PAS Musings

The $25,000 Secret

Recently, I posted “Book Triple Play” – a blog posting on how EPRI and PAS have collaborated to release a third version of the Alarm Management Handbook – following the Original Book and the ISA Version.

Well, Control Engineering sure found it interesting that The Alarm Management Handbook continues to penetrate new industry organizations and markets.

So Control Engineering did what those kind of organizations do – they interviewed the author, wrote up an article and did a podcast of the interview.

The podcast is an especially good short 4-minute introduction to Alarm Management – click here to listen to it.

Even if you know all about Alarm Management, it’s worth a listen to find out what makes the EPRI Guidelines different from the book and why you might choose to pay $25,000 for that versus $89 for the Original Book.

Wayne Crawford, program manager, operations management and technology at EPRI gives us a hint… “…demand for information on alarm management…” has grown and …we “decided to place significant time and effort into producing a report on alarm management specifically for our (power generation) industry.”

He goes on to say that PAS was enlisted to help EPRI co-author the work based on their demonstrated expertise in this area…

Exciting stuff,this Alarm Management business!

After all, where else can you buy a bestseller for $25,000 and still come out way ahead?

So what’s next??

Japanese & Chinese translations!

Stay tuned & then watch for them on www.amazon.jp and www.amazon.cn.

You might even get a Chinese copy for those quiet times at the Summer Olympics!

© Text copyright PAS 2008.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK! 

5-to-1 Benefit!

One of the magazines I read is The Economist.

A conservative British publication bringing wonderful insights from abroad on the USA – not all of which are so very flattering.

Last week’s issue contained an opinion piece on US immigration policy…

The article starts by referencing the film “Idiocracy” as “one of the most unjustly neglected films of the past few years” – perhaps because the genius behind it also created “Beavis and Butt-Head, two of the most disgusting creatures on television”.

Like I said, it’s an opinion piece.

But the Economist uses the analogies well – America's immigration policy of limiting  the entry of skilled workers onto its fair shores to just 85,000 per year is costing the country dearly – especially in this time of skilled labor shortages!

But then politicians aren’t always rational, are they?

By contrast, we engineers are rational – or at least we like to pride ourselves on that.

And that’s why the PAS Integrity software, which exposes the plant’s intellectual property – information “hidden” deep inside the automation infrastructure – is so valuable and so popular.

Integrity takes down the “political” barriers between control systems, databases and applications while easing our “labor pains” in spite of local skilled labor immigration policies.

That’s valuable.

And value begets popularity.

If you aren’t already using Integrity at your plant, chances are that your competitor is. 

But you probably already know that – unless, of course, you’re so busy doing manual searches for information in your automation system that you don’t have time to find out – or to read The Economist.

As Bill Gates calculates, and respectable publications like the Economist agree, every foreigner who is given an H1B visa creates jobs for five regular Americans.

1 immigrant generates 5 American jobs.

A good payback.

Just like Integrity.

So, depending on where you live there are 2 actions for you:

1) Buy Integrity.

and, optionally:

2a) In the US – write your congressman & senator to loosen up H1-B quotas (and save the country)

2b) Outside the US – encourage your government to move fast on legislation encouraging new high-talent business ventures.

© Text copyright PAS 2008.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Book Triple-Play!

First there was The Alarm Management Handbook released by PAS in May 2006.

Co-authored by Eddie Habibi and Bill Hollifield, both of PAS.

Many sell-outs, multiple printings.

A big hit with customers – even a year later, we are still receiving bulk orders. 

Priced at $89.95.

 

Then there was Alarm Management: Seven Effective Methods for Optimum Performance as released by the ISA in March 2007.

Co-authored by Eddie Habibi and Bill Hollifield, both of PAS.

Priced at $89.00.

Also a big seller.

 

And last week, on April 21, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has published the "Alarm Management and Annunciator Guidelines"

This time the book is coauthored by PAS and EPRI – with strong contributions by our now-famous authors.

This book also promises to be a best-seller – especially since alarm management is THE HOT TOPIC – in the U.S. power industry anyway.

EPRI doesn’t publish their member prices, but this Guideline has so much valuable content in it, and is so apropos to today’s need that the list non-member price is set accordingly.

You can visit www.erpi.com to find out the non-member price (search for "alarm management guideline" and follow the links provided).

Once find the price, though, you might want to consider joining EPRI for the “insider discount”....

Or you can think about how otherwise to spend funds that would otherwise buy…

 

Obviously, the SEVEN STEPS of ALARM MANAGEMENT as defined by PAS are pretty important!

Still haven’t read the book?

Order one today!

© Text copyright PAS 2008.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

In Memory of Arthur C. Clarke

"We should always be prepared for future technologies, because otherwise they will come along and clobber us." -  Sir Arthur Charles Clarke

It is sad to note the passing of Arthur C. Clarke. While known to the general public mostly for 2001 – A Space Odyssey, many of us technical types fondly remember his non-fiction, short stories, and other novels.

Clarke was a futurist and a visionary (thought he preferred to be called an “extrapolator”) who began writing in the 1930s. In WWII he helped develop radar defenses for Britain, and later chaired the British Interplanetary Society. He was a strong advocate of space development and of technology in general.

Clarke predicted things that we now see as commonplace – and many more that will likely be so in the next 25 years. In 1945 he proposed using geostationary orbit for communications satellites. Now, there are almost 400 satellites occupying the “Clarke Orbit.” Intelligent computers (HAL 9000) are on our horizon - and Clarke predicts that their capabilities will evolve at exponential rates. (They will design their own successors!)

Clarke’s prose style was wonderful; with short chapters ending with a sentence or two that would literally raise chills.

Clarke believed that eventually the only thing of real value will be information. For many industrial plants, the value of the knowledge embedded in the plant hardware already exceeds the value of the hardware itself. Managing this information is a challenge that PAS has made an important part of our business.

Clarke is one of my favorite authors. His books (and those of his contemporaries such as Heinlein and Asimov) celebrated science and engineering as valuable providers of human progress, and inspired many of us to enter these fields.

…by “Guest Blogger” Bill Hollifield, co-author of The Book

Saved by PAS!

Check out how Integrity / DOC4000 saves customers time and money….

Here’s a true story from one of our long-time users…

We put a new project in our CLX Unit a few years back. On this project we added 25 new  and deleted 5 existing tags to the Honeywell DCS. We put in 5 CL programs, debugged them and tested them. A whole bunch of interlock logic points were built and tested.

Three months later the plant experienced a power outage that lasted longer than the UPS and batteries could keep everything up. So the all memory was lost on the nodes. When power was restored and it was time to load everything back up, it was discovered that somehow the Auto checkpoint was turned off on some of the nodes. The configuration that was done on the project above was never saved.

At this point we had a whole other problem on our hands.

We had to figure out what all was changed and put it back in while the Plant is waiting on us to start. Fortunately, we remembered DOC3000 (the DOC4000 predecessor).

With this wonderful PAS product, we just called up the Change Manager and went to the import that was completed just after our project was configured.

We printed out everything that was added, deleted, or modified in the DCS for the project, found the “missing” data and reloaded them in the system.

The new product (DOC4000) does all this and more – I just noticed now that it even tells you what EB file the tag is in on the references page.

In any case, the entire configuration was restored in about two hours thanks to DOC3000. Without it we would have had to drag out the project package and start building from scratch. Not to mention re-testing all configuration and Interlock logic. The plant would have been down days vs. hours.

Hats off to DOC3000/DOC4000!!!

© Copyright PAS 2008.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK

No obstacle stops our man from PAS

The other day, I had d inner with an old friend from up in Canada, where he said the temperature was ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY degrees (over 70C) colder than it was in Houston.

But if you think that’s pretty extreme, then read on as to what lengths PAS professionals fight through any kind of weather and transport to get the job done.

Here’s how one of our Middle East professionals makes his way to ExxonMobil's Sakhalin Island site to complete an Alarm Management job…

For the last 3 weeks I had been to Russia on company business over at the Sakhalin Island site (east cost of Siberia).

Coming from the Middle East, the very first thing that hit me after landing was the chilled climate... it was freezing well below zero with light winds.

After a day's rest the journey from one site to another began.

It was tough jumping between choppers, cars or Kamas (monster truck – more later) with my luggage in such a freezing climate.

On one occasion we travelled by Land Cruiser for 3 hours on a slippery and bumpy road.   In a couple of instances, the Land Cruiser slipped and turned and went into a complete reverse spin. The car and journey was very memorable (yikes!) and hats-off to the driver was really skilled and expert in driving on such conditions.

But much more memorable was the travel to the off-shore location.

For this travel I had to wear shark suit since we were traveling by chopper over water. Wearing that suit was very difficult as it had 2 layers which use to seal your complete body and also insulated it from freezing water. I felt like an astronaut since i could not lift my feet for more than 2 steps.

On return journey, I had to take a Kamas to get to the train station. Kamas is something like giant 6-wheel monster truck which is widely used in the remote parts of Russia since it the only reliable way through the muddy/bumpy roads (but they didn’t tell me this before when Land Cruiser was fine enough!!)

Finally, I was glad to be back in the desert kingdoms of the Middle East, where the temperature was a wonderful 35 degrees C (94F)

Am I missing the cold and chilled weather in Russia? 

No.

Did the job get done?

Yes.

And the client is happy!

And that's exactly the kind of dedication you can expect from all PAS professionals - nothing shall come in the way of us getting the job done!

© Copyright PAS 2008.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Read all about it!

We’ve known for a while that our Alarm Management was hot.

Thousands of books sold, millions of alarm points analyzed & rationalized, etc, etc.

But now ARC elevates the conversation about just how hot our Alarm Management is with their analysis of the topic.

Check out these quotes from a recent ARC briefing on why YOU need to look into PAS Alarm Management at your plant:

Alarm management has the potential to transform the role of the operators. 

A good alarm management program can free the operator … and allow them to focus … on making intelligent decisions that improve productivity and plant performance.

In our view, the passion … comes through in the book, “The Alarm Management Handbook – A Comprehensive Guide” written by Bill Hollifield and Eddie Habibi. It is an excellent guide to effective alarm management.

They [PAS] put their knowledge and intellectual property in the book for everyone to use and benefit from. 

If you haven’t yet read THE BOOK, Buy It Now or get the ISA Version.

Click here to read the full ARC report.

© Copyright PAS 2008.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Ruffled Feathers…

Apparently one or more of my prior postings has ruffled the competition – at the expense of educating the market!

In those postings, I lampooned the “Consumer Reporting” style of software analysis by the geniuses at the ExperCompany – check out the ExperSchlock II and ExperSchlock I postings if you missed it …

And now, just when the ExperSchlockies were hoping it was all a thing of the past, here comes an email into my Inbox from an industry friend who used to work at PAS (but left for family reasons):

Recently, a co-worker and I met an old friend of his for lunch, and it turns out he is now the guy who is the Houston Expertune office.

He said they are a little ruffled about your blog entry… J

He was saying that they are having lots of trouble getting data from the customers so they can do benefit analyses… usually it involves trying to get some kind of data out of IP.21 and they are resorting to Excel add-ins and such to capture the data – he was moaning about how difficult it is to get the customers to take the time to do it, and to teach them how to do it.  Of course the sheer data quantity is daunting, and I would hope that they realize a lot of the data they are getting is going to be compressed and thus not really useful.

I held my tongue but it was nice to know that we solved all of those problems in ControlWizard back when I was still at PAS. 

Y’all should be able to stomp these folks. J

Music to my ears….

Click here to read more about ControlWizard, and to check out some of my other prior blog postings on the topic!

© Copyright PAS 2008.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

I'm back!

After a 3 month hiatus, I’m finally back!

What happened, you ask?  Life…

Getting married, moving, settling in, and oh yes – building a company while doing all that take its toll.

It’s a matter of priorities, isn’t it?

Can’t let the new bride down, nor can I neglect my role at the company.  So the blog suffered. 

Sorry.

Good thing life’s like a marathon and not a sprint…

Speaking of which, three PAS employees just finished the 2008 Chevron Houston Marathon. 

Each set goals, trained for them and then achieved them.  And, regardless of their personal times, all three came out ahead.

Similarly, each company, and each organization within a company, has its own goals.  These goals are more than a New Year's resolution, and chart a course towards an overall long-term objective.

Achieving goals requires planning, training, and making the right choices. 

For a marathoner, a key choice is simple--light, comfortable, and durable shoes.  For a company like PAS, our most important choice is our people. For many of our customers, an important choice is the software to help reach maximum Operations Effectiveness.

And our software does just that.

Our Integrity and Alarm Management products help enhance productivity and safety at the plant to make the most of both human and capital resources. 

So as we go through the year, you’ll be hearing a lot more about Operations Effectiveness and the software products from PAS that help achieve this in the operating plant.

And (hopefully) you’ll be hearing from me regularly too – my marketing department says I’m on the hook to do so – and although I met the goals for 2007, I don’t want them to think that I’m about to let them down in 2008.

At PAS, we're in it for the long run to help you meet your goals. 

If you aren’t yet using our software at your plant, we hope that this is the year that you will be.

Have a great year – and may we all accomplish our goals!

© Copyright PAS 2008.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Alarm Management MythBuster #4

This is the fourth and final myth in the series…

Myth #4:  Alarm Management requires endless Consulting Services

We’ve cleared up the most common myths –  about Counting Alarms, Reducing the Count and not needing a Philosophy and so now we’re at the last one (of the four most common ones anyway).

I guess this myth is propagated by vendors trying to sell their software to customers without any services.

I suppose it goes along with the other myths pretty well – but that’s about it.

While it is right to say that Consulting Services are not needed for each step of improving the performance of your alarm system, there is definite advantage to engaging an expert to help.

Involving an expert helps you get more value and get it faster.

Sure, you can develop your own philosophy, document and rationalize your own alarm system, and even set up real-time alarm functions to keep it all working right… it isn’t that difficult.

In fact, we encourage customers to could take The Workshop, read The Book, complete some basic Software Training and get started with their own Alarm Management projects.

The problem isn’t the skill required – the problem is the skills being available.

Remember, this is 2007 and there’s a huge shortage of qualified staff at most sites – probably including yours.

And that’s where the PAS Alarm Management Experts come in to help.

Our experts get the job done more effectively and efficiently than trying to find the time to do it yourself.  And the collective experience we hold from work at hundreds of sites brings real-life learnings and experiences of Alarm Management to your effort that just can’t be captured by any software.

So if you’re not sure of how much alarm management is worthwhile at your site and what effort is involved – try bringing in one of our experts to survey your site and define the benefits to your management.

Then think about what makes sense for you to do and what makes sense for the consultant to help out on.

You’ll be glad you did.

Because your management will see a faster and more solid return on investment than you’d ever achieve on your own.

And what about the myth of endless services?

Well, just ask any of our hundreds of customers – our services always end well before the return on investment does.

And that makes happy managers and satisfied shareholders.

And even happier employees!

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Alarm Management MythBuster #3

This is the third myth in a series…

Myth #3:  Alarm Management doesn’t need a Custom Philosophy!

While the first two myths address the most common misconceptions (Just Count Alarms and Just Reduce the Count), this one says I just need to get on with the work - and forget about developing my own Alarm Management Philosophy.

Where did this myth come from?

Maybe it’s the terminology. 

Do we really need a “philosophy” for managing alarms??? 

Aren’t philosophies for the HR department?  And if I tell my boss we need to develop a philosophy – or worse yet, ask to pay someone to help develop a philosophy – well, I’m likely to be sent off-site for a period of correctional training….

So maybe the word “philosophy” is part of the problem…

Maybe it should be called a STRATEGY…  After all, strategies are needed to accomplish great things, right?

So we need one. 

Whether we call it a plan, strategy, philosophy or anything else – every plant needs a set of principles and objectives that will guide the optimization and maintenance of their process alarm systems.

So, where do you get an Alarm Management Philosophy and what should it look like?

First, let’s agree that any winning strategy must be tailored to OUR NEEDS and OUR PLANT so that we can meet OUR OBJECTIVES.

So you can’t just buy one of these off the shelf or copy one out of a book. 

Some vendors will have you believe that building a philosophy is as easy as answering a few questions on their website, but we don’t recommend that.

Just as you would never build your company’s operating plan by answering a few questions at an online vendor site, you surely don’t want to build your alarm management philosophy that way either.

After all, you just get what you pay for. And if the philosophy is free, well better watch out!

So what should a proper Alarm Management Philosophy look like?

We cover that in The Alarm Management Handbook (available on Amazon.com and from the ISA), and give you clear examples of what a philosophy might look like, some starting points and lots of advice.

But to end up with the right philosophy (strategy) for your plant, YOU – the people at the plant – need to get involved and make it yours.

You can do it yourself (assuming you have the time and ability).

You can engage a consultant (like PAS).

You can get The Book from the ISA or direct from PAS.

Choose any one of these and you’ll do just fine.

Just don’t use a pre-packaged or “download now” philosophy.   Because you really do get what you pay for.

And that can make all the difference between safe operations or not.

Alarm Management MythBusters Part 2

This is the second of two myths…

Myth #2:  The Best Practice is a Reduced Alarm Count

This myth is an extension of the first – which was more or less “count your alarms and all will be ok”.

This myth says if we can get the alarm count down, then we’re doing the right thing – and by extension – the more the count goes down, the better it is.

Most of you will of course recognize the fallacy in that.

To keep it simple, I go back to my example of the overweight person… 

Just taking off as many pounds as possible is not the best practice.

The same is true for alarms – just reducing the count to some minimum is not a best practice.

Losing one’s excess weight and cutting out excess alarms in the plant are good strategies, but not enough for optimal health and safety.

There’s more to the story…

For optimal body weight, we consider height, physique, body type, and a host of other factors.

For an optimal alarm system, we need to consider process interactions, time to respond, consequences, severity, etc, etc.

And out of that analysis of out alarm system – which is a lot more than just counting alarms – comes an optimal alarm management strategy.

At PAS, we call such analysis work “Documentation & Rationalization” – an interactive work process with process operations personnel to determine the right alarm settings – priorities, trip points and the use of advanced strategies to best handle various plant states, alarm floods, etc – to come up with the optimal alarm strategy.

Broadly speaking, that strategy does reduce alarm count.

But as is the case for your health – a single number such as body weight – is not enough to live well.

And in the plant, it’s also not enough to live safely.

Don’t be fooled – alarm management is more than counting alarms and also more than reducing alarm count.

Want to learn more?

Read the Book!

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Alarm Management MythBusters Part 1

For those of you that surf the web to learn more about Alarm Management, I want to add a couple of postings in the next few weeks to your repertoire of readings… and maybe bust a few myths in the process.

Myth #1:  Alarm Management is all about counting alarms

This myth sounds good because it is quick and easy

1)     Plug in any alarm counting software package

2)     Collect some data

3)     Print the reports

The general thinking behind this myth is that once you’ve identified the problem, you’re pretty much done!

Sadly, there are people out there who just want you to believe that if you could just count your alarms, things will get better…

I guess they assume that if their software points out the problem, you would of course take action to solve it.

That’s like saying an overweight person would get thin if only they knew their weight.

Nope. 

It doesn’t work that way. 

Plant operators and engineers already have way too much on their plate.

Sure, they may take some action and bring down the count - just like an overweight person goes on a diet and drops a few pounds.

But without correcting the situation and keeping it there, the pounds come right back after the diet stops.

There is a solution.

And lots of customers are finding it.

At PAS, we have a number of customers who have switched from someone else’s Alarm Counting software to the real thing – an Alarm Management software + service solution that corrects the underlying problems and then acts to keep those problems from recurring.

Counting alarms with printer port software was not enough for them.

Neither was the fancy analysis.

They tried the diet.  

And it didn’t work.

No surprise, right?

These customers now understand that higher plant reliability (and profitability!) comes from a complete Alarm Management solution comprising all of the following:

>> An Alarm Management Philosophy that matches the needs of their plant

>> Documentation & Rationalization of existing alarms to highlight the real issues in any plant upset and not just ring a flood of alarm bells

>> Alarm Management Software that not only counts & analyzes alarm activity, but also interacts with the process control system in real-time to obtain and maintain alarm loading goals

If all of this sounds like hard work, it’s because it is!!!

But the benefits are there - increasing plant reliability and safety by more pro-actively alerting operators to process upsets BEFORE going off-spec, off-grade or shutting down.

A saying from my high school days have stuck with me ever since - Caveat Emptor.

It’s true that you get what you pay for – those Romans were right with their advice!

Want to learn more?

Read the Book!

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

NPRA Conference - Part 5 again?

Time again for the annual NPRA Technology Forum. 

This is about the fifth conference I have been to this year, and each time I go to one of these industry conferences, I hear the same top two topics being discussed in earnest.

1. There is impending doom from the shortage of engineers.
2. How we can avoid impending doom from industrial incidents like that of BP Texas City.

These seem to be the two top conference topics all around the country and at all venues, except maybe where there is no oil refining presence, in which case only the first topic comes up again and again. 

These topics are bad news for industry, but contain good news for PAS.

Here’s why….

The shortage of engineers is really, really bad news for industry.  After all, most of the engineers in the process industry are baby boomers – meaning that most of them will disappear off to Costa Rica or otherwise go silent in retirement somewhere else.

And who’s going to maintain and improve the process plants of today once these people are all gone?  (Not me – I’ll be in Costa Rica with everyone else J)

It’s not even what you can see that’s the problem – worse yet, is the maintenance of what you can’t see – all the logic and algorithms that actually keep our process plants operating in a safe place.  Heaven forbid that these systems and applications become unavailable or unmaintainable, for who would then decipher whatever it is that they are supposed to do? 

Certainly not the guys in Costa Rica!

That’s the bad news for industry.

But the good news for PAS is that we have a documentation and configuration management solution that is pointed EXACTLY at this problem.

Integrity – don’t operate your plant without it™.

Read more about that here.

The second item – 15 people being killed at Texas City – is being analyzed over and over by various groups, almost to the same extent as the Challenger disaster.  All that’s missing is the Presidential Report on the topic.

Accidents and the possible over-regulation by the authorities are bad news for industry.  Nobody wants loss of production, let alone loss of life.

And by now, everyone in the refining and petrochemical industry has heard the story of one level – one alarm – one operator as retold by Ian Nimmo at the PAS 2006 User Conference (download paper here) and countless others in the industry.

Very bad news indeed.

But again, the good news for PAS (if we can call it that) is that we have solutions pointed EXACTLY at this area.

Our Alarm Management solutions – written up in multiple textbooks (PAS, ISA), presented in workshops worldwide, and delivered by our team of experts – leads the way in loss prevention, reliability and safety across the process and power industries.

Haven’t heard of it?

Better buy the book and start reading.

In the meantime, be careful out there – with the shortage of engineers, we can’t afford to lose even one, whether by industrial accident or firing due to poor performance.

Later…

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Honey-do Blog Delay

Some of you may be wondering what happened to my regular postings, as they have disappeared for a while…

This is true and it looks like I need about a month of slack time to get used to the idea of balancing work and home life again.

Although the 100,000 mile commute was ugly, it sure did give me time for so many “extra-curricular” activities – like writing a regular blog posting.

Now its back to the pleasures of real life…

And, as I work out the balance between home life and work, I need to take about a  month off.

After all, I just did re-commit to my wife of 28+ years and need to make good on that – click here to see the Heersink-Drost Wedding photos.

I’ll be back…

The Next Phase…

Some of you will remember that my summer vacation earlier this year was a flop – click here if you missed that.

I am happy to report that I have made up for my vacation flop by taking some time in the first half of September.

And, this time, it was no flop.

The “vacation” was actually a “honeymoon” for my wife and I – following our actual  re-marriage (to each other – again after some 10,000 days!) and marking the start of the chapter in our lives without kids (who have now all grown up and gone away).

And so now we’re on to the next phase of our lives.

With a stronger-than-ever commitment to each other.

Great marriages, like great workplaces are good news and help generate a high level of satisfaction and enthusiasm for life.

Needless to say, I am one happy dude…

For not only is my marriage great, but so is my work.

PAS is on a roll (read this), customers want our software & services, PAS employees are fun to work with, and the growth potential is enormous.

So as I enter into this next phase of my life – without the 100,000 mile commute, I am as excited as ever to contribute and help lead the ongoing success at PAS.

What’s ahead?  Where will it go?

For the details, you’ll just have to wait and see… but if I look at our #1 position in Alarm Management, the leading control loop performance management solution, our superb System Services offerings and our one-and-only plant-wide configuration management solution, it’s pretty easy to project…

Stay tuned…

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Vacation...

For those readers who may be wondering what happened to my regular postings, here's the update:

 

I'm off on a short celebratory holdiay to the Canadian Rockies in honor of the end of the 100,000 mile commute.  It's really true - when I am back in Houston next week, my commuting days will be over!!!

I'll be back to regular weekly postings after that....

Alarm Management... just like Baseball

Craig Biggio, Houston Astros baseball player, recently achieved his 3000 hit.  His hustle and determination to win is obvious when you watch him play.  But those traits  are not what led to his milestone… 

Exercise, training, diet, and focus over many years put Biggio in a position to reach his goal.

And that required commitment to his goal and years of perseverance to the regimen needed to achieve that goal.

The same is true for the health and safety goals at a operating plant. 

A commitment to these goals requires perseverance in the areas of operator effectiveness, equipment health, work processes, and more.

An effective alarm management is one important part of that regimen.

But like Craig’s dedication to training and diet, effective alarm management is a process, not an event. 

In fact, alarm management is one of the most important components to help the improve operator effectiveness, and helps prevent the tragic loss of life such as we have seen in the industry – even in recent years.

So is alarm management software like baseball? 

Not exactly.  But for every lesson in life, there is an analogy in baseball. 

And in this case, commitment and perseverance that make a difference.

Just as Craig would not have achieved his record without focus on all the key aspects of his training regimen, no plant will achieve their best health and safety goals without some focus on alarm management.

And like baseball, its all about the statistics – beginning with the number of alarms per hour per operator.

What are the statistics for your plant? 

You can’t afford not to know.

Especially when finding out can take less than 2 hours of your time.

Want to know more?  Contact us and we’ll run the numbers for you.

Commitment, dedication and statistics.

Just like baseball.

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Unemployment = Good News!

My wife joined the ranks of the unemployed this weekend as our youngest went off to university.

She's now a former stay-at-home career Mom with the question of "What's next?".

But there’s two pieces of really good news in this message of unemployment….

1) My wife will join me in Houston and end my 100,000 mile commute.

2) My daughter is on a path to join the industry as a chemical engineer

Last year, I posted an entry called “The Mathematics of Integrity” which touched on the looming and even-greater shortage of engineers than we face today and how the PAS Integrity software might help ease the pain…

I also posted an entry called “Grandfatherhood & the Retirement Wave” which touched on the same topics and opportunities ahead for grandson, Erik – who’s just turning 1 this month but still has some 20 years to go before he can help solve the world’s engineer crisis.

But today, I am honored that the last of my 4 children is entering university to study engineering – chemical engineering just like the old man at that!

The world desperately needs many more kids to study engineering…

So how is it that my youngest chose to study engineering? 

Was I such a good example?  (No)

Thinking back, it was likely that conversation we had one day about what subjects she liked and did well at in high school (Math & Science), and which ones she would prefer not to do more of (English & History).

And then when she found out that most engineering programs are so packed full of math and science that there is little room for the “softer” studies, the deal was done and “engineering” started appearing on her college applications.

So off she goes to college – to do her bit to solve a problem that she may not even know about.

Hopefully, most of her class will stick with it so that the industry can welcome them aboard in 4 years…

Stay tuned!

Until then, it’s up to the leaders of our industry to start doing something to help solve the problem and not just talk about it….

Any suggestions?  Email me…

And if unemployment in our industry becomes a reality, not because of the economy, but because there are too many young graduates, then we’ll really say…

“Unemployment = Good News!”

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Power Market Leadership II

Earlier this year, I shared our surge into the power market with a competitive victory at Ameren, displacing embedded competitive technology with the PAS Alarm Management Solution.

That was big news and just the tip of the iceberg.

Click here to read that posting.

Now some 6 months later, there’s more big news and more success.

Our success in the power industry has continued since the Ameren win, and to help ensure its continued growth, we’re setting up a Power Industry Center of Excellence.

Right next to our new favorite power industry customer, Ameren, in St. Louis, Missouri.

And we’re seeding our new Center of Excellence with five leading experts – all of whom are intimately familiar with the power industry, power industry software solutions, alarm management, etc., etc. – all the skills we dream of finding in key employees.

These 5 new hires have worked together for years as a core team of experts in power. And I’m pleased and flattered that they’re now joining PAS en masse. 

Wow!  What a beautiful day!

A new office.

A Center of Excellence.

A happy customer and ideal reference site.

And a growing business in a surging power market.

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Like I wrote last week, PAS is Hot! And our efforts are paying off big time.

For those of you wanting more details, come back next week and visit our website to read the press release – it comes out on Monday, August 20.