College of Automation

A Message from Mission Controls President Craig Nelson

How do we relate training to the real success of a project, which is more than just the effective execution of all the contracts, budgets and timelines?

While the normal project duties are important — the design, engineering, project management, tools and performance criteria — we often overlook the readiness of the people who will be operating, supervising and maintaining the project, once it's up and running. At Mission Controls, and by close extension at College of Automation, we believe shortening the Curve of Readiness is — and ought to be — a critical path task.

In a plant undertaking a major project, workers traverse four phases on the way to full competence and plant efficiency.

There's a Login Phase, which occurs during the project design period. This is when plant people must be involved in drawing the project's functionality. It's at this point that plant people at all levels become aware that they are important to the project's success, and that they have real influence. It's vitally important they get on board with the project, that they're ready to paddle or bail, and that if they rock the boat it's because they need the attention of the helmsman to make something right.

The Animation Phase develops when the plant's people are fully committed to the execution of the project; when they're up to their ears in making the new sytem work. Their time, energy and attention are driving the plant during this dynamic aspect of the project's new life, when every impact is felt at full strength and the support of every worker is essential to support testing and startup. If the workers' expectations were set, their knowledge base laid, and their confidence established during the Login Phase, they will be assets when the project needs every brain and muscle to make it work.

When the commissioning is finished and the plant is running production on the newly installed system, there is the Recovery Phase. People get adjusted to the new methods, equipment, procedures and schedules. They have to adjust themselves, and simultaneously tweak the system. They also have to catch up with everything they missed during the sometimes frenzied period known as startup. This transitional phase, getting the plant back to full and normal production, is hopefully short: its length is to a large degree a function of how well the expectations, confidence and skills of the plant people were set and supported during the first two phases.

The fourth, Enrichment Phase, has to be forced. It evolves as the project team and plant workers impose solutions on each outstanding issue, so attention can focus on improvements, analysis and fine-tuning. This is where the real payback — ROI — begins to mature.

College of Automation has taken a close look at this progression, recognizing the essential role of operations and maintenance people in making a project work, and has developed its testing (COATAP™) and course structure to promote the rapid movement of plant people through these four phases. The College is a powerful force, not just for greater knowledge and improved job performance, but for making the plant itself function at a higher level of proficiency, efficiency, and return.

Sincerely,
Craig Nelson