Mission to control
16 May 2007
While process companies are investing in increasingly powerful control and automation systems, how many are equipping their operators with the skills needed to handle the technology? Patrick Raleigh reports
The European process industry has traditionally recruited its operators from areas local to the plant. New recruits are often relatively low-skilled — generally school leavers — and there is little use of techniques such as psychometric testing in the selection process.
However, the operator's role today encompasses, monitoring and supervision, alarm handling, process optimisation, abnormal situation management, operations planning and communication with maintenance, emergency and other departments
Today's operators are expected to handle "some of the most complex control systems on the planet," said Peter Andow of Honeywell Process Solutions, who sees a need for a new approach to recruitment and training in the process industry, particularly in Europe.
Newly recruited operators often have no prior training unless moving from one plant to another, said Andow. Training, meanwhile, varies widely from almost total on-the-job instruction to structured schemes including the use of simulators.
With plants becoming more complex and delivering more information, employers will have to adopt more careful selection procedures for recruiting operators, including testing of suitability for vigilance tasks and diagnostic skills, said Andow.
"The operator of the future will have to be better selected, better trained and supported to carry out key tasks such as monitoring and supervision. Some operators will be graduates and they will be equipped to deal with more information and faster, or there will be more safety incidents."
One ideal possibility, Andow believes, would be for companies to recruit new graduates as operators, who then gradually progress to the role of support engineers for the facilities they originally started work on.
"The operator's role will continue to become more complex and demanding. Human limitations, such as the ability to process large volumes of information, cannot evolve at the same speed as our ability to deliver more information to the operator."
These trends, combined with skills shortages, suggest that industry's recruitment search will also have to broaden to cover a wider geographic area, as well as more females and other under-represented sectors of the population.
On the plus side, however, an increasing proportion of new recruits will be familiar with MS Windows, which could lessen the need for software systems training. The greater use of Windows and open systems within industry should, in turn, make operators' skills more portable and transferable from plant to plant.
The training process for operators is today being assisted by an increasing availability of high-fidelity, software-based plant simulation systems. While this will mean less 'systems' training, there will be more need for training in capabilities and effective use of applications packages.
Operators will become more empowered and proactive as the tasks that they are expected to carry out become increasingly varied and demanding, according to Andow.
Technologies, such as APC (advanced process control), are enabling operators to carry out tasks such as operations planning — and so increasing their scope of responsibility. Some panel operators, noted Andow, are now responsible for over 500 control loops.
Alarm handling has been the focus for major improvements in recent years. Some companies can now report no alarms over an entire shift for a particular operator. However, alarm floods are still a major problem on many plants, according to Andow.
Process industries have seen a steady emergence of an enhanced role for roving operators with hand-held devices, but these are unlikely to replace panel operators in many plants.
"Technology has to be deployed in a user-centred way with a stronger focus on turning raw data into useful information," concluded Andow. "The trend to empower the operator will continue with further increases in the use of integrated support applications."
Working environment
The working environment in many control rooms has often been likened to driving a noisy old car, hundred of miles a day — with the consequent affects on operators of fatigue and difficulty in concentrating and responding to situations.
All this should become a thing of the past, according to Piera Scuri of Spazio Design, based in Milan, Italy, who foresees major evolution in the design of the working environment for plant operators.
The goal for control room designers remains the same as today — to improve efficiency and safety in the plants, said Scuri. But, she added, operators are becoming more empowered, so the whole control room work environment will become more human-centred.
The control room of the future will feature a high-powered, almost invisible, but very powerful DCS within a very sophisticated, high-tech area and tailored to the needs of the modern operator, forecast Scuri.
'Sophisticated' covers many aspects of human behaviour, including perception, sensations, emotions. For designers, she said, this means taking account of concepts such as touch, movement and even smell, as well as more conventional aspects of light, sound and temperature.
"The man-machine system should be shaped by human requirements, for example taking into account not only the rational thinking but also emotional thinking," said Scuri. The challenge, she added, is "to update design techniques that apply cognitive science and develop new designs for consoles and control rooms."
However, the operator's role today encompasses, monitoring and supervision, alarm handling, process optimisation, abnormal situation management, operations planning and communication with maintenance, emergency and other departments
Today's operators are expected to handle "some of the most complex control systems on the planet," said Peter Andow of Honeywell Process Solutions, who sees a need for a new approach to recruitment and training in the process industry, particularly in Europe.
Newly recruited operators often have no prior training unless moving from one plant to another, said Andow. Training, meanwhile, varies widely from almost total on-the-job instruction to structured schemes including the use of simulators.
With plants becoming more complex and delivering more information, employers will have to adopt more careful selection procedures for recruiting operators, including testing of suitability for vigilance tasks and diagnostic skills, said Andow.
"The operator of the future will have to be better selected, better trained and supported to carry out key tasks such as monitoring and supervision. Some operators will be graduates and they will be equipped to deal with more information and faster, or there will be more safety incidents."
One ideal possibility, Andow believes, would be for companies to recruit new graduates as operators, who then gradually progress to the role of support engineers for the facilities they originally started work on.
"The operator's role will continue to become more complex and demanding. Human limitations, such as the ability to process large volumes of information, cannot evolve at the same speed as our ability to deliver more information to the operator."
These trends, combined with skills shortages, suggest that industry's recruitment search will also have to broaden to cover a wider geographic area, as well as more females and other under-represented sectors of the population.
On the plus side, however, an increasing proportion of new recruits will be familiar with MS Windows, which could lessen the need for software systems training. The greater use of Windows and open systems within industry should, in turn, make operators' skills more portable and transferable from plant to plant.
The training process for operators is today being assisted by an increasing availability of high-fidelity, software-based plant simulation systems. While this will mean less 'systems' training, there will be more need for training in capabilities and effective use of applications packages.
Operators will become more empowered and proactive as the tasks that they are expected to carry out become increasingly varied and demanding, according to Andow.
Technologies, such as APC (advanced process control), are enabling operators to carry out tasks such as operations planning — and so increasing their scope of responsibility. Some panel operators, noted Andow, are now responsible for over 500 control loops.
Alarm handling has been the focus for major improvements in recent years. Some companies can now report no alarms over an entire shift for a particular operator. However, alarm floods are still a major problem on many plants, according to Andow.
Process industries have seen a steady emergence of an enhanced role for roving operators with hand-held devices, but these are unlikely to replace panel operators in many plants.
"Technology has to be deployed in a user-centred way with a stronger focus on turning raw data into useful information," concluded Andow. "The trend to empower the operator will continue with further increases in the use of integrated support applications."
Working environment
The working environment in many control rooms has often been likened to driving a noisy old car, hundred of miles a day — with the consequent affects on operators of fatigue and difficulty in concentrating and responding to situations.
All this should become a thing of the past, according to Piera Scuri of Spazio Design, based in Milan, Italy, who foresees major evolution in the design of the working environment for plant operators.
The goal for control room designers remains the same as today — to improve efficiency and safety in the plants, said Scuri. But, she added, operators are becoming more empowered, so the whole control room work environment will become more human-centred.
The control room of the future will feature a high-powered, almost invisible, but very powerful DCS within a very sophisticated, high-tech area and tailored to the needs of the modern operator, forecast Scuri.
'Sophisticated' covers many aspects of human behaviour, including perception, sensations, emotions. For designers, she said, this means taking account of concepts such as touch, movement and even smell, as well as more conventional aspects of light, sound and temperature.
"The man-machine system should be shaped by human requirements, for example taking into account not only the rational thinking but also emotional thinking," said Scuri. The challenge, she added, is "to update design techniques that apply cognitive science and develop new designs for consoles and control rooms."
