Financial justification
A control building upgrade can be difficult to justify financially,
and focusing on human compliance alone is not enough.
It can be difficult to quote real, tangible financial benefits
for an upgraded control room. Essentially, it involves pitching
for the company to invest money into a building, which, on
paper, is already working.
The proposal was based on the potential for expansion,
improved integration of standalone systems and incident
management. A streamlined control roommakes full use of
the prior DCS investment and will be able to furnish the front
line operations with key information directly in front of them
to make immediate decisions that can improve production,
and potentially avert or deal with an incident.
A human factors (HF) compliant control room may
improve the terminal’s efficiency by offering a more
organised and leaner operating environment,
incorporating improved operator displays, whilst
demonstrating to potential customers a clean and
professional environment.
Operator involvement
Once agreed in principal, the refurbishment was designed with
the operators rather than simply for them. This ensured that
their needs were understood, and created end-user buy in and
ownership from all of the shift teams.
The project teamworked closely with the operations
engineers to design floor plans, equipment and layouts. It also
enlisted a shift technician to join the systems team on day work
to help develop the operator graphics and to be the vital link to
the shift teams.
Custom desks were purchased that enable the front and
rear sections to move independently, allowing the operator to
stand, as well as facilitating disabled operators. Radio
charging stations were also installed, and external
communications and emergency shutdown (ESD) functionality
were all moved to a single location to simplify in case of
emergency.
The human machine interfaces (HMIs) were replaced with
large format monitors, which dealt with the issue of bright
flashing screens, and changed the ‘more plant =more screens’
mentality towards the mentality of ‘better information and
interaction.’
Grain LNG sought a balance between ensuring that the
HMIs were compliant with the current guidelines, such as the
Figure 3.
Touch screen video wall controller.
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