Process Industry Initiative Sets Common Design Practices

The Process Industry Practices (PIP) initiative is the successful effort of a group of twenty-three process industry companies and eight engineering and construction companies to produce voluntary recommended practices for engineering, procurement, and construction of equipment and facilities in the continuous process industries. PIP's defined goal is to harmonize the technical requirements from the existing standards of major industrial users, contractors, and standards organizations into a single set of practices. This article gives a general overview of the organization's history, structure, and vision as well as the various technology areas currently developing PIPs. Here, we also address and describe some of the practices that have been developed specifically by the Electrical Function Team, providing examples of how taking the best ideas from many individual company specifications can result in standardization and savings to all users.