2008 TiPS Expertune Technical User Conference
For those of you who missed the 08 user conference, all we can say is that we are sorry. As usual, TiPS and Expertune took great measures to stay away from commercial issues (yes, there were parallel training tracks for those interested), and brought those who attended a wealth of information in the latest best practices in alarm management, process health monitoring, and loop tuning.
Entitled "Common Sense Automation" the conference kick off was from Leroy Chiao, a NASA Space shuttle pilot who spent six months on the space station, in addition to numerous shuttle missions. As a Chemical Engineer, he had a lot of experiences to tell about the practical automation that was necessary when you are sending a plant to outer space, where the choice to "shut it down" was not an option. An amateur photographer, it was worth attending the show if for nothing more than the photos he shared from his personal collection of shots from space.
Since I did not attend the Expertune sessions, I will limit my discussion to what was seen in alarm management. As usual, the theme from TiPS was that alarms are only part of the story in an overall Situation Awareness scenario. If you get stuck on solving alarm problems, you'll not have enough capital (both monetary and political) or energy left to resolve the real issues that alarm information can reveal to you.
I wish everybody could have been there to hear Ray Martinez describe his experiences at the control panel, and why they led him to resolve alarm issues in a very stern-yet understanding approach. You felt as if you were there with him when he described the conditions that led he and another operator to decide who had to open the control room door to decide if there was a chance to escape and save their lives. Today, Ray works in a plant that has NO alarms on the operator's screen most of the time. When an alarm happens, it is worked on immediately. The operators love this so much, they are enforcing it now. We're hoping Ray will contribute more information - perhaps a magazine article on this in the near future.
We heard Alan Phipps share the collective knowledge of his organization- a pharmaceutical company. They have been involved in alarm management issues for many years. Their conclusions showed that once you've cleaned up nuisance alarms, the number of alarms don't take on as much importance as the quality of alarms. Alan is digging deeper into the portions of the EEMUA 191 document that talk about the alarm quality index, and better metrics around that issue. Alan should be giving a flow-up presentation for the general public at this year's ISA conference in Houston, TX. You can register for that conference at www.isa.org.
The world's leading experts showed up again as well. Ian Nimmo gave a presentation on Situation Awareness, and the things that lead to incidents. People are starting to understand under Ian's tutelage that the problems indicated by alarms can be resolved, and there have been millions of dollars of research that have shown how to do so. For the average company that means you don't have to spend a lot of research money yourself. Hire Ian as a consultant, and he can quickly put you on the path of righteous resolution. I think we saw many converts at this conference. Gladly so, since it has been our continued mantra for the last four years. I encourage you to visit Ian's company's website for more papers and downloads at www.mycontrolroom.com.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (author of the ASM consortium guidelines for alarm management- precursor to EEMUA 191) gave a short workshop on alarm rationalization 101. She stressed the need for a good alarm management plan, and the steps to carry out that plan. Bridget is available via Mustang Engineering, where she is a consulting engineer. Those who have made use of her experience tell me that it is priceless. See more about Mustang Engineering at www.mustangeng.com.
Dave Strobhar- the godfather of alarm management (and he's not really very old) shared information on Human Performance factors, and how they influence an operator's ability to react to alarms. Dave started up a recent industry consortium entitled the Center for Operator Performance under the umbrella of Wright State University. Mark Nixon Of Emerson Process, who chairs that consortium gave us insight into its current projects, and efforts. See more about Dave's company (Beville Engineering) at www.beville.com. See more about the Center for Operator Performance at www.operatorperformance.org.
Doug Rothenberg gave us insights into the attitudes, and perceptions that prevent human use of technology, and how we can overcome these in our own daily efforts. Additionally, Doug showed us that the light at the end of the tunnel truly is delight,and there is a positive outcome to be expected if we continue to strive for the goal. See more about Doug's company, and his consulting services at www.d-roth.com.
These are highlights. There were many more. See our post-conference listing for copies of these presentations.
The last I will mention here is the discussion by Jules Oudmans of UReason. Jules gave the audience an appreciation of the value of dynamic alarming, process event data mining, and how those both contribute to higher level operator advisory systems. He showed some real-world cases, and indicated methods that can be used to resolve critical condition occurrences. Further, he gave the audience an appreciation of why this cannot be done with simple state-based tools. The UReason engine is an add-on to TiPS LogMate system. You can see more about it at www.ureason.com.
We hope you'll be able to attend in the future. Put a spot in your calendar and budget for sometime in April of next year. We can guarantee you won't regret the valuable information you receive from the world's leading experts in alarm management and critical condition management.
Entitled "Common Sense Automation" the conference kick off was from Leroy Chiao, a NASA Space shuttle pilot who spent six months on the space station, in addition to numerous shuttle missions. As a Chemical Engineer, he had a lot of experiences to tell about the practical automation that was necessary when you are sending a plant to outer space, where the choice to "shut it down" was not an option. An amateur photographer, it was worth attending the show if for nothing more than the photos he shared from his personal collection of shots from space.
Since I did not attend the Expertune sessions, I will limit my discussion to what was seen in alarm management. As usual, the theme from TiPS was that alarms are only part of the story in an overall Situation Awareness scenario. If you get stuck on solving alarm problems, you'll not have enough capital (both monetary and political) or energy left to resolve the real issues that alarm information can reveal to you.
I wish everybody could have been there to hear Ray Martinez describe his experiences at the control panel, and why they led him to resolve alarm issues in a very stern-yet understanding approach. You felt as if you were there with him when he described the conditions that led he and another operator to decide who had to open the control room door to decide if there was a chance to escape and save their lives. Today, Ray works in a plant that has NO alarms on the operator's screen most of the time. When an alarm happens, it is worked on immediately. The operators love this so much, they are enforcing it now. We're hoping Ray will contribute more information - perhaps a magazine article on this in the near future.
We heard Alan Phipps share the collective knowledge of his organization- a pharmaceutical company. They have been involved in alarm management issues for many years. Their conclusions showed that once you've cleaned up nuisance alarms, the number of alarms don't take on as much importance as the quality of alarms. Alan is digging deeper into the portions of the EEMUA 191 document that talk about the alarm quality index, and better metrics around that issue. Alan should be giving a flow-up presentation for the general public at this year's ISA conference in Houston, TX. You can register for that conference at www.isa.org.
The world's leading experts showed up again as well. Ian Nimmo gave a presentation on Situation Awareness, and the things that lead to incidents. People are starting to understand under Ian's tutelage that the problems indicated by alarms can be resolved, and there have been millions of dollars of research that have shown how to do so. For the average company that means you don't have to spend a lot of research money yourself. Hire Ian as a consultant, and he can quickly put you on the path of righteous resolution. I think we saw many converts at this conference. Gladly so, since it has been our continued mantra for the last four years. I encourage you to visit Ian's company's website for more papers and downloads at www.mycontrolroom.com.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (author of the ASM consortium guidelines for alarm management- precursor to EEMUA 191) gave a short workshop on alarm rationalization 101. She stressed the need for a good alarm management plan, and the steps to carry out that plan. Bridget is available via Mustang Engineering, where she is a consulting engineer. Those who have made use of her experience tell me that it is priceless. See more about Mustang Engineering at www.mustangeng.com.
Dave Strobhar- the godfather of alarm management (and he's not really very old) shared information on Human Performance factors, and how they influence an operator's ability to react to alarms. Dave started up a recent industry consortium entitled the Center for Operator Performance under the umbrella of Wright State University. Mark Nixon Of Emerson Process, who chairs that consortium gave us insight into its current projects, and efforts. See more about Dave's company (Beville Engineering) at www.beville.com. See more about the Center for Operator Performance at www.operatorperformance.org.
Doug Rothenberg gave us insights into the attitudes, and perceptions that prevent human use of technology, and how we can overcome these in our own daily efforts. Additionally, Doug showed us that the light at the end of the tunnel truly is delight,and there is a positive outcome to be expected if we continue to strive for the goal. See more about Doug's company, and his consulting services at www.d-roth.com.
These are highlights. There were many more. See our post-conference listing for copies of these presentations.
The last I will mention here is the discussion by Jules Oudmans of UReason. Jules gave the audience an appreciation of the value of dynamic alarming, process event data mining, and how those both contribute to higher level operator advisory systems. He showed some real-world cases, and indicated methods that can be used to resolve critical condition occurrences. Further, he gave the audience an appreciation of why this cannot be done with simple state-based tools. The UReason engine is an add-on to TiPS LogMate system. You can see more about it at www.ureason.com.
We hope you'll be able to attend in the future. Put a spot in your calendar and budget for sometime in April of next year. We can guarantee you won't regret the valuable information you receive from the world's leading experts in alarm management and critical condition management.
Comments