Cost of Delay: Realtime Actionable Decisions Critical at all Layers in Industrial Operations

In a number of recent discussions with people when they have listened to sessions on the operational transform and the concepts of people and team transformation, they incorrectly feel the focus is only on the  “operator”. While the operator is the closest person to the “coal face” a fundamental concept of the operational transformation are the shifts to:

·         Actionable decisions performed as early as possible

·         Collaboration across the operational team in making the decision, and taking the action

·         Sharing of current situation and experience

·         Awareness of the situation as early as possible.

As seen in the diagram below if a situation is left then by the time it hits the weekly report even daily report the cost of the situation is significant.

Not all actions belong to the operator, some should be detected in control system, acted upon in that system, this is where apply some real time optimization tools is key like APC ( Advanced Process Control). Other actionable decisions may be on quality, safety issues or  maintenance issues that need to act upon early, and the escalation of the system should directly to the responsible role.

No longer is an alarming system good enough we need a intelligent notification system that brings awareness to responsible role, and immediate access on what ever device to the detail and ability to see situation and act.

The diagram below I talked about before but it continues to critical to understand that an alarm is “as is” situation, the cost of detection vs action is significant. The bottom axis is time, and the vertical axis is value/ cost. If we are able to move all roles to the “to be” state where decisions and actions are seen early and corrective best practice action is taken early.   

The cost of delay, unawareness is huge especially when cost is a measure of “operational continuity” and growing the production output. So when we talk about the Operational Transformation, the goal is to enable the operations to become more agile, and efficient, and this can only happen when business strategy / operational execution, and emergent situations are all acted upon is well “oiled real time machine” with each level role and application/ human acting in a timely manner, and consistent manner. 

Why design for 2020, not today! What does the “Why Not” and “What If” Attitude mean?

One of the enjoyments of writing a blog is to see the reaction, get the response, they seem to come via email, it is fasinating what topics generate interest and response.  Last week I had a set of emails asking “why care about 2020, when we are focused on today?” Another set asked about the attitude “Why not” and “What If”? Both are fair and deserve further discussion.

So why care about 2020? Why Now?

As mentioned last week, there are a number of factors which are changing the whole paradigm of the operational/ automation system. The way we have designed for the last 15 years will not be good enough for:

·         The rapid decisions needed today

·         The breadth of responsibility people will have

·         Gen Y’s attitude, and work approach

·         The rotating workers, remember by 2020 people will only be in a role for 2.4 years average. Effecting experience and knowledge to make decisions, and take actions.

·          The whole methodologyy will be transitional between desktops, different mobile devices, connected and not connected, visual  interaction, next minute audio. The transition will be seamless and natural, to increase the fluidity of executing the task.  

·         Systems will be in services for 15 to 20 years, but go through many technology changes and evolutions.

An interesting stat on 2020  is that 65 % of the tasks and jobs GenY will do during their career have not yet been invented. Also, not their professional working time will span 6 careers, 14 jobs.  So the design of the system must fundamentally absorb change. Key is the move away from designing to roles and applications, but design to “activities” with the required:

·         Notification

·         Information

·         Awareness

·         action to be taken

·         Access to knowledge.

Designing this self contained “activities” that can be hosted in all user experiences no matter the device or mode,  allows new activities to built as needed, applied to the system, and the system naturally absorbs the new activity without re-engineering impact.

The reality is that in many parts of the world,  these changes are happening now many will be in full effect in the next 2 to 3 years. Already the thought leaders in the world are designing to deliver information faster, take actions more consistently and reduce the “Time to Performance” through in built training, intuition.

What does the “Why Not” and “What If” Attitude mean?

The attitude of trying, having a go! Is a natural child like the attitude,  that applies also to people who do not have experience, similar to a growing child. Ever increasing business/ operational pressure will call for faster decisions and actions, driving increased empowerment. With increased responsibility must come increased education, and understanding to make decisions. The systems must provide guidance to so that workers can try, and make decisions faster, without significant risk.

Driving the requirement for inbuilt  “what if” capability, to answer the questions a new worker to make that decision. This could be accessing history, access experience, running a “future what if simulation model” that allows highly accurate expectations of a result near term into the future based upon the current state of the system. Yes,  it sounds too “over the top” but in the new dynamic of operations, and reduced experience the ability to ask questions is a key part of learning.

The attitude of “Why Not” and What If” is not new it is natural in children today. I see it every day in my 4 and 7 year old, yes they learn boundaries and risk based upon answers and trials. The challenge before us is to build this answering, and guidance into the systems, so it is natural, and not too costly to implement in dollars or time.

This is why the concepts of “knowledge systems”, ‘big data”, “dynamic simulation”, and “collaboration” will be come fundamental capabilities of Operational Systems.