ImpRes - Optimization of Control Rooms

Editor's Notes

• #2: Thank you for the introduction xxx Hi, I’m Matt and this is Duncan and we’re from ImpRes We’re an operational innovation consultancy based in Perth and Melbourne We’re operational people – experts at finding and solving operational problems and rolling out improvement programs Through our diagnostic and improvement teams we’ve delivered – $1 Billion in cost savings alone to our clients in 2yrs, as valued by our clients by low to no capital solutions Due to our strong operational backgrounds we have a good nose for finding value creation within an organisation. It is amazing the amount of value that is left on the table in both mature organisation and imature alike. Control performance and process control have been some of the primary drivers of our success Rolled out plant wide constraint control Managed the transition to remote operations centres Optimising the performance of control room operations for some of the worlds biggest miners
• #4: Who is from x industry? Who is from y industry… Who’s from the airlines? You’d better be in top quartile of these assessment as I want to make it home tonight. In most operations have we equipped them with the right skills Some of these people are put in a now win situation Promoted due to duration and not skill
• #5: Sensors – explosion of cheap sensing options (back in early 2014 surprised to hear about GPS movement tracking of HME using a Rasberry Pie device plugged into the lighter socket) – down hole tools, on belt tools, automated survey, visual control Data integration - Analytics – that data can now provide insights. Mathematics & algorithms – leading to more sophisticated control strategies Predictive capabilities So the control room is more complex, roles will be changing but the basics remain the same. Framework to support the CROs to make better decisions and systems that enable smooth operation. In 15yrs time – it will all be robots talking about how to best use humans
• #6: Through our decade of operational and consulting experience we have put together a diagnostic that focusses on the core elements of control room operation. This diagnostic is often completed as part of a bigger turnaround program or standalone. Typically with the processes we focus on the daily, weekly, monthly MOS (developing, communicating and reviewing plans). - if you ask what the current operational priorities are right now there should be essentially the same message from the top to the bottom. - It should be clear how information and decisions flow up and down the organisational structure Process – subset of the MOS. Planning, handovers, logs, response plans etc Systems – alarms, control systems, design and layout, field communication People – skills, training, resource planning Essentially, we see the same basics bringing an control room unstuck and we have a created a diagnostic that we can quickly follow to analyse each of these elements from and operational perspective
• #7: Duncan will go into more detail Created a benchmark Each of the sub-elements has a list of activities, behaviours that would typify your maturity There are a set of questions for each maturity level which aggregate on a weighted basis  we’ve found this a quick, reliable way to find the hidden value
• #8: The theme of the case studies is around using the diagnostic to at a major mining operation in WA. We’ve also help the same minor develop a remote operations centre in Perth. In terms of the processes, we focus the daily processes. Interestingly, most consultants focus on the big decisions (M&A) and strategy as they are seen to be the highest impact to the business. I believe that the aggregated volume an impact of irreversible decisions that a control room operator makes rivals that of senior leaders. - if a business analyst forgets to submit a monthly report (its not going to shut down the business) - if a manager underestimates resources – overtime or rescheduling of work - if a control room operator ignores / cancels a high pressure alarm (that should have interlocks that jumped out) the business may shut down for good when the vessel explodes. Lost time – such as optimisation of throughput and you can never gain those back. Typical the people make it in the the control room in the mining industry are good operators that have ben promoted. However, they have not seen the rest of business and how it operates whereas we need to give them the skills to make these guys effectives. Involved in the decision making processes. The second theme is exploring “control room tactics” in more depth. This is an areas with the daily processes that we find poor managed in just about all control rooms we visit.
• #12: For some reason it’s difficult for oprganisation tolock in the soft changes rather than the harder changes of systems.
• #19: Process of engagement similar to prior case study. Two major elements were identified as major gaps. 1. Strategy In those 50:50 infliction points that they understand the goals of the business, that has been conveyed in a clear strategy, simple to remember principles of operation or hierarchy of priorities. More examples in here” Flow v washes CROs continually being pulled into senior leadership office to explain actions 2. Daily processes – raft of issues with the daily processes
• #20: Princuples are simple statements that are easily memorised that remind CROs of their role and alignment to the strategy. Some other operations use a simple priotiy system: tph is more important than recovery which is more important than quality. Transparent operation – this is the backbone of a professional control room. If you don’t have this then you’ve got a major cultural problem. The standard response to any questions about operating philospgy / tactics would be to get into the minute detail with aim to confuse, mumble a lot or find an urgent situation to react to Utilise constraints Parameters in spec Minimal variation Mistakes are rate Controllers are planned Cement the principles but locking improvement plans – discuss those in an upcoming slide Cascdaded strategy and KPIs – workshops and prioritisation of key levers, within control of CRO that deliver value. Strategy aligment can be a simple message from leaders about quarterly priorities. Another operation I worked at the object was to continue to do routine acid washes to ensure the plant did nt’ scale – any variation from this schedule would have long term production effects – GM said his highest priority was “routine washes”, control room said the most important things was “production” because every time the GM called he asked about flow and not conformance to washes.
• #22: Essential 5 improvement actions put in place: When we reviewed the data we were staggered to find that 49% of the time the CRO was holding back because he had put in place an artificial limit. 50% of the time the upper limit could have been tested. (if the case of air traffic control I’m not sure you want the CROs pushing the boundaries but I assume you wouldn’t want them to place artificial limits based on what they did last week? Information convergence to CRO and Tactics meeting I will explain in more detail in the next slides Trends revamp focussed on standardising a set of trends that are key to optimisation or bite controllers on a semi regular basis Constraint tracking was simple system aimed at absorbing the latent capacity from the 49% of the time unconstrained. SOPs was setting boundaries and what the should do in the control room to drive consistency including the panel split between plant sections (2 x CROs in the control room) and skilling.
• #23: Process of Mapping out the information and meeting flows to do 2 things Get all the right information avbailabe for the CRO Make the convergence point the CRO
• #24: Built up a plans and then found the information sources for the key elements Missing from here is knowledge – what happened last time? Is there a respository of tactical information that be retrieved from the last time the operation bypassed the stockpile or used dozers, bypassed the cyclones. What was the circukstance, what did they do and what can we expect and do?
• #25: Developed a forum, called the “control room tatics meetings” where people with vital dialy information converaged to make a plan. Items were document as tactics – including: Realistic KPIS for the shift and actions to optimise (because CROs are making the limits for themselves they are much more likely to follow them and hold themselves to account Parked up maintenance items In adenteance – supervisors (who chair the meeting), CROs, maintenance, technical team, control systems, production coordinator Reviews of the tactics by supervisor, feedback given along with touch points with technical to discuss effevtiveness of technical tactics. Actions for improvement were discussed once per swing. In the process of moving towards a J5 or fewzion type product to capture and store the information. Make joke about air traffic having this sorted Who is at the meeting? – relate to others.
• #26: Not an invasive process – not heavy burden on the organisation to make this happen