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The key hole effect: Your control room operator is monitoring a process with several loops and several points, they have multiple screens and each screen has hundreds of graphics to navigate through, uh oh, several alarms start to activate! The operator begins to navigate through several graphics to determine the problem but has a very limited view because there are so many screens to…

Why Switch Your Rainbow Graphics to a Boring Shade of Grey? First of all, you’re not just changing the background color on your existing graphics, your reducing the number of graphics by incorporating human factors into the design, using analog objects, trends, and regrouping objects so that the graphics provide visual interpretation of what’s important…

We have recently released a new book on Control Room Design. Here is the summary: Since the introduction of distributed control systems into control rooms, the mining, refining, chemical, and power industries have lived with, and suffered from, many behavioral problems common with this design. When Human Factors/Ergonomic design is introduced into a centralized control…

Borregaard biorefinery pulp and paper operation in Sarpsborg, Norway, was originally established in 1889. Over the years, significant investments have been made in the facility, including a new pulp-drying machine; new cutting, baling and, reeling equipment; and conversion of the bleaching plant to sulphite pulp. The original digester house, built in the early 1950s, was…

The following was written by Bill Stephens of SourceGas. Navajo Refining Company is part of the HollyFrontier Corporation. We are an oil refining company located in southeast New Mexico. There are approximately 360 employees at our site. While in the development of a new Training Center, Navajo Refining needed design ideas. We contacted UCDS and they designed…

The following was written by David Smith, Process Control Engineer at Sasol. Sasol is an international integrated energy and chemicals company that leverages the talent and expertise of our more than 32,400 people working in 37 countries. We develop and commercialize technologies, and build and operate world-scale facilities to produce a range of high-value product streams, including liquid…

The following was written by Matt Martin, Superintendent – Production Control of Rio Tinto Kennecott. At Rio Tinto Kennecott, we mine essential elements that make modern living possible. From medicine, food and shampoo, to cell phones, computers, CAT scans and hybrid electric cars, nearly everything you use today relies on materials that we produce. Our mine has…

By Ian Nimmo and Stephen Maddox | Aug 18, 2015 Summary: A well-written alarm management philosophy defines procedures that allow your team to get alarms under control now and for the long haul. Alarm management seems to be a never-ending task: company X hires consultant Y to repair their badly designed and overloaded alarm management…

API 754 Using Human Factors to Improve Process Safety Following the recommendations of the Baker report into the BP Texas City incident two (2) new American Petroleum Institute (API) recommended practices were published. One of these dealt with the subject of fatigue risk management and the other, the subject of this paper, process safety performance…

In today’s competitive environment, all plants are interested in reducing costs to maximize profitability. One fixed-expense area most frequently targeted is hourly staffing level. If one duty station can be eliminated in a plant that operates 24 hours a day, head count can be reduced by at least four full-time employees. Taking into account salary,…

Many managers and company executives are focusing on achieving company goals and objectives. The automation system and the control room operators significantly impact the business. Bottom line: control room operators are the first line of defense during abnormal situations, if they detect problems in time, they can reduce costs. How well they perform is dependent…

2015 has started strong with a lot of new opportunities. As usual, this time of year David volunteers to head north and enjoy some snow on the ground, while I stay in Phoenix and enjoy the 80 degree weather; well-done Dave. He also spent a week in Houston doing some High Performance HMI work. I…

Alarm Management is one of the control room systems that affect operator performance, but there is a bigger picture. When we look at downtime, we need to think about why we have operators in the control room and ask: are they effective at mitigating and managing abnormal situations? Are they performing at maximum level? Can…

Happy New Year to all our friend’s and clients! Who knows what this year will bring as we start the year with falling oil prices and low fuel costs which helps many businesses but often leads to loss of work for an organization like ours.  We have been through a few of these turns over…

Alarm Management is one of the control room systems that effect operator performance but there is a bigger picture. When we look at down time, we need to think about why we have operators in the control room and ask, are they effective at mitigating and managing abnormal situations? Below is an example of the…

Webinar – Alarm Management Per the New IEC62682 Standard (New Rationalization Method) The recent IEC 62682 Standard lays out a business procedure for the lifetime management of process alarms: You should attend this webinar if: Your plant is planning or considering an alarm rationalization project to ensure it complies with the new Standard. This may…

Where did the year go?  I am sorry I didn’t manage to keep blogging all year.  I guess you understand when everything gets busy some things get dropped, not because they are not important, but other things like customers and projects take the priority. Dave and I just returned from New Zealand.  We were there…

Fatal Chemical Release Killed Thousands in Bhopal, India. Video Below: CSB Safety Message Warns it Could Happen Again, more Must be Done to Improve Process Safety Regulations in the U.S. to Prevent the Next Accident from Occurring. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released a short video safety message marking the 30th anniversary of history’s…

Operational Excellence (where do we start) Many organizations have appointed a leader to initiate an operation excellence philosophy and the first thing they discover, improving operational excellence is one of the most crucial challenges facing CEOs across the globe. Indeed, multiple pressures – competition, more stringent regulation as well as investor and stakeholder expectations –…