What does violent crime have to do with process control systems? The US had over 5 million violent crimes in 2012. You will be surprised to know that your first line of defense against these attacks is not a weapon, or self-defense training, it is Situational Awareness. The National Geographic Channel recently aired a segment in the Fight Science series that highlighted situational awareness techniques, hosted by Amir Perets. This program illustrated how applying these techniques saves many of us from becoming victims of violent crimes. Being aware of your surroundings, and anything suspicious, can increase your reaction time by 300%. A fraction of a second could make the difference between life and death. Are you aware of the situations that surround your process control system, and will you be a victim or a victor?

Most operators and engineers should be intimately familiar with their process, and acutely aware of any abnormal conditions. However, with our dependence of, or irritation with our control systems, an important element is lost in process upset prevention. Even the latest versions of the best technology platforms in the world cannot substitute for your instinctive awareness. A keen sense of your process indicators could be the difference between a nuisance and a catastrophic event.

We should not eliminate automation and control systems, but augment these sophisticated guardians with your intuition and God given senses. Knowing every nuance of your process system is the first step to situation awareness. As I mentioned in a previous post, 99.99% is not good enough to prevent problems. You need 100% to protect yourself, your assets and the environment. Your knowledge of what red flags to watch for will eliminate the element of surprise, or disaster in your facility.

You may ask yourself questions such as:

Does everything sound normal?

Do I feel any unusual vibration or knocking?

Why is my graphic not changing?

What is the root cause of these nuisance alarms?

What is that bird doing on my fence?

The 4 essentials to Situation Awareness are: Detection, Orientation, Diagnoses, and  Action

My dog clover is a good example of how to be aware of her situation. She instinctively understands the fundamentals defined above. When she hears a commercial on TV that has animals in it (detect), she dashes for the living room (orient), waits for the intruding dog, cat, or lion to show up on the screen (diagnose), and proceeds to defend her territory until they leave (action). When they do leave she proudly prances back to whatever she was doing, hoping to get a treat for the fortification of her pack (bonus).

Being unaware of your process is not a violent crime, but could cause catastrophic damage and repercussions.

Zen Tip: Be Alert, The world needs more Lerts!

Imagine using powder from old rusty nails and water to store solar energy.  Iron Oxide FeO₂, better known as rust, is being tested as a viable method for solar hydrogen production.  Scientists were elated when they successfully extracted hydrogen in a stable state from a rust and water mixture subjected to sunlight.  The magic happens in a recently invented device called the photoelectrochemical (PEC) tandem solar cell.   Converting solar energy into hydrogen has been around for 40 years, but with this new technology, has put new light on renewable energy.  

Michaël Grätzel of EFEL, along with a colleague from the University of Geneva, developed the self-contained oxide-based semiconductor device that, when subject to light, separates water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.   

Watch the video by Kevin Sivula of the Laboratory for Molecular Engineering of Optoelectronic Nanomaterials,  (LIMNO) . http://actu.epfl.ch/news/using-rust-and-water-to-store-solar-energy-as-hydr//

Sivula’s team wisely uses low-cost materials and efficient production models to stimulate their dream that old rust chips provide a carbon neutral, alternative energy source in the near future.    

Zen Quote:  Optimists say “the glass is half full.”  Pessimists say “the glass is half empty.”  Engineers say “the glass is too big.”

We thought it would be interesting to look back at 2012 and highlight some automation trends that we observed during the course of the year in the Life Sciences industry. To identify these trends, we observed where multiple clients either executed or planned projects with similar technology, drive, or focus. Just a few of the hot 2012 topics are discussed below.

Virtualization

Of all things we saw in 2012, virtualization in the automation arena had the largest interest increase. In the past, virtualized environments have been used in automation mostly for “sandbox” activities. However, as the technology has become more accepted and trusted, it has expanded into production environments. As a result, virtual systems are being weaved into automation workspace in various ways including the following:

1. Virtualized systems are being used to deploy packaged vendor software. Imagine that your HMI vendor sends you a VM that is preconfigured and ready to run without all of the setup and installation hassle.
2. There are now numerous ways end users can make software and computers redundant, even for platforms that do not support native redundancy.
3. Most importantly for the Life Sciences industry is the push to create qualified development environments that are used to implement and test changes prior to deploying them to production, while in many cases, leveraging the testing done in the development environment.
4. These systems are replacing computers that run on dying hardware or software platforms. That obsolete hard drive or motherboard crashing in the middle of the night is no longer an issue.

OEM Skid Integration

Another hot topic in 2012 was tighter integration between the traditional SCADA and OEM control systems. The once common approach of simply having a data historian collect volumes of data from skids is almost gone. Although easy to install and qualify, the data collected from skids by the historian in this manner is often just there for reference and may only be used for after the fact engineering analysis.

Many existing systems are now being revamped to more tightly integrate the SCADA (or DCS) with the OEM skids. The reasons for this vary, but most fall along the lines of having contextual data. Consider the following as a top three list:

1. Piecing together raw time-stamped data from a skid system and DCS historian to try and produce a coherent batch report is sometimes impossible. Knowing when batches start, hold, and end is an easy way to bracket data.
2. Another big push is for tighter control on recipe parameters. You never want to find out that some data parameter that a skid PLC uses as part of its cycle was inadvertently modified several months back. Utilizing a centralized recipe system that is used to download or confirm recipes at the beginning of every run can completely eliminate the problem, in addition to making maintenance of recipes on multiple skids drastically less time consuming.
3. We are also seeing increased focus on centralized user security and the departure of local skid logons with generic users and passwords that everyone knows. The skid control systems are now being integrated into the SCADA domain controller, and sometimes the SCADA domain controller is even being tied to the plant domain controller, all with the intent of having one login no matter what system you are using.

…and the list continues

In addition to virtualization and tighter skid integration, we saw increased focus on mobility on the plant floor (yes, some places are using tablets), control system security, product tracking using barcodes and RFID, energy conservation, and the often wished for, but rarely obtained true Electronic Batch Record system.

All of these were hot topics in 2012 that are not going away anytime soon; in fact, they will likely get more focus in 2013.

What were your hot topics or trends you experienced in 2012?

Thanks for the guest post from our Marketing Department!

In recent years our family decided not to exchange Christmas gifts in the traditional way.  In lieu of gift giving, we share a life experience like traveling, participating in some event or just catching up with each other.  This year our two younger daughters spent time at home visiting, watching movies, playing games and working in our micro organic farm.  The experience was great for everyone except our oldest daughter, Jessi.  She could not make the trip, but she came through with the ultimate life experience by blessing our family with a beautiful baby girl.  Liahona Lynn Danenhauer entered our family this morning at 06:25 pacific time from a flawless natural birth.  Go Mom!!  Baby and mom are both quite well and are getting a much deserved rest.  Amy and Kim are excited young aunts and Cindy and I are very grateful and absolutely blessed to become grandparents. 

Our Christmas Gift! 

The idea of exchanging life experiences instead of traditional Christmas gifts may be uncomfortable to many people, but for our eccentric family it is normal and very Zenlike.

Hobbits do not like machinery and build everything quite well by using hand tools.  However, due to recent popularity of their Churchwarden style, Hobbit Smoking Pipes, they are now required to build a state of the art manufacturing facility in the Shire.  The clan leaders assembled to discuss this Unexpected Journey, and what they must do to avoid anarchy in the clan, insure quality, and authenticity of their pipes and thwart economic disaster.   After a spirited debate, and much ale, clan leaders decided it most important to select an appropriate team to ensure success of this project.   The team assembled was quite purposeful and necessitates a brief description of its members.  Below is a brief portrayal of the team eloquently named The 7 Hobbits of Highly Successful Projects.

 1. Expert Hobbit

The Expert Hobbit is one that really knows and understands the process of making Hobbit Smoking Pipes. He incorporates acquired knowledge and many years of pipe making experience to create the most excellent pipes in Middle Earth. A very important aspect of his success is beginning with the end in mind. This is done by proactively discovering the needs of all stake holders to understand the business acumen, the application, and the technology platforms required for this project. The Expert Hobbit is typically the project leader, either by design or default.

 2.  Priority Hobbit

The Priority Hobbit does not get distracted with urgent or unimportant things. He puts first things first and is exclusively focused on how Hobbit Pipes instill elite gratification to the pipe patron. His precedence is to ensure Win-Win conclusion for the client and the team, which is the essence of Hobbit Pipes. The Priority Hobbit knows what is important, when to delegate, and when to say no.

The Priority Hobbit does not get distracted with urgent or unimportant things.  He puts first things first and is exclusively focused on how Hobbit Pipes instill elite gratification to the pipe patron.  His precedence is to ensure Win-Win conclusion for the client and the team, which is the essence of Hobbit Pipes.  The Priority Hobbit knows what is important, when to delegate, and when to say no.

 3. Scribe Hobbit

Documenting the baseline of the project is the Scribe Hobbit’s mandate.  He diligently researches and documents the essentials of the existing pipe building system and incorporates the new methodology to assure authenticity, quality, and accuracy.  The Scribe Hobbit gathers his information from fellow Hobbits and other pipe smokers in what he calls research, which typically involves food and ale. The Scribe Hobbits seeks first to understand, then to be understood.

4. Master Craftsman Hobbit  

The Master Craftsman Hobbit is a highly skilled fabricator of Hobbit Pipes who insures that they are unique and functional to the Hobbit Weed smoker.  This Hobbit has a collection of specialized tools that he has mastered and applies most effectively. The hand tools currently used in his craft must be assimilated into the automated machinery without loss of quality or integrity of these fine instruments of smoking pleasure. 

5. The Sales Hobbit

The primary role of the Sales Hobbit is to inspire prospects to buy pipes at a reasonable price, while maintaining a profitable return for Hobbit Pipe Manufacturing.  This position is most analogous to the primary Hobbit lifestyle of enjoying great food, conversation, and grand social events.  An important aspect of this position is to be the voice of the client’s needs and desires for their pipes.  In order to achieve this, he spends much of his time, and the Shire money, networking with prospective clients and pipe distribution partners.  He communicates all that he has learned from his networking to the 7 Hobbits, and often recruits external specialists with synergies to complement the team.

 Some Hobbits do not see real value in the Sales Hobbit since he doesn’t do any tangible work.  However, since the addition of his position, an exceptional increase in Hobbit Pipe orders has created the need for this project.  Much of his success is attributed to the his coveted hands-on demonstrations, which showcases the latest improvements of the products and always includes a fine feast.  Go figure!

 6. Student Hobbit

The Student Hobbit is constantly researching, learning, and testing better ways to make Hobbit Pipes.  His apprenticeship involves spending an inordinate amount of time with his Mentor Hobbit and Scholars of the trade to discover how to improve a near perfect instrument.  This Intern position typically does not offer much income, but includes gratis benefits secured from Shire Grant monies to the Middle Earth University of Advanced Studies. 

7. Mentor Hobbit 

Mentor Hobbits are commonly elders of their clans and spend their days sharing life knowledge with others.  Most Mentor Hobbits are Subject Matter Experts and hold project positions in in their specialized fields.  Other Mentor Hobbits, however, remain in the field of education and become Professor Hobbits, with most of their work sustained by teaching or research. Professor Hobbits are only engaged with project teams for short term consultation due to their tendencies to seldom completing their work before expending all funds, much like Politician Hobbits. Regardless, Mentor Hobbits Sharpen the Saw, so to speak, to keep a fresh edge on the team.

With the team in place, the Shire is now ready for this Big Adventure of Manufacturing Automation.  The team is prepared to increase production to meet the extraordinary demand for their famously popular Hobbit Smoking Pipes.  I hope that this brief glimpse into the Shire was useful to you and prepares you for your Unexpected Journey.

Reference notes:

While searching for content I came across this great article on the ISA website called The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Controls Engineers © 2008 ExperTune, Inc. by George Buckbee, P.E. of ExperTune, Inc.  

Thank you Mr. Buckbee for your contribution.

I also reference all of the The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

With the shortage of qualified professionals available today, automation veterans are curious about where their successors might come from. What is the next generation up to as they prepare to accept the baton from us, their predecessors? And will their contributions bring serious beneficial changes to the automation industry? As the runners in a race are breathless with anticipation, so was our little group of local ISA members as we toured a local training facility.  Here we found strong, fledgling candidates that can bring the automation race closer to a win!  One could even consider the possibility that this wave of newcomers might even revolutionize the field.

There we were at the Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) in Greensboro, NC. The highlight of this tour was for us the new Mechatronics Lab, which has a scaled version of a manufacturing environment where hopeful contenders, students, apply theories learned in a hands-on training process automation system. The system was very impressive and includes most of the main components of a production line including: a CNC machine, robots, liquid and solids vessels, conveyors, filling and packaging lines. The PLC controlled system monitors RFID labeled bottles which are filled, capped, packaged then recycled back into the system.

In my opinion, these students would qualify to be the next baton bearers.  Their training could fill professional shortages in this industry. Let’s take a closer look at the skills they are mastering and the setting this is happing in today. Technical classes offered in the Mechatronics curriculum include: basic electricity, fluid mechanics, mechanical drives, instrumentation, motor control, PLC programming, CAD, Robotics and Process Automation. Most of these courses incorporate the aforementioned hands-on labs for students to practice what they have learned. An interesting note is that each lab had an area designated to display items that were successfully implemented and others that failed during the lab exercises. This display prepared students for dealing with tangible effects on projects in a controlled environment, without catastrophic consequences to safety, equipment or the environment.

In the tour, we were intrigued to learn that all of these interactive labs were introduced and utilized in the first semester. Mechatronics training gives students an advantage when starting their careers in industrial automation and manufacturing. Companies hiring these students reap benefits from having talented new hires with both theory and practical experience before they ever enter a plant.  It is noteworthy though that some of these students are young veterans already in the field hoping to gain new skills to offer a new edge. This is not to suggest that an Associate of Science in Mechatronics would replace a Bachelors of Science degree program or those corresponding professionals, but it does offer complementary and effective apprentices prepared to begin their career or further their higher education.

Upon successful completion of the Mechatronics Engineering Technology program at GTCC, the graduate should be able to:

· Display a working knowledge of electro-mechanical systems and hydraulic and pneumatic systems

· Perform preventive maintenance and troubleshoot a variety of industrial systems involving electronics, sensors, actuators, fluid mechanics, instrumentation, and controls

· Explain the operation of automated controllers

· Demonstrate working knowledge of programmable logic controllers (PLC) and how to test and troubleshoot a PLC

· Demonstrate a logical sequence for isolating problems within a mechatronics system

· Identify various sensors and instrumentation and explain how they function in a loop control system

· Understand the importance of and demonstrate safe working habits

The Mechatronics program available in many community colleges and universities offer industry leaders a new wave of capable runners with the potential to fill the current automation shortages and bring economic efficiencies that do not currently exist. We were so inspired by the idea that the tour carried over into informal discussions long after the appointed end time. Some of the ISA officers agreed to participate in GTCC’s 2013 Summer Camp for Middle and High School Students. In addition to that, one Officer from our group offered to speak to the students in the near future. As for our ISA section, we will not only keep our eyes on this next generation of technical athletes, we plan to add them to our teams—the sooner, the better! 

Anybody besides me starting to get their second wind?

Zen Quote: Gold Medals aren’t really made of gold. They are made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to find alloy called guts.

Dan Gable

My oldest daughter recently had a Medieval Theme Wedding, and it was a blast (that’s me on the left).  It was fun to dress-up and pretend to be someone of noble status and guardian of the Guild.   During this grand event, it was peculiar how everyone went along with the theme and actually became their characters, which caused me to ponder….

People of medieval times did not have the technology we have today to make life easy and were very busy serving countless roles just to get by. The 21^st century is not much different.  We find ourselves playing multiple life roles which may include slaying dragons as employees, defending the castle as a spouse, rescuing damsels in distress as parents, or celebrating victory as an athlete or rock star…etc.  Much like our medieval contemporaries, we have countless responsibilities added to our primary job due to attrition, money shortages, and qualified available resources.  This too busy phenomenon, predominantly caused by the shortage of qualified professionals, dominates automation blogs, LinkedIn Groups, and Twitter. This crusade affects our regular day job by adding extra-curricular tasks that are now expected of us.

Our roles of slaying dragons, rescuing damsels in distress, or defending the castle have been around for millennia.  It is unclear if this state of affairs shall prevail, but no matter what, ALWAYS remember the important things in your life and make time for them.

Happy Thanksgiving from our Guild to yours!!!!

The first time I experienced virtualization was in 1971 during driver education class where 14 year olds experienced driving a car in a driving simulator.  This was less costly and much safer than having first time drivers mistake the gas pedal for the brake pedal, or run over pedestrians crossing the street. Some of us went to class early to see who could add the most miles to the simulator odometer before class began, or the Driver Ed teacher caught us.  A few short years later a Head Mounted Display (HMD) was placed on my cranium to experience a game where two players battled each other in a virtual world, and as we moved our avatar mirrored our actions. Unfortunately my opponent was not very mobile nor aggressive and the game ended too quickly.    Those were very cool experiences that I will never forget.

Virtualization in its earliest form has been around since the 1860’s with the introduction of 360 degree panoramic paintings, followed by Sensorama or “Experience Theater”, and then the advent of pilot training and genesis of gaming with flight simulators in the1960’s. 

Hollywood also engaged us with virtual reality in fictional works such as Star Trek’s  Holodeck, the dystopia of Total Recall, the simulated reality of The Matrix and the virtual world of Pandora in Avatar.  As far as I know, none of these fictional virtual experiences are available today, or perhaps we are living in them right now.

The virtualization buzz of our time is based upon the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or network resources.  This technology offers real cost-effective solutions in the business and industrial IT environments.  Industrial controls and automation systems use the same core software products as the business systems including VMWare VSphere, Microsoft HyperV, and Citrix Xenserver.  The virtual environment greatly reduces costly real estate and maintenance of traditional IT infrastructures.

As with any technology, it is important to implement your virtualized solution properly.  One such person who has success in this field is my colleague and author of the very popular ArchestrAnaut blog, Andy Robinson.  Andy recently wrote a white paper “Virtualization Storage Deep Dive for the Controls Engineer (with a slight VMWare slant)”  which I found to be a great short reference and very Zen.

Strap on your HMD  and Boldly go where everyone is virtually going.

Cognitive Overload occurs when one attempts to process too many complex learning activities simultaneously which impedes meaningful learning.  Another aspect of cognitive overload theory involves understanding how many discrete units of information can be retained in short-term memory before information loss occurs (especially as we get older).

Now let me explain how this theory relates to…….Uh!  The… Um…. What were we talking about?………. and where are my glasses?

The excerpt below is from a recent Technical Brief named “Legacy Controls in Modern Manufacturing” that we sent out last week  that explains this theory and relates it to Automation  much better than I can.

Many people have heard of Gordon Moore’s Law, where the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles about every two years. Mr. David House, also of Intel, linked this trend to performance, stating the performance of the hardware doubles every 18 months, the combination of more transistors and higher speeds.

Enter our manufacturing equipment into this environment. Output from factories tends to grow more linearly than exponentially. The electronic data rate required to support that growth will be similar.

However, computer performance has improved exponentially. A natural result of this development is a massive increase in the availability of data. This extra data can be leveraged to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and improve quality.

Factory software solutions developed with communications data rates exceeding 10mbps do not have to be designed to be inherently efficient, as was true in the past. After all, the equipment being controlled and monitored does not require even one tenth of the network speed. We can oversample the process equipment uniformly and continue without running out of bandwidth. This provides many benefits for diagnostic capability formerly only available from dedicated systems applied as separate equipment. High speed measurement of a process yields opportunities for efficiency and quality improvements, driving profitability.

So everything is great, right?

Not always. As electronic equipment becomes obsolete, the replacement choices available often include a proper joining of both old and new technology. When this is the case, a thorough understanding of complete networks is required. For example, the seemingly simple replacement of a Human-Machine Interface (application of year 2010 technology to 1980′s equipment) can provide totally unexpected results. One such instance resulted in such an overload of the control network, the equipment operation almost halted.

To prevent “Cogitative Overload” a thorough analysis of your existing industrial control equipment is essential to a successful upgrade, including:

a. Inspection and documentation of the physical installation

b. Communications error analysis

c. Network loading over manufacturing cycles

d. Reserve capacity

e. Opportunities for optimization

Using this analysis will project the probable impact of a contemplated change or upgrade before the investment has been funded.

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Zen Quote: “It is not the load but the overload that kills.

Spanish Proverb