Instructions Provided to Respondents

To partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration in Information Management at the Newport Business Academy and Newport International University, I (Willem Hazenberg) decided to work out a research proposal with the title:
“Selection and decision-making criteria for a Distributed Control Systems in the process industry”.

The project framework
For the control of the chemical processes in the process industry Distributed Control systems (DCS) are applied. These systems are the heart- and nerve system within these factories. The choice of DCS for a concern is a matter of strategic importance.
High demands are made to the availability of a DCS and if the concern made a choice, she is committed to it for a lengthy time. Replacing a DCS is a very valuable matter because of the arisen production loss at a reconstruction for example. The service costs of a DCS could be a multiple amount of the initial investment during the life span.
The process industry in the world for approximately spends 45.8 billion dollar per year at the top 50 suppliers on process control systems (included DCS).

Study

Define the core selection criteria and their priorities for the purchase of a Distributed Control system (DCS) in the chemical industry and a design a decision-making model so that the decision-making for new systems more balanced more consequent and faster can be carried out.
The goals of this research is
The improvement of model-based consideration concerning a selection of a new distributed control system (DCS), by making an analysis of selected criteria within the “Process” industry to choose a DCS and to establish an investment/ selection model with these insights/ ideas.
So that future investment can be bought faster and the decision-making will be more transparent.
The areas of the study
• What is the business case of your investment in a new DCS system?
• What is the reason for this investment (migration, replacement or a new installation) and what are consequences of the choice of system?
• Which DCS supplier knows the person who is concerned in the company purchase of a new system?
• What decides whether the DCS supplier comes on the Big List for further evaluation?
• What decides whether the DCS supplier comes on the Short List for further evaluation?
• Which staff functions are involved in the selection?
• At which components do these people pay attention and which priority do they give to the different components?
• Is there a difference between the ideas of DCS suppliers and users concerning these criteria?

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Respondent Metrics

Respondents: 166