are not accustomed to the level of detail required to design and verify a reliable control system. Most contractors don’t integrate what-ifs and system response to failure scenarios in their automation routines, compromising system operation and shortening the time available for operations to quickly react to events.

2 | AUTOMATION CHALLENGES

AUTOMATION CHALLENGES

4. Most control system vendors overlook the advantages of enhanced monitoring and system visibility and do not integrate these components into their approach. Troubleshooting and verification becomes a challenge without an appropriate data trending and archiving strategy.

5. Most control system vendors recycle approaches to operator monitoring packages ensuring this window to the system not only falls short in visual expectations, but hinders operations staff in responding quickly to issues, ensuring optimal system performance, and performing historical analysis and comparisons.

6. Operators are often inadequately educated on their control system capabilities and approach and have little confidence in their ability to respond to critical events. This leads to an enormous amount of unnecessary risk and inefficiencies.

AUTOMATION CHALLENGES | 3

Some of the areas where this enhanced automation approach can add value include:

Reduction of Schedule – Having automation specialists that can focus on planning and development before construction, and speak the automation language during implementation, streamlines execution minimizing delays at the critical build stages.

Decreased Commissioning Time – Proper planning and design can improve data collection and control flexibility, two areas that can greatly improve commissioning efficiency and effectiveness.

Improved Reliability – Reliability / Optimization is rooted in the details and unfortunately a traditional approach is applied putting this at risk. Raw project experience is not enough – a critical focus and holistic approach to automation is necessary to optimize reliability.

Eliminating Mistakes – By developing a clearer and more concise automation strategy integrated with key performance requirements, the control contractors can focus on execution, and nothing is left open to interpretation.

Enhanced Documentation – By setting appropriate guidelines and specifications, being innovative, and partnering with contractors, award-winning documentation can be produced providing an invaluable tool for operations.

Operational Confidence – A system that is designed with operations in mind maximizes reliability and instills confidence in the data collection and automation.

Having a technical automation-focused group provide preliminary development and ongoing oversight can certainly help ensure an award-winning and reliable system is delivered. But at what cost?

After much project experience, it is crystal clear that having significant automation knowledge and experience on your side from the beginning and throughout the process provides numerous advantages and helps maximize the overall ROI while delivering a more comprehensive solution.

VALUE OF AUTOMATION

4 | VALUE OF AUTOMATION

All of our past experience is poured into optimizing the next facility. We continuously challenge the traditional approach by applying our unique process to automation systems delivering industry-leading results.

High-performance and reliable yet flexible and operationally-focused systems are delivered by being innovative and going beyond the industry standard.

DLB AUTOMATION DIFFERENTIATION

Some innovative approaches that goes beyond the industry standard include:

1. Providing operators with selectable control options (e.g. lowest, average, highest)

2. Providing enhanced automation options that match the system automation to meet the client’s needs

3. Exposing all programming logic timers and parameters to lessen dependence on the installing integrator

4. Providing automated sensor selection (e.g. throw out the calculation based on certain criteria)

5. Providing enhanced manual control options (e.g. force on, lockout, partially automated control)

6. Providing enhanced sequence verification by placing the system in situations not defined in the sequence to uncover unintended system responses or “hidden” interlocks. You must plan to test what is not in the plan.

7. Optimizing equipment availability by using multiple status permissives

8. Designing high performance and intuitive data displays that balance aesthetics with functionality

9. Providing the ability to review programming logic down to the function block level to ensure it is reliable and functional, yet easy to understand and troubleshoot

10. Providing exceptional design and operations documentation

11. Analyzing the existing system / retrofit automation system

DLB AUTOMATION DIFFERENTIATION | 5

The key performance requirements of a facility will vary some but most will strive to balance economics with performance. In order to implement a system that supports this requirement many factors need to be considered in all phases of the project.

This approach is in conflict with the traditional approach where financial constraints generally drive the project. Thus, automation contractors are brought on board very late with little understanding of the system design, owner’s performance and business requirements, operator styles, and are focused on “getting in and getting out.”

A non-traditional approach is necessary to ensure the best total solution is provided. In order to reach project targets, sufficient technical development, coaching and oversight of automation vendors / contractors is required at various stages.

The following are some important considerations at various project stages:

Planning – Important control system details are often not specified / outlined and the control contractor is forced to made design / intent decisions on their own. Development of key concepts that will affect reliability and operability must be discussed and detailed early. A certain technical expertise is required to sync technical system requirements with project goals and expectations.

Pre-Design – Developing a high level design, system architecture, and defining degrees of automation required to support a current or future operation plan helps ensure the system will be executed as planned. Having technical resources that can perform this pre-engineering up front helps set the tone for the contractor-executed portion.

Design – Even with the best specifications and scope narratives in place, control system engineering and programming can widely vary between contractors as it is somewhat of an art form. Iterative reviews and technical oversight is very important in ensuring the correct interpretations have been made. This process fosters a learning environment and helps form partnerships with the controls contractor ensuring they take ownership in the final product.

Installation – All contractors are unique in their approach and final delivery. It is important to closely monitor installation to ensure small but important details are executed.

Testing – Mission critical facilities require an elevated level of verification and attention to detail. Detailed test plans, thorough testing / commissioning, and optimizing of hardware and software all contribute to an accurate, repeatable, and reliable system.

Transition / Documentation – Documentation content and quality can widely range between suppliers and generally is installation-focused, not operator focused. Emphasis is placed on ensuring the document set can be used as a tool as well as documenting the installation.

6 | HOLISTIC / INTEGRATED APPROACH

HOLISTIC / INTEGRATED APPROACH

Often, maximizing the operation of your facility requires advanced solutions. To reduce TCO and maximize ROI, you need an automation team capable of efficiently integrating these enhanced schemes with critical base automation functionality.

Some considerations for enhancing program and facility operations are:

Wireless Technologies – Incorporating wireless commercial or industrial Instrumentation and networking solutions to improve user access, data collection and reducing TCO and project schedules.

Remote Monitoring – Enhancing remote support and monitoring potential from various software platforms and mobile devices.

Facility Integration – Custom solutions Integrating new with existing or BMS with other facility automation systems like PMS, server performance and environmental monitoring, lighting, fire and life safety, security, maintenance and business systems, and more.

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) – Merge your data center asset and infrastructure automation and monitoring to help plan changes in capacity, increase energy efficiency and optimize cooling and power system performance.

Global Monitoring Solutions – Integrating multiple disparate systems from global facilities can eliminate the need for various interfaces and can help make sense of all your data in simple effective dashboards and data displays.

ADVANCED SOLUTIONS

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The DLB automation team brings valuable experience from various markets. Most recently, these include many large scale mission critical data center facilities, all with innovative designs, impressive time-to-live schedules, and include the lowest PUEs in the industry.

We have been involved in every facet of mechanical and electrical automation / monitoring systems from early pre-planning and pre-design, specification development, contractor selection, and in a contractor role including hardware and software design, installation, testing, commissioning, and transition to operations.

The DLB automation team is unlike any other and can leverage this experience along with our unique detailed holistic approach to help translate your needs into solutions.

Our automation team qualification and experience metrics include:

170,000 Number of data center points designed and commissioned

6,400 Quantity of data center critical process instrumentation designed and commissioned

1,400 Number of critical process equipment controlled

550 Number of data center MW designed managed and commissioned

278 Total number of projects executed

75 Percentage of top major hardware / software vendors used

40+ Mission Critical BMS and PMS systems installed in recent years

16 Number of major market segments

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

8 | QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

For more information, please visit: www.dlbassociates.com Copyright © 2013 by DLB Associates Consulting Engineers, P.C. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written consent of DLB Associates Consulting Engineers, P.C. v1r03

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NEW JERSEY | HEADQUARTERS Our primary goal for our headquarters was to create the physical embodiment of the DLB culture. As with the processes utilized for our clients, tremendous attention to detail was paid to our needs and the result was a truly optimal environment that effortlessly integrates with the way we work.

The New Jersey office is over 70,000 square feet and technologically advanced, with a heightened focus on learning, communication and collaboration. The design concepts of the headquarters were then carried through to our other offices, so our entire firm is able to operate as one virtual office in a seamless manner.

This approach facilitates the ability to deliver brilliant results for our clients.

NEW YORK | OPENED WINTER 2010 Optimally located in One Penn Plaza, our new 20,000-square foot NYC office mirrors the environment and technologies of our headquarters that are central to the firm.

The open plan design, large circulation and gathering areas, video conferencing in all of the meeting rooms and dedicated training rooms are true differentiators amongst typical NYC office spaces for engineers.

ATLANTA | OPENED SUMMER 2011 Our most recent expansion is a new 7,500-square foot satellite office, centrally located along the northwest corridor of Atlanta.

Again reflecting the style, atmosphere and cutting-edge technology of our headquarters and NYC office, the latest DLB space includes an open floor plan and video conferencing capabilities in meeting rooms, training rooms and private offices that further expand our virtual office infrastructure.

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NEW JERSEY | HEADQUARTERS 265 Industrial Way West Eatontown, NJ 07724 p: 732-774-2000

NEW YORK One Penn Plaza Suite 2601 New York, NY 10119 p: 646-381-6721

ATLANTA 3290 Cumberland Club Drive Suite 300 Atlanta, GA 30339 p: 678-504-2200