Some surprises have already materialized from the study. Operators at a refining unit considered most difficult in the plant had the fewest number of the expert characteristics, only eight, for example. The refinery owner says that’s because the unit has advanced controls, while the other unit doesn’t. Finding no correlation between operator age and experience was another surprise, he says. “This finding caused a shift to solutions, rather than expanding the study to other units.”  

Yet another surprise surfaced when an expert operator talked about applying simulation to reality. “One pipeline operator said she knows she’ll see a leak in the high-fidelity simulator, but doesn’t know that when sitting in front of a [a real operator] console,” Strobhar recalls. In the simulator, she treated ambiguous data as a leak, but in front of the console, she said she was unsure what to do with such data, he elaborates.  

This revelation showed “simulator training is good for shutting down processes,” Strobhar concludes, but “some decision-making is not as well supported.” Recognizing that fact increased plant-level operational awareness, he says. Regarding what the project has confirmed thus far, he believes “the impact of advanced control has the potential of lowering needed expertise. That’s something the refinery had suspected.”  

The center planned a project to begin this fall on early-event detection. The first goal is to define opportunities for research. “From there, the membership will decide how to develop the project more fully,” Strobhar explains.  

Both projects fit Emerson’s view that overall performance of operations directly relates to plant operators’ effectiveness. But there’s a key question to be answered, Toavs suggests: “What influences the effectiveness of these plant personnel?” Fortunately, the COP’s on the case.  

C. Kenna Amos, ckamosjr@earthlink.net, is an Automation World Contributing Editor.
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