I saw an email from Process Automation Hall of Fame member, Greg McMillan, welcoming a new ISA Mentor Program protégé and resource (a.k.a. mentor). The goal of this program is to connect:
…early career professionals to more seasoned professionals who are willing to help coach, guide and share expertise. The program is conducted entirely online.
Greg also attached a presentation he had given at the AIChE Spring Meeting on the current state and recommended solutions for the automation engineering profession. He first highlighted the significant challenges:
Books by experts like Shinskey are out of print Technology departments depleted or gone Experts from the 1970s technological peak are retired Practitioners gap due to hiring freeze in 1980s and 1990s Industry publications and presentations often not by practitioners Process production companies (users) reluctant to publish anything Emphasis on time and money and doing more with less Practitioners overloaded (no time or incentive for technical development) Few if any onsite technical courses and mentors or libraries Executives lack process control education, experience or understanding Change and experimentation viewed negatively leading to copy jobs Mistaken view that everything has been done and IIoT is total solution
Greg shared his ideas for how to best address these challenges:
Develop and support Mentor Program Q&A and Webinars Develop and teach industry-based university courses and labs Detail best practices in courses, publications and presentations Increase innovation by process simulation and digital twin Conduct and implement opportunity sizing and assessments Deploy dynamic demos with “before” and “after” metrics Deploy dollar metrics for process capacity and efficiency Moving average for 12 hours (shift) and month (real time accounting) Coauthor publications and presentations with practitioners
Finally, he shared how digital twin technology can drive innovation for improved project and operational performance across many phases of the lifecycle of a plant:
exploring <=> discovering <=> prototyping <=> testing <=> justifying <=> deploying <=> testing <=> training <=> commissioning <=> maintaining <=> troubleshooting <=> auditing => operator, system and process performance showing the “before” and “after” benefits of solutions from online metrics
Visit the ISA Mentor Program page for more on how to be a protégé or resource to advance the profession and make our plants and production facilities safer, more reliable and more efficient & sustainable.
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