The document discusses the conduct of operations at a nuclear power plant. It states that conduct of operations establishes operating principles and a control system to support a culture of safety and disciplined professionals. It aims to continuously improve operational performance through goals like minimizing safety system unavailability and personnel errors. Key tools for conduct of operations include quality and consistent training, safety policies, communications, procedures, and emphasizing that personnel and nuclear safety take priority over power production.
A preprint of an article published in Process Safety Progress: P.M. Haas and G. Hager, "Conduct of Operations: A Control System for Your Most Important Safety Component," Process Safety Progress, Spring 2000, Vol. 19, No. 1, 1999.
A preprint of an article published in Process Safety Progress: P.M. Haas and G. Hager, "Conduct of Operations: A Control System for Your Most Important Safety Component," Process Safety Progress, Spring 2000, Vol. 19, No. 1, 1999.
A DILO (Day In the Life Of)is a great way to begin the conversation of current state of a position and future state of it. I challenge everyone to sit down with their maintenance team and re-write what I have written for a Proactive Maintenance Tech.
Understand how effective audits bring Maintenance Management theories into real world
practice on a daily basis in your plant, with your Leaders, Planners, and Craftsmen.
Learn how to determine the root-cause of Maintenance Business Process problems, and
how to shed light on facts that support a need for change.
Reliability and Maintenance Conference - 7-9 April 2014, Al Khobar, Kingdom o...Ricky Smith CMRP, CMRT
Despite the best efforts and precautions, equipment
failures do occur hampering the equipment performance
and adversly impacting the profitibility of the business.
Rotating Equipment Reliability and Maintenance
Conference aims to create a learning platform for all the
maintenance and reliability professionals to share the
best maintenance practices and discuss the strategies to
improve reliability.
This three day conference will cover all aspects of
reliability and maintenance including reliability centered
maintenance, availability, machinery failures, risk
assessment, spare parts optimization, techniques to
facilitate equipment maintenance, root cause analysis,
condition monitoring, maintenance planning and
scheduling.
John Day developed a proactive maintenance process in 1978 and manage maintenance and engineering at Alumax Mt. Holly and later at Alcoa Mt Holly for over 20 years. These are the slides he presented at the 1997 SMRP Conference. Great slides with great information. If you would like the slides and not PDF send me an email at rsmith@maintenancebestpractices.com. I worked for John Day back in the early 1980s which started my journey in Proactive Maintenance.
Series of six rating sheets to provide a high-level, subjective evaluation of the design of various elements of a Human Performance Engineering Program. Sheet #1 is for the Conduct of Operations (ConOps) program.
Maintenance Planning and Scheduling is critical to success of any Maintenance Organization resulting in a significant increase in Wrench-time (Hands on Tool Time). Planning and Scheduling are two distinct functions which are dependent on each other.
It saves more then it costs....
Preventive maintenance and reactive maintenance are an extremely critical part of any fleet operations. By creating a Preventive Maintenance program to decrease the incidents of equipment arriving late for the PM’s they are due for, this program can be an integral part of cost savings and reduction of equipment downtime for repairs.
Reliability and Maintenance in production ManagementNazneen sheikh
This ppt may help you to get a clear picture about reliability and maintenance in Production Management.
Feedback is a must!!!1
Regards.
Nazneen Sheikh
rrelic has developed a highly effective Total Reliability Framework for the implementation of reliability methods, tools and services in order to achieve your desired end results.
Total reliability Framework (TRF) Provides a management system for all reliability and Maintenance activities; focus on improving the performance of both the personnel and the plant equipment.
The concepts contained within Lean Manufacturing are not limited merely to production systems. These concepts translate directly into the world of maintenance and reliability.
At the core of Lean Manufacturing philosophy is the concept of elimination of waste. It is about getting precisely the right resources to precisely the right place and at the right time to make only the necessary products in the most efficient manner possible.
The concepts of the elimination of waste can be easily traced to Benjamin Franklin. Poor Richard encouraged the concepts of elimination of waste in numerous ways. Adages like “Waste not, want not”, “A penny
saved is two pence clear…Save and have” and “He that idly loses 5s. [shillings] worth of time, loses 5s., and might as prudently throw 5s. into the river.” Yes, it was Benjamin Franklin that educated us about the possibility that avoiding unnecessary costs could return more profit than simply increasing total sales.
It was Henry Ford who took the concept of the elimination of waste and integrated it into daily operations at his manufacturing facilities. Mr. Ford’s attitude can be seen in his books, “My Life and Work” (1922) and in “Today and Tomorrow” (1926) where he describes the folly of waste and introduces the world to Just-In-Time manufacturing. Mr. Ford cites inspiration from Benjamin Franklin as part of the foundation of these concepts.
However, it wasn’t until Toyota’s Chief Engineer, Taiichi Ohno systematized these concepts and the concept of pull (Kanban) into the Toyota Production System and created a cohesive production philosophy that was focused on the elimination of waste, that the world was able to see the real power of Lean Manufacturing. Interestingly enough, when Mr. Ohno was asked about the inspiration of his system, he merely laughed and said he read most of it in Henry Ford’s book.
Part 1 of this report will focus on one very specific Lean Manufacturing method known as 5S. This section will detail how a 5S initiative focusing on a plant’s Preventive Maintenance (PM) Program can immediately unlock resources within that maintenance department and make the PM process significantly more effective and efficient. Part 2 will look at the Deadly Wastes (Muda) of manufacturing and how elimination of these wastes is also a focus of the reliability process. Part 3 will discuss the overall objectives of Lean Manufacturing and parallel them with the overall objectives of the reliability process. Part 4 will discuss Poka- Yoke (mistake proofing) and see how several standard maintenance techniques are, in fact, Poka-Yoke techniques. A brief discussion of Kaizen and how both Lean Manufacturing and Maintenance and Reliability initiatives share these very same goals and objectives will summarize the entire report.
Watch the presentation: http://quality.eqms.co.uk/asset-equipment-management
In this slideshare:
1. An Introduction to Equipment Management: Why Business Equipment is Critical to your Business and The 7 Key Problems with Managing Business Equipment.
2. The Asset Register : Record Keeping – Compliance and a Basis for Effective Management, What and Where.
3. Maintenance and Calibration: Keeping Track of Safety: Staff – Customers – Partners – the Public.
4. The High Cost of Failure: Regulatory Non-Compliance and Human and Financial Costs.
5. Best Practice: Safe Operation, Smart Equipment and the Internet of Everything
Use this Slideshare for a best practice approach towards:
- asset register,
- preventive maintenance schedule management,
- maintenance repair and operations,
- maintenance program for equipment,
- heavy equipment maintenance,
- programmed maintenance,
- medical equipment management, industrial equipment maintenance, equipment safety, and facility maintenance management strategies are discussed detail.
MDU Spec is dedicated to providing the premier services in commissioning, inspections and technical training and to developing innovative solutions to solve our clients' most complex issues within this realm of expertise. We deliver these services with an unwavering commitment to the highest safety and quality standards, with subject Matter Experts and practical field bred inspectors covering Upstream (drilling and process/production),midstream and downstream asset solution based expertise.
MDU Spec is poised to provide a range of services to the international oil and gas industry as well as other industrial engineering markets. Distinguished by innovative technology and premier quality. Our services include:
-Commissioning and Project Management.
-Critical Inspections and Audits.
-Maintenance.
-Rot cause Analysis
-Technical Training.
A DILO (Day In the Life Of)is a great way to begin the conversation of current state of a position and future state of it. I challenge everyone to sit down with their maintenance team and re-write what I have written for a Proactive Maintenance Tech.
Understand how effective audits bring Maintenance Management theories into real world
practice on a daily basis in your plant, with your Leaders, Planners, and Craftsmen.
Learn how to determine the root-cause of Maintenance Business Process problems, and
how to shed light on facts that support a need for change.
Reliability and Maintenance Conference - 7-9 April 2014, Al Khobar, Kingdom o...Ricky Smith CMRP, CMRT
Despite the best efforts and precautions, equipment
failures do occur hampering the equipment performance
and adversly impacting the profitibility of the business.
Rotating Equipment Reliability and Maintenance
Conference aims to create a learning platform for all the
maintenance and reliability professionals to share the
best maintenance practices and discuss the strategies to
improve reliability.
This three day conference will cover all aspects of
reliability and maintenance including reliability centered
maintenance, availability, machinery failures, risk
assessment, spare parts optimization, techniques to
facilitate equipment maintenance, root cause analysis,
condition monitoring, maintenance planning and
scheduling.
John Day developed a proactive maintenance process in 1978 and manage maintenance and engineering at Alumax Mt. Holly and later at Alcoa Mt Holly for over 20 years. These are the slides he presented at the 1997 SMRP Conference. Great slides with great information. If you would like the slides and not PDF send me an email at rsmith@maintenancebestpractices.com. I worked for John Day back in the early 1980s which started my journey in Proactive Maintenance.
Series of six rating sheets to provide a high-level, subjective evaluation of the design of various elements of a Human Performance Engineering Program. Sheet #1 is for the Conduct of Operations (ConOps) program.
Maintenance Planning and Scheduling is critical to success of any Maintenance Organization resulting in a significant increase in Wrench-time (Hands on Tool Time). Planning and Scheduling are two distinct functions which are dependent on each other.
It saves more then it costs....
Preventive maintenance and reactive maintenance are an extremely critical part of any fleet operations. By creating a Preventive Maintenance program to decrease the incidents of equipment arriving late for the PM’s they are due for, this program can be an integral part of cost savings and reduction of equipment downtime for repairs.
Reliability and Maintenance in production ManagementNazneen sheikh
This ppt may help you to get a clear picture about reliability and maintenance in Production Management.
Feedback is a must!!!1
Regards.
Nazneen Sheikh
rrelic has developed a highly effective Total Reliability Framework for the implementation of reliability methods, tools and services in order to achieve your desired end results.
Total reliability Framework (TRF) Provides a management system for all reliability and Maintenance activities; focus on improving the performance of both the personnel and the plant equipment.
The concepts contained within Lean Manufacturing are not limited merely to production systems. These concepts translate directly into the world of maintenance and reliability.
At the core of Lean Manufacturing philosophy is the concept of elimination of waste. It is about getting precisely the right resources to precisely the right place and at the right time to make only the necessary products in the most efficient manner possible.
The concepts of the elimination of waste can be easily traced to Benjamin Franklin. Poor Richard encouraged the concepts of elimination of waste in numerous ways. Adages like “Waste not, want not”, “A penny
saved is two pence clear…Save and have” and “He that idly loses 5s. [shillings] worth of time, loses 5s., and might as prudently throw 5s. into the river.” Yes, it was Benjamin Franklin that educated us about the possibility that avoiding unnecessary costs could return more profit than simply increasing total sales.
It was Henry Ford who took the concept of the elimination of waste and integrated it into daily operations at his manufacturing facilities. Mr. Ford’s attitude can be seen in his books, “My Life and Work” (1922) and in “Today and Tomorrow” (1926) where he describes the folly of waste and introduces the world to Just-In-Time manufacturing. Mr. Ford cites inspiration from Benjamin Franklin as part of the foundation of these concepts.
However, it wasn’t until Toyota’s Chief Engineer, Taiichi Ohno systematized these concepts and the concept of pull (Kanban) into the Toyota Production System and created a cohesive production philosophy that was focused on the elimination of waste, that the world was able to see the real power of Lean Manufacturing. Interestingly enough, when Mr. Ohno was asked about the inspiration of his system, he merely laughed and said he read most of it in Henry Ford’s book.
Part 1 of this report will focus on one very specific Lean Manufacturing method known as 5S. This section will detail how a 5S initiative focusing on a plant’s Preventive Maintenance (PM) Program can immediately unlock resources within that maintenance department and make the PM process significantly more effective and efficient. Part 2 will look at the Deadly Wastes (Muda) of manufacturing and how elimination of these wastes is also a focus of the reliability process. Part 3 will discuss the overall objectives of Lean Manufacturing and parallel them with the overall objectives of the reliability process. Part 4 will discuss Poka- Yoke (mistake proofing) and see how several standard maintenance techniques are, in fact, Poka-Yoke techniques. A brief discussion of Kaizen and how both Lean Manufacturing and Maintenance and Reliability initiatives share these very same goals and objectives will summarize the entire report.
Watch the presentation: http://quality.eqms.co.uk/asset-equipment-management
In this slideshare:
1. An Introduction to Equipment Management: Why Business Equipment is Critical to your Business and The 7 Key Problems with Managing Business Equipment.
2. The Asset Register : Record Keeping – Compliance and a Basis for Effective Management, What and Where.
3. Maintenance and Calibration: Keeping Track of Safety: Staff – Customers – Partners – the Public.
4. The High Cost of Failure: Regulatory Non-Compliance and Human and Financial Costs.
5. Best Practice: Safe Operation, Smart Equipment and the Internet of Everything
Use this Slideshare for a best practice approach towards:
- asset register,
- preventive maintenance schedule management,
- maintenance repair and operations,
- maintenance program for equipment,
- heavy equipment maintenance,
- programmed maintenance,
- medical equipment management, industrial equipment maintenance, equipment safety, and facility maintenance management strategies are discussed detail.
MDU Spec is dedicated to providing the premier services in commissioning, inspections and technical training and to developing innovative solutions to solve our clients' most complex issues within this realm of expertise. We deliver these services with an unwavering commitment to the highest safety and quality standards, with subject Matter Experts and practical field bred inspectors covering Upstream (drilling and process/production),midstream and downstream asset solution based expertise.
MDU Spec is poised to provide a range of services to the international oil and gas industry as well as other industrial engineering markets. Distinguished by innovative technology and premier quality. Our services include:
-Commissioning and Project Management.
-Critical Inspections and Audits.
-Maintenance.
-Rot cause Analysis
-Technical Training.
Pre-print copy of an old article (2002) "Twelve Things Operations Managers Can Do to Get Everyone To Follow Procedures Everytime". Lots of improvement in many industries since then; but may be new to some and a reminder for others.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
1. Conduct of operations at a nuclear plant (M J Rhoades)
What is conduct of operations?
A general overview of what the "Conduct of Operations" (At a Nuclear power plant)
means can be generalized by the following: That management and operational staff must
recognize that personnel involved in operating the plant should be aware of the demands
of safety. (For both nuclear safety and for personnel safety). Also, that human
knowledge, performance, and understanding of how the plant operates can be variable.
As such, a Conduct of Operation shall be established using known good operating
principles, and a control system shall be incorporated, that encourages and supports a
culture of disciplined professionals.
Some of the bases for these Operating principles have been established and
documented through the years by review of plant operating history, incident reports,
personnel injury reports, accident reviews, equipment damage, and plant down time.
These are often called operation "good practices" and are supplied by the Department of
Energy (DOE) for the myriad of operation functions. This in no way means however, that
improvements in the conduct of operations are a static property, or, just a set of well
established procedures.
It is the responsibility of management and the operations manager to set goals to
continuously improve the performance of operations at the plant, and establish a control
system to meet these goals. Goals may include, but are not limited to:
* Minimizing the unavailability of safety systems and thereby reducing challenges to
Technical specifications
* Minimizing personal errors by quality training initiatives and standards.
* Keeping personnel dose rates As -Low -As- Reasonably -Achievable (ALARA)
* Minimizing lost facility capability.
* Minimizing the number of unscheduled plant shutdowns per year.
* Personnel performing surveillances in a timely manner.
* Reducing the amount of overtime.
* Achieving and maintaining complete staffing and training of shift positions.
* Minimizing low level radioactive waste and waste in general.
* Minimizing annunciator challenges and lights.
Operational policies should specify the goals desired, and provide the means (resources)
to achieve them. Without this full management commitment from the top down, to the
operator on watch, to the training department, and all other plant staff, the policies will be
hard to implement and failure to make improvements are possible.
2. The tools that can be used for this challenging endeavor are varied, and many. It is an
in depth approach which involves, quality and consistency of; training, safety awareness
and policies, enhanced communications practices, access control to operator areas,
annunciator actions and activities associated with them, preplanning of jobs, plant
procedures, rounds / log sheet usage, tag out procedures, problem identification practices,
just to name a few.
To understand these tools better, let's discuss what is meant by "quality" and
"consistency" as it applies to the conduct of operations. Quality is a property or attribute
which implies a high standard of performance or construction, implied excellence of
execution and form, for example. If a procedure is a quality procedure, it is one that
meets all expectations during its implementation. It does not fail the operator when he is
using it during a plant maneuver or system operation. It is clear, precise, in proper order,
with all necessary cautions, and added information at the right time and place. Quality
training implies that it is of superior nature, complete, meets, or exceeds all its expected
goals. It results with a well trained operator at its conclusion. "Consistency" is the
agreement or logical coherence among parts or things. This means for example, that a
few quality procedures or training lessons are not sufficient, but that quality must be
injected throughout all the tools used to enhance the conduct of operations. This requires
the commitment and resources that were mentioned in the goals section and part of the
control system used for enhancement of operations. Two more important tools are:
Communication equipment and use are of particular importance in the conduct of
operations. Methods should be implemented to insure all facility personnel are promptly
alerted to plant emergencies. This notification should be able to occur regardless of noise
level or activity taking place. Personal hand held radios or head sets, vibration devices,
flashing lights, etc, should be used. Use of the PA system should be minimized and only
used for important plant operational needs. High quality communication systems should
be kept in good order for offsite notifications, management communications, and
instructions. Oral instructions should be clear and concise, the receiver of an order should
repeat back the order to insure that it was understood correctly, and if abbreviations are
used they should come from an approved list.
Safety awareness and implementation is paramount in the conduct of operations. It is
superior to facility production. By this I mean that personal, and personnel safety, are
more important than power output. All plant personnel must always have this in mind
when working on site. Operations and plant personnel should adhere to the requirements
3. of the plant industrial safety program. This includes but is not limited to hearing and eye
protection, hard hats in required areas, scaffolding, and rigging requirements, not
climbing on equipment and insulation, working in, on, or around energized equipment
and proper use of plant tagging procedures. Again, a consistent and quality approach
must be taken with plant safety.
All though this is by no means an inclusive list of all goals, principles, practices, or
tools. From this discussion, I believe that you can get a good feeling of what the conduct
of operation is, and how it creates an atmosphere for plant personnel to perform at high
standards.