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Chemical engineers bring many essential skills to the diverse teams required for successful control room design
In any continuous manufacturing plant in the chemical process industries (CPI), engineers need to consider control room architecture and design as part of their responsibility. Chemical engineers may think that this is not their area of expertise, and therefore not their responsibility. This is understandable, but this article explains why engineers should spend time thinking about control room architecture.
Chemical engineers spend their careers making the world a better place. They may develop new products and materials, manufacture existing products, recycle waste or clean the environment and create energy. Design and architecture are not typically their strong suits, and indeed they may not have given much time to understanding the configurations that make a control room safe, efficient and productive. However, architecture and design have a profound effect on how one executes the demands of his or her profession.
The reality is that it takes more than four walls and some fancy desks to design a control room that will last a generation, be an environment where operators can safely manage the chemical processes and where teams of people can collaborate to solve problems quickly and keep the plant running efficiently (Figure 1).
That's not to say chemical engineers need to come up with all the answers - there are architectural firms that specialize solely in control room design of the highest caliber - but there are a number of reasons why knowing how to ask the right questions is in chemical engineers' best interest.
The operator
Demographics are such, particularly in North America, that plants are losing the most experienced operators to retirement faster than new personnel can be hired and trained - the latest generation of workers seem to have different aspirations and motivations for their careers. In the last 30 years, we we have greatly improved understanding of how operators worked and reacted to situations, but that experience and research applies mainly to an older generation. We simply do not know enough about what will change with a younger generation of operators. For this reason alone, when planning how the process will be controlled, it is essential to ensure that the room is designed from...