Frogging Away from the Offshore Platform

by Jim Cahill

I know that sometimes these posts can get fairly deep technically. Being Friday, here's one I hope you won't find so deep. It's about an email I received from one of our very senior SureService engineers, Randy Pratt, who was recently out working with an offshore oil and gas producer. These stories are especially near and dear since this is the industry I worked in as a systems engineer to begin my career.

Whisking in by Helicopter to Offshore PlatformFor those that have never been out to an offshore platform, it's a whole 'nother world of steel, pipes and equipment. Typically, you whisk in and whisk out on a helicopter to take care of the business that needs tending to. For Randy, that meant doing a Premier Service visit where he spent several days with the systems engineers and technicians looking at all maintenance aspects of their DeltaV system. This visit also provided the opportunity for Randy to answer questions and share his experience gained over the years.

Frog Lift from Offshore PlatformNow after a few days out on the platform, Randy was ready to head back. Unfortunately, the expected "whisk out" part was not possible. A hydraulic pump on the helicopter failed during the pre-flight checks. The good news is that it was discovered while the helicopter was on the helipad and not while in flight back to the main island, a trip of 80 kilometers or 50 miles.

Frog Lift Safely Lands on BoatRandy got to experience the other way to get off of an offshore platform, via boat. Back when I did this in the mid 1980s in the Gulf of Mexico, we typically used a rope swing from the platform's boat landing out to the crew boat. When there were swells in the Gulf, you had to be pretty good at timing your swing to make sure the boat was on the way up. It was a little tricky to go from a stationary platform to a moving landing target.

It's gotten a little more high-tech in the decades that have passed. Randy got to be "frogged" which means being lowered in a personnel transfer capsule by crane down to the boat below.

Randy concluded his adventure with a three-hour boat ride back to mainland, followed by more conventional means of transportation back to Austin.

I just wanted to share this interesting working slice of life for those of you not in the industry.

Update: I just received an email letting me know that the pictures which I upload to Flickr were being blocked by this person's IT organization... *&%$#&*. I like using Flickr because it thumbnails the photos, allows me to tag them, and creates the HTML code for me to paste into these posts.

Please let me know whether these pictures are being blocked at your site. Here's the three pictures:

WhiskingInByHelicopter.jpg

FrogLiftFromOffshorePlatform.jpg

FrogLiftOnToBoat.jpg

I'm also curious if any other social media sites are being blocked (YouTube, LinkedIn, FaceBook, Del.icio.us, Twitter, etc.)

Update 2: At ControlGlobal.com, Walt Boyes picks up on business uses for social media sites like YouTube and Flickr. See his example of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board's YouTube Channel, if you can.

If you can't see this channel which shows video analysis of plant safety incidents, you now have a great argument on the need for your IT organization to unblock this site.

Update 3: Thank you Gary Mintchell for adding visibility to the plight of process manufacturers with "Mordoch, The Preventer of IT Service" departments who are blocking YouTube and other social media sites. Let's get a Groundswell going here!

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March 28, 2008 in Oil & Gas, in Support Services | Comments (0)

Certified Functional Safety Expertise

by Jim Cahill

Successfully executing a project with safety instrumented systems requires trained and competent project team members. They must be versed in the safety lifecycle as required by international safety standards—primarily IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 (ISA 84.01 in the U.S.) for the process industries.

To address this safety expertise requirement, TÜV and exida along with the support of other global safety experts created the Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) concept. Its mission is:

…to ensure that personnel performing SIS lifecycle activities are competent as required by the IEC 61508, 61511, and 62061 [machinery safety] standards.

Currently there are two levels of certification, CFSE and CFSP (Certified Functional Safety Professional). The difference is mainly in practicing experience—ten years for CFSEs versus two years for CFSPs. The CFSE.ORG website describes the difference:

The CFSE is the higher level certification and is aimed at professionals who actively lead, coordinate and review the more complex and demanding activities in the Safety Lifecycle in leadership positions including SIL selection and SIL verification.

The CFSP is targeted at professionals who need a thorough understanding of the Safety Lifecycle activities at the execution level without necessarily leading, coordinating or reviewing the more complex and demanding activities.

CFSE.ORG reports that there are currently over 200 CFSEs and CFSPs in practice worldwide. The certification process is not easy. Those trying to take the test are warned:

…the certificate exams are extremely rigorous and often demand significant preparation in order to achieve the 80% passing grade for both exams. With this in mind, the Governance Board strongly recommends that all candidates develop an in-depth study plan to properly prepare for the examinations. The topics covered in the different exams and sample Process Applications Exam questions provided in the Specialties and General Information pull-down menus may be helpful in developing an effective study plan.

In view of the comprehensive nature of the exams, the Governance Board recommends that candidates put in at least 40 self study hours as part of their preparation for the CFSE/CFSP exams.

I bring all this up because I received a note from one of my colleagues in Calgary in our Hydrocarbon and Energy industry center. The news is that they have three newly minted CFSEs—David Goerzen, Prasad Goteti, and Ajmal Siddiq. Congratulations on your achievement!

I went out to the CFSE.ORG site and did a search on the 15 pages of CFSEs/CFSPs. As of today, November 27, 2007, I counted 38 Emerson CFSEs and 8 CFSPs. This is more than 20% of all the certified safety professionals in the world. The percentage is higher if you exclude the machinery safety professionals.

The organizational roles of these safety professionals run the gamut including projects, support, technology, sales and marketing. These organizations work with process manufacturers at various stages of the safety lifecycle to help meet their risk reduction goals.

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November 27, 2007 in Project Services, in Safety, in Support Services | Comments (0)

Calculating Foundation Fieldbus Segment Loading

by Jim Cahill

When engineering a project with Foundation fieldbus, one element to consider is the electrical loading on each segment. I received an email the other day asking:

…to find required formulas to calculate FOUNDATION FIELD BUS loading… I am using [brand X] product and I have come across a web site that you can provide information. If you have those formulas… it would be nice if you could share them.

I also did some Googling around, and saw a few things, but did not see our Emerson Segment Design Tool listed in the search results, at least not in the first few pages. The segment design tool development team released version 5 of this tool in September, just before the Emerson Exchange meeting.

Here's a bit about what this calculator tool does:
Emerson Foundation Fieldbus Segment Design ToolThe Segment Design Tool is a Windows 98/NT/W2K/XP compatible program designed to provide a general guide for reducing the time required to engineer a Foundation fieldbus H1 segment for the DeltaV system, Ovation system and the Rosemount 3420 Fieldbus Interface. The Segment Design Tool checks the segment layout utilizing the Fieldbus Foundation's guidelines governing cable lengths, power consumption and proper segment termination. This tool now supports a variety of hazardous area protection techniques, including FISCO, FNICO and Entity Concept for Intrinsic Safety.

One of Emerson's Fieldbus consultants, Dan Daugherty, whom you may recall from earlier posts, helped me find the URL for this tool. He also added this bit of wisdom that I passed back to the person who originally emailed me:

My advice for people who can't find an exact match in the Segment Design Tool's component library for their cable or other components is to find something close and then use enough design margin that it won't matter if it isn't exact.

I'll also pass along that the segment design tool team invites comments and questions. Feel free to take them up on their offer, or leave a comment on this post, and I'll pass it along to the team.

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November 20, 2007 in Foundation Fieldbus, in Interoperability, in Support Services | Comments (1)

Understanding Software Architecture, Integration and Security in Automation

by Jim Cahill

While at the recent ISA Expo 2007, I had the chance to listen to Emerson's Jonas Berge's presentation on software for automation. Jonas is an active member in the ISA SP104 committee. This committee is responsible for advancing the Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) standard.

A few years back he wrote a book, Software for Automation: Architecture, Integration, and Security. His presentation covered some of the ideas from the book. Specifically, he discussed these key points:

  • Select technologies for software architecture
  • Justify investment to management
  • Where and how to deploy DCOM vs. Web
  • Where each OPC flavor is used and how
  • Integrate with business and coexist with legacy
  • Troubleshoot DCOM and OPC
  • Apply software and make the PC rugged
  • Engineer and document software
  • Backup, administer, and optimize
  • Make it robust, safe, secure, and 21 CFR Part 11 compliant

The body of knowledge that an automation professional must understand to perform their job effectively continues to expand. As Jonas describes, the software architecture is as important to design as the hardware architecture. Information flows from devices connected from digital busses all the way through the automation systems to enterprise-level software applications.

Security concerns must be addressed and be part of this design. Cyber-security is an area of specialization unto itself and you can follow many of the issues and advancements at the Digital Bond and Unfettered blogs.

Jonas describes setup of networks and OPC, ODBC, and web services communications across networks and tips for troubleshooting these. One everything is functioning properly, methods of management and administration including backup and restore procedures are covered.

Jonas highlights the fact that this is a lot to plan and get right. If you find yourself overwhelmed and too busy to become an expert in this area, you are not alone. Many process manufacturers are working with their automation suppliers versed in this level of expertise to help on the project front-end and to help maintain these software packages and integration methods through their useful lifecycle. One example is Emerson's SureService support services.

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October 17, 2007 in Cyber-Security, in Interoperability, in Project Services, in Support Services | Comments (0)

New European Flow Center Brings Flow Technologies and Experts Together

by Jim Cahill

An RSS search feed pointed to a Process and Control Today news item about the opening on a new Emerson European flow center. This center provides comparison, selection, final assembly, configuration, calibration, testing, support and training for quite a range of Emerson Process management flow brands including Micro Motion, Rosemount, and Brooks Instrument. The flow technologies include Coriolis, magnetic flow, vortex, thermal mass flow, and variable area meters.

The center was built to help process manufacturers primarily in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. With so many technologies, each have their advantages in different applications, it was important to have a common area where manufacturers could work with product and application experts to properly select and configure the best solution for the application.

I caught up with Emerson's Henk Verweerd who shared some highlights with me. The center, located between Arnhem and Utrecht in the Netherlands, supports seven languages, employs 275 people, and covers over 9000 square meters of floor space. In addition to the technical and application support, the team performs project and order management, repair management, and creation of documentation for projects and required regulatory agencies.

With the trend toward project modularization to decrease project schedules, the team helps instrument integrated systems for railcar, ship and truck loading/unloading, pipeline/LPG/LNG/gas metering, and proving Coriolis meters. The flow center includes four mini-plants fully instrumented with Foundation fieldbus devices to provide hand-on training for flow meters and applications, including the diagnostics these devices can provide to the automation systems.

Henk mentioned that the whole reason for the facility was to bring together experts from the various product lines to be able to work with manufacturers and quickly arrive at the best solution. It also helps provide better service, support, and input for future product improvements.

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August 3, 2007 in Education, in Foundation Fieldbus, in Measurement, in Support Services | Comments (2)

Guarding Against Information Overload

by Jim Cahill

Process manufacturing professionals, like those in many industries, live increasingly in information overload. The situation is exacerbated by the expectation of doing more often with fewer resources, especially in world areas like North America and Western Europe with their well established markets.

Automation professionals charged with the responsibilities of maintaining and modernizing their automation systems must keep pace with ongoing changes in the operating systems, automation software, and device drivers, not to mention any operating system security updates and patches. These responsibilities have grown as newer systems have been built on commercially available technologies like Ethernet, Windows operating systems, and open, interoperable communications standards specific to process manufacturers like OPC, HART, Foundation fieldbus, etc.

We received a clear message from our DeltaV system customers around the globe that it was very difficult to keep up with all the changes and sort out what was applicable to them, given their current versions of hardware and software.

To meet this need for more focused, relevant information particular to their systems, our SureService team created Guardian Support, which links the system administrators to the DeltaV experts at Emerson and to the extended community of system administrators throughout the company's global enterprise.

I spoke with Randy Pratt, a Product Engineering Application Specialist on our SureService support team. Randy is another one of the veterans around here, well known by many Emerson customers. I like the team's guiding motto that Randy shared with me, "We make the system you’ve got even better."

Guardian basically collects and provides a snapshot of all the version information in a DeltaV system, from the operating systems in the workstations, controllers, and I/O devices.

It filters the information system administrators receive to just what they have in their system, so that the information is focused and relevant. This information may include operating system security updates, patches, knowledge base articles, hardware warranty information, and more.

Randy added that the flip side of the coin is that Emerson support experts have access to this same information to rapidly solve any issues that may arise over the life of the system. This can save quite a bit of time when working through an issue by knowing all the versions without having ask, or dig around for it.

It also helps the system administrators better plan lifecycle issues associated with the underlying technologies. Commercially available technologies rapidly evolve. A recent example is the parallel port we've known and loved on our PCs have been going away as USB ports take over. The more advance notice that Guardian Support can provide, the better these changes can be planned and scheduled.

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April 14, 2006 in Support Services | Comments (1) | Trackback (0)