ebook: modular procedural automation (mpa) - preview

How to Enhance

Production and Safety

for Process Industries

Contents

2

1. Industry Challenges 3

1.1 Constrained Worker Resources 5

1.2 Operational Safety 7

1.3 Operational Consistency 10

2. An Introduction to MPA 12

3. MPA to the Rescue 15

4. Identifying MPA Opportunities 22

5. Implementing MPA 24

6. Summary & Next Steps 25

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Modular Procedural Automation eBook 3

Industry Challenges

Process industries face numerous challenges – keeping health, safety, and

environment (HSE) at the forefront, an aging workforce, improving equipment

availability, maintaining quality, and increases in operator workloads. Distracted

operators make mistakes, especially during transitions, and operational error is the

single biggest reason for unscheduled shutdowns. In this chapter we will take a

closer look at some of these challenges and how procedures play an important

role. First let’s clarify what a procedure actually is.

Chapter 1

It seems that procedures may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about process

automation. Still, they play an important role at any industrial plant or factory, and though we like to refer to

the process industries as being largely “continuous,” most continuous processes actually have multiple

‘operating states.’ Process manufacturing is constantly in flux, and because of this, procedures exist. In

fact, the entire world of process operations is governed by procedures.

Fig. Typical depiction of continuous process with procedures for each operating state or phase.

What is a Procedure?

Procedures are best described as pre-set

tasks that are consistently completed in a

specific order so as to achieve the desired

result. The automation of these

procedures bridges the gap between the

process control systems and plant

operators by augmenting operator actions

with electronic Standard Operating

Procedures (SOPs) that are integrated

with a Distributed Control System (DCS).

Whether you are initiating a startup,

shutdown, grade change, or are in the

middle of a maintenance turnaround, your

plant is governed by procedures and

transitional states that can either run

smoothly and provide you with superior

plant performance, a safe and orderly

start-up/shutdown, or, they can cost you in

terms of unplanned shutdowns, incidents,

lost production, and lost opportunities.

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Manual, prompted and automated procedures, and the problem

of ‘Spaghetti Code’

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1.1 Constrained Worker Resources Skilled workers are retiring. Before

addressing a solution to the problem of

‘spaghetti code,’ we will address three

major challenges many industrial

companies are facing, starting with an

aging workforce. According to an Ernst

& Young study, one of the common

challenges all verticals within the oil

and gas sector currently face is,

planning for the sustained availability of

a competent workforce over the next

five years. A serious challenge,

especially since we know that many

plants and factories are relying on

experienced operators for dealing with

the procedures. Could your journey to

operational excellence be threatened

by an aging workforce that is retiring?

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1.2 Operational Safety Operational Safety. Besides challenges

related to workforce issues, another

primary challenge for industrial industries

is (operational) safety. Environment and

safety issues are major topics on a global

scale. In addition, there are increased

risks of accidents, and the need to

ensure safety and environmental

stewardship to actively prevent industrial

accidents from occurring is significant. If

accidents do occur, the expectation is to

prevent their impact from spreading

externally. Unfortunately, there are

several recent examples to show that

safety remains a constant challenge and

must become the highest priority for any

company or industry.


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1.3 Operational Consistency Do all of your shifts perform at high

levels? What is your strategy for

handling abnormal conditions?

How do you manage Transitions, Start

Ups, and Shut Downs? Research has

shown that the largest reason for

unscheduled downtime is operational or

human error, which accounts for

approximately 42 percent of the

unscheduled shutdowns in the process

industries. Of that 42 percent, 16 percent is

directly related to procedural error. One of

the major concerns in plant operations is

how to reduce its operation costs so that

the profit is optimized. The industrial plant

operations are fully automated with

process control systems; however, startup,

shutdown, load/grade changes, and other

non-routine works are largely done by

manual operations. So, how do you

maintain consistent operation and achieve

maximum operational throughput?


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MPA Introduction

To deal with some of the challenges described in the pervious chapter, consider

Modular Procedural Automation (MPA). It is a solution that captures operators’

knowledge and best practices and ensures procedures are consistently employed

throughout the manufacturing process. Using the capabilities of MPA, plant

operations, engineering, HSE and management can be more confident that the

correct procedures are being followed. MPA is a clear path to operational

excellence in the process industries.

Chapter 2



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Modular Procedural Automation

ISA 106 Standard - ISA 106 Standards

Committee creates a standard for

procedure automation for continuous

process operations. It’s purpose is to

develop standards, recommended

practices, and technical reports on the

design and implementation of

procedures for automating continuous

process operations – See more at:

www.isa.org


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Procedural Automation to the

Rescue

Modular Procedural Automation offers several advantages to plant operations and

contributes to achieving operational excellence. Operational excellence isn’t

necessarily an endpoint for an organization; rather, it is an ongoing journey. It

focuses on minimizing and managing downside risks while maximizing an

operation’s performance and shareholder value. Along the journey, multiple

factors play a role. In this chapter we will outline the main benefits of MPA.

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Capturing Knowledge MPA is like having your best

operators all day, every day. Many

procedures are not well documented.

Most plants therefore depend on the

knowledge of those few skilled

operators who know how procedures

are to be performed, sometimes in

accordance with documented

instructions (assuming they exist), and

sometimes following the "right way" in

spite of what the instructions say. As a

result different operators may practice

them differently. Part of automating

such procedures is determining the

best practices and incorporating those

approaches, so they will be followed

consistently.


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Enhancing Safety with MPA With MPA, Operators Are Never

Alone. Regardless of the reasons, the

control rooms of the western world do

not seem to be as well-manned as

those of 20 or 40 years ago. To

address this situation, MPA can be

used to transfer the knowledge and

experience of the best remaining

operators, engineers and technicians to

new operators. This makes new

operators more effective and efficient.

When MPA is correctly implemented,

no operator needs to start, run or stop

an operating unit alone.


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Operational Consistency & MPA

Transitions inherently increase the risk

of disruptions that can lead to incidents

and production downtime. Research

indicates that nearly 80% of production

downtime is preventable. And half of

them is due to operator error. The

monetary costs of this failure in the

petrochemical industry alone are

estimated at $20 billion per year. In

addition to avoiding downtime,

damage, injury and environmental

emissions, the lost “opportunity cost”

due to operators functioning at less

than peak effectiveness looms large.


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Identifying MPA Opportunities

As with any engineering project, time spent on defining the scope on the front end

will pay off later in the project. But based on the experience gained by executing

thousands MPA projects, there are some additional details that should be

considered before starting with MPA. In this chapter we will share some of these

‘lessons learned’ and help you with identifying the top MPA candidates at your

plant or manufacturing facility.

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What are your MPA candidates?

15



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Implementing MPA

In the previous chapter we explained what to look for identifying MPA

opportunities. Next step is implementing MPA. An important lesson that MPA

vendors have learned is that if MPA is not made as easy as possible for operators,

then a project isn’t likely to be successful. As a result, operator friendly software is

important. In this chapter we will highlight a methodology for implementing MPA.

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Summary and Next Steps

MPA helps you standardize and automate your procedures. It’s all about capturing

your best operators’ know-how and implementing that as a standard operating

procedure in your plant to guide all operators. Instead of having just a check-list

that you’re training your operators on, you should look to automate that wherever

possible to have the most reliable and consistent outcome. “With MPA implemented

it’s like having your most experienced operators on hand at all times.”

Chapter 6

A next step in your orientation towards a MPA

solution is a Consulting Site Visit. You can request

this consult from Yokogawa. It will include:

o Identifying opportunities for improvement (major

“pain” points)

o Methodologies and templates for:

Site visit pre-work

Plant walkthrough

Interview checklists with:

• Management

• Operations

• Other functions

Initial review meeting/ on-site report

o Assist in ROI calculations

o Prioritize and recommend best solutions

Consulting Site Visit Yokogawa systems provides Comparative

Effective Analysis (CEA) - a built-in system

performance monitor. Among the items that CEA

reports is which loops are in MAN mode most often

and which loops have the most operator changes

associated with them. These loops can be targeted

for modular procedural automation. These same

measures can be analyzed on other systems but it

takes more effort because most other systems either

do not automatically collect this data or it is not

reported in an easy to analyze format.

Yokogawa can work with customers to

configure their systems to collect key factors for

analysis and we can assist in guiding the customer to

focus on specific loops and in creating automation

modules for procedures that mimic operator action for

managing single loops and critical transitions.

Comparative Effective Analysis

What can Yokogawa do for you?

1. MPA is about improving production performance and safety

2. Use MPA to help make your plant more productive through consistent, safer operations.

3. Look for MPA applications:

• Safety & Environment issues.

• Lost Production opportunities

• PID Loops in Manual mode or with high operator changes

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ebook: modular procedural automation (mpa) - preview

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