Success Story: DLT&V Systems Engineering

DLT&V Systems Engineering, Inc. (DLT&V) specializes in industrial facility electrical design, construction management services, and integration and support services. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with offices in Irvine and Oceanside, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, DLT&V provides solutions ranging from brief letter reports to multi-million dollar SCADA system design and integration projects for municipalities, private utilities, developers, civil engineering firms and general contractors. The company numbers nearly 100 employees, with over 75 of those being technical personnel.

DLT&V resulted from forces joining, earlier this year, of two Wonderware® ArchestrA® Certified System Integrators — DL Engineering & Controls, Inc. and TMV Systems Engineering, Inc. The companies were similar in many ways: both provided turn-key controls solutions from design through start-up and maintenance and were among the earliest adopters of Wonderware Application Server architecture. Additionally, both have diverse industrial experience but are heavily immersed (no pun intended) in the water/wastewater industry, and are known for providing outstanding value to their clients through extraordinary technical expertise and customer service. The owners concluded that by teaming together they would enjoy significant economies of scale and be able to attract additional exceptional talent to keep pace with market demands for their services.

The company has been successful on multiple fronts; recently named as one of EC&M Magazine's Top 40 Electrical Design Firms, a finalist in Control Engineering Magazine's System Integrator of the Year competition, one of the Best Places to Work by the local business news, and a Company to Watch by the state small business association. One of the driving philosophies behind DLT&V's phenomenal growth and achievement is their commitment to their people. As one sentence in the company mission statement states, "We are committed to creating an environment where our people can realize their full potential, allowing us to better serve our community and help our clients optimize their productivity and product quality." Some companies may choose to focus on the bottom-line or customer satisfaction; both understandable and time-honored business goals. However, from the DLT&V perspective, if your people are both challenged and fulfilled, your clients will be satisfied, and ultimately the company will profit as a result. It seems to be working, as over 90% of the company's clients are repeat customers.

Two of DLT&V's owners were using Wonderware products as early as 1991, just four years after Wonderware was established. And both of the previous firms (DLEC and TMV) had chosen to pursue and achieve the highest official recognition from Wonderware as ArchestrA Certified System Integrators, because many of their employees and many of their clients see Wonderware as a company at the forefront of providing what is most needed and desired in control system software. DLT&V has multiple employees in multiple offices that are trained and certified on InTouch® HMI, Industrial Application Server, Wonderware Historian, InSQL™, and I/O Drivers.

The company also participated as exhibitors at the Wonderware 2007 WonderWorld North America show in Las Vegas in October and presented the breakout session for the water/wastewater industry. In this session, company president Brian Downing and senior project manager John Hopson discussed how the critical factor in what system integrators do is not the importance of technology, but rather the importance of what we do with technology. Specifically discussed were ways in which Wonderware can be used to facilitate:

• Monitoring and notification – by improving access to data and empowering operators to resolve problems more quickly
• System Integrity – by helping create systems that are accessible yet protected, and manageable yet compatible
• Compliance – by providing optimal control to improve plant performance and simplifying the reporting process to demonstrate compliance to relevant agencies

One of DLT&V's favorite success stories highlights all three of these areas. The company (DLEC at the time) was selected in 1998 by a large, municipal water reclamation district to provide a single point of responsibility for control system integration and SCADA system upgrades during their $250 Million wastewater system expansion and upgrade project. As part of the upgrades project, the entire system was migrated from an older, outdated software package to Wonderware Factory Suite. DLT&V also implemented Thin Client technology to facilitate remote monitoring and control. The district's plant SCADA system expansion and upgrade was a five-year project:

Four plants were converted
One new plant constructed
DLT&V created over 22,000 Wonderware tags
Terminated 9,000 physical I/O points
Programmed 71 PLCs, and 50 HMI thin clients
Upgraded 24 lift stations
Configured 21 servers

DLT&V has continued to provide instrumentation and control system engineering and consultation services since that time.

One Friday afternoon, an employee of the district had finished work and was heading home for the weekend. While he was on his way home, there was a system failure at a pump station about an hour away. The system automatically placed a call to the operator's cell phone to let him know there was a problem and what was the problem. A pump in the facility had failed and without immediate repair would soon be overflowing with water that was not completely treated and would be running down a local wash. This would cause permit violations and fines, and was likely to happen before the operator would have time to drive back to the facility for the needed repair. As a result of DLT&V Systems Engineering's integration of Wonderware and wireless remote access into the wastewater SCADA system, the operator simply pulled his truck over and fired up his notebook computer with a cellular modem. Within a few minutes he was able to log onto the system through a secure internet connection, change the pump station start-up sequences, prevent the overflow, and drive home to enjoy his weekend.

The system notified the operator of a problem, even though he was off-site; giving him the information he needed to quickly formulate an effective solution to an urgent problem. Because the system is secure, yet remotely accessible to authorized district employees, the operator was able to resolve the problem. And by averting the potentially disastrous consequences, the operator helped his district maintain compliance with the governing environmental agencies.

One of the keys to DLT&V's success has been their full service capability. The company provides a true "one stop shop," supplying the E/I & C design, panel shop drawings, control panel fabrication, construction management services, programming and system integration; thereby ensuring that all aspects of the job (hardware, installation, and software) are coordinated to provide a great system. DLT&V was founded on the principle of providing sound and proven, yet innovative electrical design services and control system software solutions to their customers. Wonderware is a great match, helping DLT&V provide those types of solutions to their many satisfied customers!

About the Owners

Brian Downing, P.E. – President, CEO

• Over 26 years of technical experience, B.S.E.E.
• Expert process control systems designer and experienced programmer
• Registered professional engineer in Arizona, California and Nevada
• Affiliated with I.E.E.E., I.S.A., and N.S.P.E.

Chris Lynch – Vice-President, CFO

• Over 15 years of technical experience
• Extensive experience with Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Human Machine Interface (HMI), and Operator interface Terminal (OIT) software development, programming, debug, and startup activities

Melinda Tam, P.E. – Vice-President of Engineering

• Over 15 years of experience in electrical, instrumentation, and control engineering for industrial facilities
• B.S.E.E., M.B.A. in Technology Management
• Registered professional engineer in Arizona and California
• Affiliated with the I.E.E.E., and the I.S.A.

Samuel Vandivort – Vice-President of Administrative Services

• Over 20 years of controls engineering experience
• B.S. in Computer Science Engineering
• Has managed and designed control systems for pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and water/wastewater treatment facilities
• Affiliated with I.E.E.E.

Contact Information

DLT&V Systems Engineering, Inc.
3550 North Central Avenue
Suite 1900
Phoenix, Arizona 85012 U.S.A.
Telephone: 602.266.4658
Website: www.dlecinc.com