What's the biggest gap between your DCS/SCADA data and what's actually happening on the plant floor?

[u/BiggieCheeseFan88]

Hi everyone,

I'm a developer working on systems that try to understand physical environments, and I have a huge amount of respect for the complexity of chemical processing.

I've been learning about the incredible amount of data you get from control systems (DCS/SCADA) about temperatures, pressures, and flow rates. But it seems like that data can only tell you what is happening inside the pipes and vessels, not the physical context around it.

My question is, what are the most critical situations where you wish you had a clear record of the human actions happening in the field?

For example, during a critical procedure like charging a reactor or a complex Lockout/Tagout, how do you currently verify that every manual step of the SOP was followed in the exact right sequence? When an unexpected process deviation occurs, how often is the root cause a small, unlogged human action that happened moments before?

I'm really curious to understand how you bridge the gap between the digital process data and the real-world human factors. How do you handle this now, and what are the limitations?

[u/bee_biter]

Talk to the people who operate the process.

[u/pizzaman07]

What happens inside the pipes is the most important information to a process engineer. As for your examples of complex LOTO or procedures, there are already commercial solutions available. There are limit switches, ALOTO, Procedure Accelerator, and others. Not to mention regular rounds sheets and log sheets.

[u/ReadingRainbowie]

Bro you just gotta talk to people. Social skills are critical to chemical/process engineering. If you don't have them you won't last long in a manufacturing environment. The computer can only tell you what a computer can tell you. Chemicals aren't made on a computer they are made in real life.

[u/hysys_whisperer]

Most of the critical stuff like fired heater light off has interlocks designed to idiot proof the process of starting the thing.

Those report back via modbus from their PLC controllers to the DCS so we can see and have a record of what they are doing at any point, as well as some comms for alarming and such.

If you can screw it up bad enough to kill someone with one or more out of order step or skipped step, there's usually an administrative control of a supervisor sign-off where an operator has to get their team lead to go behind them and make sure it's right before they can proceed.

[u/Gettricky]

Communication and asking questions with the operators/engineers on how the process operates is what should be done. Before the plant becomes operational or an upgrade takes place, P&IDs are reviewed and SOPs are established. Daily logs are taken and even recorded within scada from the instrumentation. Signatures and sign off are also common or looking at a daily journal from shift change. If bob is on shift and he keeps messing up, well you know because that's his shift or if it's recurring all the time could be a mechanical issue.