STATE OF

TECHNOLOGY

OPERATOR
INTERFACE
CLEAR AND RAPID PRESENTATION KEY
FOR LEADING OPERATOR INTERFACE TRENDS
Today’s leading trends in operator interface and
human-machine interface (HMI) design and engi-
neering center around presenting more information,
presenting the right information at the right time, and
presenting it clearly and rapidly. These trends are
supported by emerging improvements and standards
for SCADA, enterprise integration, mobility, alarm
management and high-performance HMI (includ
ing human-factors engineering to enhance operator
effectiveness, efficiency and situational awareness).
This anthology of recent coverage in Control
magazine and on ControlGlobal.com highlights
the past year’s developments and includes exam-
ples of recent outstanding implementations in the
process industries.
A deep dive into principles and prior coverage
can be found in the previous version of this report
at http://info.controlglobal.com/sot-150422-lp.
– Paul Studebaker, editor in chief

BEGIN
 Table of Contents
Wanted: Better designed systems for operators 4
Here’s what to look for in operator displays 7
Modern HMI puts ‘human’ front and center 9
A lasting plan for managing alarms 11
Industrial mobility: The new normal 15
Here’s how SCADA provides wellhead awareness 18
ExxonMobil automates procedures, reaps benefits 21

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HIGH-PERFORMANCE HMI
Wanted: Better designed systems
for operators
Operators responding to abnormal situations need better designed systems. The challenge
is not inundating the operator while being sure to wake them up.
By John Rezabek
C
onsultants focusing on operator effectiveness have
been known to draw some inspiration from military
aircraft designs, which incorporate a lot of graphi-
cal depictions of flight and combat variables on their cock-
pit “heads-up” displays. The present generation of opera-
tor graphics uses some of these elements, often hiding or
eliminating numerical values and incorporating retro panel
board faceplates, animated bar graphs and dials.
But when I pitch these ideas to the boss, he has a straight-
forward rebuttal: do we expect our operators to be fighter pi-
lots? That’s a very succinct way of saying, jazzy new graphics
aside, we don’t rely on operators for life-or-death split-second
judgments and actions, like one would a pilot in combat.
In fact, most HAZOPs, layer of protection analyses (LO-
PAs) and alarm philosophies specify allowing 10 minutes for
an operator to respond to take credit for an operator inter-
vention. Some companies require a lot more than 10 min-
utes, or not at all! “Our operators are rocks,” one HAZOP
leader told me. While operators aren’t supposed to be ready
to unleash a Sidewinder missile and shoot down the enemy
in a fraction of a second, they still benefit from a keen aware-
ness of the state of the process.
Most process phenomena are taking place inside opaque
piping, vessels and machinery; instrumentation is the only
way anyone has a notion of what’s happening. The measure-
ments and indications we deliver to operators’ monitors or
panel boards constitute their eyes and ears. In the view of
ISA 18.2-2009/IEC 62682, the “situational awareness” we
provide is supposed to be optimized—for clarity, accuracy
and consistency—to ensure that operators can intervene and
prevent the process from entering the upset state.
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But what the tidy concentric diagram in section 5.3
doesn’t depict is that the target or optimal operating regime
is frequently at the edges of the capacities and ratings of
equipment.
When we ask what the best indication of an abnormal
situation is, alarm philosophies might suggest we consider
suppressing or eliminating redundancies. For example, a
flow alarm, a motor status and pressure indication may all
have alarms configured that indicate a pump has tripped.
In this simplistic example, the rationalization team might
conclude, “I don’t want the operator to get three alarms for
the same malfunction.” But taking away alarms (and redun-
dancy) means the remaining “best” indication needs bullet-
proof reliability if we expect it to alert an operator who has
hundreds or thousands of variables to monitor.
If you remember the days of pneumatics, a measurement
came to the control house panel as a pressure (3-15 PSI) in
a single tube. If you wanted to alarm on that measurement,
you procured a pressure switch, calibrated it to actuate at the
desired alarm setting and wired the switch to a light box or
annunciator. Pneumatic controls offered an endearingly un-
complicated and direct linkage between the process variable
and the alarm system. Perhaps you don’t find it that endear-
ing, but it did engender the single-loop integrity we’d like
our modern systems to replicate.
Autonomous devices on a fieldbus segment solving func-
tion blocks have built-in alarming capability and can be
configured to publish their measured variable and any alarm
status relentlessly on a precisely synchronized, deterministic
network. If my alarm philosophy compels me to configure
only the “best” indications for a single malfunction, it would
4 NEXT PAGE u
The "best" indication needs bulletproof reliability if we expect it to alert
an operator who has hundreds or thousands of variables to monitor.

be ideal if I could obtain the alarms in this manner with as
few intervening complications as possible. Even if I’m cre-
atively implementing state-based or first-out suppression, I
want to invoke these measures if and only if the measure-
ments are timely and validated.
It would be nice, but in many implementations of fieldbus
the DCS alarm system isn’t listening directly to the devices
on the bus. It’s not uncommon for systems to employ a graft-
ed-on approach, where all the fieldbus data is funneled into
the legacy controller infrastructure. A measurement used in
a PID controller relies on the PID block to generate alarms,
so all the intervening code and communication is necessary
to ensure the alarm is annunciated. As systems move toward
architectures where the I/O isn’t closely held by (i.e., wired
to) the controllers, autonomous and deterministic delivery of
alarms would be a measurable benefit.

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 GE Digital

DRIVE SMART
OPERATOR DECISIONS
With just a glance, operators can recognize which
information requires attention, what it indicates, and
the right actions to take. That’s the power of GE’s high
performance HMI/SCADA—enabling operators to transform
business through increased efficiency and reduced costs.

Make the best decisions faster.

ge.com/digital/hmi-scada

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HIGH-PERFORMANCE HMI
Here’s what to look for in operator displays
Use the 4-second rule: can it tell you what you need to know in 4 seconds?
By Mike Bacidore, Control Design editor in chief
A
fundamental responsibility for any operator is iden-
tifying whether a process is OK. And making that
determination should take no longer than 4 sec-
onds, according to David A. Strobhar, PE, author of Human
Factors in Process Plant Operation and principal human fac-
tors engineer at Dayton, Ohio-based, Beville Engineering, a
member company in the Center for Operator Performance.
“To be able to do that in 4 seconds, an operator needs a dis-
play that gives them that information,” Strobhar explained
during his 2015 presentation on a different way of approaching
interface designs at ABB Automation & Power World in Hous-
ton.
Based at Wright State University in Dayton, the Center for
Operator Performance, is a collaboration of operating com-
panies and distributed-control-system (DCS) companies
that research ways to improve operator performance.
Strobhar prioritized the factors of good display design, in
order, as content, organization, layout and formatting, sym-
bols/shapes, color coding, number and size of monitors, and
background color.
“Background color is the least important,” he explained.
“That is almost trivial. Why is it this way? Rethink what a
graphic display is about. It’s about information transfer. You’re
trying to transfer information about the process to the operator.”
How do you maximize that information transfer in the
best form to the individual who needs to have it?
“You should always think about how the information is being
transferred,” he said. “You can’t overcome missing content.”
Information is a reduction in uncertainty, explained
Strobhar. “Anything that reduces uncertainty is informa-
tion,” he said. “If it doesn’t reduce uncertainty, then it’s not
information. Any time you’re looking at a display, does it
help you make a decision? If not, it’s just noise.”
Strobhar encouraged the audience to think about displays in
terms of bits per square inch. “What is the rate of information
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transfer on the screen?” he asked. “If you’re thinking about a
movie you’ve seen or a book you’ve read, it’s about the plot over
the prose. That’s what you want from your interface. All the
fancy colors and animations are not going to make up for a lack
of making good sense. Display design should be good storytell-
ing. The problem with a lot of graphics is they are just streams
of consciousness. There is no coherent structure that brings
them together. You want the information grouped together so it
makes sense. What are you trying to convey?”
He advised designers to spend time thinking about what they
want to tell operators or convey to them. Often, less is more, said
Strobhar, noting that typically it takes more time to write a short,
well-organized letter than it does to write a long, rambling one.
Content, then organization
“Once you have content, the second step is organization,”
he said. “How do you organize the information? What you
want is some organization that matches the system. Antici-
pate what summary information the operator needs and or-
ganize accordingly. The primary purpose is to have an over-
view. In the organization, it is critical to have higher-level
displays. You don’t want to organize around P&IDs. You
want to focus on what the operator is doing.”
In the data structure, you need to define the content un-
derneath the structure, Strobhar explained.
“You’re looking down from above on the structure, so
you can see the organization of the sections,” he advised.
“What’s important in each of these sections? What it looks
like is still not important yet.”
Once you have the content and organization, then you
can go into the layout and formatting.
“This is the prose that goes with the story,” said Strobhar.
“How am I going to say it? You want to convey the max-
imum amount of information in the smallest amount of
space. Rarely does static information qualify as reducing un-
7 NEXT PAGE u
certainty. Get to the point. You want to be succinct and tell
them what they need to know. It’s not that the color has no
importance. It’s just not as important.”
Strobhar offered an example of a large greenfield project,
which was starting from scratch.
“One of my first questions was: Do you have a hierarchy?”
he said. “Just because someone creates a hierarchy, it doesn’t
mean it makes sense. But if you have a starting point, you can
look at it and decide not to build all of the graphics or figure
out how to combine and consolidate. As you’re looking at the
graphics and interface, look at organization and content first.”
Sometimes you want prose, and sometimes you want ta-
bles to convey the information, said Strobhar.
“In an exothermic reaction, I want to know if one of my beds
is deviating. But that’s just one bit of information. By structur-
ing it and organizing it, the operator can check his display and
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“You don’t want to organize
around P&IDs. You want to focus
on what the operator is doing.”
David A. Strobhar, PE, of Beville Engineering explained
how to design operator interface with information as the
focal point at the 2015 ABB Automation & Power World.
make the determination within four seconds whether his pro-
cess is OK. I can focus on what is really important content, but
I can provide more bits per square inch if I use symbols.”
Color coding is easy to address, he said.
“If you’re going to have a color code, each color should
only mean one thing,” Strobhar advised. “Don’t let the same
color have two different meanings associated with it.”
Strobhar said the Center for Operator Performance is an
open group and is creating guidelines for large displays.
8 NEXT PAGE u
HIGH-PERFORMANCE HMI
Modern HMI puts ‘human’
front and center
Situational awareness focuses on undoing decades of data overload
that’s potentially costing billions of dollars in lost profitability
By Steve Diogo, digital media director
S
tudies show that poorly performing alarm systems
and poorly designed human machine interfaces
(HMIs) are contributing factors to major accidents
and poor operating performance. Speaking at the Schnei-
der Electric 2015 Global Automation Conference in Dal-
las, Barbara Martinez, principal solutions architect, ex-
plained the real cost of this problem and explained how
using color, shapes and data in context can deliver the
most effective, reliable and safe means of operations man-
agement.
“Data is not information,” Martinez said. “Information is
data in context. For years, we have been throwing more and
more data at operators—too much data for them to be able
to use—and the results have been accidents, incidents and
lost profitability.”
“Our goal is to put the ‘human’ back in HMI,” Martinez
added. The Foxboro Evo Control HMI was one of many
products and services showcased during the conference that
centered on commitment to functional design and human
factors engineering.
“Understanding how people process information and giv-
ing them the information they need the way they need it
is the absolute heart of human factors engineering,” said
Grant Le Sueur, senior director, control and safety software,
Schneider Electric. “If you don’t get this part right, you’ll
never reach true functional design.”
In HMI, the problematic trend of technology-focused,
rather than solutions-focused, design has coincided with
three major industrial trends:
• Plants are larger and more complex, which has led to
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increased monitoring load and a lack of understanding;
• Increasing levels of automation have led to operators
becoming overloaded with data and becoming disen-
gaged. As a result their role has been reduced to dealing
with upsets;
• Centralized operations have led to loss of direct
awareness.
Combine all of this and you wind up with overloaded,
disengaged operators who are only reacting to upsets.
“Imagine if that’s how the pilot on your plane operated,”
she said. “Oops, I’m too high; oops, I’m too low. This is a
really terrible way to fly a plane. It’s also a really terrible
way to control your process.”
Martinez said intuitive HMI is designed not around a
plant’s piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), but
around the people who use them and around solving chal-
lenges faced by all plants:
• Avoiding frequent plant upsets that affect production
and safety;
• Reducing brain drain and the chance of operator error;
and
• Keeping production on target.
Martinez said plants that have integrated modern,
high-performance HMI have seen significant improvements
over traditional HMI:
• 48% detection rate vs. 10% in detecting abnormal situa-
tions before alarms occur;
• 96% success rate vs. 70% in handling abnormal situa-
tions; and,
• 10.6 minutes vs. 18.1 minutes in the time required to
9 NEXT PAGE u
 "Our goal is to put the ‘human' back in HMI."
Barbara Martinez, principal solutions architect, Schneider Electric,
at the company's 2015 Global Automation Conference.

complete abnormal situation tasks.
“The simple fact is that all of this represents money,” Mar-
tinez said, adding that unexpected events cost industry $10
billion a year.
Successfully transitioning to human-centered HMI is as
much about the process as the program, Martinez said. To
that end, Schneider Electric’s Situational Awareness team
provides consulting, design and training services that in-
volve key team members including, of course, the operators
who will use the system.
Le Sueur said the main challenge in transitioning to a
new HMI system is the normal resistance to change. “But
when operators see how intuitive a human-centered HMI
can be, they become the biggest advocates.”

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ALARM MANAGEMENT

A lasting plan for managing alarms

A well-written alarm philosophy defines procedures that allow your team to get alarms under
control now and for the long haul.
By Ian Nimmo and Stephen Maddox

A
larm management seems to be a never-ending task:
company X hires consultant Y to repair their badly
designed and overloaded alarm management system
for $1 million, and then 18 months later the same company is
searching for a different vendor to help them with their poorly
designed and overloaded alarm management system.
Many companies start out on the right track. They hear
that standards and guidelines like EEMUA 191 talk about a
lifecycle model, and the first step in that model is an alarm
philosophy document. So they pay someone to write an
alarm philosophy document, but when it’s complete, it’s use-
less to the alarm rationalization process because it doesn’t
tell how to address common issues that can save time and
have a very big impact.
An alarm philosophy is a policy with rules and guidelines
that can be enforced. An effective philosophy document
will guide the rationalization process and describe proce-
dures that will keep alarms under control on a continuing
basis. The following are the key elements.
easy to use and help the team determine the time to respond
to the alarm as well as capture the consequences of failing
to respond in a timely manner.
Set appropriate limits
Many alarms system fail for lack of an engineering solution
for selecting alarm limits (setpoints). No one method can
address this issue. Some alarms are recommended by equip-
ment providers and are designed to keep equipment work-
ing within healthy, normal operating conditions. These are
difficult to change and risk the loss of warranty if changed.
Some alarms are derived from the process operating en-
velope. Initially, the envelope is often undefined, so process
engineers use their best judgment to determine set and trip
points. After a period of operation, historical trends can help
determine more accurate limits. A new analytical tool called
CVE produced by PPCL does this using “Geometric Pro-
cess Control” (Figure 1).

Define and prioritize alarms

An alarm philosophy document must define the difference
between what is and what isn’t an alarm. In rationalization
meetings, someone often convinces the team that it needs to
keep an alarm that clearly does not meet the criteria, so this
high-level information must be easily extracted, put on a wall
poster and be constantly in front of the rationalization team.
Non-alarms that provide useful information for the op-
erators are called notifications or user alerts. They are not
alarms, and during an abnormal operating condition or GEOMETRY DETERMINES LIMITS
emergency, they can be silenced and ignored. Figure 1: PPCL’s CVE tool allows the rationalization team to see the
The philosophy should have a clear and practical method operating envelope, how it changes based on operations and how
for the rationalization team to prioritize alarms. It should be the alarms are placed against this variability. Credit: PPCL

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 TIME TO RESPOND
Figure 2: Analysis of response must consider the maximum operator delay time. If the operator doesn’t respond within this time, the consequences will be realized. This is
critical for determining the required response time and setting alarm priority.
Credit: User Centered Design Services Inc.
The tool allows the rationalization team to see the operat-
ing envelope, how it changes based on operations, and how
the alarms are placed against this variability. It allows users
to identify Grade 1 product, then protect it based on tight
limits. This is very powerful and not just for identifying the
alarm limits—it can speed up a rationalization project sig-
nificantly by clarifying alarm relationships and quickly iden-
tifying problems. The tool also opens the door to process
improvements, equipment condition monitoring, problem
solving and process stewardship.
Procedures should include a formal process to determine
correct pressure, temperature, level and flow alarm setpoints
for each alarm priority. The process should accommodate
the need to adjust pressure and flow requirements based on
the discovery of imminent integrity threats (e.g., discovery
of immediate repair conditions during integrity assessments
and notifications). It should also verify that field alarm set-
points are consistent with control center alarm setpoints, or
a rationale for any offset. (Some operators intentionally off-
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set field and control room alarm setpoints, so controllers are
alerted and can take action before critical field thresholds are
breached.)
The philosophy document should describe the difference
between managed alarms and unmanaged alarms. The
methodologies and maintenance of safety-related alarms
(managed) should be described and the minimum require-
ments defined. For example, the methodology may call for
layers of protection analysis (LOPA), clearly defining “safety
layer” or “layers of protection,” their contribution to safety,
how it’s guaranteed through mean time between failure
(MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR), and what test-
ing is required to meet the standards.
One of the least understood elements of alarm man-
agement is the time to respond to the alarm (Figure 2).
Once a variable crosses the zone from “normal” into “ab-
normal” operations, the clock is started and the steps are
sequential. The alarm parameter is set to alarm “unac-
knowledged.” The response time for the operator to ac-
12 NEXT PAGE u
knowledge seeing the alarm, which often involves just si-
lencing the alarm, is the “acknowledge delay time.” The
alarm state is then changed to “acknowledged” and the
operator is then theoretically in the state we define as “de-
tection.”
In many cases, there is a delay from acknowledging the
alarm to continuing to diagnose the cause and required cor-
rection. We call this the “operator response” delay. During
this period, the operator uses the alarm name descriptor to
understand the alarm, and may have to use the HMI to de-
termine which of several potential problems has caused it.
If the operator is unfamiliar with this alarm, he may have
to refer to an alarm response worksheet normally developed
during the rationalization process.
Once the operator selects a course of action and makes
adjustments, the process control system responds to the
change request, but there is often a delay as the signal
goes out to the field and, for example, operates a solenoid
that causes a valve to move. This is known as the process
dead time. After the valve has moved, it takes additional
time for the adjusted flow, level, temperature or pressure
to return to normal changed. This is called the process
response delay or time. When the process variable crosses
the normal operating line, the alarm is classified as “re-
turn to normal.”
Figure 2 highlights the maximum operator delay time—if
the operator does not respond within this time, the conse-
quences will be realized. This is critical for determining the
required response time and setting alarm priority. Much of
this data can be obtained by reviewing historical trends and
observing the alarm and the operator responses.
Rationalization procedure
Four topics are extremely important and should not be over-
looked in the philosophy document:
• A larm management overview
• Alarm management lifecycle
• Alarm design principles
• A larm management rationalization methodology, in-
cluding a risk matrix and wall posters.
The rationalization team can further develop and imple-
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ment them through the following procedure:
Appoint an alarm champion in charge of enforcing the
alarm philosophy and maintaining the system. Plants of-
ten record lots of data and many have invested in alarm
management tools that provide statistical analysis includ-
ing frequency of alarms, lists of duplicate alarms, bad ac-
tors, frequency of alarm floods, and many more interest-
ing facts about the performance of your alarm system.
Most of the systems can provide weekly, monthly and an-
nual reports that can be analyzed to determine the qual-
ity of your alarm system and how it impacts operator per-
formance.
Designate a responsible person to manage reporting and
analysis, create action items, follow up on maintenance ac-
tivities to ensure rationalization is in-line with standards de-
fined in your philosophy, and provide executive summaries
to management on performance and progress. This person
should ensure that alarm enforcement is working and that
suppressed or shelved alarms are being managed as pre-
scribed in the alarm philosophy. All elements of the alarm
management system in the philosophy should be audited
and continuously improved.
Train operator, engineering, safety, automation, manage-
ment and HR personnel. For the philosophy to be success-
ful, all plant personnel should be aware of the philosophy
document. This includes engineering project managers,
who often hire third parties to implement projects that of-
ten involve adding new alarms. If not correctly managed,
these projects often provide a whole new batch of unra-
tionalized alarms.
Companies often train only the operators or the initial
team. Computer-based training (CBT) must be developed
for new employees along with a refresher training program
to keep people up to date, so as they go onto an alarm man-
agement project, the foundational investment you made
in the philosophy and rationalization methodology is not
wasted. The CBT should cover the use of the rationaliza-
tion procedure, wall charts and a sample alarm rationaliza-
tion exercise.
Provide tools for managing alarms, enforcing the phi-
losophy and maintaining the system. The important con-
13 NEXT PAGE u
siderations when selecting an alarm management analy-
sis tool are:
1. Can I get my historical data into it without too much
difficulty?
2. Does it allow me to visualize and analyze my problems?
3. Is it easy to generate the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly
and annual reports I need based on my philosophy?
4. Is the software easy to maintain as my system evolves?
Continue to have alarm review meetings with the opera-
tors for the life of the alarm system. At the end of the day, if
the operators across all shifts don’t take ownership and keep
up to date on what has been fixed and what progress is being
made, the project will fail. They have to be able to see the
benefits and get excited that this is something worth invest-
ing money and their time.
Most projects like this fail due to one of two things: lack of
money or lack of resources to ensure the effectiveness of the
rationalization team. We have been on many projects where
only one or two operators are provided. Part way through the
week, someone gets sick and they have to go back, so they
can cover night shift, and you’re lost.
To ensure success, the project should be set up just like any
other project that the company takes on. It should have goals; it
should have identified and confirmed resources; it should have
a project plan; and opportunities and potential problem areas
should be identified upfront. Progress and progress reports
should be tracked—it’s important that individuals are given re-
sponsibility and held accountable like on any other project.
Implement dynamic alarming to manage upset conditions
where alarm floods are inevitable. Many companies struggle
over the concepts of dynamic alarming, and are confused
about when to do it. Some do the basic alarm configuration
and solve bad actors, and when they run out of steam, they
turn to dynamic alarm techniques to address the more dif-
ficult issues such as alarm floods. It’s most important to first
follow the rules and not skip any of the required steps: doc-
ument every alarm, filling in the alarm response sheet dis-
cussed earlier. Where possible, integrate it into a pull-down
menu on Level 3 of the HMI graphics. The result will be an
improvement in the alarm frequency.
One alarm tool manufacturer believes you should be-
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PUT THE PHILOSOPHY TO WORK
The alarm philosophy document is a policy, with rules and guide-
lines that should be enforced. To get the desired results:
• Perform a staffing study to make sure you have the right num-
ber of operators and check to see if the workload is balanced.
• Appoint an alarm champion, someone in charge of enforcing the
alarm philosophy and maintaining the system.
• Train the operators, engineers, safety, automation, managers
and HR, they all need to know and understand the philosophy.
• Provide tools for managing alarms, enforcing the philosophy,
and maintaining the system.
• Have continued alarm review meetings with the operators for
the life of the alarm system.
• Implement dynamic alarming to manage upset conditions where
alarm floods are inevitable.
gin by grouping alarms around unit operations and set the
alarms based of operating modes; i.e., startup, normal oper-
ations, product change and shutdown. This will set up pre-
configured alarm states and dynamically suppress or “auto
shelve” the alarms based on plant state. However, automat-
ically detecting plant state can be a challenge, so there has
to be an operator override or operator instruction to confirm
that plant state.
Auto-shelving can have a big impact. For example, if you
detect that a unit operation such as a compressor has tripped,
the associated alarms can be shelved as they are superfluous
to the operator after the trip.
Make alarms manageable
The objective of an alarm philosophy is to control daily
alarms and to reduce the size and frequency of alarm floods.
When the system performs effectively, the operator work-
load is not burdened by the alarm system, and we can con-
sider alarms to be within normal operations.
Our ultimate goal is to be able to demonstrate that the
operator has the capacity to detect, diagnose and respond
to alarms in a specified and timely manner to protect the
plant, personnel and community from the consequences
the alarms are designed to prevent.
14 NEXT PAGE u
MOBILITY
Industrial mobility: The new normal
Industrial information software now allows you to create, modify, personalize and access
your own displays of business and process information in the office, at the machine,
at home or on any mobile device.
By Theresa Houck, executive editor, The Journal
H
ow many of you take your personal smartphone or
tablet on the plant floor or to the business office, or
see coworkers with their mobile devices? Does your
company use mobile devices for industrial purposes? It’s
happening more and more, and because of that, today’s in-
dustrial information software is adapting too.
Industrial information software now allows you to cre-
ate, modify, personalize and access your own displays of
business and process information in the office, at the ma-
chine, at home or on any mobile device. The software’s
dashboard on your device doesn’t have to look like ev-
eryone else’s; it can contain the specific information you
need. You can access historical and real-time data reports
from anywhere, anytime.
It’s no surprise  mobility  is changing the way managers,
engineers, operators, technicians and others are working
in the business office, the production plant and the field.
Three trends have been leading to this advancement:
1. Growth in consumer devices, which is driven primar-
ily by device manufacturers focusing on the user ex-
perience and moving away from single-use devices.
“This isn’t stopping — it’s not a fad,” said Kyle Re-
issner, mobility platform leader at Rockwell Automa-
tion, during a recent webcast hosted by IndustryWeek.
“And it’s driving a lot of small productivity gains. Al-
though a lot of people have these in their pockets,
there’s a lack of industrial software that’s tailored to
these devices.”
2. Increased network access, which enables external net-
work connectivity of the control system up to the busi-
ness system so information reaches a broader set of peo-
ple. Users are asking their automation suppliers about
consuming that data, not just providing it. “That’s a
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huge market trend and shift from isolated protected
control systems to being able to share tidbits of informa-
tion or, in some cases, entire pipes of information to the
external world that’s never been privy to that informa-
tion before,” Reissner said. “At Rockwell Automation,
we call that The Connected Enterprise.”
3. Continued productivity demands for automation sys-
tem providers helps users better utilize assets, increase
uptime and equipment efficiency, and generally do
more with less.
It’s all about context
A change in thinking also is contributing to the usefulness
of mobile devices in the industrial setting. In the industrial
software world, “What has been primarily a machine and
product focus is becoming systems thinking,” said Ryan Ca-
halane, director of software product development, control
and visualization business, Rockwell Automation, at a re-
cent Automation Fair.
“This has been common for some time in the process in-
dustries, and now it’s everywhere,” he explained. “People
want to layer in context and collaborate across sites, whether
it’s a multi-facility global food and beverage conglomerate, a
pharmaceutical manufacturer contracting out a plant, or an
industrial machinery OEM that wants to see how its equip-
ment is operating around the world.
“The ability to view, navigate and share information is
being combined with portability and mobility to make it
so operators, engineers and managers never have to leave
their work,” Cahalane continued. “With smart phones,
tablets and laptops, they can access their choice of con-
tent, subscribe to feeds and personalize their own dash-
boards with the exact machine, system and business in-
15 NEXT PAGE u
formation they need or want to do their job in the best
possible way for them.”
The philosophy is being applied to conventional opera-
tions technology (OT) and IT, but also for management. “In
mining, you have your factory on wheels. The owners can
monitor it, and so can the equipment suppliers,” said Ca-
halane. “In automotive, suppliers of turnkey lines can see
their equipment all over the world to determine and share
best practices for operation and maintenance.”
Mobility at Tyson Foods
A prime example of mobility making a difference is at a Ty-
son Foods plant near Ft. Worth, Texas. The corn dog fa-
cility makes 120 million lbs. annually, collecting data from
throughout the plant, with 1,500 data points. They’re run-
ning a mobility pilot program using FactoryTalk  Vantage-
Point EMI Mobile from Rockwell Automation.
“Our goals are to use data to improve transition from sani-
tation to production; produce end-of-day production reports
more efficiently; enhance food safety traceability; and pro-
mote communication and flexibility,” explained Jon Riech-
ert, senior corporate engineer for innovation at Tyson Foods,
during the IndustryWeek webinar.
Riechert said the production plant has many different ar-
eas that must communicate with each other and see what’s
happening, and mobility provides visibility using the plant’s
wireless network.
“Production supervisors can manage production flow by
seeing machine statuses and speeds, what’s running and
what’s not, how long it hasn’t been running, and be able to
adjust on the fly as production happens,” he explained. “It
also improves the amount of time we have for production —
the amount of time we have to make products.”
Another big advantage supervisors have reported is they
get to see what they want to look at when they want to look
at it, compared to some other Tyson facilities that have ded-
icated  human-machine interface (HMI)  monitors on the
plant floor that rotate dashboards. Sometimes the informa-
tion the supervisor is looking for might not be showing on
the monitor when the supervisor goes to look, so they might
have to wait to see it.
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“VALUE- AND USER-FIRST PHILOSOPHY”
Successful industrial mobility empowers operators to have the dis-
plays they want and need to do their jobs most effectively, to satisfy
their curiosity and find ways to do their jobs better.
“For our plant management, they can take a quick glance
and get a quick overview, and it gives them the ability to
know if a deeper dive into an issue is needed,” Riechert said.
“For example, maybe every time they’ve looked on their mo-
bile dashboard, line 1 has been down for the last hour. Now
they know about it and, instead of having to rely on someone
coming to tell them, they can go ask questions.”
Mobility also brings multiple ways to collaborate, he
noted. “Instead of the dashboards on static monitors or on
just a laptop or desktop, you’ve now got that information on
a handheld device, so you can use it easier in small groups to
collaborate. You can even take a screen shot of a dashboard
and text or email it to someone else and ask questions.”
The mobile function also helps track product distribution
for food safety traceability. “We have many different pack-
aging configurations, so we want to know which fryer was
attached to which packaging machine at any point during
the day. It’s important to track product as it flows through
the plant. We can monitor distribution settings. And it pro-
vides traceability from packaging back to earlier processes,”
said Riechert.
Portability and personalization
The two keys to successful industrial mobility are user
enablement and system extension. It’s called the “Value-
16 NEXT PAGE u
and User-First Philosophy.” User enablement lets you
configure your dashboard, reports and other information
on the fly and make it personalized. System extension
means the industrial information software uses HTML5
and other technologies so users can tailor the device to
their specific needs.  poser, combine content easily and do it quickly in a few sec-
Reissner explained the three primary ways to accomplish
this:
• Provide role-based and user tools for user enablement.
This means you can configure on the fly, and the in-
formation is personalized to you. “We believe mobility
really is a landscape in which users don’t want the ge-
neric login and the same report 50 other people want,”
Reissner said. “They want a report that’s personalized to
them, and then they want it personalized across a mo-
bile device or laptop.”
• Innovate in the collaboration space. This means look-
ing at collaboration not from a machine telling you
what’s happening, but other people telling you what’s
happening — being able to provide a framework where,
for example, an operator can talk with an engineer, or
people are collaborating across sites. “For example,
users aren’t just looking at notifications,” Reissner ex-
plained. “Instead, they see that this alarm happened,
and here’s the trends graph that attached with it on
their mobile device, and historically they see the top
three reasons why the alarm happened so the issues
can be addressed.”
• Extend existing systems. This means, as described previ-
ously, using HTML5 and other technologies to be able
to customize existing views to any mobile device in a se-
cure and logical way, including existing reports on a PC
that can be used on a mobile device.
“We make it easy with user-friendly names for parameters
and data,” said Damon Purvis, product manager, Rockwell
Automation, during the Automation Fair event. “They can
see it, save it and make it public. They can create it on an
iPad and see it on their iPhone — or on an Android device.”
For example, say you’re working at a plastic extruding
company. “As a manager, your main concern is, is my line
running?” Purvis explained. “If an extruder has gone down,
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you want to know if it’s back up, but it doesn’t help the tech-
nicians make the repair if you keep asking them. Now you
can just go in and look.”
Purvis said users can select parameters, create a graph and
save it in their own “playground.” They can edit it in Com-
onds, instead of an hour.
The approach empowers operators to have the displays
they want and need to do their jobs most effectively, to sat-
isfy their curiosity and find ways to do their jobs better, to
run the equipment a better way.
“When I’m happy with it, I can put it in my Favorites and
go straight there without having to open the development
environment,” he added. “Once I’m there, I’m back in the
model so I can make further changes if I want.”
Cahalane expects this kind of access to help people lever-
age their experience, and their companies to leverage their
most experienced people, who might not be right there at
the machine. “They might be at home or even retired and
can still lend their knowledge and experience to people in
the plant,” he said.
System designers can regulate access. “Even those peo-
ple who are steeped in Excel, who love it and do it in their
sleep, they see this and get into it,” Purvis noted. “It’s a new
paradigm for visualization and reporting.” Similar capabili-
ties work the same way in manufacturing execution system
(MES) environments where having mobile operators fur-
ther eases the work and still enforces process workflow.
Collaboration makes a difference
Mobility is moving beyond replacing existing plant- or
machine-based experiences on a mobile device to  enable
collaboration across sites.  Today’s industrial information
software can help you solve problems faster and more effi-
ciently—and even prevent them.
New levels of mobility, portability and personalization
can allow your team to easily try out different data, displays
and configurations in a matter of seconds, without the need
to call IT or a developer. Getting the information you need
where, when and how you want it allows you to do your job
better and to run equipment and operations in a better way. 
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EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELD

Here’s how SCADA provides

wellhead awareness
Pantera Energy uses Ignition HMI and KepServer communications to achieve quick ROI
by improving productivity and reducing time, labor and maintenance costs.

By Jim Montague, executive editor, Control

W
hy do parents, babysitters and teachers have to
grow eyes in back of their heads? Because they
have to stay aware of all the mischief and mishaps
their kids get into, so they can try to keep them out of trouble.
The same is true for operators and managers of oil and
gas production wells, which have been multiplying in North
America, even as they require more sophisticated moni-
toring and maintenance to improve production from lon-
ger-lifecycle and increasingly tricky deposits. Luckily, sev-
eral new tools, such as data-delivery systems and interface
software, are giving these users the extra eyeballs they need.

Developing the underdeveloped

For instance, family-owned Pantera Energy Co. in Amarillo,
Texas, has been drilling and producing oil and gas for 33
years with initial projects concentrated in the Texas pan-
handle and western Oklahoma. Beyond basic production,
it’s also grown, expanded operations and maintained steady
drilling operations thanks to an aggressive acquisition pro-
gram, which has completed more than 200 major transac-
tions since Pantera was founded in 1982.
Because it targets deposits that many oil producers can’t
execute efficiently, Pantera reports that most of its assets re-
side in areas that require significant knowledge of facility
management, water handling, wellhead compression, con-
trol and monitoring.
Pantera staff and contractors presently manage more than
1,300 wells (Figure 1). Each day, they handle pumping oper-
ations, roustabout teams, well servicing and regulatory com-
pliance, as well as maintaining a consistent drilling program
that handles everything from well design to rig selection.
WELL-DEVELOPED WELLS
Figure 1: Pantera Energy’s staff and contractors monitor and manage
more than 1,300 oil and gas wells in Texas and Oklahoma, and recently
sought a SCADA system to help them reduce manual tasks and im-
prove efficiency. Source: Kepware and Pantera
Aided by SCADA
“We understand that delivering value doesn’t end with the
drill bit,” says Jerrod Kee, operations specialist at Pantera.
To fulfill this mission, Pantera has always concentrated on
optimizing drilling and production. However, to accomplish
it more thoroughly, the company recently sought to imple-
ment a more powerful supervisory control and data acqui-
sition (SCADA) system that could automate more manual
tasks, provide mobile access to geographically remote sites,
reduce downtime, and scale up in the future.
Pantera historically relied on human pumpers for daily

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monitoring and management at its wells and produced-wa-
ter disposal sites. However, with such a widely dispersed and
expanding collection of assets spanning much of Texas and
Oklahoma, the company faced a growing challenge to get
contractors to its many sites quickly and consistently, and saw
a chance to improve operations with real-time, remote data
acquisition and control. It planned to analyze site-specific pro-
cesses daily, adjust them regularly, and centrally compile and
access key data for a more holistic view of all its operations.
Enlisting an integrator
To help carry out its plan, Pantera sought help from system inte-
grator Champion Automation in Perryton, Texas, and its evalua-
tion determined that Pantera would need a customized SCADA
system with a server providing real-time communications across
many sites and devices. Champion recommended and Pan-
tera selected Ignition HMI development and SCADA software
from Inductive Automation and KepServerEX communication
platform from Kepware Technologies, which was just acquired
by PTC. They began building the new SCADA system in No-
vember 2014, and finished in February and March 2015.
“These are typically aging wells with lifecycles that start
out free-flowing, but now need artificial lift from pump
jacks,” says Lee Reeves, co-founder and owner of Cham-
pion. “These wells traditionally get inexpensive control
units, such as Weatherford 8500s, which have basic pump-
off functions, but no previous centralized SCADA system—
just periodic testing and monitoring. Champion was initially
brought in to integrate about 30 oil/gas/water wells, and lift
gas for compression from 30-40 gas-only wells. Each com-
pressor is already automated with 20 I/O, while each pump
has five I/O, which can add up to a lot of data points.”
Because of its large acquisitions and many small lease pur-
chases over the years, Reeves reports that Pantera’s managers
and operators had many different kinds of controllers to inte-
grate, but they wanted just one interface windowpane on which
they could see the whole infrastructure of an entire field, per-
haps 300-400 wells in a 50-mile radius in the Texas panhandle.
Integrating HMI and enterprise
To design and install their new interface and SCADA sys-
tem, Pantera and Champion began by using Ignition HMI
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software to build a hosted, turnkey solution for Panera’s in-
ternal systems. However, because Pantera’s wells and equip-
ment had no prior communications infrastructure, they first
implemented a secure Ethernet network and servers, which
included 15 Dell single-server platforms running Microsoft
Windows Server 2012 software and a series of Ubiquiti RF
3.6 GHz radios. This network is protected by SSID pass-
words and encryption, while its wireless portions use the
IEEE 802.11 standard’s native security.
This hardware and physical network would allow Ignition
to expand Pantera’s new SCADA system to encompass its
entire enterprise, and unify its primary HMI, SCADA and
manufacturing execution system (MES) software layers into
one, cross-platform solution. Ignition uses Java and Python
software to achieve device, browser and platform indepen-
dence, which allows its interface screens to be viewed on
tablet PCs and smartphones. Next, KepServerEX would use
its 150-protocol library to communicate with all of Pantera’s
different applications and devices. KepServerEX uses OPC
and IT-based interfaces, such as SNMP, ODBC and web ser-
vices, to give users one source for their industrial data.
“KepServerEX’s ability to communicate with field devices
such as Weatherford, Fisher ROC and ABB Totalflow, and
support communication protocols like Modbus, proved to
be invaluable for Pantera,” says Jeff Klumpp, project man-
ager at Champion. “When we coupled Ignition with Kep-
ServerEX, it allowed us to achieve our goal of building a sys-
tem that would allow Pantera to be self-sufficient.”
Steve Sponseller, business director for oil and gas at Kep-
ware, adds that, “In this case, KepServerEX acts as a polling
engine that checks all of Pantera’s equipment on a schedule,
talks to them in their own proprietary protocol languages, and
reaches the appropriate devices at the appropriate time. Be-
cause its 1,300 wells are remote and use wireless telemetry,
bandwidth can quickly become limited as thousands of com-
ponents seek to run on it. In the past, users had to employ dif-
ferent servers for each type or brand of device, such as PLCs
and RTUs, and they couldn’t have them all use the same net-
work because they couldn’t have one be the traffic cop. These
days, Kepware can handle all these tasks in one, all-knowing
server that prioritizes items like alarm data over regular data.”
Sponseller adds that KepServerEX saves time and money
19 NEXT PAGE u
because all of Pantera’s components can be installed, config-
ured, licensed and managed on its unified server. “Pantera
is going to drill and buy more wells in the future, and so it
helps that KepServerEX can easily add more devices, and
communicate with them using any protocol,” says Spon-
seller. “This also helps the pumper guys because they can
now get emails about alarms, look them up on Pantera’s new
SCADA system, and make adjustments remotely.”
Real-time results
In the wake of deploying its new SCADA system, Pantera
reports it also deployed Kepware’s Modbus and Weather-
ford drivers to communicate with compressors, rod-pump
controllers and other production components at its well-
sites, which provide data to local monitors and centralized
SCADA repositories (Figure 2). The new system also uses
Kepware’s ABB Totalflow and Fisher ROC drivers to com-
municate with Pantera’s new flow computers to secure more
accurate electronic flow measurement (EFM) data.
“Because Pantera’s people were managing a field with
a 50-mile radius that didn’t have centralized monitoring
and control, they previously had to drive to every well, of-
ten daily, and see if they were running or shut off,” explains
Reeves. “This could be especially crucial for its gas feeds,
which sometimes have to be quickly shut down to avoid pos-
sible equipment damage when the transfer system to pro-
cessing and midstream pipelines can’t handle more flow. In
the past, they had to drive out and manually shut off the flow.
Now, they can do it in a minute from their central office in
Dumas, Texas; achieve access from the road; and send back
pump-off and other control commands. This not only saves
time, but also reduces vehicle maintenance and other costs.”
Klumpp adds that Pantera’s staff also can configure the
tuning on their pump-off controllers to further maximize
production at each well. “If a controller is out of tune, it’s
got to be turned off to avoid damaging the rod downhole,”
says Klumpp. “Now, Pantera can do this tuning remotely.
This enables the wells to be more productive and make
more money. We estimate this part of the project paid for
itself in four or five months—which was even before we got
finished with it. Another benefit is that Pantera can upload
EFM data from RTUs at the wells to create historical re-
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THE BIG, COMPLETE PICTURE
Figure 2: One of the many HMI screens built by Champion Automa-
tion with Ignition software shows how well listings are collectively
displayed by Pantera’s new SCADA system in a dynagraphic chart that
compares loads and positions for multiple assets. 
Source: Kepware and Pantera
cords, output them to an SQL database, and then Ignition
can do calculations to show trends. In the past, a lot of this
information might be lost at the wellsites. Even if a connec-
tion to an RTU is lost for awhile, KepServerEX can automat-
ically backfill it to the SCADA system later.”
In general, building a SCADA system, including teleme-
try and controls with Ignition and HMI software and Kep-
ServerEX, costs $150,000 to $200,000, but Klumpp esti-
mates that integrating it onto about 50 wells with artificial
lifts can pay for itself in just six to eight months thanks to
reduced downtime and costs, and improved production.
So far, about 150 of the field’s 300 wells have been inte-
grated into the new SCADA system, and Pantera plans to get
the rest and more on the network soon.
“It was important for us to implement an intuitive, sin-
gle-pane SCADA solution to encourage adoption and use,
and that’s exactly what we accomplished with Ignition and
KepServerEX,” adds Pantera’s Kee. “We couldn’t find an-
other SCADA system that was cable of supporting appli-
cations for metering, compressors, salt water disposal, and
pump-off controllers. Not only are we seeing substantial
ROI in terms of revenue, but the quality of life at Pantera
has significantly improved as a result of this new system.”
20 NEXT PAGE u
EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELD
ExxonMobil automates procedures,
reaps benefits
The company’s downstream engineering office uses Honeywell’s Procedural Operations
solution to improve margins, reduce workloads at its refineries and chemical plants.
By Jim Montague, executive editor, Control
C
onsistency is not the strong suit of humans. That’s
why written records and instructions are so import-
ant, and why their digital and automated counter-
parts are so crucial, especially in maintaining, optimizing
and ensuring quality in process operations.
The folks at ExxonMobil’s Downstream Central Engi-
neering Office know this lesson well: They support global
deployments of automated procedures using Honeywell Pro-
cess Solutions’ Procedural Operations software—or “Proc
Ops”—across multiple business units. At its refineries and
chemical plants, automated procedures deliver consistent
procedure execution with reduced console operator work-
load, and can help improve business performance by reduc-
ing transition losses and increasing the amount of time units
spend at optimum feed rate.
“Proc Ops is an integrated set of functions embedded in
Honeywell’s Experion PKS control system to facilitate execu-
tion of operating procedures. It can work in tandem with ex-
isting TDC 3000 hardware and software,” said Rose Thomas,
senior engineering associate in the downstream office at Exx-
onMobil Research and Engineering Co. “Proc Ops helps
our operating teams execute procedures consistently and ef-
ficiently, allows manual and automated steps to be combined
into semi-automatic steps for console operators, and facilitates
development of effective operator interfaces to start, moni-
tor and end procedure execution. It also reduces application
development and sustainment efforts because its modularity
facilitates development of structured automated procedures,
such as sequential control modules (SCMs) and recipe con-
trol modules (RCMs). And its graphical block models are eas-
ier than programming with TDC 3000 CL code.”
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Thomas presented “Automated Procedures Using Pro-
cedural Operations” at the 2015 Honeywell User Group
Americas meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
Pick procedures, gain benefits
To decide which process applications and procedures to au-
tomate, Thomas reported that potential users must weigh
several factors, including frequency of execution (from sev-
eral years to every shift); degree of console interaction from
in the field to the console itself; number of steps (from few to
many); parallel activities (from few to many); consequence
of error (from small to great); and fidelity of procedure doc-
uments (from guidelines to specific details).
“Experienced operators have the knowledge they need in
their heads, so existing procedures become more like guide-
lines,” explained Thomas. “When we talk to our sites, we
can improve our procedures and quality by getting to their
level of detail, and we can retain that veteran knowledge in
our procedures.”
While incorrect execution of procedures can poten-
tially cause operational incidents and inefficiencies,
Thomas reported that automated procedures facilitate
consistency by addressing differences among operators
and/or shifts, and by standardizing responses to abnormal
situations, which often aren’t included in written proce-
dure documentation.
Retention of procedure execution know-how also is facil-
itated by establishing processes for effective knowledge cap-
ture, retention and transfer based on best operational and
procedural practices. Further, procedures themselves can be
improved by establishing the best, validated site for compar-
21 NEXT PAGE u
ison to future executions, and by leverag- process alarms and operator changes to
ing a proven, assured, structured platform maintain levels.”
to manage and implement procedural im- Likewise, before automating proce-
provements. dures, ExxonMobil’s operators had to man-
Thomas added that ExxonMobil’s refin- ually detect abnormal conditions during
eries and chemical plants gain several pri- execution and make corrective responses.
mary benefits from adopting automated However, their responses to abnormal sit-
Proc Ops, including better margins in its uations often weren’t fully documented in
grade transitions and feed-rate changes, re- their procedures, so they had to rely on op-
duced workloads for console operators and erators’ training and experience, which re-
other staff, improved ability to address ab- duced the likelihood of timely corrective
normal situations during execution, and response in stressful or high-workload sit-
AUTOMATING PROCEDURES
reduced variability in procedure execution uations. “After automated procedures were
performance. ExxonMobil’s Rose Thomas on the adopted, operators could automatically
company’s profitable implemen- detect abnormal conditions and automat-
Consistency yields profitability tation of Honeywell’s Procedural ically interrupt procedure steps,” added
“Before automated procedure implemen- Operations solution: “Before Thomas. “They can also automatically im-
tation, our sites had margin loss due to automated procedure implementa- plement corrective actions or hand-off to
product downgrades during grade transi- tion, our sites had margin loss due other operators, and confirm their correc-
tions, limited repeatability of each grade to product downgrades during tive actions are completed, allowing them
transition and units away from optimum grade transitions, limited repeat- to proceed.”
feed rate longer than necessary,” added ability of each grade transition and Automated Proc Ops has even helped
Thomas. “After adding automated pro- units away from optimum feed rate ExxonMobil handle abnormal situations
cedures, they reduced automatic feed longer than necessary.” during automatic feed-rate reductions.
rates, effectively managed parallel and “The main focus used to be handling
time-sensitive process actions and increased service fac- rate reduction activities in response to alarm floods,” said
tors for multivariable advanced control applications.” Thomas. “Automated procedures let operators be avail-
On the workload side, ExxonMobil’s console operators able to other units in the scope of their consoles and fo-
are typically responsible for about seven units, such as re- cus on handling rate reduction impacts in other units.
actors or distillation applications, and handle about two Automated procedures mean units can continue running
or three grade transitions per week on each unit. “Before at reduced feed rates, and they give us more ramp options
automating procedures, executing grade transitions was for feed-rate reductions.”
a large part of the operators’ workload. It was difficult to Finally, before automated procedures, each ExxonMo-
convey current procedure status during shift handover, bil site wrote and updated many procedures independently.
and there were many process alarms and operator changes There was limited sharing of best practices and application
to maintain levels,” explained Thomas. “After automating designs, so procedure execution performance varied among
procedures, operator workload related to grade transition sites. “Automated procedures have reduced variability in our
execution was reduced, and they could redirect their fo- procedure execution performance, and we now have com-
cus to higher-value tasks. They also improved shift han- mon, high-level application design, which facilitates appli-
dover with an interactive operator interface that explic- cation sustainment and the capture of long-term benefits
itly displays current procedure status. And they reduced across multiple sites.”

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