Ways to improve the safety, availability and efficiency of MSF plants by using improved control algorithms are described: state and adaptive proportional integral derivative (PID) controller or a self-setting function for conventional controllers. The efficiency of a single desalination line or of a complete plant may be improved by introducing optimization algorithms. Software packages monitoring the thermal and mechanical conditions of the plant allow early detection of faults and immediate initiation of counter-measures to avoid unplanned shutdowns, thus reducing costs and improving safety and availability of the hardware. Recent developments in diagnostic systems based on expert systems are discussed.