Collecting data is important but, says Greg Pitcher, displaying it in the optimal way is what will make the real difference to the operation of a process plant.
No one would get on a plane if they knew the air traffic control room was malfunctioning. And neither should they run a process plant unless its own nerve centre is fine-tuned to effectively oversee production.
“Humans are a key part of air traffic control but they are only interpreting the data in front of them,” says Nathan Ghundoo, Schneider Electric’s marketing manager for software.
“A control room in a process plant is no different: the humans can only be as good as the data presented to them.” Just like at a busy airport, the process plant control room is in place to co-ordinate all the moving parts, ensuring smooth and safe operations and an optimal outcome.
Ghundoo says that rather than removing the need for human oversight, the advance of technology in manufacturing has increased it.
“Automated production might appear to Joe Bloggs to be here and now but we are still far from it in a process plant,” he says.
To make ideal conditions for operators they need information contextualised for their plant – and available immediately
Nathan Ghundoo, marketing manager for software, Schneider Electric
“With the amount of data being generated by sensors these days the impact on the control room is huge.”
While some nerve centres may not have changed much in appearance and functionality for some decades, the amount and type of information arriving in them certainly has.
The Internet of Things and the affordability of advanced sensors means data is often collected from a huge range of sources within the manufacturing process. This is generally done to enhance the safety of the process and the quality of the product – but it can have the opposite effect if it overwhelms the control room.
“Situational awareness has become a key trend,” says Ghundoo. “Operators don’t want to see what they already know, they want to see anomalies so they can react quickly. They want these to stand out in front of their faces rather than having to hunt for them.”
Nick Boughton, digital lead at systems integrator Boulting Technology, says it’s important not to overlook the fundamentals when setting up a control room.
“Getting the lighting, temperature and noise levels conducive to an environment where people can concentrate and manage complex processes is often key to the overall efficiency of workers,” he says.
He adds that a physical view of machinery is perhaps becoming less important than a virtual insight. “Some control rooms include a window looking into the process or manufacturing area. However, with the development of Industry 4.0 technology, many control room sites are turning to digital displays and monitors to help manage the site.”
One key factor that Schneider works on to improve efficiency of data display is control room screen design. Although dials, lamps and gauges still exist in many places, the screen is a key tool for modern control rooms.
“To make ideal conditions for operators they need information contextualised for their plant – and available immediately,” says Ghundoo. “A crowded screen can mean it takes minutes to find critical data rather than a glance.”
As well as slowing the reaction to events, which can lead to wasted materials or potentially a safety risk, such prolonged searches for information can stack up into a bigger problem.
“These require greater concentration and impact on the operators. If someone gets overburdened and fatigued it can lead to people being off sick and not doing their job as well.”
There’s growing recognition that operators need help to keep up with the flood of data that’s available
Sean Robinson, service leader, Novotek UK and Ireland
There are myriad ways in which control room screens can affect workers. Too much blue light, for example, can cause insomnia in late shift workers.
Display formats need to be easy on the eye, intuitive to understand and learn, and present the right information at the right time.
Schneider’s Wonderware software, predominately used in the food and drink industry, is a visualisation package that aims to simplify the job of being in the control room.
“Colours have been removed,” says Ghundoo. “The old-school red-amber-green philosophy is too dazzling to the operator.
“We assume everything is okay unless there is a notification, and display the information that is different to expected rather than all of it.”
Sean Robinson, service leader at industrial control and automation provider Novotek UK and Ireland, says the process plant control room is evolving.
“Rather than simply allowing an operator to see and manage specific assets and process elements, the control room should deliver, in an easy-to-understand form: a sense of progress against production and quality goals; the health of the process; the health of the assets that deliver the process; and means to delve into deeper details anywhere that exceptions begin to arise,” he says.
By securely delivering the right information to the right people, apps are transforming the way in which data about the safety, reliability and performance of devices and facilities is accessed and consumed
Ju?rgen Harwalik, DeltaV product manager, Emerson
“Nowadays, people speak openly of the need to develop control rooms for manufacturing, as opposed to control rooms for engineers.”
Robinson says there is increasing adoption in the process manufacturing sector of tools to simplify the user interface. Technology is even taking this to the next level by offering diagnostic advice.
“In some cases, simplification tools are tightly linked to data aggregation or even analytics tools that can be used to aid in the interpretation of complex sets of data, so operators can be presented not only with alarms and alerts, but with interpretations of the likely causes, or recommendations for remedial action.”
He says certain sectors are moving faster than others with the evolution of their control rooms.
“We see water and wastewater, oil and gas, power and petrochemical all making strides. The increase in core process innovation in areas like material and chemical science, as well as the fact that these are asset-intensive sectors, means there’s growing recognition that operators need help to keep up with the flood of data that’s available.”
Changing manufacturing rhythms need new approaches, he adds. “In the past, you might change products every few days, or change network configuration a few times a day. Operators could manage the relatively small number of decisions and exceptions that came along. Now people are confronted with hundreds or even thousands of decisions or events in a more responsive business – and you can’t support that with traditional approaches.
“In the future, we’ll likely to see more predictive analytics that reach across a mix of asset, material, operator and other data sets to help support data interpretation and decision-making.”
Ensuring control data is available on the go will be a key focus, he adds. “As security tools improve, we’ll see more use of mobile and remote environments. And there’ll be an interesting rethink of how to deploy edge and cloud technology to support it all.”
Mobile access
Ju?rgen Harwalik, DeltaV product manager at Emerson, agrees that secure mobile access to information and tools traditionally found in the control room is changing process plant management.
“A significant advantage of mobile applications over traditional DCS workstations is the way they facilitate information sharing and collaboration,” he says.
“Mobile solutions connect plant managers, automation supervisors, process engineers and subject matter experts with access to essential operational data. These solutions provide the same richness of data shown on control room workstations – such as process values, diagnostics, alarms and historical trends – but on mobile screens.”
Allowing key data to be monitored by relevant personnel without barriers of place and time allows faster and better-informed decisions, he says. “This can lead to significant operational benefits such as reduced unplanned downtime, optimised preventive maintenance tasks and lower costs.”
Harwalik adds that remote access to control room data can be streamlined and personalised. “Well-designed mobile apps are more than just remote views of an existing DCS – they simplify data that is often scattered across various business systems and databases into intuitive mobile screens that are easy to read and navigate. To ensure that nobody is overwhelmed by information they don’t need, data is filtered to meet each user’s specific requirements.”
Emerson’s DeltaV Mobile technology allows managers to view real-time process data, trends and alarms from multiple systems.
“By securely delivering the right information to the right people, apps such as DeltaV Mobile are transforming the way in which data about the safety, reliability and performance of devices and facilities is accessed and consumed,” says Harwalik.
