Getting out from behind the desk/ control terminal!

 

The above comment was made to me by an oil and gas company, and when I enquired to their expectation, it was clear that they wanted to empower "controllers" (operators) to be responsible for more. Enable decisions to be made faster while also gaining consistency across teams and shifts.

Transforming the traditional role of sitting in a control room behind a terminal, to a dynamic role, where the operator can get up and roam to investigate, make decisions and take actions in a timelier manner. This concept embraces all of the concepts this blog has raised over the last couple of months and shows the transition in the industrial sector to focusing operational empowerment.   

By unleashing the controller from their seat, they are free to investigate, see for themselves, and interact with others with experience to make informed decisions faster.

What is the reason why users have been locked to the desk/ control room, why has this transition not happened successfully before?

It is simple, the requirement to be monitoring the plant. A traditional control room is the central place alarms, notifications were traditionally piped.

So to free up the user, to leave the control room, the user needs to empowered with situational plant awareness, freed from monitoring, shifting to the experience of exception based notification. As the user roams the plant, the user is still responsible, and aware, and able to make decisions across the plant he is responsible for even if he not in view of that a particular piece of equipment. Driving the requirement for the mobile device the user carries to allow notification, drill thru access to information and ability to collaborate so the dependency to sit in the control room has lifted.

The challenge with the “Integrated Operational Centers”,  these centers which are set up for sites, multi site control, is the responsibility of the operators is significantly increased, in some cases going from 100s of possible alarms to 10000s alarms, and the user is unable to monitor the system must be exception based.

The discussion of two weeks ago with “Advanced Process Graphics” is key as this provides and exception based view to the plant. “just follow the color” that easily shows the controller of pending situations. As the user needs to drill through to understand the situation he just clicks’ on the color no matter where it is on the screen, removing the barrier of having to learn the navigation of the device.

This situation was illustrated two weeks ago when I observed a user start from a desk top on a situation, leave the desk, where he had one layout, and then move to IPAD experience where the same information was displayed but a different layout. The user did not have to worry, as the screen on IPAD was grey, except for the particular equipment at fault which had a red outline. Watching the user he did care about the layout he just clicked the color and followed the drill through by following the color.

So freeing up people is not just about providing  mobile data and information must free them to navigate with freedom, no matter the format, no matter where they start an activity, and have access to everything.   Why now? The technology is here with wireless plants, commodity devices to suite different applications/ roles, and the desire and culture to enable the flexible team, and design to enable exception based notification.

Over the next few years this area of exception based design, and like the discussion last week “model driven” significant advances will be forth coming.  

Change in Reaction Time due Advanced Process Graphics

Change in Reaction Time due Advanced Process Graphics

The transformation to Advanced ProcessGraphics aligned to the level shift in operational responsibility to achieve the operational agility needed in the “Flexible Operational Team”. In the last month, it has been rewarding to see two customers embracing this technique with results of straightforward, responsive Navigation.

The diagram below shows the evolution of the HMI graphic, in the 80s it was what I call the black DCS screen, to 90’s and 2000’s which we have a photo like graphics and many colors, to the drive today of uncomplicated, 2D graphics.

When applied in practice, results of painless awareness become abundantly clear. Some companies have tested existing (90s) operational experiences and Advanced Process Graphics finding a 30+ minute improvement in responsiveness.  I was watching how an operator moved through a screen based on a condition. The situation came up on the main screen which was light grey, with a red highlight around the particular area that has an issue providing immediately awareness.The user drills into that areas screen seeing a blue symbol indicating a warning level of alarm condition on one equipment. Clicking on  the equipment, down the bottom of the layout the list of potential issues in dull grey, and one condition is highlighted with blue.

What was very clear the way in which the operator navigated he just followed the color, there was really no need to search a screen as everything was light grey except the high lighted area. Speaking with the operator, he said “he has come from a traditional black background screens(70s) the learning experience was easy as he did not learn how to navigate to screens, he just followed the situation (color)”.

I have also seen this on some experimental experiences in South Africa, showing the same results, this has made it black and white to me, that if we are to make our operational experiences inituative this is a good starting point.

The above diagram refers to two books the “High Performance HMI Handbook” explaining the why, and “ASM Guide” explaining the how, both a worthwhile read.  

Operator Training Systems become the Corner Stone for Management of Change to a Flexible Operational Team.

Over the last month I have hosted a number of customer workshops on the evolution of Operational Teams, which you have seen in the discussion over the last couple of months is going through a significant change.

I enjoy these discussions, and brainstorming, especially with groups who have been charged with Operational Performance, and they have moved away from grinding out more value from capital assets (this is a very mature area with asset management) and have shifted their focus to the Human Assets. It is funny to think 10 years ago we were talking “lights out manufacturing” without humans, the best comment I have heard to this notion is that “turning the lights out makes it hard for operators to find their way to the control room”. The real change is people have realized that complex / agile decisions needed today require the human brain, so the role of people in the aligning of an operational process is key.
Human roles are becoming shorter, many rotating sites due to expertise, and changes in practices coming about all the time due to regulations, or increased efficiency. The introduction of Remote Operational Centers and the fact that we have dynamic teams on site, as well as the virtual team see the diagram below.

What came up in all the workshops was not just the technology of collaboration, but the challenge of “Managing the Change” in operational culture. It is great to people recognizing this, as it is the biggest hurdle to success. Why you may ask? A key concepts in the new operational environment is the move to Advanced Process Graphics which are very different operational experience to the 3d effects of the 2000s. (see the diagram below shows the evolution of operational experience below ).

These new graphical approaches provide fast recognition and action of situations; as well companies are trying to gain style, layout, and visualization standards. So now an existing operator is now going to move from their existing interface to a new interface with different experience which should be more efficient so they can handle more information, but it will be a leap of change. These new layouts, and experiences will enable consistency of operations over sites, collberation, and increased efficiency.

In all the discussions the concept of the “Operator Training System” (OTS) comes to front of mind to be critical in this “Management of Change” and also the reduction in the “Time to Performance”, as illustrated in the diagram below. Often the teams have come in with the thought that the OTS is a nice to have, but as we get into the discussion the realization that it is not just for training, it will enable:

·      The new operational experience can be tested and trained against in as many situations as possible. Enabling a transition of the operator from the old to new collectrative Advanaced expereince. With the level of the operator being tracked to see when they reach a level of satisfaction that means they can switch.

·       It provides a safe environment to test, and validate the new operational experience, making sure that it has been well tested.

·       Enable the Training of Operational staff on real situations

·       The ability to report on each Operators capabilities and effectiveness on an ongoiing basis.

·       A safe real environment to enable “operational Innovation” by letting your best Operators get into situations and innovate better procedures or capture their procedure so you can set up a standard procedure for that situation. The OTS provides the critical environment for Innovation that of allowing experimentation in a safe way.

·         The ability for experienced operational people to be trained on new locations / sites prior to being transferred, this includes the 3d Virtual environments which provide the physical familiarity.

By the end of these workshops OTS moves up to not a nice to have but an essential component on the evolution of the Operational Experience. I hope you are looking at OTS in a different light, I cannot see companies doing this evolution without OTS.