Control Room Operator's Handbook: At-the-ready Control Room & Operations Center Guidance

Designed for operators and controllers in industrial plants and facilities who are responsible for the minute by minute, shift after shift control room operations. This first-of-a-kind handbook is a ready, by-the-side, resource for use during all shift activities with a singular goal: safe and reliable operations through situation awareness, assessment, and management. It is the benchmark by which all subsequent entries into this market will be compared. Included is the important concept of weak signals to identify and understand the many small, seemingly insignificant abnormalities before they can become harmful.

The handbook provides both new and experienced operators and controllers with a rich background of concepts, activities, and experiences to round out their site-based training and activities. It also serves as a solid foundation for in-house operator training. All the basics are here. All of the operational responsibilities and best practice approach options are covered.

Included is a set of cue cards. These cards repeat procedures presented in the handbook, for quick independent access and training.

What the industries are saying

• NATURAL GAS. It sums up and formalizes a lot of concerns that we discuss and teach our controllers. Good discussion of policies and procedures and differentiates between the two.
• REFINING. Younger operators can get a lot from reading it. Experienced operators would appreciate it as a reference. Liked the module concept for dividing and organizing the material.
• POWER. Doug and Beverly did an amazing job assembling all kinds of data and knowledge for this book. I see it as a great tool for reference.

Coverage

• The Basics: Enterprises; safety
• Operations: Operators, readiness, communications, multitasking, operator tools, models, training, using data, supervision
• Considerations: power of time, abnormal situations, doubt, biases and pitfalls
• The Control Room: control room design, using the HMI, using the alarm system, managing automation, managing the shift, shift handovers
• Weak Signals: seeing them, using them, getting more from them, troubleshooting problems
• Awareness: situation awareness; alerts, messages, and notifications
• Managing Situations: situation management, operational boundaries, managing the control room, defensive operating, taking action, getting help, "permission to operate," operator redeployment, safety nets

Audience

• Plant operators; controllers
• Operations supervisors and trainers
• Plant management; engineers
• Plant safety and reliability personnel
• Students preparing for an industrial operations career

Typical Industries

• LNG
• Metals mining and processing
• Network management
• Oil and Gas
• Petrochemicals
• Pharmaceuticals
• Pipelining (liquids; gas) transmission; distribution
• Power generation; distribution
• Pulp and Paper
• Refining
• Transportation; railways
• Water purification; wastewater processing

About the Authors

Douglas H. Rothenberg is a leading authority in industrial control room management. He is the author of both Alarm Management for Process Control and Situation Management for Process Control. He has spent a career in teaching, engineering at a major oil company, and as an independent consultant providing professional consulting, training, and services worldwide.

Beverly B. Kuch is a freelance technical writer. She has developed and presented training material for operators, written operating procedures for process plants and laboratories and worked with plant operators on a daily basis. She has devoted a career to engineering at a major oil company, directing a university cooperative engineering program, and as an entrepreneur in the water purification business.

Details
Type: Hardcover
Size: 7x10
Pages: 388
Cue Cards: 20
Features: Full color; easy location thumb index tabs
Published: November 2022
ISBN: 9781955578042