Maintaining operating skills alongside APC
This project story looks back at an earlier Gunvor implementation. Mobatec developed a generic operator training simulator to help panel operators develop and maintain their control-room skills. The simulator represented a subprocess of a gasoline plant, providing a setting for practical training alongside Advanced Process Control (APC).
The project began with a concern about the growing use of APC. Gunvor was concerned that, as APC took over more routine operating actions during normal operation, operators would have fewer opportunities to practise those actions themselves. Gunvor wanted to maintain the process understanding and intervention skills that operators need when a situation requires their involvement.
A generic process simulator with an emulated DCS
Mobatec simulated a subprocess of the gasoline plant and emulated the distributed control system (DCS). The combination provided a setting for control-room exercises built around the simulated process and its controls.
The generic simulator was developed to support training at multiple Gunvor plants. This approach was intended to make high-quality operator training available across those plants at lower cost.
A training plan centred on operator skills
GPR drew up a training plan aligned with the simulated process system. The aim was to place skill development at the centre of the programme, with the simulator serving as a practical training tool.
Three principles guided the simulator and training plan:
1. Use the simulator as a means to develop skills, rather than as the goal of training.
2. Centre the programme on operators’ skills and their current and future development needs.
3. Build skills that provide a basis for further development in the workplace.
Practice for experienced and newer panel operators
The training addressed both experienced panel operators and colleagues who had learned to operate with APC already in place. For experienced operators, it offered opportunities to maintain intervention skills. For newer operators, it provided a way to develop process insight beyond their experience of normal automated operation.
The selected gasoline process had similarities with APC applications in other process areas. The intention was to develop skills that operators could apply more broadly in their workplace, using the simulated process as the basis for learning.
Discuss your operator training needs
To explore a generic operator training simulator, DCS emulation or a training programme built around your operators’ development needs, contact the Mobatec team.
