PAS Musings

Experience Matters

By Chris Lyden, President of PAS 

Today someone asked me how PAS is different from our competitors.  The premise of the question was that the other guys obviously make acceptable products or they wouldn’t be in business.  So what if we have some features and functions that they don’t? What really makes PAS a better supplier and partner?  Excellent question, I said. 

Frankly, I had to pause for a moment and collect my thoughts before answering, since this is a fundamental question any client would asks before selecting a strategic technology partner. 

Here is my answer in summary: 

PAS’ roots are in the control room.  More than eighty percent of our engineers come from end-user companies.   We have a number of former operators on our team.  Eddie and I both spent many years training process operators, developing and commissioning control systems and spending our fair share of time in various industrial control rooms.  We live and breathe operations.  It is who we are.  It’s in our blood.

So why does that make us a better supplier and partner?  What does that have to do with the quality of our products, or the relevance of our offerings?  Everything!

Our plant operations experience gives us genuine context and more importantly, empathy for our customers.  We really have “walked a mile in their moccasins."  Years ago, I was in a control room when the cat cracker went into reversal.  If you don’t know what that means, trust me, it’s a very bad thing.   I didn’t know if I would be alive 10 seconds from now or not.  The term “process safety” now has a very different meaning for me than it did before that day.  It’s not an abstraction.  Only experience can teach that kind of lesson.  Many of us at PAS have had our lives changed forever by in-plant experiences like that. 

These experiences have changed the way we think.  They have caused us to take a fundamentally different approach to our applications than our competitors who come from an IT background.

We focus on safety and production first, and then on systems and data.  To some, this may not sound important.  But when you put it in context, then it becomes not only important, but also critical.

Take for example dynamic alarming.  This is serious business, impacting the operator’s vigilance during the most critical operating periods – process transitions and upsets – and directly impacting plant reliability and personnel safety.

Recognizing that no alarm management solution is complete without the dynamic alarming, who would you trust with your alarm management strategy?  The guys with extensive plant operations experience or the IT guys?

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Genomes and Nano-Tubes

By Chris Lyden, President of PAS

For the past few years process automation industry geeks like me have been buzzing over the potential opportunities inherent in wireless sensing technologies.  We envision sensors everywhere, often making measurements that would only be possible because the sensors are cheap to purchase and install.  But we also know that there are additional advances required before these technologies can reach their full potential.  High on the list are improvements in battery technologies. 

Our current vision of ubiquitous wireless sensors is largely enabled by batteries. But, all batteries require periodic replacement and disposal.  In fact, even if batteries in industrial sensor networks last five years, the cost to replace and dispose of them is staggering.  Some estimates place these costs for already-installed industrial wireless networks at over two billion dollars per year!  Energy harvesting technologies such as electro-active polymers and nano-generators may eventually offer solutions to these problems, but not anytime soon.  We impatient engineers want a solution right away.

Exciting new super-capacitor technologies being developed by researchers at MIT offer a viable solution to these problems.  Repeated charging and discharging of batteries causes them to lose capacity over time, which necessitates their replacement and disposal.  An alternative to batteries are capacitors, which are storage devices for electric charge that do not have the same propensity to degrade.  Until now however, capacitors have had a major drawback.  Their relative size was much larger than a battery of equal capacity.  Their footprint was just too big to allow them to serve as a direct replacement.

This is where the MIT technology comes in.  They covered the plates of a capacitor with millions of tiny filaments called nano-tubes. Each filament is 30,000 times thinner than a human hair, and collectively they dramatically increase the effective surface area of the capacitor’s plates, allowing them to store more energy in smaller footprint. 

By now, you must be asking yourself “Why in the world does anyone at PAS give a hoot about batteries, and sensors, and super-capacitors?”  Well, these technologies are very likely to create substantial increased demand for our Integrity software.  Here’s why.

Historically, there has been a mutually reinforcing (autocatalytic) relationship between the number of installed I/O and the number of applications running in a plant.  As I/O costs decline, justification of new applications that use I/O becomes easier.  More installed applications in-turn drive demand for I/O.  The anticipated, broad proliferation of low-cost wireless measurements, enabled by our nano-tube super-capacitors and other breakthroughs, will most likely drive many new applications.

PAS’ concept of Automation Genome™ mapping is in a very real sense the result of years of growth in measurements and applications.  The essence of the concept is that the building blocks of modern automation systems (i.e. points, parameters, registers, bits, display elements, etc.) are the electronic analogue to DNA and genes in organic life forms.  However, unlike organic life forms whose genomes morph slowly over very long periods of time, automation genomes morph daily as loops are tuned, alarms are disabled, and parameters are changed.  Also unlike the genomes of organic life forms, automation genomes often share their “genetic material” (parameters) with other, foreign automation systems (species) creating an inter-related, collective genome that is the sum of the parameters of all interoperating systems. 

Changes in the genome of one system often propagate to the other inter-connected systems, creating configuration mismatches.  For example, a change to a register in a safety instrumented system would likely create mismatches on several graphic displays, the DCS control logic, and the historian too.  So, as the level of interconnectivity between installed systems, the number of integrated measurements and, the number of applications all increase, the automation genome of the plant becomes incredibly complex.  Mapping and managing this dynamic complexity becomes untenable for mere mortals.

PAS’ Integrity software is the answer to this problem.  It’s the only product in the market that maps dissimilar genomes into a common, collective genome.  As the number of measurements and genome complexity increases, the market demand for Integrity will increase with them.  That is why we care about nano-tube super-capacitors.
 

“Greening the Power Industry” at POWID Symposium in Chicago

By guest blogger Bill May of PAS

“Greening the Power Industry” is the theme for the ISA POWID Symposium in Chicago next week, and PAS will be there in full force to share recent projects and present the solutions that have helped our power industry clients achieve just that…  

Our power industry clients improve their “green” objectives by:
• Minimizing disturbances and mitigating unexpected shutdowns
• Improving environmental performance
• Meeting regulatory compliance 

PAS solutions that help our clients achieve these objectives include:
• Control loop performance optimization
• Alarm management
• High performance operator HMI (Human Machine Interface)
• Management of change
• Disaster recovery

Since the launch of our Power Industry Center of Excellence two years ago, we have significantly grown our client base in this industry.  We have worked with several industry leaders, each with a focus on going green.  Next week, we’ll present details of several of these projects, including:

Alarm Management Optimization at a Mid-Size Power Plant:  PAS helped improve the performance of unit operators by significantly reducing the number of nuisance alarms.  Now, with the improved alarm system, there are fewer excursions and a noticeable reduction in emissions.

HMI Best Practices: PAS has teamed up with EPRI to help a mid-size power company increase operator effectiveness and situational awareness by improving the quality of their process graphics.  Results from this type of improvement project are the same with all our of clients; When operators have good situational awareness, plants run better and green objectives are achieved.

Loop Optimization: Recently, PAS assessed the control loops of a power plant in the Midwest and identified an opportunity to reduce utility usage by 4% by optimizing control strategies and retuning controllers.  Going green while reducing operating costs makes justifying this kind of project a cool breeze.  We’re happy to tell this story, as many clients eagerly embrace this type of efficiency improvement, especially in today’s economic climate.

So if you were wondering whether PAS is part of the “Go Green” campaign, the answer is, yes we are and we have been for years. 

Come See Us
If you plan to attend next week’s POWID conference, come by our booth (#1821) to learn more, or come view our presentation on “Operator Process Graphics” scheduled for Tuesday, May 12th at 1:00 pm in the Operations & Maintenance Optimization track. Or just drop me an email (bmay@pas.com).  I’d love to hear from you.

Cure for the (Automation) Common Cold

Mapping the genome of natural organisms paves the way for developing drugs that help prevent and treat diseases.  The same can be true for automation systems and for optimizing processes and preventing abnormal situations in industrial plants.

Genetic Sequencing of the Common Cold

Researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin recently announced that they have mapped the genome of the common cold.  This, they claim, is the first step toward finding a treatment for the common cold.  By decoding the genetic structure of the cold virus, medical researchers are able to understand its vulnerabilities and to develop antiviral drugs that will hopefully soon help us all avoid this stuffy menace altogether or get over it quickly.

Genetic Sequencing of Automation Systems

The equivalent of the common cold at an industrial plant is the occasional upset that can make a plant “sniffle,” become “lethargic” and begin losing money, which if not mitigated in time, can even lead to undesirable consequences including serious damage to equipment and harm to plant personnel. 

Understanding the root causes and developing strategies for mitigating the automation common cold (abnormal situations) in industrial plants is a high priority R&D activity to us here at PAS.

Over the past decade we have been busy mapping the “genome” of a broad spectrum of automation systems, from field instruments through the PLCs, DCSs, historians and into MES applications.  By mapping the genetic structures of these disparate systems, we are able to optimize their performance and identify defects that can lead to upsets and incidents in any industrial plant.

Jim Pinto, the popular industry observer, recently wrote an article in Automation World highlighting the complexities of industrial process automation systems and the importance of managing the knowledge that is embedded in these systems.

In fact, if you think about it, automation systems is where the plant production, reliability and safety knowledge come together to turn raw materials into end-products, whether electricity, jet fuel or ibuprofen.  Retaining, protecting, and exposing the knowledge embedded in automation systems is the primary function of PAS’s Integrity™ software. 

As the pioneers in this important, emerging field, it is our responsibility to help the industry discover the potential opportunities associated with aggregating, contextualizing and sharing the critical knowledge (read Intellectual Property – IP) embedded in automation assets. 

So stay tuned and watch for some exciting news coming out of PAS over the next few weeks and months.

And as always, drop me a note and let me know what you think about this topic.

The Future of Automation According to Jim Pinto

Jim Pinto – technology “futurist,” entrepreneur, angel investor, author, poet… – to address the PAS Users Conference March 10, 2009.
 
Jim Pinto is a renaissance man who seems to have lived a very active and interesting life.  It isn’t often that you run across a technologist in our industry who can also fluently discuss poetry, philosophy and global geopolitics during the course of a conversation about process automation.  And Jim knows the process automation industry.  Jim is up on the latest news about automation companies, people and technologies.

On March 10, 2009, Jim will present his assessment of the current volatile state of the economy and its impact on the workforce as well as the challenges plant management faces in dealing with the loss of knowledge associated with retiring baby boomers and laid off knowledge workers. Jim will also share his thoughts on technologies and business trends that we can expect to see in the next decade and more. 

You see, as a futurist, Jim assesses current technologies and social trends, learns about current areas of research in disparate fields, and considers business challenges, potential convergence of various technologies, and far-reaching innovation opportunities that could lead to new breakthrough inventions. 

And he does all of this without looking into a crystal ball.  In fact, what Jim and other futurists like him do is actually quite research-based and enlightening.  It’s the culmination of years of experience, devoted passion to the industry and, most importantly, an intentional focus on thinking long term.  (Not a domain for the attention deficit suffering BlackBerry addicts.)

So, plan on joining us at the PAS Users Conference to hear Jim and other highly motivating and enlightening speakers.  It will be an investment that will continue to pay off for a long time to come.

The Aging Workforce: Airline Pilots and Plant Operators

Airplane operators (pilots) and plant operators have a few things in common: most notably: 1) they both have to be able to manage the occasional unexpected moments of chaos in the midst of hours and days of routine and mundane operations; and 2) they are retiring fast and taking their knowledge and skills with them.

 

If you think about it, crash landing a jet airplane safely in a river requires the same set of skills needed to prevent a reactor at a chemical plant from becoming a highly explosive flying object; Intimate knowledge of the machinery and the process, as well as the ability to observe, orient, decide and act are essential to safe operations in both instances. 

The safe crash landing of the US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15^th by Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is nothing short of a heroic demonstration of skill and courage.  All 155 people on board survived the crash in the icy waters of the Hudson. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For his fabulous handling of a potentially catastrophic abnormal situation, Captain Sully became an instant hero and received significant recognition...

 

That’s fantastic since we all love our heroes. 

 

But to be fair about it, there are many silent heroes in our industry who everyday mitigate major abnormal situations in processing plants, and we hardly ever hear about them.  These are knowledge worker operators whose experience and know-how help safely run the power, chemical, refining and other important manufacturing plants that afford us the quality of life we enjoy today. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The alarming concern about plant operators these days is that they are a rare breed of aging workforce who are about to exit the industry en masse.  Similar to the baby boomer airplane operators/pilots (see Wall Street Journal article) in the commercial airline industry, the aging plant operators are also retiring soon.  And when they do, they will leave a huge knowledge gap behind.

The current global economic slowdown may incentivize the knowledge worker operator to stick around a bit longer, but the problem of the aging workforce is not going away any time soon.

 

It is refreshing, though, to see that some industry executives are proactively searching for answers to mitigate the consequences of the aging knowledge worker exodus.  In fact, a group of them are assembling at our User’s Conference next month to discuss, debate, and articulate the problem and the initiatives their respective companies are taking to deal with the issue.   

 

So, take the time to sign up for the PAS Users Conference, and join us for an enlightening session on the issue of the Aging Workforce in the power and processing industries..

 

If the aging workforce is a concern in your company, drop me a note. I’d love to hear what you and your company are doing about it.

It All Begins With a Compelling Vision!

Every significant and worthy human achievement begins with a vision, which often at its onset appears impossible and contrary to conventional wisdom. 

 

Today is a momentous day here in America and around the world, regardless of anyone’s political beliefs.  It is a day of realization of a vision and a dream.  It is a day of recognition of the hard work and the sacrifices of leaders of the past who paved the way for Barack Obama to become the president of the  United States.

Today, less than 150 years since the war to end slavery here in America , a black man takes the oath to become the president of all Americans and to represent us to the rest of the world.  

From the beginning and through the decades of the civil rights movement, envisioning a black American president was as much, if not more, improbable as thinking that man can one day land on the moon, a vision reaffirmed by President John F. Kenneday in our own backyard here in Houston at Rice University.

 

Ending slavery and landing on the moon have several common attributes; they both started with a vision and required steadfast leadership and unconventional resolve of many dedicated people.

 

Here at PAS, our vision for an industry where every operator goes home to his family safely at the end of every shift is also an ambitious vision.  But with the resolve and the ingenuity of our people, we can see the day.

Let the Fun Begin – Chris Lyden Joins PAS

Before I talk about the latest addition to the PAS family – Chris Lyden–  let me digress for just a minute and talk about this PAS blog.

 

I had a note this morning from a PAS Alumni asking me why I have been slacking off and not updating the blog in sometime.  Thanks for caring, BW.  I’ll take the blame.  It sure isn’t because I don’t have much to say – just ask the folks I work with here at PAS.  J

 

The blog is a very important communication vehicle to our business.  It gives insight to the company – what we do, what we are thinking, and most importantly, who we are.   Our culture should resonate right through the blog. 

 

In fact, just last night, I met an enthusiastic young man over dinner as part of our unique screening/interview process.  He told me that one of the reasons he was so excited bout joining PAS was that he had learned so much about the company by reading our blog. 

 

Two Elements of Success

For those of you who have worked with me, you know that I place a great deal of value on the human side of business.  I believe innovation and success start with talented people and a shared vision coming together to create extraordinary results.  It’s a given that strategy and execution are essential elements of success.  But without a clear vision and the right people, the best strategy goes nowhere and there can be no meaningful execution. 

 

There are two reasons – aside from his qualifications and his impressive credentials – that Chris is here to help us at PAS.  1) his focus on the human factor, and 2) his vision for tomorrow’s successful plant operations.  We happen to be perfectly aligned along these two important elements.

For those of you who may not know, Chris Lyden and I go back over 21 years.  In fact, I came to know Chris when he hired me into Honeywell as a young automation systems trainer in the summer of 1987.  And what an experience that was.  I learned more in my first two years at Honeywell than I had the prior seven years at Schlumberger. 

 

Over the years, Chris and I have maintained a close personal friendship.  At times, we have been on opposite sides of a negotiating table; but we have always maintained a great level of respect for one another. 

Chris Lyden is well known to the automation industry insiders.  His thirty plus years of industry experience spans just about every aspect of business discipline – he started as an engineer at Honeywell designing the old TDC2000 HLPIU.  He grew through the ranks and eventually became the VP of sales for Honeywell Hi-Spec business and VP / GM of Honeywell Chemicals Automation Business.  At Invensys, Chris was a major contributor and part of the team (with Mike Caliel and Ginny Burnell) that turned IPS around and restored it to financial health. 

Chris is well known for his visionary and innovative ideas, his long term relationships and passion for the human part of business make him an exception in today’s corporate world.  Chris passionately cares about people. 

 

Another thing that I really appreciate about Chris is his sense of humor and his ability to laugh – even during the most serious of situations. 

And for fun now, let’s see if I can remember where this picture was taken.  Oh yes.  This is Chris at the top of the Havasu Falls in Grand Canyonin October 1987.  We went on a family camping adventure down the canyon for two days and it was a blast.  A must do fro anyone going to northern Arizona.

Now you know a bit about Chris and a little more about me…more to come as we go through the year.

 

If you have an interesting story to share about Chris, send it to me.  I’m sure it’s associated with creativity and fun.

Almost Here: The ISA Alarm Management Standard!

 by “Guest blogger” Bill Hollifield, PAS’s Representative and Voting Member on the ISA 18.02 Committee

In 2003, a committee was formed to begin work on ISA18.02: Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries. The committee has had very capable and experienced standards-writing leadership – Nick Sands of Dupont, and Donald Dunn of Aramco. And boy, have they had a difficult job – one that “herding cats” doesn’t even begin to describe! 

This month, the standard has finally reached the final comment and internal voting phase. If all goes well, it will be published next year. That will be a significant and important event for the process industries! So, here is some general information about the standard, but remember that it is still in a draft form and not yet finalized. 

ISA18.02 is quite different than the “usual” ISA standard. It is not about specifying how some sort of hardware talks to other hardware, or the detailed design of control components. It is about work processes of people. Alarm management isn’t really about hardware or software, it is about work practices (poorly performing alarm systems do not create themselves!) – and thus so is ISA18.02.  

ISA18.02 will provide both mandatory and recommended basic alarm management work practices, presented in a “life cycle” framework. The current draft life cycle has 10 stages: Alarm Philosophy, Identification, Rationalization, Detailed Design, Implementation, Operation, Maintenance, Monitoring & Assessment, Management of Change, and Audit. 

Three years ago PAS published The Alarm Management Handbook, which provided a proven 7-step methodology for creating or improving an alarm system. The ISA book division, not having a great text on alarm management, read it and then arranged with us to republish it (with minor changes) as Alarm Management: 7 Methods for Optimum Performance.  There is no conflict between the PAS 7-step approach and the ISA18.02 “Life Cycle” – there is only different nomenclature and task arrangement. When ISA18.02 is finalized and published, PAS will release a comprehensive paper on understanding and interpreting it – because some of the nomenclature and wording it has is written in “standard-speak” rather than common English!

There are several common misconceptions about standards! By design, standards do not have detailed or specific “how-to” guidance. ISA18.02 will not contain examples of specific proven methodologies or of detailed practices such as are in the Handbook. And, readers of the Handbook should not expect to learn much that is basically “new or different” from reading ISA18.02. The primary items in ISA18.02 that are not in the Handbook have to do with administrative practices such as alarm testing and record keeping (defined in a new “alarm classification” structure).  

Don’t take this to diminish the importance of ISA18.02 – it is placing the “stamp of approval” on many important practices that PAS has been advocating and performing for many years! 

Remember, standards describe the “minimum acceptable,” and not the optimum.  As Nick has told me over 100 times, “Bill, a standard is not a book!” The committee has plans to publish additional explanatory information later in follow-on “ISA technical reports.” This should approach some of the detailed content already existing in the Handbook.

Watch this blog for further information on the progress of ISA18.02: Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries.

IT’S FINALLY HERE!

"Guest blogger”

Bill Hollifield

“There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology – the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn't any good.”

Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

In November 2006, Automation World published an article beginning with“If you’re seeking best-practices standards for designing graphical operator-interface displays, you won’t find them.” They were right – then – but not now. Because we were already hard at work...

Over 200 pages. Over 90 color illustrations. Over 45 references. Over two years of effort and collaboration, reflecting well more than 100 person-years of experience. Two companies and four authors. And now it is done! PAS is proud to announce the publication of The High Performance HMI Handbook.

 

In 2006 we published The Alarm Management Handbook – and were amazed at the positive response. The industry was clearly in need of detailed, proven methods to solve their alarm management problems. Well, proper alarm management solves only part of the problem. Poorly designed and poorly performing Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) are rampant throughout our industries.  They can degrade safety, production, quality, and profitability. Time after time they are cited as contributing factors to major industrial accidents.

 

The High Performance HMI Handbook is the first book that puts together the principles for assessing, designing, and implementing proper process control HMIs. It contains experience and intellectual property that has never before been released. In this book we step up and explain the common bad practices (ouch!), why they are bad, (double ouch!) and show in great detail the best way to design and implement a truly High Performance HMI.

 

And in addition, we include control-system related quotes that range from NASA personnel to Dolly Parton to the Beach Boys! (No kidding.) The book contains lots of relevant real world examples, anecdotes, and surprises. It is not your usual boring engineering text!

 

Whether you are a project engineer building a new control system, a manager looking to improve process safety and productivity, or a plant manager trying to impact company culture and at the same time impact company profitability, you will find tremendous value in The High Performance HMI Handbook.

 

So check out the HMI book webpage, check out the full Table of Contents (to see why it took so long!), and order now - soon to be at major online booksellers!

 

Drop us a note and let us know what you think about the book.

Hurricane Ike – the Aftermath, The Recovery

Ike’s Curse Lingers On

A week after hurricane Ike made landfall, more than 1.5 million people in the Galveston and the  Greater Houston area are still without power – including a number of our own PAS family members. 

I learned over the weekend that one of our finest came back from evacuation to find much of the roof to his house gone and significant water damage throughout his house.  Ike also practically destroyed one of our executives' vehicles and flooded a portion of his house.

The only saving grace last week was the cool front (low 60’s at night, low 80’s at mid-day) that magically appeared after Ike moved out of Texas.  And that cool front is now gone – we are once again dealing with 90-degree temperatures and 90% humidity.  The most affected by the repressive heat is the elderly.  My own in-laws (83 and 80 years old) have been without power for nine days now.  The best case scenario calls for their electricity to be restored sometime mid-week. 

My father-in-law, a retired Shell Deer Park Refinery veteran of 34 years, loves working in his yard; that’s been his biggest hobby since he retired about twenty years ago.  His backyard looked like a war-zone after the hurricane.  We spent the weekend cutting down trees – some 45-feet tall, two-feet in diameter – and cleaning up debris.  (Great unplanned workout…using muscles I haven’t used in a while.  I will be feeling it over the next few days.)

 

Meanwhile, ghastly pictures of the aftermath have started to flood the Net and they give a graphic realization of the destruction left behind.  From the flattened beach houses (like the one belonging to our own Gayle) to the boat landed in the garden of my favorite restaurant – Villa Capri – and to the confused lion stranded on the beach, the images are unbelievable. 

 

Recovery Begins

The resilient residents of Texas have already begun the recovery effort.  Hardware and lumber stores are having a difficult time keeping up with the high demand for building materials. 

The free market economy is in full swing; the imbalance in labor supply-and-demand has pushed the price of cutting down a mature tree from, say, typically $300 to well over $1,000.  Entrepreneurs from other states have joined the action; tree surgeons, arborists, and plain old lawn keepers have come to the area from as locations as far as Wisconsin.  City officials are expressing concern over price gouging.

Certain parts of Houston are beginning to look normal – but that is not the case along the shore lines and lake fronts.  We took a drive to Seabook and Kemah on Saturday.  Certain sections of Kemah are blocked off with yellow police tape by the authorities as if they were crime zones.

Third Costliest US Hurricane of All Time

At US$27 Billion, Ike is the third costliest hurricane to ever hit the United States – Hurricanes Katrina and Andrew hold the first and second places, respectively. Of course, this is an initial cost estimate for Ike.  Based on new discoveries on a daily basis, there is little doubt the cost estimate will continue to rise.

Kudos to the Authorities

The death toll resulting from Ike in the US is about 65 as of the time of this blog.  This is far fewer than what could have been, in large part due to the sound planning and execution by the local, state and federal authorities.  Unlike hurricane Rita three years ago that led to huge embarrassment for the authorities when hundreds of thousands of motorists evacuating the area  were stranded on freeways for more than 24 hours...this time around, the pre-storm planning and the repeated communication with the public paid off.  There has been no news of stranded evacuees and freeway parking lots.

To Rebuild (Galveston) or Not, That is the Question?

Some have questioned the wisdom in rebuilding Galveston; after all, it ends up destroyed, requiring reconstruction every so many decades.  Should the public – through insurance premium hikes and government relief efforts – pay for the rebuilding of the island in support of its 60,000 or so residents and businesses? 

The hurricane of 1900, which wiped out the island and more than 6,000 of its residents, did not stop the reconstruction of the island.  In fact, the ingenuity of an engineer named Henry Roberts and the construction of the 17-foot high Galveston Seawall made the island more attractive to tourism and commerce.  What new innovation will result from the mess that Ike has left behind that will make the island once again a magnet for beach lovers?

 

So, what is your answer, To Rebuild Or Not?

Ike "the Terrible" Wreaks Havoc on East Texas…PAS Users Conference Postponed

Tragedy Hits a PAS Family Member

The extended PAS family fared well for the most part during hurricane Ike except for the grandfather of one of our fine employees who lost his life during the evacuation.  We are deeply saddened by the passing of Veronica's grandfather.

 

The Texas Gulf Coast Devastated by Ike

Ike made its unwelcome landing on the shores of Galveston in the early hours of Saturday, September 13.  Although initial forecasts called for a landfall further south near Corpus Christi, Ike veered off course and just like a 60-mile-wide super jumbo jet managed to pinpoint its eye on I-45 as its landing runway.  And from there, it mostly stayed the course right into downtown Houston and northbound into Houston Intercontinental airport.  As of this morning – two days later – it is still actively causing devastation in the midwest and as far up as Indiana.

PAS Headquarters Goes Distributed and Virtual

The Clear Lake area where our headquarters is located was hit very hard by the storm, leading to significant flooding and destruction.  Although we were forced to shut down our operations in Clear Lake, there was fortunately no damage to our building. 

As of the time of this blog - more than 48 hours after Ike's landfall - approximately 70% of the greater Houston area is without power; affecting approximately 4.5 million people. 

 

As early as Thursday of last week when we realized the threats were imminent, we kicked in the emergency plans and prepared for the worst. We immediately distributed various functions to remote locations and began going "virtual."  Many of our people evacuated the area but have continued staying connected to business, supporting customers. 

 

PAS Users Conference 2008 Postponed

We had hoped that Ike would end up like Rita – change its mind in the last couple of days and head in a different direction – or lose its strength in the gulf.  But that did not end up being the case.  And unfortunately we were forced to cancel the conference for now. 

 

We were all looking forward to the conference, as it was going to be our very best ever – with excellent papers, a superb panel of executives discussing the aging workforce issue and with our highest attendee participation ever. 

We will reschedule the conference as soon as life returns to normal in our part of the world.

 

A Reminder

Natural disasters like Ike bring out the best in people.  Neighbors, families and friends find a common cause to re-engage and show the basic and natural human instinct to help.  Old friends in far distances you haven't heard from call and check up on you, inviting you to their homes for indefinite periods.  And the kindness of a complete stranger makes you realize how capable human beings can be in giving.  Something to remember when things get back to normal months from now.

 

Looking forward to writing about more pleasant experiences…Eddie

“Aging Workforce” is more than you think

Recent postings have discussed the “Aging Workforce” issue, and have pointed out that some companies are choosing to ignore this issue altogether….

That’s one approach, but maybe not the best one…

The issue of Aging Workforce can be broken down into two components: 

(i)               Resource Availability, and

(ii)              Knowledge Management.

Resource Availability basically has to do with the net imbalance between retirees and graduates.  Aside from some post-retirement contracts or engineering scholarships, there’s not much that the average company can do to solve this problem in the near term.

Knowledge Management is all about keeping track of the intellectual property, the know-how, the set-up, the configurations and operational “tricks” related to the safe operations and profitability of their site.  This is something that EVERY COMPANY can do something about.

And it is something that EVERY COMPANY does do something about.

The problem is the way that they do it is…. well…. so out of date.

In the old days, before the advent of computers and software to run the plant, the knowledge for managing the plant was kept in neatly organized binders.

Lots of paper that held the latest and greatest information on the how-to and why’s of running the plant.

And that was fine for that era – a time when change occurred more slowly, operations were less complex and efficiencies were lower.

But today – computers and software are everywhere, even embedded in places we do not see – and the pace of change is faster than ever.

But many companies still persist in following the old way of managing their knowledge.  Sure, they have nice SharePoint servers and shared directories, but the creation of the knowledge still follows the same model as before – manually done by an individual.

That could still be ok – if our engineers actually took the time to record all their changes, observations and recommendations.

But they don’t.

As a simple example, consider the modern-day automation system.  Easy to use. Easy to change. Too easy to change by too many people. 

So nobody – except perhaps the one expert control systems engineer – really knows what all it contains and how it interacts.

And then, before long, the control engineer rotates to a new job or leaves for greener pastures… and takes that knowledge with him.

Not good for knowledge management, that’s for sure.

Fortunately, we at PAS are working on software solutions to better manage knowledge in your plant.  About 500 sites worldwide already use our Integrity/DOC4000 software to manage their control system configurations and many more are extending its use to real-time databases, advanced applications and other.

If you’re not using our software to help manage your knowledge, maybe you should.

Because for each retiree who leaves, there are likely two or three others who rotate out or leave their current position.

So if you think Aging Workforce from retiring professionals is the entire scope of your problem, add a factor of two or three and think again.

And then ask yourself why you are not using the PAS software to its fullest capability or why you are not using it at all (gasp!).

See you at the conference next week – we definitely have lots to talk about.

Do NOT put your Head in the Sand!

Last week’s blog on the aging workforce by Eddie generated a number of comments including one from an anonymous reader who said the executive management at their company was OBLIVIOUS to the issue of AGING WORKFORCE.

Talk about putting your head in the sand….

At least the folks at ConocoPhillips are aware of it…  Their CEO, James Mulva went on record recently to say that:

“Half of Conoco’s employees are eligible for retirement by 2012” (see BusinessWeek Article)

Wow. Losing half of your workforce to retirement in less than 5 years is a BIG PROBLEM!!!

And the issue is certainly not limited to ConocoPhillips.  Look around any operating company and you’ll see that about 40% of the engineers are over 50. 

So after some years of general industry dialog around labor shortages, too few engineers, etc we have more or less reached the conclusion that the “Aging Workforce” represents a very real problem for engineers, operators and the like to our industry.

Now that we have given the problem a name, let’s start solving it shall we?

At PAS, addressing the problem of an Aging Workforce is core to our strategy, and we aim to deliver software that helps offset, address or mitigate that issue.

More than that, we want to step out and help further the dialog around this issue.  To help solve the problem.  Not just for the benefit of PAS, but for the safety, reliability and sustainable profitability of our industry.

So at this year’s PAS Industry Conference, we’re hosting an EXECUTIVE PANEL to discuss the Aging Workforce issue as peers and leaders in the industry. 

And we want you to participate too.  Come on out, attend the conference – even if you can only come for Day Two – and help us turn the dialog into actions.  Actions that can help us collectively meet the challenge ahead.

See you there!

10am September 17 – just south of beautiful Houston, TX

Click here to register
 

Ahhh! Singapore…the Paradise of Asia

"Take off your shoes, please” was the polite reminder from our SE Asia Regional Director Spencer right as we walked in the control room building of one of the refineries on Jurong Island.  Yes.  No shoes allowed in the control room.  The reason?  To keep out dust particles.  Let’s just say wearing sandals to a control room isn’t quite the same as a walk on the beach.  Minor inconvenience but definitely understood. 

Welcome to Singapore!

Entering Singapore through the Changi airport is like walking into a meticulously manicured garden with beautiful orchids, varieties of soft glowing palm trees, perennial flowers and tropical plants everywhere.  The trees are pruned to perfection resembling symmetrically shaped umbrellas decorating a cold cocktail.  The streets are clean; as clean a shopping mall.

Singapore is a city state of order and organization.  The highly educated people of Singapore are hard working, very polite and extremely disciplined.  But apparently, it wasn’t always like that in Singapore.

On the way to visit a few of PAS’s long time customers in Jurong Island - a man-made island that is hub to industrial complexes employing over 100,000 workers - our man Spencer gave us a brief background on the recent history of Singapore. According to him, the rapid progress for Singapore began when she gained independence from colonial control post world war II.  A sense of national pride, strong leadership and a set of strict rules (sometimes criticized as too harsh) seems to have transformed the character of this young nation in less than fifty years.

And speaking of transformation, it appears our panel of industry executives assembled to discuss the aging workforce at the PAS Users Conference in two weeks is attracting a lot of attention.  Registration to our conference is up by 18% compared to the same time last year.  There is a lot of excitement these days at PAS with the marketing team organizing to have the best PAS UC ever.  

At center stage at this year’s conference will be an integrated demo of our solutions to address the very challenge of the aging workforce and skills gap.  Plants can now capture the most complex knowledge about plant production, which reside in automation systems in PAS’s Integrity (DOC3000/DOC4000) software for everyone to everyone.  I was told by a customer here in Singapore this week that our DOC4000 software helped them simplify the way they manage their control system and allowed their control and systems engineers to improve their productivity by more than 30%.  Think about it.  That is, if you have a group of seven engineers, you just increased the output of the team by two headcounts simply by enabling them to get their job done faster and with higher accuracy by using Integrity software.  

Now that is a clever way to deal with the aging workforce and the shrinking pool of automation experts.

What do you think about that?  Drop me a comment.  Let me know what you think.

Aging Workforce Concerns Dominate Honeywell Users Group in Land Down Under

(I am writing the next few blogs while Roland is in Italy with his entire family for a well-deserved extended vacation. These are big "blog shoes" I am going to try and fill...so wish me luck.  Eddie)

After a grueling 36-hour commute via Moscow (yes, via Moscow) and Singapore, I made it to Perth, Australia mid-afternoon Saturday.  It’s in the middle of winter here down under, and the sunny and cool (60 Deg F) weather in Perth was much appreciated coming from the hot and humid (98 Deg F and 90% humidity) Houston. The four-mile run before dinner did magic in helping overcome the flight fatigue – at least temporarily. 

Catching up with old friends from Worsley, Alcoa, LyondellBassell, Honeywell and others was great.  Lots of comments from various customers on the value they get out of our DOC3000 and DOC4000 products.  One mining company client mentioned that nowadays it’s not just the control/DCS engineers who rely on DOC4000 to get their daily tasks done but that their operators also use it to understand control strategies and the logic in their control systems. 

 

The conference is well attended and high energy, unassuming and fun – very Australian, of course.  The presentations are also high quality.  The one topic that keeps coming up in almost every presentation and every session is the aging workforce, which incidentally happened to be the topic of my presentation as well as a major topic at our own PAS Users Conference later in September.  In fact, I must humbly report that my session was standing room only and ended up moving to the hallway afterwards with lots of comments, questions and concerns.  Just like in the US, the Aussies can’t seem to get enough skilled workers to fulfill their healthy appetite either.    

The discussion on the aging workforce was fast-paced and interactive.  We discussed the magnitude and the root causes of the problem.  We also highlighted the importance of the role of the console operator knowledge worker, what’s in automation systems (from process chemistry know-how to complex control strategies and safe operating limits and alarms), the valuation of these systems, how to manage and protect the configuration in them and more…

 

There were specific recommendations beyond the obvious in recruiting best practices including:

•        Develop a plan, obtain executive sponsorship and communicate to stakeholders

•        Retain the talent you have

•        Recognize and reward good performance

•        Provide intellectual challenge

•        Make it a fun place to work and provide competitive compensation

•        Re-engage talented retirees

•        Implement DOC4000 (Integrity) to capture the knowledge in your Automation Assets and to create a platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration

 

Several existing DOC4000 users chimed in with the value they are getting from their application and how it practically contains and exposes in a simple format all the knowledge associated with process operations and controls. 

 

And here is what an ops manager who was seeing a demo of DOC4000 for the first time had to say about the application: “I think it (DOC4000) is going to make a radical change in how we manage our business…once we show this to our operators, they will gain a totally new perspective into their process operations and control.”

 

Meanwhile, our young DOC4000 Jedi Dan D. has been busy in the demo area…his has been the busiest booth at the show.  He definitely deserves a bit of R&R after this week.

So what do you think about this aging workforce issue?  Is it a problem at your company, in your industry or geography?  Drop me a note. Let me know.

 

Cheers Mates! 

 

PS - the only regret about being down here this week is that I missed the twins’ first day back to school as well as celebrating my grandson MD’s first week anniversary.)

Next time you think change is a challenge…

(I am writing the next few blogs while Roland is in Italy with his entire family for a well-deserved extended vacation. These are big "blog shoes" I am going to try and fill...so wish me luck.  Eddie)

My long anticipated business trip to Australia and SE Asia was unexpectedly interrupted earlier this week as I was literally packing the night before the flight.  The call came Monday evening that my older daughter had gone into delivery four weeks ahead of the projected due date. 

We spent much of that evening and the following day at the hospital with my daughter and the anxious soon-to-be father.  All the hard work by the young mom eventually paid off and the baby, let’s call him MD, was finally here.  MD weighed in at 6 lb 12 oz, 19” long and was irresistibly precious, like all newborns.  What a phenomenal afternoon…there is a certain realization about one’s grown children becoming parents themselves.

Both mom and baby are doing well thanks to the excellent care from the professional staff at the local medical center. 

Once the excitement settled and MD was taken for observation, I could not help but think about what the little man had just been through.  His whole world had suddenly turned upside down.  Here he was tightly cuddled in his pitch black world surrounded by soft and friendly embryonic fluids at a constant temperature and comforted by the soothing thump thump of his mother’s heart beat, and suddenly, without warning, he is squeezed and yanked at the same time, his eyes are exposed to intense light in the delivery room, his skin is surrounded by dry and cold air and the constant and comforting beat of mom’s heart is nowhere to be heard. 

 

Talk about change.  The good thing is, we all experienced this traumatic change when we were born, and I doubt any change we ever experience can be as drastic. 

 

Change is a fundamental element of all progress.  Embrace it.  Champion it.  Manage it. 

Is 50 really the new 30?

(I am writing the next few blogs while Roland is in Italy with his entire family for a well-deserved extended vacation. These are big "blog shoes" I am going to try and fill...so wish me luck.  Eddie Habibi)

The new phrase I keep hearing these days is "50 is the new 30."  Is this just the wishful thinking of some of us baby boomers or is there some truth to it?  Is it possible to turn back the clock on the aging process? 

 

Possible or not, fighting the physical and the health-related effects of aging is something most of us think about – and some of us do something about.

 

I happen to personally know someone who is doing the best he can to counter the impact of aging. Yes, in fact that individual is none other than our own President and COO, Mr. Roland Heersink, who will be turning 50 in just a few short months. Over the last year or so, Roland has been on a strict fitness mission preparing for his family vacation.  

 

If you know Roland, you know how driven and competitive he can be. Well, when they planned the family vacation earlier this year, Roland set out a goal for himself to be the fittest (baby boomer) on the fine beaches of the Mediterranean.  So over the last few months, Roland kicked it up a notch and intensified his workouts, and by the time he was leaving for vacation you could see the new and improved Roland.  He even claimed to have developed his “six pack” abs.  (More than we wanted to know, of course.)

So, how do you measure aging and how do you slow the process?  An entire anti-aging industry is developing and billions are invested every year toward the secrets of and the counter-measures to aging.  Occasionally, we hear claims of a “silver bullet” to slow, and sometimes to even reverse, the aging process.  But like anything else in life, if it sounds too good to be true…it is.

 

Age can be measured in different ways: chronologically, biologically, physically and emotionally.  Regarding the first two, unless you can find a time-machine or are willing to mess around with the human DNA, there is nothing any of us can do to slow down time or the aging of our cells naturally.  The other two – physical and emotional – we have some control over.  In fact, these two measures of aging are quite interactive and difficult to decouple from one-another.  

 

Exercise and a healthy diet go a long way toward physical and emotional fitness.  While we can’t control the passage of time or the aging of our cells, we can have total control over what we eat and how much exercise we get.

 

Even if 50 isn’t exactly the new 30, being fit and healthy has proven to extend the longevity and the quality of life…and that in itself is worth the effort.

 

So, let’s wish Roland a fun-filled vacation and hope that the baby-boomer-babes on the Italian beaches are not bothering him to much… 

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!