What did 2015 mean to Operational System?

As we enter the final weeks of 2015, did it live up to what we expected, what trends did it star to cement into Operational System design.

These are just some of observations I have seen:

1/ Shift to significant operational transformation programs, vs just projects, as accelerated in the second half of 2015. Certainly we have seen a lot of projects initially started or investigated as projects in 2014, in 2015 reemerge as multi-site, multiyear transformation programs. With the understanding that these programs are on journey both in technology, but also operational goals/ outcomes, and culture.

Certainly a couple of us have seen a significant amount of time allocated to evolving these opportunities working with the customer to help define their outcomes, the approaches, this has been and is still continuing as educational process for all involved. This is fundamentally changing the engagement models between end user vendors and engineering houses as a partnership, requiring changes on both sides.

2/ Cyber Security/ Application Security: This continues to grow as a huge area of interest, but this year it shifted not only how to secure, but how to maintain successfully, evolve their business and agile operations in a tighter security model. Realization that cost is not just in setting up a secure operational environment, but the cost of evolving and sustaining it while maintaining an agile business requires a strategy on it’s own.

3/ Operational Awareness/ Effectiveness: Understanding, not the “aging workforce” but the transformation in both “workforce culture/ approach” and transformation in “Workspace”  are real. That today's and last ten years of operational systems will not satisfy the agile decisions that required, but also the changing workspace culture and methods. The amount of workshops and strategies sessions I have asked to be involved in 2015 was three times that of 2014, and they were clear strategic discussions around people and how people will operate in the future.

4/ Understanding and reality of Internet of Things: The hype has been here and continues around IOT. But there has been some real sole searching in many industrial companies to understanding what it means to them. Many it dawned as the operational alignment end efficiencies they have in the “walls of the plant” now can extend to the “mobile plant”. In Oil and Gas, and Mining moving to include “extraction” wells, equipment in the operational process in real-time. In many other industries, it moved the mobile receivables plants, distribution trucks and then the distribution centers, etc. to be included in the “end to end” operational control.

5/ Realization that the Operational architecture of the future near and long term will have Internet and “cloud” as a natural part of it, and we must design the security, and systems assuming on premise and off premise architecture.

All of the above does surprise us, based on the trends, but it is good to see the shift from talk to reality. I would expect that 2016 this strategic journey programs to increase. Certainly the scope of operational responsibility is changing include a end to end supply chain, that means move outside the plant walls with the traditional systems, and we will see the alignment of Process operations and utility operations (power) into one operational strategy and control.   

Have a very happy holiday season and may 2016 continue the momentum to deliver operational solutions that will handle the "operational transformation" happening around us.

Operational Windows Enable are a basis for Operational Management Experience (IOC)

I have talked about the drive by many companies to reduce “Operational Variation” across plants, teams, and industries. This is core to the journey to "operation excellence" gaining consistency, awareness and early detection of situations. When you look at the table below on the levels of human operational automation, the drive of the integrated operational experience is trying to reach level 5 "Worker management by exception", a big part of this is awareness of current operational process status relative to optimum.   

There are many ways that operational control will be implemented, as pointed out it could be through actions and processes becoming embedded and certainly this will be the big driver in the road to “Operational Innovation”.

But another way is through displaying key operational indicators to a knowledge worker, where  these indicators are mapped within boundary conditions. These boundaries are set up based on the time and relevance to the role and activity/ task the knowledge worker is performing. This sort of “operating Window” enables the knowledge worker the context, and recommendations, knowledge to enable operational decisions in a timely and ever consistent way. This same operational window can be used over multiple sites/ and teams for that role and activity providing consistency control.

The figure below is an example of an operational window.

Where on the left you can see the operational running trend, but you can see the changing boundary conditions of operation based upon product etc., The green shows the area where optimum control, safety, and production performance is. The right hand side you have reasons, and number instances of deviations for periods out of operational control.

Placing this sort of operational window where the operational boundaries come from the business strategy but in context of the role and activity no matter where in the plant operational team, but the feedback and running side is real-time from the plant. This window is place adjacent to  current control/ HMI screens the operator is using, or the maintenance or process screens the users are working, and you start the transformation to a knowledge worker. 

Do Traditional Reports have a Role in the Agile Industrial Operations World of today and tomorrow?

This is a question that keeps coming up, and product managers/ engineers keep saying we need reports, but in some many ways they are confused between the past and the reality of NOW decisions today. “Today” the need for “Operational Decision” data which is the status now, and over a short time span, with the ability to discover conditions, causes, through relationships, to make “Now” decisions. These are not traditional reports which display a pre defined period and fixed formate. Also, the concept of Dashboards, predefined Gadgets on the desktop, mobile device that act like tickers. All of this is about empowerment of the NOW and reports do fit this role, so do traditional reports have a future????

This discussion has raged on for the last few years, and certainly there many mixed feelings on this, causing disjointed information approachers in Companies and from vendors supplying the solutions and products. This is not surprising as this typical of an area going through a dramatic paradigm shift in use, users, and the role, and it is happening and changing so fast, plus the merging of business information into the common strategies brings a new culture to plant.

Yes, traditional reports will have a role, but a more accurate definition of a “report” will be a “printable report”, with a definition of:

• Layout are fixed format that enables print out
• The print out could be paper, or PDF or other formats
• Well determined data/ information for a specific role, event.
• Triggered on a regular event e.g.| shift, day, end of batch.

These reports  records that used as apart of the audit of company, product, or production, for delivery records, and operations records especially as regulations requirements continue to increase.  The new generation of workers and the people coming from the business applications will expect more in what is referred to as “operational information”. This is real time information, situational awareness, and process analysis, ad hoc navigation through the information to bring awareness of conditions.

Most people are already using “gadgets” on the desktop, or mobile faceplate, for weather, stocks etc, providing instant awareness. I use these for weather, time in different parts of the world and exchange rates on my iPad and desktop saving the time to search on line. Vendors are developing industrial measure “tickers” (dials) that bring instant awareness of the key information people are interested in. Example is seen below of set of potential indicators for an industrial environment.

 

Typical industrial dials, will become "gadgets"

 

The association process data and operational context

 

“Search” will become a natural concept like “Google” new search services will start to be delivered that enable people to search, query across the “lake of industrial data and information” leveraging the navigational information  models that will be provided over the industrial data sources in order to enable this operational decision support.

Yes,  the world is changing, services in information will move to online that is a natural place, to allow the people across the distributed/ virtual enterprise access to the realtime, information in a consistent way.This year  historians will move into the cloud from Invensys and other vendors, but the real advantage of the virtual cloud will come with information, leaving the data sources local.

Tools used will be range based upon those the worker is most comfortable with, why would a business person who works in say SAP’s Business Objects want a different tool to access the required industrial operations information for their decisions. The traditional thinking by vendors and industrial people that all industrial analysis tools are provided by the industrial vendors and specialised for this space is flawed. As the community of people accessing this operational industrial information increases.

So the industrial vendors will shift their focus to providing the information model that enables navigating and information consumption by a range of standard “office” and “Business Intelligence” tools. Yes,  these industrial vendors like Invensys will provide specialized presentation, and analysis content tools that work in these other environments but provide a workflow that aligns with the industrial thinking and approach.

I will expand on this evolution of information over the next couple of weeks, but Printable Reports will exist, but they probably will be 10 to 15% of what will be used in the daily plant operations for realtime  decisions.