News

What an interesting July! Unlike previous years, we have seen no fall-off for vacation. The industry appears to be flat out and control room projects are at an all time high. We are now doing our forth major control room for one of our refining customers. The new Theater Style control room is becoming very popular. We took a day out from Conceptual Design to do a workshop on “Situation Awareness” and we looked at the impact of using large display screens or off-workstations as they are called in the ISO 11064 document.

Most companies believe that they are a good idea, however, they often have no reference point or understanding on how these screens should be used. So, we spent time looking at how operators used the old mimic panel to keep the “big” picture and monitor multiple units. In today’s operations environment, operators are expected to monitor several process units and in recent years accidents have occurred because the operator became focused on one unit and allowed another to fail due to poor “Situation Awareness”.

In recent years, HMI designers have focused on producing level 3 (P&ID) graphics and did not make any attempt to provide unit or overview graphics, producing a very flat hierarchy, causing navigation problems and no way of monitoring the big picture. So before we design the new control room we are addressing these issues.

We are also seeing a desire to move away from the DCS manufacturer’s non-ergonomic furniture and providing workspace fit for all the tasks an operator has to do including report writing, training, and diagnosis including using manuals, procedures and P&ID drawings. The new custom furniture does not cost any more and is often the difference between success and failure for a control room.

UCDS finds it exciting to see customers investing in operator efficiency, reducing work related stress and operations excellence. So many customers are aware of the new OSHA Ergonomic Draft Standard that has already shown industry its teeth and are doing the right thing rather than wait for legislation to force their hand. Remember it is rather expensive to buy poorly designed furniture only to have operators injured due to repetitive stress injury, lost time, and maybe replacement of this furniture at a very inconvenient time.

Well enough soap box for one month - but we want to go on record by saying that we have one Dutch based company that is leading the pack and are setting new standards for the industry.

This last month was also another new adventure for UCDS as we did our first job in Trinidad. What a great place and really nice people. We witnessed two great examples for the industry that could be Best Practices in the industry.

1. Supervisor doing what everyone expects a Supervisor to do, but can’t conceive that it is still possible today. One word sums up what I witnessed “Leadership”. They were not burdened by administration, they managed new people entering the workplace and set performance standards and they did all that is expected by management and the workforce.

2. At last, a Shift Handover that did everything we have been talking about for years. I awarded the Supervisor and Shift Team our new award “Shift Handover is no accident” based on our recent paper of this title (http://www.chemicalprocessing.com/articles/2006/084.html). The Shift Handover lasted between 20 – 45 minutes, based on plant state, but it was effective and ensured the whole shift team understood what had happened the previous 12 hours.

These were highlights, but we also saw a very effective shift team that had good leadership, excellent teamwork and a chain of command from rookie to Chief Operator that maintained respect, and functioned the way a team is intended to function. Well done Trinidad.