In this paper, a new design and tuning procedure for a PID plus feedforward controller is proposed. It consists of determining a feedforward signal in order to achieve a predefined process output transition time assuming a first order plus dead time model of the process. Then, the PID parameters are tuned by any conventional method in order to assure a good load disturbance rejection and the reference signal to the closed-loop system is obtained by filtering appropriately the set-point step signal. Simulation and experimental results show that the method outperforms the typical (inverse) model-based approach despite its simplicity and it is therefore suitable to implement in Distributed Control Systems as well as in single-station controllers. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved,