Canadian Pipeline Operators Are Regulated Much Like Our US Customers: The US pipeline operators are regulated to develop, implement, and enforce control room management plans to ensure the safety and security of people, pipelines, property and the environment. Canadian pipeline operators are not being forgotten, the National Energy Board (NEB) is requiring compliance with Onshore…
Just two hours away from my home here in Texas, rescue teams were picking through the devastation in the small Texas town of West, after a massive explosion at a fertilizer company flattened the surrounding neighborhood. Initial estimates put the death toll at between five and 15, with at least 160 injured. Among the missing…
PHMSA Publishes Final Rule Announcing Updated and Increased Civil Penalties for Hazmat Violations As many of you already know, PHMSA has regulated pipeline operators to follow human factor guidelines for safer pipeline operations. This is known throughout the pipeline industry as CRM Control Room Management, which includes a written plan addressing control room ergonomics, alarm…
PPCL was recently implement in a Saudi refinery with a reported 85% reduction in standing alarms and a 50% reduction in alarms per minute.Here are the details. There were a total of 993 process variables that both had process variable alarm limits provided and data present in the plant historian. Nearly 200 other process variable…
Hello to all our on-line friends, customers and potential customers. UCDS welcomes you to our new website, we have been working diligently to remove the bugs and correct broken links, if you do find any please let us know. Like you, we strive for excellence and we support continuous improvement process in all we do….
UCDS partnered with Circadian to offer a software tool that allows customers to measure the fatigue risk of shift workers. This allows management to schedule the right workers during the right shift to reduce the risk of a fatigue related incident. Press release: Shift Worker and Fatigue (measuring the Risk) Operator fatigue is a critical…
It’s 2013 folks…and we are off and running! Well, that’s the theory anyways. As for me, I have not done any running for a while. Last year while travelling the world I ruptured my Achilles tendon which was not much fun. When I got back from Hawaii last December, I went straight to the hospital…
Happy New Year to all our friends and clients! We wish you a prosperous New Year and we pray for each of you to enjoy good health. I am starting the year recovering from Achilles heel surgery, which I can tell you is very painful and not recommended. I will be doing PT in the…
Another new month, I can’t keep up! We had a great time at Sedona, AZ at our AGM and planning for next year. Melinda, husband and three girls joined us for an evening. The twins dominated. So cute. I have had a busy month with a visit to Sweeny, Texas for a High Performance HMI…
Another busy month for UCDS with lots of travel! I made Chairman (100,000 miles) on US Airways already for next year and Dave is close behind me. I have recently spoken at a couple of big events. I was at the Emerson User Group where I presented a paper on HMI design. It covered why…
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UCDS has in-depth experience in designing control rooms and modifying existing field shelters. Our process is compliant with the ISO 11064 Ergonomic Design Standard for Control Buildings. We interview management, supervision and a significant group of the operators to understand functional requirements, what works well in the existing environment, and identification and correction of problems with the existing design. To learn more Click Here
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Abnormal situations encompass a range of events outside the “normal” plant operating modes, e.g. trips, fires, explosions, toxic releases or just not reaching planned targets. In the past incidents such as Piper Alpha, Milford Haven, Flixborough, Texas City and the 2003 northeast electrical blackout have all been attributed, at least in part, to a fundamental lack of good situational awareness. Early work of the Abnormal Situation Management Consortium® included a survey of the US petrochemical industry. Based on their research the consortium estimates industry losses of around $20 billion per year from abnormal situations, approximately equal to the total annual profits of that industry. Furthermore these studies indicate that companies achieving Best Practices in operations can improve productivity by 5-12%. To learn more Click Here
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We have many customers looking to enhance their shift handover procedures and follow some of the Recommended Practices identified in the API documents; others are focusing attention on fatigue and fatigue countermeasures. We have great solutions for both these topics. For more details please contact Steve Maddox. To learn more Click Here
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User Centered Design Services promotes Behavior – Based Safety which is a process that helps employees identify and choose safe behavior over an unsafe one. Safety in the workplace is a combination of three measurable components – the person their environment, and their behavior. To learn more Click Here
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