Troubleshooting Process Operation – Supported by the Principles of Operational Excellence

Effective Troubleshooting and Problem Solving are skills that are essential to complex modern industrial processes and industries. An improved understanding of the nature of the process and of the numerous tools available for troubleshooting these processes will make a huge difference in the establishment of the Correct Root Cause of the problem, as well as the speed with which it is derived at.

It is not common knowledge that the modern process needs to be viewed as an integrated entity. There are at least five major dimensions to the process which play a significant role in its successful and sustainable operation:

1. The Demographics: The environment in which you operate your process affects your process in more ways that you can imagine.
2. The Plant and Equipment: This is obvious and a given, except that more often than not this is erroneously considered as the entire process by most people.
3. The People: That is the human resources that design, construct, install, commission, operate and maintain the plant and equipment which produce your product.
4. The Systems: The rules and programs and standard operation procedures that you apply to your process operation. These need to be reviewed and revisited on a regular basis not only for compliance tracking, but also for one other important reason: CHANGE. As change happens – the rules must change as well, and change is inevitable.
5. The Generics: These would include elements that are common to all of the above categories, such as Risk; Cost; Maturity; Quality; Planning and Control; etc.

It is clear from the above that for an integrated process an integrated analysis and solution generating methodology will be required for problem solving and troubleshooting.

The next major aspect that this program addresses is the exposure to numerous different problem solving and analysis techniques. A total of 114 techniques are covered, some in depth. The simple reason for this is that if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, every problem will look like a nail! Specific techniques apply to each of the categories listed above which cannot be applied with success in other categories.

Exact measurement of the performance of a complex system as well as for each individual task is a critical aspect in a World Class organization because reward in a World Class organization is based on performance, not for being in attendance! This is also required for baselining and trending purposes.

Exposure to a proprietary Planning Standard is applied throughout the TPO program. The true benefit of attending this PetroKnowledge Troubleshooting Process Operation training course lies in understanding how everything fits together and what your role is to take the organization forward. “World Class organizations do make mistakes, but they do not repeat the same mistakes over and over again, and expect different results” (Albert Einstein).