Operations managers at process plants have greater challenges than ever before. Worker safety, environmental stewardship,process uptime, and conservation of plant resources have been common goals for plant operations for the last several decades. However, today additional challenges are stretching the limits of plant operations making the job of running a process plant moredifficult than any other time in history.

These additional challenges include:

An increased demand for experienced operators due to retirement of experience operators and the difficulty in findingskilled plant operators.Increased government oversight and regulation adding a management burden on top of tight margins.A legal environment where operations management can be held liable for their actions or inactions on operational issues.Increasing global competitive pressure on product prices and operating margins.

Operations managers have a powerful tool available to help combat these challenges. The Virtual Plant / Control Systemis an enabling technology that allows process plants to address these issues and other operational challenges.

Challenging times for operations managers of process plants.

Demographic Time BombJohn Payne from BP is credited with first using the term Demographic Time Bomb to describe the upcoming crisis in the processindustry in finding experienced operations personnel. The US Department of Labor has stated that the average age of energyindustry workers is over 50 and half the current work force (more than 500,000 workers) is expected to retire over the next 5 to 10years. As these workers leave industry they will take with them an irreplaceable amount of knowledge and experience. Even thebest knowledge transfer program will only be able to recover a fraction of the intelligence that will walk out the gate. While olderoperators came from a pre-digital age and operated based upon mechanical skills and experience, younger employees, ingeneral, have less mechanical and more computer skills. The old days of operators that would know if a compressor wasperforming well from the sound it makes are coming to an end.

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A study, published in Oil and Gas Journal in December 2001, stated that it takes on the average 7 years for new workers toachieve a level of competence that permits them to make or recommend appropriate risk decisions. This 7 year figure is in directconflict with the average workers typical tenure expectation is 5 years in one position. This means that in many process plantsthe operations staff is looking for their next position before they really achieve competency in their current role.

Already petrochemical and energy plants have been compromised due to their lack of qualified operators. One plant in particularstated that if they lost one more of their experienced operators they might not be able to run the plant. While the global economiccrisis eroded people’s retirement accounts, in the process industries it temporarily slowed down the pace of retirement, asoperations workers were forced to hold off on retirement plans until their portfolios recovered. As the equity markets recover,retirement plans will begin again. Because, equity markets recover first many process plants will not see their own financialpositions strengthen before they have to deal with this crisis. In summary, operations staffing issues are bad now and they willonly get worse.

The Automation ParadoxThe good news is that implementing modern automation technology provides excellent return on investment and can be used tooperate process plants with fewer qualified operators. In general, highly automated plants have less operations related errors. Modern control systems are very advanced and can handle many tasks quicker, safer, and at a lower cost than a humanoperator. Advances in automation system and process technology allow process plants to operate longer without downtime.

Modern automation technology provides excellent return on investment for process plants.

However, in a highly automated plant the role of the operator is different and more difficult. He is put in a position where he hasto monitor a sophisticated system and make decisions about the health of the process and the performance of the system basedupon trends and meta-information (information about information). In many cases instead of actively doing something, theoperator is put into a position where he has to review the information presented and make a decision whether he should dosomething or nothing at all.

Also, because the system and process are more reliable, operators may seldom or never see upset conditions and can quicklylose critical skills necessary to deal with those situations. This often results in compromised operating conditions; studies showthat the greatest cause of operational loss in the process industries is due to operator error.

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Risks in AutomationIn order to survive in the global economy, process plants have to invest in automation and new technology. However, there arerisks in automation projects. While modern, field-based automation systems have great reliability and performance, the riskintroduced by human engineering and operations still remain. The greatest risk to deployment of automation systems in mostprocess plants can be summarized in three areas:

Hidden errors and issues in the automation system application software undetected until they cause process or operationalissues.Inappropriate operator actions or conversely, operators not taking action when they should.Operating procedures that are in error or incomplete such that they are not used or trusted.

In addition, government bodies are putting additional pressure on process plants to document their efforts in administering a safeand effective operations environment. OSHA National Emphasis Program as an example often requires in depth review ofoperating procedures, tag naming conventions, management of change, and/or automation system documentation.

Risks in automation can have dire consequences if not addressed.

Process plants that try to address these issues during startup or system commissioning risk delaying startups and time to market. In addition, they potentially endanger the process or operations staff by not addressing these risks in a safe environment. If theydon’t have a properly documented approach to dealing with these areas of risk they expose themselves to OSHA violations orincreased oversight.

Implementing a Virtual Plant / Control System is a critical step for operations managers to address these challenges.

The Wrong ApproachUnfortunately, many operations managers have tried to implement simulation systems on process automation projects oroperational excellence initiatives and not gotten the results they wanted. This is usually due to common mistakes or a wrongapproach to using simulation.

One of the misconceptions that many simulation companies propagate is that process design models, either steady-state ordynamic, can be used for operator training or system testing with little or no modification. The models required for operatortraining and testing have to be dynamic and execute in real-time. They must converge on a result every second and providerealistic results over a wide range of process conditions. In most cases the user would be better off building new dynamic VirtualPlant models than trying to adapt existing process design models to meet these requirements.

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Many simulation companies try to lead their customers into using an emulated control system built in their simulationenvironment. This eliminates the need to integrate with the off-line control system and have a dynamic simulated IO system. Itsimplifies the job for the simulation vendor but does not result in a usable system for the customer. Successful operator trainingrequires the operator graphics, alarms, controls, and control strategies to be identical to the operating plant.

Some users have tried to build simulations in the off-line control system. This approach adds error and risk to the automationsystem rather than reducing it and should be avoided. Automation systems are made to control the process, not model theprocess. Using a dynamic simulation system, built for testing and training, will result in much better business results.

Finally, saving the use of simulation until the end of the project, will not allow the user to realize the return on investmentavailable if the simulation system is integrated in to the project from kickoff.

Virtual Plant / Control System – The Right ApproachThe right approach to using dynamic simulation for control system testing and operator training has been proven to provideexcellent business results. We use the term Virtual Plant / Control System to describe an off-line replica of the control systemwith a dynamic, real-time process simulation.

The right approach would start with the selection of a Virtual Control System that provides an exact replica of the real control. This allows testing of the identical control strategies running in the actual process controllers, with a virtual IO system. It allowsoperator training on graphics, alarms, operator controls, identical to the actual plant HMI.

In addition, a Virtual Process and IO dynamic simulation system should be used. The system should be complementary to theVirtual Control System providing real-time IO and model updates so that the Virtual Control System appears to be controling thereal process. The dynamic simulation should allow the user to develop process models to the level of complexity or fidelityrequired by the task at hand. The system needs to be easy to use and change so that modeling changes can be made quicklyand efficiently.

Virtual Plant process models must be dynamic, real-time, easy to change, and easy to tune.

The simulation system must be built to support both control system testing and operator training so that it can be used through theentire project schedule, providing the greatest benefit to the system user. Ideally, the Virtual Plant / Control System will beavailable for plant operations as a strategic asset to improve the quality of control system enhancements and increase theeffectiveness of plant operators.

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Components of the Virtual Plant / Control SystemThe goal is to build a virtual control system and plant equivalent to the on-line control system and process in operation andresponse.

The real plant / control system and the virtual plant / control system.

In the real plant, unit operations, like a distillation column, are operated safely and profitably using a control system, transmittersand final control elements.

In the virtual control system the control system vendor’s soft controller or simulator is used to emulate the operator stations,engineering station, process controllers and higher level system functions. These OEM products provide an environment wherethe control system can run in an identical manner as in the actual plant.

The transmitters, final control elements, and the process itself are simulated with dynamic simulation software. This Virtual Plantsystem should provide complete IO simulation and an environment where the development of complex, dynamic process modelsis quick and easy.

MiMiC Simulation Software – Built for the Virtual PlantUnlike other simulation offerings, MiMiC Simulation Software is built specifically to provide the Virtual Plant, complementing andintegrating with the virtual control system.

MiMiC is built for Software Acceptance Testing (SAT) and Operator Training Systems (OTS). MiMiC is built with aSimulated IO system that is non-intrusive to the off-line control system, allowing the user to minimize or eliminate changes to hiscontrol system configuration. MiMiC is designed as a companion package to Virtual Control System so that it protects theintegrity of the control system configuration. MiMiC’s Operator Training Manager option allows the user to build structured,measurable, recordable operator training sessions.

MiMiC is easy to use. It was designed for use by the end-user or integrator with process automation experience, not simulation

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experts. Integration with the Virtual Control System is simple and automatic with MiMiC. MiMiC simulation utilities generate acomplete low fidelity simulation from the control system database as a starting simulation point.

MiMiC is Flexible, Powerful and Dynamic. MiMiC can be scaled from very small simulations to very large ones in the samesoftware license. MiMiC is unique in that it does not dictate the level of simulation complexity to the customer. MiMiC can beused to selectively apply simulation complexity depending upon the requirements of the process and the training or testingobjectives. MiMiC is a dynamic, real-time process simulator. Modeling functions and objects in MiMiC are designed to giveaccurate, dynamic simulations for a realistic operator experience at the control system operator station.

In particular for DeltaV users, MiMiC is built for DeltaV and DeltaV Simulate. It integrates automatically with DeltaVconfigurations and supports complete automation system testing and operator training more than any other solution.

The Virtual Plant is easy to manage in MiMiC Explorer.

MiMiC is a 3rd Generation Simulation offering built from the ground up to take advantage of the latest in software and hardwaretechnology and customer needs for a simulation product. MiMiC user interfaces are .NET, graphical, and functional. Openimport/export to XML is available for any part of the simulation system. MiMiC uses a MS SQL Server Express database as asecure, open repository for simulation data. MiMiC has an OPC Server as part of the standard system that allows full access tomodeling and Operator training data by any OPC client. MiMiC is programmed in IEC1131 function blocks familiar to mostprocess control engineers. MiMiC is built to take advantage of multiprocessor PCs so that very large simulations can be run onvery inexpensive workstations.

In addition, MiMiC was designed to provide the user with complete flexibility about how he builds simulations and viewssimulation data. Modeling functions and objects in MiMiC are dynamic and provide realistic, accurate simulation results. Toolsand utilities have been developed throughout MiMiC to make the user efficient and productive. Most importantly, MiMiC is veryintuitive and easy to use.

Using the Virtual Plant for Testing and TrainingBecause the Virtual Plant using MiMiC is built for Software Acceptance Testing and Operator Training Systems it has uniquevalue to process industry user over any other simulation offering.

Automation System Application Software Testing can begin with MiMiC as soon as the control system database or displaysare ready. Errors in the configuration can be caught early before they propagate through the system. As advanced or batch

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control is layered on top of the base level controls MiMiC can be used to further test and validate the control system all theway through FAT. As enhancements and modifications are made to the control system configuration due to Hazop reviewor automation upgrades, MiMiC can be used to test and validate those changes before they are downloaded to a live plantor process.Training can begin as soon as the first stage of testing is complete. Operator acceptance and buy-in to the automationproject can begin early. Training can continue through startup. MiMiC can then be used to implement a structured operatortraining system that can continue to save time and money for plant operations through the life cycle of the plant.Other simulation offerings do not provide value to plant operations from using simulation for control system testing. Because of their complexity in many cases they are not available until right before startup, providing little value tooperations.MiMiC has the greatest ability to reduce Capital Expenditure Costs and increase Operational Excellence benefits of anysimulation offering available.

The value to plant operations of using the Virtual Plant / Control System for control system testing and operator training.

Effective Knowledge Transfer with the Virtual Plant /Control SystemProcess plants that have not started the knowledge capture of experienced plant operators and knowledge transfer to new plantoperators need to start now. This is almost impossible to do without a Virtual Plant / Control System. Lost Knowledge by DavidDelong of MIT describes the three areas of knowledge transfer as:

Explicit or what the book says (in the case of process plants the operating procedure)Implicit or how it really worksTacit or how the decision affects the whole plant.

The Virtual Plant / Control System is critical to all three areas.

It is used to test and validate the Explicit operating procedures and control system configuration.It is used to verify the Implicit use of the control system with realistic responses.It is used to demonstrate the Tacit response of the whole plant through training scenarios and sessions.

Studies have show that learn by doing training is one of the most effective ways to master a subject. Effective knowledge transfermust include the ability for the new operator to run through training scenarios in the plant. However, the safety of the plantprevents this. The Virtual Plant / Control System delivers this capability without risking the safe operation of the plant.

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Learning through operator training on the Virtual Plant / Control System is one of the most effective methods.

Studies have also shown that capable plant operators have a more sophisticated understanding of the interactions and causeand effect of the plant and control system. Human factors engineering experts describe this as the operator's "mental model". The Virtual Plant / Control System provides an effective tool to allow the operator to develop or refine his “mental model” of thecontrol system and process through structured training sessions or informal simulator sessions.

The Virtual Plant / Control System Delivers ResultsBy using this Virtual Plant / Control System to test the control system configuration and train the operators, incredible businessresults are achieved. In fact, the investment in the simulation system usually is paid for in business results before startup everoccurs. Our customers tell us that some of the business results that they achieve are:

Reduced startup time and faster time to market, saving $100 – 500 K per day.Reduced off-spec product , increasing product quality, decreasing rework, saving$50K to $1MM per batch or run.Lower operating costs due to lower unscheduled downtime saving $5k to $50K per hour. Reduction in control system or process failures and incidents that can cost $50K to $1MM per incident.

Effective operator training using MiMiC Operator Training Manager.

As stated previously, the greatest area of risk in implementing new technology is not the technology itself. Risk comes fromhidden errors in the automation system application software, operator actions that are insufficient or inappropriate, and incorrect

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or incomplete operating procedures. Testing and training with a Virtual Plant / Control System using MiMiC Simulation Softwareis a proven solution for addressing all three of these areas of risk.

The benefits are proven. Plants that incorporate the Virtual Plant / Control System into their control systemmanagement and operator effectiveness planning save time and money. In this age of great challenges, plantoperations needs new solutions to help survive. The Virtual Plant / Control System using MiMiC Simulation Software isan enabling technology to address these issues.

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