When to bring in operations perspective?
In most of our project plans and designs, it seems the operations perspective--that is, how the system be designed to support operational sustainability -- is brought in only as an afterthought. At what stage and to what extent should operations people be brought into the project planning/design cycle?
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What Operators
If you are talking about a multi-million dollar gree field project where the operators have been selected early and are available to be involved in the process of design and planning of the systems that they will ultimately have to use then they should be involved as soon as possible.
Unfortunately in some industry areas the operators are unfamiliar with the plant with which they will be operating and are selected well down the designa and planning process. Often there is an HMI standard that sets out the way in which the entire HMI system is put together and this has already been selected/developed by the process design group/company.
I am speaking from experience in New Zealand here. Often it comes down to "is what we are doing good enough for the client and will they know any different". The answers are usually yes it is good enough and no they don't know any different.
Money is often a driver as development of any new standard will ultimately cost more money and who will pay for this "added value".
Sometimes "what operators" becomes "what client". If it is common accepted practice and looks like what they have seen before does the client know any different. The answer is still often no.
Operator’s involvement
Operators should be in the project from the start, they have to work with the system. When you bring them too late in the team, mostly at the FAT you will get a lot of rework. It's also better for thee commitment to the new systems. When you have one or to operators in the team it will also improve the communication to the entire operator group. In the real word from my own research see also WWW.DCSSELECT.EU they have only a minor influence in the system selection.