Optimisation that saves. Saves trips, time, alarms, wear, energy and headaches. Every second counts.

A controller intervenes every second. We make sure it does so calmly, so your process runs stably and your people no longer need to keep an eye on it.

Where we come from

PID Dynamics started with Brent. As an operator he saw, day in, day out, controllers that could not get the process to settle, while the cause was often simply in the settings. He immersed himself in control engineering and learned to see in the trend data where the unrest comes from and what brings a loop to rest.

Tobian saw the potential. Almost every plant has control loops that run restlessly, and almost nobody has the time or the knowledge to look at them. Yet with the trend data that is already there, things can be calmer, without investing in the plant itself. We have been best friends for a very long time, so the choice was quickly made.

It works because we are different. Brent is the doer and easy to get along with, with operators just as much as with engineers. He knows the process from the inside and knows what he is doing. Tobian is calm and analytical and keeps the overview when a lot is going on at once. He asks the question nobody has asked yet, and shows the answer with data. That is how we complement each other.

This is us.

We are young, but not inexperienced: six years in the process industry, a university degree in computer science and control loops that demonstrably run more calmly.

Brent Zwart

Brent Zwart

Co-founder · Process Control Engineer

I have been working in the process industry for six years now. I started out calibrating measuring instruments and control valves, then became an operator at a power plant and am now a senior operator at a large process plant. That means I know a control loop from two sides: from the measurement and the valve in the field, and from the screen in the control room, where you are the first to notice that a loop cannot be trusted.

That combination makes the difference in an analysis. I know how a process behaves in practice, and I also recognise when a restless loop is not down to the settings, but to the measurement or the valve.

I have not stopped learning: alongside my job I am training as a Chief Engineer for power plants (Hoofdwerktuigkundige) at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, after completing Power Plant Engineer A (Rewic). At your site, I am the one on location. I support you or your engineer in implementing the new settings, and I stay involved until everything runs well.

Brent on LinkedIn
Tobian Koenen

Tobian Koenen

Co-founder · Process Data Engineer

After studying Computer Science at the University of Groningen, I started working with the data a company produces every day as a matter of course. In my work I use it to continuously fine-tune running systems. Without data you are steering blind, and in a control loop that is no different.

For PID Dynamics I built the software that makes trend data insightful: how fast a process responds, how restless a loop is and how often a valve changes direction. With it, Brent gets through an analysis much faster, and you see in your own data where the unrest is and what a new setting has delivered.

My father works in the process industry; I know the stories about control loops that do not run smoothly from home, as well as the work operators lose to them every day. At your site, I make sure the data is clearly laid out and that everything else is taken care of, so Brent can focus entirely on your plant.

Tobian on LinkedIn

Nobody saw a problem.

With the control loops we have optimised so far, no alarm went off. The drum level stayed within its band, the trim controller within its margins. On the screens everything looked normal.

But in the trend data the loop never came to rest. The feedwater valve kept moving back and forth, and the trim controller corrected more than 40 times per hour, even when nothing was going on. After the optimisation, during normal operation and without downtime, averaged over both loops:

  • −49% variation around the setpoint
  • −83% large deviations from the setpoint
  • −56% movement of valve and controller output

Read the full case studies →

What you can count on.

  • Nothing changes without your approval

    We discuss every new setting with you or your engineer in advance, including the reasoning behind it. During the implementation everything can be reverted immediately.

  • A fixed price in advance

    You know what the optimisation costs before we start. The PID Performance Scan is free.

  • No improvement, no invoice

    If the before and after measurement shows no improvement, you do not pay for the optimisation.

  • Your data remains yours

    We never name customers, not even on this site. We treat process data and plant information confidentially.

  • With the systems you already have

    We work with the trend data from your own DCS or historian. No extra sensors, no new software, no modifications.

  • There are two of us

    No big agency. You always talk to the people who do the work, and we do not take on more projects than we can do well ourselves.

Shall we get acquainted?

A first conversation by video call costs you nothing and is usually enough to see where your control loops are restless. You speak to us directly, and you will have an answer within one to two working days.

Schedule an introductionSee the full programme