AUTOMATION Perspectives Lessos leared from the field As the valve turs By Jim Garriso The Opportuity to make Misteaks By Doug Aldrich, Ph.D., CFM
As the Valve Turs By Jim Garriso AUTOMATION PERSPECTIVES T he first project I worked o out of college was the desig of a large chemical plat. I spet a little more tha a year as part of the desig team ad the voluteered to go to the field to provide istrumet ad cotrols (I&C) support durig costructio. It was a super excitig opportuity! Over the ext year ad a half, I would get to see a desig that I had worked o for my etire professioal career (all 12 1/2 moths of it) rise from the groud ad come to life. At the time I voluteered, I kew it was goig to be a stretch opportuity (which really meat that I had o idea what I would be doig, or how to do it, but that i all likelihood I would be able to figure it out alog the way before I crashed ad bured too spectacularly). What I did t kow at the time was how little I actually kew, ot oly about egieerig ad costructio, but also about the importace of beig able to work with others ad to preset ideas. Below is a story of oe istace i which that became a little bit clearer.
The project used a type of cotrol valve that, like may valves, has a specific flow directio oted o the valve body. We foud ourselves i a situatio where may of the valves positioers were facig a wall or pipe ad were completely iaccessible. This was oticed shortly after istallig the first group of valves so I, the bright-eyed ad bushy-tailed youg egieer, requested that the istrumet mechaical cotractor rotate the valve actuators so that the positioers were visible. I was hopig that they would kow how to do this, sice I was completely gree ad had o clue myself how this was actually accomplished. I had to figure out pretty quickly how to rotate these actuators or risk completely embarrassig myself (which was oe of my biggest fears). The it came, the dreaded respose they had ever worked with this maufacturer s valve before ad the maual was t completely clear, so they wated me to walk them through the process! Hmmm well, that did t go as I had hoped. Now I had to figure out pretty quickly how to rotate these actuators or risk completely embarrassig myself (which was oe of my biggest fears). I pulled out the maual ad read it cover-to-cover. The, I wet out to the warehouse, where we still had valves o the shelf, ad looked them over. Fially, I called the maufacturer to make sure that the way I was seeig this workig was ideed the actual way to do it. Next came the hard part. I kew, at least i theory, how to rotate the actuator, but I had to show these guys, who had bee workig with istrumets loger tha I had bee alive, how to do it. Ad o top of that, the procedure was goig to ivolve hittig the valve with a hammer, which seemed a little crazy to me. The techicias showed up at my office ad asked what tools they eeded to brig with them. I told them, We will eed a Phillips-
head screwdriver, a adjustable wrech, a cold chisel, ad a ball-pee hammer. The looks o their faces were somewhere betwee Are you serious? ad You are out of your mid. The oe of the guys asked me to cofirm, Did you say we eed a chisel ad a hammer? So, with as calm ad cofidet a toe as I could muster (sice it still souded pretty crazy to me too), I repeated the iformatio that I had just gotte about 20 miutes I resisted my urge to yell, Thak Goodess! That actually worked! Istead, I opted for a much more subdued, Well that tured out to be simple eough. earlier from the maual ad the maufacturer: Yes sir, this is my first time workig with this maufacturer as well (I left off the part about this beig the first time I had ever rotated ay actuator!), so I wet through the maual ad gave them a call. There is a rig ut that holds the actuator ad the top yolk to the bottom yolk. We eed to uscrew the stem couplig, the we break loose the rig ut ad the actuator will just spi aroud. After a brief pause to make sure I was t messig with him, the techicia kid of shrugged ad said, Ok. We ll meet you out there. After that, the rest of the afteroo wet pretty well. We wet out to the valve; discoected the air; idetified ad removed the stem couplig; ad broke loose the rig ut with the cold chisel. Lo ad behold! The actuator ad top yolk just spu right aroud. Oce we situated the actuator, we tighteed the rig ut ad recoected the stem couplig. The we recoected the air lie ad started the positioer o its test sequece. Sure eough, the valve worked like it had bee built that way at the factory. I resisted my urge to yell, Thak Goodess! That actually worked! Istead, I opted for a much more subdued, Well that tured out to be simple eough. The techicia s respose was,
Yeah, it was. Ok, I thik we are good to kock out the others that you requested. We ll give you a shout if we ru across ay issues. Thaks for your help. Those last words, ad the gratitude with which they were said, did woders for the cofidece of a youg egieer. Lookig back o that situatio, I see it ow i a much differet light. While at the time I was just worried about ot lookig like a fool i frot of the istrumet techicias ad my boss, I ow see that I gaied more experiece tha how to rotate a valve actuator. As a egieer, the aswers that you give to eve seemigly icosequetial questios ca have major implicatios. Make sure of the accuracy of your statemets. The first lesso that I leared was that there is o shame i ot kowig a aswer immediately, especially o topics that are ufamiliar or that you have t worked with recetly. For the perso askig, it is better ot to get ay aswer at all tha to get a wrog aswer. Research, do your homework, ad fid the correct aswer, or at least fid out as much as you ca so you ca make a good decisio. As a egieer, the aswers that you give to eve seemigly icosequetial questios ca have major implicatios. Make sure of the accuracy of your statemets. The secod lesso was that your cofidece will directly affect the cofidece others have i you ad the aswers you give. I truly believe that if I had give my aswer i a wishy-washy maer (i.e. I thik what you have to do is..but I m ot sure ), the techicias would have goe to someoe else to ask how to do the work. Who wats to take advice from someoe who does t eve believe the advice they are givig? Throughout the two ad a half years that I worked
Whe tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the fire departmet usually uses water. o that first project, both i the office ad i the field, I leared may thigs. (For example, whe you discover that there is a coflict betwee a pipe ad a istrumet or valve ad you tell the pipig desiger that they eed to re-route their pipe, their respose is sometimes shockigly udiplomatic; but that is either here or there.) I leared that my ability to fid aswers ad the cofidece that I display have a direct ad tagible effect o how others see me ad my iput. I foud out that cofidece is cotagious whe it is paired with ecouragemet. I also realized that how you deal with coflict ca have a major impact o how effective you are i whatever you do. A costructio maager that I worked with shared some sage advice. Whe I would get all hot ad bothered ad ready to charge i ad tell someoe what I really thought, he would share a quote with me: Whe tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the fire departmet usually uses water. Despite my sicere desire to poit out that there were ideed times whe you used fire (or at least explosives) to fight fire, his poit was right o. Whether you are a egieer, a techicia, or a maager, workig to develop resourcefuless i fidig aswers, cofidece i your abilities (beig careful ot to cross the sometimes fie lie betwee cofidece ad arrogace), ad tact i dealig with coflict will serve you well throughout your career. Letter to a Youg Egieer by Jim Garriso PULL
AUTOMATION PERSPECTIVES The Opportuity to Make Misteaks By Doug Aldrich Employees must acquire skills, kowledge, ad experieces (SKE s) i order to flourish i their careers i the automatio/iformatio/techology (AIT) idustries. We ofte lear by makig mistakes i our work, ad we also profit from feedback or selfreflectio. As a chemical egieer, I cocetrated o learig everythig I could for my projects, but the old habits, wrog isights, ad/or ew techologies bagged me. While I suffered red faces or did mulligas, errors ultimately helped me thrive i the idustry ad i cosultig. Here are just a few of the mistakes that helped me alog the way.
I my early years, I used a slide rule to do calculatios ad programs with puch cards to desig systems, ad I did it fairly well. The I istalled a complex cotrol system o a pilot uit. Whe the pumps started, sesors oted pressure problems ad performed a auto-shutdow. There was a frustratig two-week period of troubleshootig before we stripped the cotrols dow to the basics ad the uit started up. The uit was ruig, but the distillatio colum was t performig. Fially, I cocluded that the vedor-istalled packig was missig. Whe the equipmet was opeed ad packig istalled, the uit performed flawlessly. My performace review that year was very iterestig. Although I missed my timetable, I leared about techology eveess (techical cosistecy i systems with multiple compoets)... Later, I worked with AIT staff to automate key processes with auto-samplig, olie istrumets, ad PID cotrol fuctios. I believed all parties who promised superb performace for their assiged tasks util we cotiually failed to fuctio or itegrate. Fially, I gathered the groups together for a tough oe-day sessio. The bottom lie was that all three groups had differet problems: cotamiatio, corrosio, data icosistecies, ad legthy cycles. Automatig the processes was a good idea, but the techologies did t alig. Although I missed my timetable, I leared about techology eveess (techical cosistecy i systems with multiple compoets) ad was careful to thik about ad apply this o future projects with these types of applicatios. A lab automatio group that I headed up was tasked with providig IT etworks ad tools that promoted R&D productivity with a focus o flexibility. I listeed to my people describe their projects, but ed poits seemed to slip for cliet
acceptace ad timig. (My R&D frieds [i.e. the cliets] told me that their departmets might do better at Radio Shack.) I istituted poited project reviews ad ivited our R&D cliets to participate. I the reviews, we discovered that the systems we desiged were overkill for the user s eeds. From this, I leared to iclude cliet specificatios i project plaig; they were usually simpler tha our cocepts of how to achieve the performace targets. The ed result was that we started deliverig what the lab people eeded ad more quickly tha i the past. After harsh reviews ad self-exams, I cocluded that we suffered from military madess : too may requiremets. Our maiteace system eeded a overhaul, so I commissioed vedors to supply packages ad our iteral people to develop a program. After struggles, I determied that the purchased systems eeded about 70% tailorig to meet our eeds, ad the IT project was missig milestoes ad parameters. After harsh reviews ad self-exams, I cocluded that we suffered from military madess : too may requiremets. Plas were revised ad ew iteratios icluded a E-I-D bucket cocept: Essetials (E) are ofte few i umber; Importats (I) are usually tradeoffs; Desirables (D) seldom survive. Usig the E-I-D buckets, we rigorously recast the project eeds ad delivered the program to glowig user acceptace. May computer tools ca shower you with data, which is ecessary for detail work o costructio cost estimates. However, I ve leared that providig costs to the earest $K is ofte good eough for overall uderstadig ad decisio makig, as well as for elevator speeches to executives. The same pricipal is true for Gatt charts that map/track project milestoes; they rarely take ito accout decisio-makig times
I leared that sedig messages did ot guaratee uderstadig, ad log dog ad poy shows merely cured a audiece s isomia. that orgaizatios may wat for buy-i. Lots of umbers ad charts are t always comprehesible or useful to a audiece. Commuicatios of all types threaded themselves through my career. My first mothly report was a object of beauty that took five weeks to write. I blazed through emails with a passio to clear my ibox. My presetatios were a work of art, all 20+ slides, ad my reports the same, but 40 to 50 pages log. I had professors at my alma mater (SD Mies) review my examples ad received a C+ to D-. Through this feedback, I leared that sedig messages did ot guaratee uderstadig, ad log dog ad poy shows merely cured a audiece s isomia. My commuicatios chaged expoetially over the years; bad feedback tured to glowig praise ad requests for more. Some lessos leared alog the way that might be useful to those eterig their AIT careers: Simplicity ca breed success, while complexity ca cause costeratio. Cosider all states of techology i compoets before itegratig them. Esure that cliets eeds are uderstood ad adhered to, for their beefit ad leverage. Prioritize requiremets to E-I-D, ad the focus o the E s first ad I s secod. Favor accuracy over precisio i decisios, ad vice-versa i implemetatios. Commuicate with care ad cosideratio, ad verify that you re beig uderstood. Idustry ad AIT are ot for those with thi skis seekig perfectio; it s about learig ad growig!