PAS Musings

Holidays vs. Vacation

It’s a holiday week at PAS this week. Except for the finance people counting up the year’s results and a few sales people pushing through last-minute orders, the place is pretty quiet.

After a busy year with some 30% growth (Yea! Go team go!!), it’s good to have a little quiet time. Time away for family, friends and maybe even some outside interests.

Holidays alone are good, but they’re often so busy that the desired “relaxation-effect” doesn’t have enough time to take hold. Especially around Christmas with all of the shopping, parties, school programs and more! We need the week after Christmas just to recover.

But even better than holidays is vacation.

Like many companies, PAS follows a “use-it-or-lose-it” policy to limit carry-over of unused vacation days. Policies like this aren’t set by some Scrooge in over in the HR department to save money, but to help employees take the downtime that they deserve – and that they need to recharge after a season of hard work.

It’s a natural rhythm kind of thing kind – work hard, rest a while, and then word hard some more...

So if you’ve been guilty of carrying around excess vacation, why not resolve to actually take all of the days you might earn in 2006? A little rest might be just the thing….and it sounds like a new year’s resolution that is more fun and easier to keep than getting back into an exercise program to work off all the holiday treats (although that’s a good one too!).

Whatever your new year’s resolution may be – I hope you can achieve that goal and end up with a blessed and prosperous 2006!

Ideas make a company great

Good companies, superb products and customer satisfaction all start with great ideas.

New ideas for innovation are perhaps one of the most obvious distinctions that set humans apart from all other life on this planet.  New ideas have been the single largest force bringing change into our lives. 

Take the example of the computer and Moore’s Law which predicts a doubling of processing power every 18 months.  For 40 years now (since 1965!), new ideas have brought about what seemed impossible over and over and over again.

As a solutions provider to the process industries, PAS has introduced its share of ideas to the market.  First-mover ideas like automated control system documentation (1996), alarm management (1994), and no-step-testing multivariable control (1988) have each brought significant advantage to customers and the company alike.

So how does a company become sustainably great?  I don’t have all the answers, but I do have some ideas…

FIRST, bring on the super-gee’s. 

PAS has its share of super-smart and innovative people helping to drive change and continuous improvement – whether this is in the form of new software products or new ways to work with existing systems.  From the graphics builder to the software architect, our team is well-equipped.

So far, so good…

SECOND, invest in new ideas. 

Investing to bring intellectual property to market in a way that makes a difference to the customer’s operations is key.  At PAS, we put over 20% of revenue back into product development.  Not every investment becomes a superstar, but each contributes: if not as future revenue then as learnings on which to build future revenue.

Still so far so good…

THIRD, accept failure. 

Failure is a necessary ingredient to innovation. Without it, most of the great ideas that we are familiar with today, just wouldn’t have come to be.  Consider the light bulb.  Thousands of failures, eventually leading to a superb product that changed the world.

This is the hard one.

Tolerating failure is hard.  Our western business culture does not look too kindly on failure.  The biggest challenge to becoming a great company is then to build a culture that accepts and learns from failure.

Because without this, even the most superb of super-gee’s will hold back on his/her ideas and the company will be relegated to the imitation of the success of others.

And that doesn’t sound too fun at all.

The Search is over.

The search to name the PAS Alarm Management solution has been concluded.  Congratulations to our winner, who prefers to remain anonymous. 

The name will be announced in a few week’s time – after we have a chance to (finally) update our website.  Thank you to all who participated.

OK, now for something slightly more interesting.

For all of you who decorate your homes with lights, reindeers, stars, inflatable Santa Clauses or other items that have come to be associated with the Christmas holiday, click here to see how one homeowner has raised the bar for others to follow!

It makes the home shown here look modest!

$225,000,000 typo

To err is human.  But to err to the tune of $225 million because of a single typo?  Ouch!

News headlines last week included what may be the single costliest Fat Finger error in the financial markets’ history. 

Fat finger error occurs by pressing the wrong buttons on a keyboard.  Just last week, a Japanese stock broker entered 610,000 shares at 1 yen (less than a penny) per share instead of 1 share at 610,000 yens for a company going public. 

$225 millions gone – just like that. 

I bet the idea that it’s OK to learn from your mistakes just went out the window at this fat-fingered employee’s company.  Maybe they even adopted a new slogan: “to err is human and to forgive is against company policy.”

In our industry, human error is the largest contributing factor to accidents and loss. 

According to the ASM consortium, 42% of all accidents are due to human error and the cost of industrial accidents in the USA alone exceeds the GNP of many countries.  These errors come from both taking the wrong action and failing to take action. 

The “Fat Finger” is a common cause of taking the wrong action.  I have seen a process unit nearly came to a disastrous conclusion after an operator had entered 47% instead of 4.7% as the setting of a very critical slide valve.  The chance for reoccurrence of this error was minimized by adding some software for smarter data entry checking, but this surely can’t be done for every single entry – even though that unfortunate trader in Japan may sure wish that to be true…

Failing to take action is quite something else, and generally comes from inadequate training or operator overload.  Training is an ongoing priority for almost every company in the process industries and handled quite well by friends like those at TTS Performance Systems. 

Failing to act from operator overload is often the result of too many systems, all of which were at one time implemented for good reasons of safety and improved performance.  However, when it rains it pours, and often the alarms from these systems all demand operator attention at the same time to correct a critical situation. 

Here at PAS we have seen far too many operator overloads.  Since ‘94, we have focused on improving operator effectiveness by providing the right tools for early fault detection and also solutions for avoiding alarm system overload.  Accidents such as the one at the Texaco Pembroke refinery in the UK and, more recently, at BP Texas City could have been mitigated had the alarm system been properly designed and maintained. 

I am proud to be a part of a company that has led the industry in creating awareness and developing technologies to address the alarm management issue. 

Too bad for our friend in Japan that he didn’t have all the safeguards available to our process plants, but at least there wasn’t any human life at risk in that case. 

The moral of the story:  Drive defensively and type carefully.

Names!

For those of you who are interested, here is a partial list of suggested names for the PAS Alarm Management Solution Suite.  The winning name will be revealed at the next blog.

 

AdiosAlarm , Alamentor (Alarm Mentor), Alarm Advisor, ALARM (Alarm Load Analysis and Reduction Manager), Alarm Cahuna, Alarm Calm, Alarm Command, Alarm Command and Control , Alarm Control, Alarm Count, Alarm Dominator, Alarm Emperor, Alarm Gladiator, Alarm Guide, ALARM Guru, Alarm Hub, Alarm King, Alarm Kit, Alarm Mitigator, Alarm Modulator, Alarm PUNDIT, Alarm Reduction and Analysis Suite, Alarm Reduction Kit, Alarm Reduction Pack, Alarm Response, Alarm Shop, Alarm Subjugator, Alarm Suite, Alarm Terminator, Alarm Tools, Alarm3D, Alarm3G, AlarmArchitect, AlarmArrest, AlarmBoss, AlarmCleaner, AlarmCommander, AlarmEase, Alarmex, AlarmG3 (As in, 3rd generation…1st AMO Suite, then PSS, now this.), Alarmigence (Alarm Intelligence), AlarmIT, Alarmizer (Alarm Analyzer), AlarmMaster, Alarmon (Alarm monitor), AlarmPAS, AlarmQuencher, AlarmRate, AlarmRater, AlarmReducer, Alarms Integrity Manager (AIM), Alarms Paradigm from PAS, Alarms. Integrity Suite, AlarmSupervisor, AlarmTech, AlarmUndertaker, AlarmWis- Alarm Wisdom, AlarmWizard, Alma (goes along with Gus interface), AMI - Alarm Metric Improvement, AMOC, AMOK, AssetSentinel, C3 ALM: Calm, Cool, and Collected Alarm Management, C3-Cool, Calm, and Collected Alarm Management, CAMILE- Comprehensive Alarm Monitoring and Local Enforcement, Command and Control, COMRAD- Comprehensive Optimization, Monitoring and Reduction of Alarms for DCS, DASH (Digital Alarm Superior Heirarchy), Decimater, Descent, DMS - Disturbance Management Solutions, eAlarm.DOC, Experiun PAS, Facility Optimization Detection and Response (FODAR), iAlarm Solution Suite, In Ovation Alarm Suite, Integrity. Alarms Suite, Integrity.Alarms, No 'More' Alarms Suite, One.Alarm, Operator Express, Operator Guidance System, OptimalAlarm, PALM – Pas ALarm Manager, PAM (PAS Alarm Manager), PAS Alert, PAS Banshee, PAS c’ALM (Controlled Alarm Management), PAS Prophecy, PAS ProphetMax, PAS Scream Master, PAS Secure, PAS Siren, PAS3: PAS Alarm Management, Shelve, Suppress, and State Handling, PASami- PAS Alarm management Interface, PAScubed: PAS Alarm Management, Shelving, Suppress, and State Handling, PAS GuardO'Matic, Plant Automation Detection and Response (PADAR), Plant Automation Navigation and Response (PANAR), Plant Operations Navigation and Response (PONAR), PlantState Pacifier, PlantState Stiller, Prioritized Optimization Detection and Response (PADAR), Priority Control, Proactive Automation Detection and Response (PADAR), Proactive Operations Navigation and Ranging (PONAR), Proactive Optimization Detection and Response (PODAR), Proactive Optimization, Navigation and Ranging (PONAR), Process Automation Detection and Response (PADAR), Process Protector, Process Shield, Protect and Control, PSS Informant, Rapid Response, RedAlarm (Reduce Alarm), Redularm (Reduce Alarm), S3: Shelve, Suppress, and State Handling, Sanalarm, Site Optimization Detection and Response (SODAR), Systems Optimization Detection and Response (SODAR).

Leverage wins!

Ouch!  That hurt!!

Mostly the arm-wrestling fun at the office went well, but there were two particular matches that really hurt….

First though, let’s recap on the “strength vs length” contest… I am happy to say that length won out.  The reason I say “happy” is not because I was on the side of strength, but because it is a simple example of how leverage can make all the difference in the world.

In this case, leverage means that a small company like PAS can leverage its product base to make a significant difference in the industry.  Just like I can use the length advantage to win out against guys with twice the muscles that I have, PAS can use its jewels in Advanced Control, Alarm Management and Automation Asset Management technologies to win by helping customers achieve their goals.

However, even with leverage there can be pain… mostly from unfair competition. Check out these two examples from the arm-wrestling fun...

First, it was the chemical warfare in the form of a smelly sock (check out this fellow pushing his ugly sock in my face!)

And second, it was the unfair comparison as in the case of these two women jumping on my arm (I wasn’t really sore after most “normal” matches, but this one did hurt!).

Mom probably told you “life’s not fair” and she’s right.  Sometimes, in the pursuit of undeserved growth, companies stretch the truth to market themselves as having more than they really may have – click here to read more about that. 

It makes life tough for those of us who want to play by the rules, even if we have the added leverage.  But such is life.

I’m not sore from arm-wrestling – even in the unfair cases, and I’m not sore about the way others may behave in the marketplace either.

Because Mom says that in the end “right will prevail”.  And I believe her – just ask any customers that have been taken advantage of by unfair practices what they would choose next time…

OK – next blog is about the results of our naming contest. Till then!

$250 Award....

Lots more suggestions have been sent to me for our informal product naming contest and I hope to sort through them all this week and finalize on a name by Monday latest. 

PAS has its annual Christmas party this weekend (yippee – as long as management doesn’t talk too long!).  Anyway, with the socializing, relaxing and the few pints that goes with the whole Christmas party thing, I’m sure we’ll reach some sort of conclusion on a “best” name for the PAS alarm management solution. 

Even without a conclusion by the other stakeholders, I’ll make an executive decision and we’ll get the $250 into the hands of our winner – or not, if we decide to stick with the internal codename for marketing too.

In any case, it’s been fun seeing the many, many suggestions and now I have to excuse myself to do a little training!  It’s my own $50 on the line and the showdown is on Friday. 

So, provided my arms are still working (I hope so), I’ll plan a posting with an update on naming and other contests then.

Cash or Culture?

I met up with an old friend for dinner last week, and after catching up on the basics the talk turned comparing notes on our work.

Earlier this year, my friend left his job at a smaller company for the big bucks of a larger publicly-traded enterprise.  With a compensation package significantly higher than his last job, he had the world by the tail.   

Or so he thought.

Today, that tail isn’t wagging quite the same way.  Did I know of any jobs at PAS or elsewhere, he asks. 

He says the higher pay, the big job are all as advertised, but the work environment is just not right.  The company culture is so different from the good ol’ days, he says.  The ever-present themes of cost-cutting, travel restrictions, politics, micro-management and all sorts of other things non-entrepreneurial are sucking all the fun out. 

My friend is down and wants out.  Already, after just 6 months.

I nod my head in understanding.  Yes, work environment, a good team, entrepreneurial spirit are all very important – and become even more important when they aren’t there. 

The right culture breeds enthusiasm, which makes the work fun, and when it’s fun, even customers catch on, and then orders and revenue growth almost seem to take care of themselves.

Don’t believe me?  Look around.  A quick poll of companies in our space shows a super-strong correlation between fun and success.  For every PAS growing at 30-40%, there’s an easily-identifiable equal and opposite example where the same work is not fun and the growth is not there. 

I remember reflecting on this when I first started at PAS….  The good ol’ days – they’re still there.  Work and fun do still mix.  We are indeed the lucky ones. 

But what about my friend? 

Sadly, higher compensation sets its hooks all too quickly, making retreat to what once was all too difficult.  He’ll soldier on though, but not without looking longingly at us on the other side. 

$250 or a free lunch

Well, that last entry got things going…

Lots of suggestions have come in from all sides.  Here’s some of the suggestions for naming the PAS Alarm Management suite received so far:

• Alma (an “old” name like our friend “Gus” the operator station)

• AlarmBoss (as in: PAS solutions rule!)

• AlarmCalm (bringing calm even during crises)

• AlarmKing (like Boss, but more stately)

• Alarmin’ (duh, it’s all about fewer alarms, with a casual post-modern twist)

• AlarM8 (the 8 layers of alarm management perfection, sounding just like an old friend, sort of…)

• NoPanic (yup, that’s how it should be)

• PALM (as in PAS Alarm Management)

• Paximo (Latin for peace, maximized and optimized, sounding even a bit modern and hip)

• Paximus (more along the same theme)

And those are just a few of the “A” entries and a couple of others…

Even with all these suggestions from such good crowd participation, I’m not sure I’ve found the winner of our free lunch yet…

So I’m going to raise the steaks (J) from lunch to dinner for two and the place of your choice.  $250 should do the trick – now you can take your spouse/friend or other out for a nice dinner, wine and even some cash for the taxi.

The contest – I guess that’s what it has now become – closes on Wednesday December 7, so be sure to email me your suggestions by then.

Don’t worry about being found out – your name won’t be made known to anyone (unless you want it to).

So sit back and dream a little…