Well January has been and gone, does that sound familiar!
It was a very busy month for UCDS, Dave and I went to Trinidad with our good friend Rob Allen, we put on a very detailed Situation Awareness Workshop and a High Performance HMI workshop for our customer.
This would be the first of many for this month; we are seeing a lot of interests as our customers are upgrading their automation systems. Good news for the system vendors and even better news for operators.
Operators don’t like change, and require a reason for having to change. We always start our projects by demonstrating by way of a complaint how the traditional black background graphics with high salient colors have contributed to major accidents and how they impact an operator’s performance. Putting these old graphics on a new automation system is a poor practice and may be a costly one.
We also demonstrate how the high performance HMI delivers performance improvement through improved Situation Awareness and reduction of Human Error. We are currently in the process of doing some joint projects with Lin & Associates who have developed a complete set of ASM compliant objects and tools as we collaborate and strive to improve solutions for our joint customers. The net result being graphics that are not only acceptable to the operators but are performant and deliver the benefits.
This last month has also been a busy month for new control rooms and upgrading existing control rooms. We appreciate the challenges of taking existing control rooms and transforming them to add new consoles, introduce Large Screen Displays, reduce distractions and fix lighting, environmental controls, and resolve existing issues with acoustics such as reverberation issues.
The new control rooms we are doing are being done with a vision of the future as customers are cognizant of the potential technology and people changes that will take place in the next 50 years or the life of the control room. We extract this focus during our participatory design process using the International Standards for Ergonomic Design of Control Rooms.
Most of our customers are being challenged by not only the buildings but some of the new emphasis by regulators on fatigue and the countermeasures adopted in the control room design to address this issue. How to effectively do meetings in this environment without causing distractions to other areas. To develop a better shift change that meets today’s best practices as outlined in API documents.
Harry and his team are making good progress on operator training manuals in Salt Lake City, I’m sure Harry is enjoying the snow! The team has done an outstanding job creating documents from the dust of bygone years, something really needed. This is a plant that has already been through the High Performance HMI Workshops and has the Philosophy and Style Guide now in place and have just developed new graphics which I have to say are very impressive.
Dave has been really stretched traveling to Trinidad, Canada and all over North America. Dave has been working with multiple customers from a wide variety of industries on workload assessments for operators. Our methodology is both powerful and flexible taking the bias out of the equation and allowing facts to drive the assessment.
Dave recently passed his test to become a Citizen of the USA and is now waiting for the naturalization ceremony. So we prepare to welcome him and his family, into our family as American Citizens. Dave is a very dedicated worker and is a great Engineer and I am proud to have him as a member of my team.
I just got back from another week in Norway working with a new customer on an offshore platforms control room, graphics and alarms. We introduced them to our vision of Situation Awareness and it was great to hear their operators comment after the workshops that their views had been transformed and that they now have a different perspective on this topic.
It is really nice going to Norway the people are very hospitable and do great work, they all impressive me with their command of the English language, while the English speaking countries lack of language skills embarrasses me.
So four Countries in one month, must be a record for us, the tax accountant will not be happy.
Well the time has gone fast, Dave and I are kicking off another new project in Texas which will involve a new control room, automation upgrade and redesign of graphics HMI and alarms. I will be in Chicago next, then Lima, OH, and then back to Canada. Building air miles and wearing out shoes.
Again, thank you to our customers for the faith they have put in us and allowing us to participate with and as your team.
We are looking at developing an API RP755 compliant Fatigue Risk Assessment Index Software to complement our Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) and PHMSA compliance services. This software will also replace overtime tracking and scheduling staff and will interface into existing SAP software. Anyone who may have interest in being a pilot site or provide input please contact me. inimmo@mycontrolroom.com
I am also contemplating a new book and was looking for feedback on publishing and if just an eBook would be suitable or should I also do hardcopy?
Ian Nimmo
Mycontrolroom.com’s first podcast. This is our overview video. Check it out and let us know what you think.
The podcast can be view here on the blog or directly in iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast//id485498993
As a result of recommendations from the Texas City Baker report a new API Recommended Practice, RP 754, is in final draft awaiting ANSI approval. This new RP provides guidelines for the reporting of process safety key performance indicators (KPIs). It is expected that the guidelines will identify 4 tiers of indicators based on the severity of the incident. The highest level, Tier 1, will be a loss of primary containment (LOPC) of ‘greater consequence’. In other words an unplanned and uncontrolled release of any material that could harm people, have an impact on the community or damage to equipment. Although this relates to any material, threshold quantities will be set. Tier 2 is a LOPC of ‘lesser consequence’. The determination of Tier 1 and Tier 2 events are defined in the RP. Tiers 3 and 4 are, respectively, a challenge to the safety system(s) and a challenge to the operating management systems. These are expected to be defined by each facility to meet their particular requirements and data availability. Such guidelines are long overdue and we are eager to see the final documents, and how industry reacts to their content.
The much anticipated API recommended practice RP 755 is expecting draft approval from ANSI this week. The RP focuses on helping companies reduce employees’ levels of fatigue on regular shifts, extended days and turnarounds. Some of the recommendations include baseline staffing assessments, recommended shift patterns and fatigue countermeasure considerations in the design of the control room. The guideline recognizes the impact of such issues as correct lighting, acoustics and console ergonomics. Be sure to follow this blog as we discuss the implications of this new RP
August News – 2008
July came and went pretty fast for UCDS. I was traveling all month visiting the World’s largest coal mine where I am helping them with some ergonomic issues and a new central control room and I also had a fast-paced visit to Tokyo where I visited with new and old friends at Yamatake.
During my visit to Tokyo, I made several presentations to over 100 customers and was impressed to see many of them are meeting the EEMUA KPI’s for alarm management. Many expressed a positive interest in the High Performance HMI that I showed them. I presented at one of their high tech conference centers who provided me with three translators one for English. I was not sure if that was to translate my English into American or Japanese into English! Unlike our conferences in America, many stayed behind during the break and studied the handouts and all came back on time. We can learn a lesson from them!
It was interesting to see how much Japan had changed from my last visit which was over 10 years ago. When I was there last, few spoke English on the streets and the only written word was in Kanji characters. Now you see English and Vietnamese. Tokyo was very European friendly.
I was pleased my good friend Tsutomu Takai was looking after me – and he did it really well. Fortunatelymy tea habit was met with the
local Starbucks being less than a 2 minute walk from my hotel. One thing you can rely on is that Starbucks is consistent worldwide and a Venti English Breakfast Tea is the same color, same taste, and same great service – it just costs more. I think the Japanese diet agreed with me also. We had great fish and saved energy by not cooking it. It is also very easy to use the ATM’s, funny how getting your money from the bank to spend is so easy.
The supermarkets were well stocked and even though I knew the word for milk, I did not now the Kanji Characters. However, a few simple words and my goal was achieved. I had milk for breakfast, not sure if it was 2% but it was close enough.
I finished the end of the month working in Houston, Texas. I guess it was a humid travel month for me. I introduced Rusty to some of my favorite spots in downtown Houston. We meet up with some folks from CCE and went to see our new office and showroom near IAH Airport. Very nice, you must make a point to see it.
What about Dave? He and Rusty made a trip to one of our clients in New Orleans and then he vacationed the rest of the month in England enjoying all the things that I would. He now has a lot of catching up to do!
UCDS has also had a busy month sending out proposals. We have a lot of clients expressing interest in control rooms, control room operator and field operator workload and staffing assessments, and at last the high Performance HMI is becoming a reality on many projects.
It is great to see Honeywell really endorsing our work. They have made a great video of the control room and operator support tools we did for Worsley Alumina. We have really exploited the power of Experion and the customer is getting that important ROI we all talked about. http://mediaservices.honeywell.com/HPS/testimonials/Worsley_Alumina.wmv
UCDS is actively looking for a new employee to generate proposals, track projects, and follow-up before and after sales. This individual should be an engineer who would like to learn from our experienced engineers and eventually become a consultant. This is an entry level position and we are open to graduates and engineers with just a couple of year’s experience.
July 2008 – Happy Birthday America!!!
I had a great 4th of July and I hope you did also. What a special time for Americans, what a history, and what great character, something to truly celebrate. This is my favorite holiday after Christmas. I was in Red River, New Mexico this year and enjoyed a parade and celebration. On a sad note, I missed my daughter Beverley becoming a citizen. She was not given much advance notice and we were miles away and could not get back in time for the ceremony. Congratulations Bev, what a great day to be made a citizen.
While I was fishing, Dave and Rusty were in New Orleans working, sorry guys. Rusty just started a job in Chicago which will keep him busy for a while. Now that I am back from vacation, I will be keeping busy on several projects and travelling to Tokyo to join Yamatake for a few events. I will be speaking at the PSE 143 Conference and also giving an Alarm Workshop while I am there. It is nice to be truly International.
I have great news from John Moscatelli; a new baby is on the way! Congratulations to both him and especially Beth. I hope to be seeing John in a couple months in Philadelphia. It will be great to catch up and share some stories.
Our good friend Angelo from Worsley Alumina recently visited while attending the Honeywell User Group. We had a nice dinner and a few games of pool in my man cave. It was great to see him looking so well and enjoying his job. He was not speaking at the User Group this year, a great loss to those in attendance…Ang does it so well!
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It is interesting to see how the world evolves together at a similar pace and each addresses the same issues, but culture drives a slightly different solution. It is great to see the Engineering community adopting the same or similar rules and good engineering practices. We all have the same challenges, the same incidents, the same restraints and restrictions, yet we look to technology and quickly adopt the off-the-shelf solutions which make us similar.
This brings me to this month’s topic – “Good Engineering Practice” It sounds good but what is it, who defines it, where do we learn it? A friend of mine recently reminded me when you have been in the business for as long as I have, 40 years this year, (scary) that I often take things for granted and think that everyone knows what I know. Not that I am claiming to be a master, but I am a solid Engineer who has learned Human Factors. I have implemented and installed many control systems and have certificates from pneumatics, electronics, plc’s, DCS and whatever is out there. How do we pass this knowledge down to this new generation? How do they learn when they are rushed from job to job, with minimum budgets, no training, no real project management experience and all they see is what the guy who went before them has done? How do they get their hands around implementing a state of the art alarm management systems, where will they have seen one, what books will lead them in the right direction? Oh, if the problem was only so simple. This same person is now faced with how to implement a state of the art Human or Computer Machine Interface (HMI or HCI). Certainly the young engineer will discover that less has been document on this topic than on alarm management.
The good news is…Bill Hollified, Eddie Habbi and I will be launching a High Performance Graphics book this year. These two topics are a small part of an automation upgrade. We are assuming that this person understands all the engineering knowledge it takes to configure the control system. Once configured, he can ergonomically install it in a room, which we call a control room, and that all things will work together to provide not only good control but will allow the Supervisor of the control system, the operator, the ability to have good ‘Situation Awareness’ and be proactive in monitoring and intervention to maximize efficiency, save costs and ensure safe production. Our plan is to offer more consulting across a broader spectrum of the control business, to partner with like-minded companies to provide a more complete solution and to offer more workshops to pass this knowledge down to this next generation. Many of my peers are getting ready for retirement and we have little in the way of mentoring in the industry. We will try to fill this gap and partner with customers to bridge this void in experience.
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UCDS is currently looking into producing some video workshops on a range of topics. We hope these additional services will help our customers as we are committed to customer excellence and have accepted and adopted all the Better Business Bureau (BBB) ethics. Please contact me if you would be interested in purchasing video workshops or if you have topics you would specifically like to see covered. inimmo@mycontrolroom.com
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Please get the word out…
UCDS is actively looking for a new employee to generate proposals, track projects, and follow-up before and after sales. This individual should be an engineer who would like to learn from our experienced engineers and eventually become a consultant. This is an entry level position and we are open to graduates and engineers with just a couple of year’s experience.
