I was very happy to hear that all the miners trapped in the mine in Chile are alive as it was one of the topics on people’s minds while I was there last week, that and sharing with me the occasional evidence of the recent earthquake. That is a different environmental specification for your typical process instrument.

Here we go, the most challenging of all steps is the first one so I will start safe (baby steps concept) by sharing with you the topics I hope to cover in this blog:

Friends, based on the questions I get, and some of the posts I see on the various automation websites and email discussion lists and web forums, reading a piping and instrumentation diagram is becoming a lost art. Unfortunately, it is a required skill for automation professionals, so I am pushing something from ISA that I think you should make required study for anybody who works for you-- and if you can't read a P&ID drawing-- for you.

Don't depend on your company to buy you this study guide either. Just go buy it.