Venue: The HESS Club

Wouldn't it be great if we could truly optimize maintenance? How about if we only worked on instruments that actually needed attention, but did this work before they were in bad enough shape to have an impact on plant operation? We can!

New tools and technologies are available in field devices to decide when they are experiencing degradation in performance and to report these problems through a human interface. Unfortunately, a lot of these devices are not continuously connected to a human interface. Even more unfortunately, many human interfaces that are connected for device diagnostics are never used.

If we want to optimize maintenance and lower our operating exposure to field device failures, we have to do some basic implementation steps to properly present diagnostic information, and we need people and work processes to make use of the tools.

Some end users are experiencing some significant success with tools and work processes at several sites around the world. This paper will summarize that activity.

Speaker Biography

Herman Storey is Chief technology Officer for Herman Storey Consulting, LLC and is working in the area of Automation Consulting. Herman recently retired from a position of Sr. Consultant with Shell Global Solutions in the Process Automation, Control, and Optimization group. Herman’s role was the Principle Technology Expert for Instrumented Systems Architecture and the Subject Matter Expert for Distributed Control Systems technology. Herman worked for Shell for 42 years after graduating from Louisiana Tech with a BSEE. One of Herman’s final activities with Shell was creation of an asset management implementation standard.

Herman is active in ISA in the areas of standards development and startup of the Wireless Compliance Institute. Herman is also active in development of technical specifications and the End User Advisory Council for the Fieldbus Foundation.