Continue reading »]]> A mistake often made with operator displays is to limit the scope of the design work to mimic the process equipment shown on P&IDs and Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs). These initial displays include measurements, valves and final control elements. They include enough of the process equipment and piping so that the process flow can be followed. Display navigation is added, allowing the operators to quickly follow the flow of the process and drill into and out of detail as required. Over time additional related information from upstream and downstream processes is often added to the displays. The overall effectiveness of the system of displays depends greatly on the experience of the designers, the involvement of the operators and the manner in which the graphic displays are structured.

ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015, Human Machine Interfaces for Process Automation Systems takes a different approach. ISA101 covers the philosophy, design, implementation, operation, and maintenance of HMIs for process automation systems, including multiple work processes throughout the HMI life cycle. It defines the terminology and models to develop an HMI and the work processes recommended to effectively maintain the HMI throughout its life cycle. It also provides a description for Level 1, 2, and 3 displays. It does not drill into how the content supported on each of these display levels is determined.

So how is the content for Level 1 and Level 2 displays identified? There are a number of techniques including decision mapping, storyboarding, and storytelling. These techniques have been largely developed in other industries and are being adopted in our industry. These techniques can also be used for advanced control applications and data analytics. They are also work well for identifying content for mobile applications. I will be returning to these related topics in future blogs.

The material used in this blog was largely investigated as part of several projects at the Center for Operator Performance (COP).

Decision Mapping

Decision mapping is a systematic review and characterization of the decisions made by operators and users of the system. As part of this technique a rating and clustering technique is used to map the available information to decisions. Parameters are allocated to displays based on their relation to the decisions.

The first step with this approach is to identify the key decisions for each major section of the process. As an example, for a hydrocracking unit key decisions such as “Why have I lost hydrogen?” and “Why are my separator levels changing?” are considered. Some decisions, for example, “Have I lost hydrogen?” requires only checking hydrogen measurement and should be alarmed. On the other hand, “Why have I lost hydrogen?” requires the analysis of multiple data points. In the COP study test case the following decisions were selected for a typical hydrocracking unit:

• Why have I lost hydrogen?
• Why am I venting so much?
• Why has the recycle gas changed?
• Am I maximizing preheat?
•  Am I operating inefficiently?
• Can I increase charge
• Is my feed system set up to produce desired product?
• Is my recycle Compressor operating near optimum?
• Am I at risk for a temp runaway?
• Why has the reactor temp taken off?
• Why don’t I have enough feed?
• Are my reactors setup to produce desired product?
• Why am I not making the desired amount of light product?
• Why is the naphtha off spec?
• Why are my separator levels changing?
• This should be displayed all of the time (cross check)

Determining which parameters are best for supporting these decisions is the next step. Since a hydrocracker can have 3,000 or more tags, selecting all of them is not practical. The procedure starts by dividing the unit into logical sections and then defining key data elements based on the process requirements and items that have important alarms and similar factors.

In many cases the data points may be combined to provide information that will aid the decision-making process. In this example, the number of tags was reduced from 3,000 to 120, with a total of 194 data elements. Some examples are shown below.

• FRONT END High press separator pressure PV
• BACK END Splitter Top press Output
• BACK END Splitter Fuel Gas Pressure PV
• UTILITIES Wash water flow PV
• BACK END Splitter Top press PV
• FRONT END Make-up compressor Unit press Mode
• FRONT END Make-up compressor Unit press Output
• FRONT END High press separator pressure Output
• FRONT END Charge Unit Charge flow PV
• FRONT END Furnace/heater (both HT/HC RXs) Fuel Gas Pressure PV

The next step is determining which among these data points are the most important for each decision. In the COP study, experienced operators were asked to rate the importance of key data elements relative to each decision. The operators rated each data point on a scale of 0 to 5.

5 – Critical or extremely important
4 – Very Important
3 – Important
2 – Somewhat important
1 – Not at all important
0 – Doesn’t exist on my unit

The responses from the operators were combined and analyzed. The results of the survey were evaluated using a technique called cluster analysis to determine how the parameters should be organized. The parameter ratings were then used to select the top parameters for each cluster.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is an effective way to flesh out user requirements and behaviors. By employing a facilitator, teams can work together to capture key ideas and information and document them on Post-it pads or cards. These pieces of information can be organized into related. Storyboards provide a framework to help participants be specific about relating experiences, including expectations, decisions and observations, rather than just vague commentary.

Storyboarding sessions are made up of key stakeholders including leading operators, engineers, and shift supervisors. This approach works well because it allows the participants to express their ideas through scenarios and stories that they can all relate to. Storyboards are a good way to keep emotions out of verbal communication while at the same time capturing key aspects of the story on paper (everyone should feel comfortable in contributing). Here are three things to consider:

1- Be clear about the purpose. Like all workshop activities, it’s important that you know exactly why you’re conducting the storyboarding activity. You may end up with a range of interesting storyboards, but without a clear goal, they may not give you the insights you’re hoping to derive.

2- Materials for the storyboard session. A large surface to capture information on (e.g. a large whiteboard) and pens, pencils, and colored Post-it pads.

3- Facilitation. At the start of the meeting the facilitator provides a simple one-page instruction sheet about what it is you want your participants to do. To get things started the facilitator sets the scene by selecting the equipment the session will start on and then getting participants to describe experiences they have had. What kinds of things went wrong? When did you observe something? When did it start? What did you do? Capture the experiences step-by-step, including anything that went well or went wrong. Ultimately you are trying to tease out relationships, key parameters, and leading indicators. Along the way capture the information on your storyboard. Depending on how things are progressing you may want each of the participants to draw their own storyboards, or if they will work in small groups, use the groups and compare storyboards. Only allow about ten minutes to let them think and draw.

Get everyone to focus on the same sorts of elements. Get them to think about triggers (what has happened to start this story in the first place), the single goal that we want to achieve, and what the final outcome is. Should it show a clear benefit of a solution? Or an existing problem?

Storytelling

Storytelling is another method used to flesh out requirements. This method stresses the importance of intuition, following your hunch, and trusting your years of experience to lead you in the right direction. Intuition, in and of itself, is extremely undervalued. Why? Because it’s fallible. It’s only a first step; it needs to be checked by analysis. The storytelling method is well described by Gary Klein.

Dr. Gary Klein, “Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions Paperback”, The MIT Press, February 1999

Continue reading »]]> Last week the topic was mobile. The discussion focused on different views such as display lists and alarm lists. These views provide the user with information specific to what they are interested in. In the last blog I said I would talk about display content.  To begin this discusstion I’ll start with a refinery and break the content down into units, common equipment, and finally to the most important parameters for each.

Let’s take a look at a refinery. The simple flow diagram below shows how crude oil is converted into higher-value fuel products. First, the raw crude is washed in a desalter and heated. Next, it enters the atmospheric crude fractionator, followed by the vacuum fractionator. These first units in a refinery involve no chemical reactions or catalysts; rather, based on each component’s boiling point, they separate and distribute the range of components for further downstream processing and conversion. Downstream units include such equipment as pumps and compressors, heat exchangers, reactors, and separation and distillation columns. Some of these downstream units contain a specific catalyst to convert the medium to a product with more desired qualities, and then separate it into intermediate products and off-gases. Finally, certain intermediate products from these units are blended into final products as per required specifications, such as octane and Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) for gasoline.

Looking more closely at this drawing, each unit (e.g. Crude Unit, Hydrotreaters, Coker, FCC, etc.) is largely made up of common processing equipment. For example, a Crude Unit is made up of Desalters, a Fired Heater, and a Fractionator. These are illustrated in the block diagram below.

Each of this common processing equipment may be designed to include information that is specific to its operation, for example the Fired Heater may be represented on level 1 (L1) display with a limited set of parameters.

Likewise, a Diesel Hydrotreater is made up of a Feed System, Heaters/Reactors, a Stripper, and a Gas Plant.

The reactor may be represented on a L1 display as shown below (shown for a single or double reactor arrangement). Notice in this drawing that when we switch from one reactor two or more reactors it is usually better to use something like a table representation. The table representation provides a nice was to quickly see a summary of the two reactors.

Users in the refinery have different spans-of-responsibility. For the example a specific operator may be responsible for one of the crude units and several diesel hydrotreaters. The span-of-responsibility should be summarized on a single L1 display. The L1display is further broken down into level 2 displays (L2) and level three displays (L3). The L1 displays provide overall situational awareness. The L2 displays are used by the operator for controlling the process. The L3 displays are used for investigation and debugging. Level 4 are purpose built displays, for example to start-up and shutdown the process. A good discussion on display levels is provided in ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015, Human Machine Interfaces for Process Automation Systems. Background information on display content is available through the Center for Operator Performance.

The next two blogs continue the discussion on content.

Continue reading »]]> In process manufacturing the operator station allows operators to rapidly assess a set of distinct systems or situations under their span-of-responsibility and determine where attention is needed on a moment-by-moment basis. If a problem exists, the features of the operator station directs the operators to displays from which they can troubleshoot and take action. So what if the operator is not in the control room? or there are additional workers outside of the control room who require access to the same information? This is where mobile solutions fit in. Mobile is the subject of this posting.
All of us in our daily lives have become addicted to our mobile devices. We use our phones to check the weather, news, and football scores. We use these same devices to stay in touch with our colleagues and family. So how about using our phones and mobile devices to support our jobs? To do this mobile devices need to be able to be customized for each person’s role. For the example a specific operator may be responsible for one of the crude units and several diesel hydrotreaters. Other workers, for example someone responsible for environmental operations, may be interested in just the environmental parameters and alarms. Going further, users are not ‘at work’ 24×7. While they are at work or on call, they would like to be able to stay in-touch with the plant, otherwise they would like to enjoy downtime. So how can these needs be served by mobile solutions?
To address these needs DeltaV Mobile provides a configurable series of view lists and notifications that can be used to represent a wide range of interests covering process and plant equipment, user roles, and times when the user is active in plant operations. These view lists may be watch lists, alarm lists and other lists. As an example, a watch list for a diesel hydrotreater may be set up as shown below:

The order of the parameters in the list may be customized by the user from their mobile device or through the web configuration application.
In this example the watchlist is identified with the name ‘DHT1’. Key parameters, for example, Furnace Out Temp, are included in the list. From this view users may drill into watch list details as shown below:

Users may drill even further into details by changing the orientation to landscape, this is shown below:

Likewise, alarm lists may be configured to represent any part of the system and the process that is being monitored. An alarm list for the same diesel hydrotreater is shown below:

Similar to watchlists, users may further drill into details as shown below:

Another aspect of view lists is that they may be shown in summary form. The lists may be combined or shown separately as watch lists, alarm lists, and other lists. This is shown below:

Mobile users enjoy getting the latest updates through notifications. In DeltaV Mobile these notifications may be setup on specific alarms, alerts, calculations, or some other aspect of the system. Notifications may be further restricted by the shift the user is on. Notifications are shown below:

Notifications may use of deep linking. Deep linking allows users to link directly to the application in-context of the notification.
Future blogs will take a deeper look at defining the content that should be shown on these lists and the effort required to integrate mobile into IT systems.

Continue reading »]]> I am retiring from Emerson later this month. It has been a real pleasure working at Emerson and to share with subscribers of this blog some of my work on control and simulation. I greatly appreciate the many opportunities I had to help shape the control capability in DeltaV, to lead the function block application work in ISP and FF, contribute to ISA and IEC standards committees, to lead the development of DeltaV Advanced Control products. Also, over the last eight year I have enjoyed working in the applied research team on the development of PIDPlus for wireless control, continuous and batch analytics, high speed control and to co-author the Foundation book series. Many thanks to the people I have worked with over the last 42 years. In this blog posting I want to share with you some memories from the past. I hope you enjoy this video.

Continue reading »]]> Willy Wojsznis presented a paper on Wireless Model Predictive Control Applied for Dividing Wall Column Control at the Second International Conference on Event-Based Control, Communication and Signal Processing, EBCCSP2016. This paper was co-authored by me and Mark Nixon and Bailee Roach, University of Texas at Austin. The Conference was held at the Department of computer science of the AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland – shown below.

In his presentation, Willy discusses how model predictive control (MPC) operation is based on the process model, which can be conveniently used in event-based MPC operation. The process model can estimate process control parameters when a measurement fails or when lab sampling is used as a control parameter. Wireless control is another case in which event-based MPC operation, including both slow sampling and randomness, is required. The presentation details event driven wireless MPC operation and design and discusses the application challenges illustrated by the test results. You may listen to Willy’s presentation using the link below.

Continue reading »]]> I had the pleasure of attending the Second International Conference on Event-Based Control, Communication and Signal Processing EBCCSP2016, Krakow, Poland, June 13-15, 2016. On the first day of the conference I gave an industrial keynote presentation on Automatic Control: Future Challenges, Solutions, and Systems. Also, Willy Wojsznis attended the conference and presented a paper. Below is a picture of Willy and me at the entrance to the conference building at AGH University.

In my presentation I addressed many of the challenges and solutions that will move automatic control to new heights. In particular, much of the presentation focused on the great practical value and tremendous challenges associated with the automation of startup and shut-down and production transitions of continuous processes and how the evolving ISA106 standard addresses the terms and definitions for the event based control for such automation. Also, I discuss how a combination of process knowledge, available process measurements, and in some cases wireless measurements, may be used in event based control to more fully automate process startup and process transitions. I touch on the fact that future control systems may utilize the technical foundation originally developed for Big Data applications and mobile devices to more fully automate the detection and correction of abnormal operating conditions and enhance decision making. You may listen to my presentation using the link below.

Continue reading »]]> The ISA104 committee, Device Integration, is exploring the role that existing IEC standards ( EDDL – IEC61804 and FDI – IEC 62769) play when addressing IoT and Industry 4.0. Thus, in the committee’s March 24th , 2016 meeting the invited speaker was Professor Christian Diedrich, ifak, Germany. Christian is one of the co-authors of the German Standardization Roadmap – Industry 4.0 . In his presentation, Professor Diedrich discusses the role that EDDL and FDI play in this roadmap. If you are interested in learning more about this topic, then a YouTube video of Christian’s presentation can be viewed using the link below.

An English translation of the German Standardization Roadmap – Industry 4.0 can be downloaded over the web.

Continue reading »]]> In this Part 3 of the Wireless Control Foundation short course given at Emerson Exchange 2015 , Terry Blevins and Mark Nixon address Discrete Control Using Wireless Field Devices, Model Based Control Using Wireless Transmitter, Wireless Model Predictive Control, Applying Wireless in Legacy Systems, Simulating Wireless Control, Book Web Site.

If you have an interest in learning more about these areas of wireless control then you can view a video of this presentation using the link below.

Continue reading »]]> Mark Nixon and I hosted a short course at Emerson Exchange 2015 titled Wireless Control Foundation. In this short course the book authors present key areas of the book Wireless Control Foundation that was published by ISA in October, 2014. This book addresses control techniques that enable closed loop control using wireless valves and wireless transmitter. It is designed to bring an engineer quickly up to speed on the fundamentals of closed loop control using wireless field devices. Examples are used to illustrate how wireless devices may be applied in control application. Web based exercises are used to re-enforce control concepts and learning. The presentation in this session was broken into three parts. In part 1 Mark Nixon addresses; the History and Background, Wireless Field Devices, Commissioning Wireless Devices and Diagnosing Field Operation.

If you have an interest in wireless history and background you can view a video of this portion of the short course presented by Mark Nixon using the link below.

In my next two blogs I will provide information and links to videos that address the other part of this short course.

Continue reading »]]> At Emerson Exchange 2015 Eric Cytrynowicz, Emerson Process Management, participated in a technology forum on control with wireless. In his presentation, Eric discussed applications that can be address in upstream oil and gas applications using wireless transmitters and wireless valves.

In his presentation Eric discussed work to add PIDPlus capability to the ROC800 to support of control using wireless transmitters. Information is provided on a velocity form of the PIDPlus that has been developed for the ROC800 to meet some requirements particular to upstream control application. If you have an interest in learning more about how wireless transmitter may be used to address upstream control application then you can view a video of Eric’s presentation in the session using the link below.

Continue reading »]]> At Emerson Exchange 2015 Kurtis Jensen, Emerson Process Management, gave participated in a technology forum on control with wireless. In his presentation, Kurtis discuss how a wide variety of discrete control applications have been addressed using wireless transmitters and wireless on-off valves. Also, in his presentation Kurtis provided some information work that is being done to progress develop a wireless throttling valve for control applications.

Flow lab test results achieved using a prototype wireless throttling valve were show in his presentation. If you have an interest in learning more about how wireless transmitter and wireless valves may be used in control application then you can view a video of Kurtis’ presentation in the session using the link below.

Continue reading »]]> At Emerson Exchange 2015 Bailee Roach, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, gave participated in a technology forum on distillation column control with wireless.

As part of the technology forum she gave a presentation on how wireless transmitters have been successfully used with PIDPlus to address liquid flow, steam flow, and temperature control for a 6” dividing wall distillation column installed at the UT Pickle Research Center. If you have an interest in learning more about this installation and the control performance achieved using wireless transmitter then you can view a video of Bailee’s presentation in the session using the link below.

Continue reading »]]> At Emerson Exchange 2015 I participated in a technology forum on control with wireless that was organized and moderated by Neil Peterson, Emerson Process Management. In this session the panel discussed various aspect of wireless control application of wireless control.

• Wireless Control Guideline – Terry Blevins, Emerson Process Management, Austin
• Dividing Wall Column Control Using Wireless Transmitters – Bailee Roach, The University of Texas at Austin
• Control Using Wireless Valves – Kurtis Jensen, Emerson Process Management
• Wireless Control Using ROC800 – Eric Cytrynowicz,, Emerson Process Management

If you have an interest in wireless control guideline then you can view a video of this portion of the session using the link below.

In my next three blogs I will provide information and links to videos that address the other presentations in this session.

Continue reading »]]> I co-authored workshop on Wireless Distillation Column Control for Emerson Exchange 2015. The workshop presentation was hosted by me, Kurtis Jensen, Emerson Process Management, and Melissa Donahue, a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin.

In the workshop we discuss the control performance that may be achieved using wireless transmitters in liquid and steam flow and temperature control. Also, tests results are shown using wired and wireless transmitters in the control of a 6” distillation column installed at the UT Pickle Research Center. The test results indicate that the control achieved using wireless transmitters are comparable to that achieved using wired transmitters in distillation column control. If you have an interest in this topic then you can view a video of this presentation using the link below.

Continue reading »]]> For Emerson Exchange 2015 I co-authored a workshop on Process Model Identification and MPC Control of the Dividing Wall Column with Wireless Measurements. The workshop presentation was given by Willy Wojsznis, Emerson Process Management and Bailee Roach, a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin.

In this workshop we show how wireless measurements have been applied with MPC for the control of a divided wall column (DWC) installation at the University of Texas. In this workshop we present the field trial results of the novel concept of incorporating wireless measurements into PredictPro. The workshop details wireless MPC control and discuss the process modeling, process automatic testing, model identification, control and optimization objectives illustrated by test results. Impact of the design and achieved results on the refining industry will be outlined from the industry perspective. If you have an interest in this topic then you can view a video of this presentation using the link below.

Continue reading »]]> At Emerson Exchange 2015 I hosted a meet the expert session on process control optimization. The six panel members have a wide variety of experience in the process industy.

In this session the expert panel members explored the challenges that are often encountered when using traditional and advanced control techniques to optimize plant operations. The experts discussed the basic steps that they recommend be followed when addressing a control optimization project. Also, each panel member presented an application they have commissioned that demonstrates how process control techniques were used to optimize process operation. The presented control optimization projects demonstrate how to achieve technical and economic objectives in various industries. If you are interested in learning how to improve plant operations through process control, then you can view a vidoe recoring of  the session using this link.  The vidoe is quite long (1 1/2 hours)  but you can easily select topics of interest using the controls provided in this link .  The presentation order is shown below.

• Introduction
• Reduce Energy for Distillation – James Beall
• Control Performance Visibility and Awareness- Hydrogen Plant – Jay Colclazier
• Wellpad Optimization – Warren Mitchell
• Data Analytics in Process Optimization -Willy Wojsznis
• Improving Equipment Performance – a Tale of Two Valves – Jim Coleman
• Application of APC to LNG Process – Lou Heavner
• Discussion – Q/A from EE365

Continue reading »]]> The ISA104 committee, Device Integration, normally meets via WebEx each quarter. However, once per year we have a face-to-face meeting in conjunction with the ISA Fall Leaders Meeting. This year ISA104 committee met on October 12 at the Fall Leaders Meeting held in Louisville, KY. As part of the ISA104 meeting we review work we have done over the last year to promote the Field Device Integration (FDI) standard, IEC 62769. Also, we often have an invited presentation that addresses some aspect of future work on device integration. This year Ludwig Winkel, Siemens, was the invited speaker. In his talk, Ludwig discussed how work within IEC on device integration fits into work by IEEE P2413 to define an architectural framework for the Internet of Things. If you would like to learn more about this work within IEEE then you can access Ludwig’s presentation using the links below.

Continue reading »]]> Over the last 10 years I have worked with a number of technologists from the process industry on various aspects of control using wireless field devices. Much of this work is summarized in the book Wireless Control Foundation – Continuous and Discrete Control for the Process Industry. Recently Mark Nixon (Emerson) and Willy Wojsznis (Emerson), Professors Deji Chen (Tongji University) and Song Han (University of Connecticut) co-authored a paper titled Process Control over Real-Time Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks . This paper addresses some recent work e have done to address control using wireless throttling valves in control. The paper was submitted and accepted for publication by The 12th IEEE International Conference on Embedded Software and Systems, ICESS 2015. On August 25th, 2015 I presented this paper at the conference. As noted in the opening presentation shown below, technologists from 28 countries attended this conference.

In my presentation I provided an overview of wireless field devices as used in the process industry. Also, I address how PIDPlus has enabled a wide variety of control applications to be addressed using wireless transmitters. However, most of the presentation focused on the on-going development of wireless throttling valves and the technical challenges and solutions for using wireless throttling valves in closed loop control. Also, I presented field test results that have been achieved using a prototype wireless throttling valve with PIDPlus and wireless measurements. After the conference I turned this presentation into a YouTube video – see link included below.

Later this year we are targeting to test a beta version of the wireless throttling valve adaptor that is being developed by Fisher Controls and Rosemount. Thus, I full expect that in the near futures closed loop control may be implemented using a wireless transmitter and a wireless throttling valve. For new applications in upstream oil and gas product and some other industry segments this new capability may be used to dramatically reduce installation costs.