Employee Success In The Energy Industry

REVIEW QUESTIONS
Write a typed one page report of what you learned from this lesson. The report should have one inch margins. I will take points for bad grammar, typos and misspelling.

Also, on a separate sheet of paper answer the four questions below.
1. Name four of the rooms in the control house.
2. Explain what occurs in a tailgate meeting.
3. Explain the purpose of an operator’s passdown report.
4. Describe what an operator does when they make rounds.

JOHN’S TWELVE HOUR SHIFT
PURPOSE OF THIS ASSIGNMENT
Many people want to be an operator because of the money they can make but they need to be sure that being a process technician is a job they will want to do for the next twenty-five years until they retire. This short chapter will detail the twelve-hour shift of an operator on a petrochemical unit that makes a feed stock chemical which is sold to manufacturers who convert it into various plastic products. The operator’s name is John and he has been with his company and on his particular unit for twelve years.
THE ALARM RINGS
The alarm goes off at three-thirty and John reaches over and turns it off. His wife continues sleeping. John yawns, then trudges into the bathroom and brushes his teeth and shaves. He goes into the guest bedroom where his fire resistant clothing (FRC) is laid out and his steel toes boots. He dresses, goes into the kitchen, turns the coffee maker on, and gets his meal bag out of the refrigerator. It contains two meals and several snacks. He pours his first cup of coffee and sits at the kitchen table and drinks, slowly becoming fully awake and leaving zombie land. He’s got twelve hours ahead of him and he is already wishing it was done and he was on his way home. John puts on his company soft cap, pours a second cup of coffee to take with him, grabs his food sack and goes out the back door.

It is still dark outside. He gets into his pickup and heads to the highway. There are almost no cars on the small, local roads. Most people don’t have shift work jobs that require them to get up at three-thirty in the morning. He gets on the highway and speeds up. His plant is twenty miles away. After a while he can see the multitude of lights of the four petrochemical complexes and one refinery that supply many well-paying jobs to the local community. He drives into the company parking lot, takes off his soft cap and puts on his hard hat, which he keeps in the truck. Then he locks his truck. The parking lot is well lighted and has video cameras as an anti-theft device.

John walks up to the guard house and used his proximity card to badge in (Figure 3-1) and continues into the plant. The card reader sends John’s name and time of entry to an electronic document. It is like an old fashioned time clock workers used to have to punch in as they entered the plant but its main purpose is to record who is on site in case of an emergency and management has to account for everyone in the plant. John knows of several contractors who were fired due to data gathered from the proximity card reader. They were heavy smokers and smoking was only allowed in front of the guard shack. Analyzing data revealed the contractors were spending 18 percent of their time smoking. John wonders how many proximity card reads his small petrochemical plant has in a year. A friend who works at the large refinery said they had 3.5 million proximity card reads last year.

John has a fifty yard walk to his unit and joins a friend as they walk to the process unit. Private vehicles are not allowed inside the plant. Operators on the graveyard shift who have already made relief are walking swiftly toward the gate at the guard house, ready to badge out, go home and get some sleep. John and his friend get to their unit and enter the control house, which is next to the street.
THE CONTROL HOUSE
The control house is a metal or stone building divided into several rooms. If it is one of the newer metal buildings it is blast resistant, meaning it is designed with the primary function of protecting personnel from blast waves created by vapor cloud explosions. The doors to the control house, as a safety factor, are designed to only open outward as an added prevention from being blown in by a blast. A typical control house might contain the rooms described in the paragraphs that follow.

The control room contains the distributed control system (DCS) for the unit, which may consist of three or four large screens displaying a schematic of various parts of the unit, such as the process variables for certain points on the schematic, which pumps are on, which on standby, and much more information (Figure 3-2). Many of the important points on the schematic have both audible and flashing lighted alarms associated with them. There is a screen for the laboratory information management system (LIMS) that displays analytical data from the quality control lab and unit analyzers. The DCS operator, also called console operator, can switch to another screen that displays control charts or trend charts. Within reach of the console operator will be a desktop microphone with a control station for communicating by two-way radio that allows the console operator to talk with the outside operators. This room may also contain a couple of computers operators use for training materials, downloading procedures, and inputting unit data.

Since the operation of the DCS screen is so important during unit emergencies and because donning Scott Air Paks makes working the control board very cumbersome, some control rooms have run breathing air lines from outside cylinders into a cabinet into the control room. The cabinet will contain breathing air quick-connects on a manifold and full-face masks with 15-20 foot hoses. In an emergency technicians in the control room can don the mask and plug their hose into a quick connect and sit at the console wearing just the mask and breathing clean air under positive pressure.

There is a change room where each operator has a wall locker and some shelf storage for their clothing and equipment. Spare changes of fire-resistant clothing (FRC) are kept in the wall locker. Rain gear will be kept here, also. This room might also have an area for Scott Air Paks. There might be several sets of bunker gear available. Bunker gear is heavily insulated clothing required for firefighting. The Scott Air Paks are for emergency situations when the outside air, or in some cases, the control house air, may be contaminated and hazardous to breathe.

Though it isn’t true, operators will tell you that the lunch room is the most important room in the control house. This room will have a kitchen area for cooking, a refrigerator, table and chairs, and a sink and cabinets for dishes. Housekeeping in this room is very important. Ill feelings between shifts can start here when one shift leaves a bunch of dirty dishes in the sink or fouls the stove or microwave. The refrigerator contents are surveyed and suspicious items (food with green mold, unclaimed food that has been in there for a week, etc.) are tossed. As part of housekeeping, once a month the crew on graveyards has refrigerator police duty and everything in the refrigerator is discarded unless a signed note requests the item to remain.

Then there is an office used by the shift supervisor and engineers and a bathroom for cleanup at the end of the shift. A sample room/ supply room contains the various sample containers and labels for the unit samples to be collected. The room may also contain other items such as the different types of chemically resistant gloves required for collecting samples and other consumable supplies. A couple of acid suits may be kept here for universal use.

Finally, there might be a small mini-laboratory for analyzing some unit samples. On some units operators are trained to run a few simple analytical tests, such as pH, titrations, color, flashpoint, and so on.
SHIFT CHANGE, PASSDOWN AND TAILGATE MEETING
On John’s unit each crew consists of five people, four operators and a lead operator who assists with work and also acts as the shift supervisor. Three of the operators are outside operators, meaning their area of responsibility requires them to be outside most the time. One operator will be the console operator (DCS operator), which requires them to sit in front of the control board and monitor the unit. The lead operator will run the crew, pay people, ensure night orders are completed, and lend a hand where needed.

John and his friend head to the lunch room and store their food in the refrigerator. They grab a cup of coffee, which is already made since it is an understood courtesy that the leaving shift makes fresh coffee for the relief shift. They don their web gear, which contains a few tools, grab a radio off of the charging station (Figure 3-3) in the control room, and go find their counterpart on the leaving crew for a passdown report, also called a turnover report.

Passdown (turnover) is the mechanism for orderly transfer of responsibility for a task or process to a relieving work group. It is analogous to passing the baton in a relay race. Passdown is a unique communication skill important to the success of operating teams. The skill of shift turnover should be mastered by operators, maintenance technicians, testing personnel, engineers, and leaders at all levels in an organization. Industrial operations are almost always carried out in the context of a team. Communication, accordingly, fulfills a critical role in orchestrating the efforts of team members during both routine and abnormal conditions.

Each oncoming operator will meet with their counterpart for a passdown report, which is a report about everything that happened in their area of responsibility for the last twelve hours. From his passdown report John learns that pump P-132A is making a strange sound and he should keep an eye on it, that a large gate valve on the tower bottoms line was leaking but the packing gland had been tightened and the leak appeared to have been stopped. John reads the passdown report carefully and asks a few questions to clarify some things. He notices that Melvin, the crew’s least dependable operator is telling the operator giving him his passdown to forget it and go home and that he will read the passdown book after he gets another cup of coffee. John shakes his head. He knows that Melvin has been given a verbal warning, then later after he made another mistake, received a letter in his file. Melvin is one to two steps away from being terminated. His attitude conveys a lack of responsibility for his duties. John knows it is a matter of time before Melvin is terminated, and though he is not an unkind man, John knows that Melvin is the type that sooner or later will cause a serious accident. Because of Melvin’s attitude someone will be hurt or equipment will be damaged.

The night crew finishes their passdown reports and leave. The time is now five thirty. John and the rest of the crew gather around the control board for a safety tailgate meeting and a business meeting. The safety tailgate meeting is a mandatory fifteen minute meeting held before the start of each shift dedicated to safety and reminding everyone of the importance of safety. Helen is on John’s crew and it is her turn to give the safety topic. She has chosen shoulder and back strains, one of the most common injuries to operators. She explains the correct way to lift, using the legs not the back, and the correct way to stand and position the body to open some of the large 16-inch gate valves on the unit to prevent shoulder injury. The lead operator reports there were two injuries in the plant last night, none OSHA reportable. Both occurred on other units. One operator sprained his ankle stepping off of a ladder; the other operator wore cotton gloves instead of leather gloves working with some hot piping and received a second degree burn on his fingers.

Next, the lead operator reads the daily orders, which is a list of non-routine tasks the unit supervisor wants done today in addition to regular duties. Now comes the business meeting. The lead operator reports on the unit budget, that they are still under budget in all categories at this point of the fiscal year and to keep up the good work and they would all get a nice year-end bonus. Last year they received $3300 each. John would like to get a bonus that large again (Table 3-1). The bonus last year paid for the whole family to go on a 10 day cruise. The lead operator reads an updated production statement that says they are slightly ahead of schedule, and reminds them to keep an eye on critical equipment so they can stay ahead of schedule. Monitor your equipment, lubricate it properly, check for failed open steam traps wasting energy.

The next subject in the meeting is changes coming to the company. There is a bunch of groans, moans and cursing. Everyone is tired of change and just want everything to go on as usual and quit changing. John knows how you look at changes, how you mentally frame changes and react to them can cause you to resist or embrace. But as his father once told him: “Change happens. Why in my father’s life time we went from the horse and carriage, the Model T Ford, then more modern cars. If it works better, looks better or is more efficient then change is going to happen.” Then the meeting is over and it is time for everyone to get to their areas of responsibility.

Before John can leave the lead supervisor asks him, “Hey, goat-man, you’re aware of P-132A?” John says he was made aware in the passdown. John does not mind being called “goat-man,” a name he was given eleven years ago when he found out one of his toddlers was allergic to cow’s milk. Since John lived in the country he bought two dairy goats to supply goat milk, which his child could drink. John is stuck with the name “goat-man” until he retires but he understands that it is just operator humor, not maliciousness. One man on their unit was sprayed with a warm thick fluid when a 3/8-inch tubing gave way. The stuff solidified on the back of his shirt and pants and looked like the stuff sprayed on pickup beds so he was named “bed-liner.” Another operator had a wide mouth and droopy mustache, thus he was called “catfish.” One operator had a metal plate in his head due to an auto accident; he was named “plate-head.” When the crew heard a new operator talking about his Cherokee Indian heritage he became “Chief Big Wind Blowing.” Again, this is an example of operator humor, not maliciousness.

Interpersonal skills (how to get along with people) is critical on a process unit. Don’t gripe about the name they give you. Accept it and smile. An operator is in close contact with the members of their crew for twelve hours a day, thus there is no getting away from people they can’t stand or names they don’t like. If you complain to the lead operator he’ll just tell you to grow up. One operator was named Las Vegas because he had been married and divorced four times and two of the marriages occurred in Las Vegas. Everybody gets a nickname whether they like it or not. If you do something really stupid or funny you’ll get a new name to reflect that event.

MAKING ROUNDS
On a 12-hour shift it is normal for an operator to make three rounds, usually four hours apart. When an operator makes rounds they go out into the their area of responsibility for the unit and take readings from instruments, catch samples, perform minor maintenance, and look for any abnormalities in operating equipment or conditions. They are responsible for a lot of expensive equipment (in the millions of dollars for some large sites) and are charged with monitoring and protecting that equipment. A familiar operator saying is “Their job is to keep it in the pipes,” meaning no leaks, no spills, no releases. Stay alert and keep everything in the pipes.

ROUND ONE
Now, it is time for John to make his first round. He puts on his hard hat and grabs ear plugs and safety glasses. He picks up a bar code scanner on which he will record readings for his area. It looks like the scanners clerks use in grocery stores when they inventory shelves. It has a key pad that allows John to input data. He goes to the sample room, gets the sample containers he needs, puts labels on them, and puts them in a sample basket. He clips his radio microphone to his collar, turns on his radio and sets the volume, puts in his ear plugs, grabs a pair of chemically resistant Nitrile gloves and goes outside. The sun is just coming up. He walks toward the finishing area, which is his responsibility for three more days. The unit is well lit with lights everywhere so operators can see to do their jobs at night. Through his ear plugs he hears the dull rumble of the unit, caused by turbulent flow through miles of pipes, numerous electric motors and pumps, and one compressor.

John is very safety conscious; he has the mindset of a defensive driver. Driving environments are dynamic and often uncontrollable. Competent defensive drivers analyze their environment for unexpected hazards and are aware of other drivers around them. They don’t blindly enter intersections on a green light even though it is their “right” under the law. They know how to handle their vehicle in inclement weather. Like a good defensive driver, John is a “defensive” operator. He is constantly aware of his work environment’s temperature, pressure, harmful chemicals, and rotating equipment and doesn’t get careless or take chances.

It is May and the morning is warm. It is supposed to rain today. John goes to each sample point, collecting samples and is careful not to be sloppy and spill chemicals into the environment or on him. He wears the proper protective equipment because collecting samples is a primary way operators can be exposed to hazardous chemicals. In the motor control center for the unit he scans the bar codes for his pumps and electric motors and inputs data from the panel’s screen on the key pad of the bar code gun. He goes outside and takes readings of his local mounted instruments and inputs those readings. Some of the pumps in his area have constant level oilers and he checks the oil level; the other pumps are lubricated by oil mist. He checks pump P-1332A and can hear a sound he doesn’t like. It makes him think it might be a bearing going out. In one area he detects the distinct smell of a unit chemical and looks for a leak but doesn’t find any. He reminds himself to mention this during his passdown. As he continues his round he finds a loading hose left uncoiled on the ground. This is bad housekeeping and can lead to someone tripping and getting hurt. He coils the hose and hangs it up. Next, he drops his samples off at the unit sample box where the quality control lab truck will pick them up. He drops off his empty sample basket and gloves in the sample room, goes into the control room, removes his safety glasses and puts them and his ear plugs in his hard hat and puts the hat on a shelf. He goes to one of the computers and uploads data from his bar code gun into the computer data base where engineers will study it. Now, he is ready for breakfast.

He starts frying some bacon and eggs and making toast. His buddy, Ron, comes in, says it smells good and John cooks him breakfast, too, knowing John will return the favor later in the week. The rest of the crew comes in and everybody gathers in the lunch room to eat and talk. An engineer comes in and looks at trends on the main console, talks with the lead operator, chats with everyone for a while, then leaves. The engineer knows less about the operation of the unit than the operators because he is not there 24/7/365 like operators are, thus he relies on operators to tell him what is going on and to explain what has happened and why it happened. An engineer’s main job is administrative and watching production, planning for projects and other assignments. He depends on operators doing their jobs correctly the way a patient depends on a heart surgeon doing their surgery correctly.

John goes to one of two computers available to operators to check emails or send emails. He has some safety training to complete before the end of the month. He logs on and begins a computer-based training module on process safety management. He completes it in 40 minutes and makes a score of 90. A passing score is 80.
ROUND TWO
Round two is a repeat of round one. Four hours has passed, which is plenty of time for leaks to develop from vibrating equipment or corrosion, or for the chemical composition in certain parts of the unit to be off specification due to failing equipment (mixers, additive pumps, heat exchangers, etc.). John goes out again and collects his samples, takes his instrument readings, and surveys for unusual sights, sounds and odors. When he gets to P-312A the suspected bad bearing noise is noticeably louder. He radios the console operator and says he wants to switch pumps, putting the spare on line and shutting down the suspect pump. He does a quick valve lineup and the change is made. He then blocks in the damaged pump. He gets a call from the console operator that an instrument on the screen is giving a suspicious reading for a temperature at the top of the tower in his area. He is told to climb to the top of the 100 foot tower (which he had climbed a half hour ago) and radio back the reading on the local gage. Grumbling, John goes to the tower and begins climbing, stopping at every other instrument deck to rest, then going to the top. He finds the temperature gage and radios in the reading. The tower gives a good view of the plant and neighboring plants. He sees the flare of a neighboring plant smoking and knows a unit there is in trouble. John climbs down and heads to his last sample point.

John’s unit is adjacent to the cyclone fence that surrounds the plant site. Beyond the fence are railroad tracks and several acres of empty fields. Two men in street clothes are walking on the tracks. They stop and stare at John’s unit and point at several things. They do not see John, who is hidden among piping and heat exchangers. John watches the men, aware that one of his duties is to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. The two men could be vandals, thieves or terrorists. The men continue to stand and stare at his unit. John radios his console operator to report the two men to plant security. Security will radio the local police who will stop the men and question them. Eventually, the two men continue down the railroad tracks unaware that police will be waiting to talk with them. John knows that probably nothing will come of it. The men did nothing wrong, still John has done his job as regards plant security. He knows every operator is charged with being alert to anything suspicious and reporting it to plant security. John drops off his samples, dumps his gear in the control room, and heads for the kitchen, which, when operators aren’t eating, serves as a break room.

The kitchen smells good. Helen has brought the makings for a huge pot of spaghetti for the whole crew, including garlic bread. Everybody eats hardily, thank Helen, and insists they clean up while Helen remains seated. The guys start talking baseball and fishing. The console operator yells for Alex to meet a tank truck bringing sulfuric acid to Tank 8A and unload the truck. Grumbling, Alex gets up and dons his PPE and goes outside.

John goes to one of the two computers available to operators for their emails, computer-based training, and other tasks. He has some safety training to complete before the end of the month. He longs on and begins a computer-based training module about confined space. He completes it in forty minutes and makes a score of 90. A passing grade is 80. One way to get in trouble is to get behind in your mandatory training. There is a schedule of training modules and due dates.

ROUND THREE, THE LAST ROUND.
It is two in the afternoon and John is fading. He didn’t sleep well on his last graveyard shift and his body hasn’t recovered. He feels like his blood has turned to sludge. It is time for his last round. John dons his PPE, grabs his sample basket and lockout-tagout equipment. He is halfway through collecting his samples and taking his instrument readings when it begins to rain. He goes back to the control house and dons his rain gear and continues with his round. It is a light rain and John is aware of the slip hazard caused by wet surfaces, especially when climbing ladders. After he drops his samples off John returns to pump P-312A and tags it out, locks out the feed and discharge valves with chain and lock, tags it, then goes to the motor control center and flips the breaker for the pump and locks and tags out the switch on the panel. He is on his way back to the control room when he hears Helen radio she needs help with a 16-inch gate valve. John radios he is available and on his way. He meets Helen at the large valve and uses a valve wrench to begin closing the valve. When he tires Helen takes a turn, then John takes a turn. Between them they get the large valve closed. John doesn’t mind helping Helen. She pays him back by doing some of his paper work, or like tonight, cooking lunch for everyone. She doesn’t have the muscle for some work but she won’t be in debt to anyone. She will do their paper work, collect their samples, whatever it takes to carry her share of the load but she will not take freebies. Back in the control room John shucks his rain gear, tool belt, and PPE. He uploads his bar code data into the computer, fills out the passdown book for his relief, fills out a lockout/tagout permit and makes an entry in the lockout/tagout logbook. He has one hour to go before his relief shows up and he —

Suddenly the plant emergency spill alarm whoops over the PA system. “Oh, crap!” John thinks. “One hour to go and this happens!” Because he is on the fire brigade he must respond. He asks the lead operator to cover his area while he is gone. He leaves the control house trotting toward the fire house. Other operators trained as firefighters are hastening down the streets toward the fire house. At the fire house John dons his bunker gear and Scot Airpak and then takes a seat on one of the fire trucks. “I didn’t hear everything said over the intercom,” John says to a firefighter next to him. “What is the emergency?” “A spill on Paraxylene Unit One,” is the reply. They sit and wait for the unit to call them in, fire truck engine rumbling, firefighters talking, radios crackling. Then they are told by the brigade captain to stand down and return to their units. The spill has been contained and is being cleaned up.

John returns to his unit and checks the kitchen to verify a fresh pot of coffee is waiting for the relief. This is important. Bad feelings can develop if one shift thinks they are being disrespected by another shift. At five his relief, Freddie, shows up. John gives the passdown report, Freddie asks a couple of questions, and the passdown is done. John checks the overtime list for phone numbers of operators on the two crews that are off and writes the phone numbers down. He is scheduled to work next week on the day of his son’s tenth birthday. He needs one of them to work for him and he will repay the favor when asked. He could just call in sick on the day of his son’s birthday but the company treats him fairly and he wants to treat the company fairly. If he calls in sick it will cost the company overtime.

Then John is out the door heading toward the parking lot and home. When he arrives at his house his wife has supper on the table and his two children tell him everything that happened at school that day. He eats, lays back in a recliner to watch the news and then a sports channel. His son wants him to come outside and help him practice soccer. John is tired. He has already worked twelve hours but he will not neglect his children. He goes outside and helps his son practice soccer for thirty minutes. Around eight he is fading and tells his wife he is going to shower and go to bed. While he showers he realizes he is also scheduled to work on their anniversary. How come, he wonders, he is always scheduled to work on special family days? His wife is already upset because she found out he will have to work on Thanksgiving Day and she had planned for Thanksgiving to be at their house this year. He wanted to tell her to take it up with the company president but bit his tongue. No use getting into a fight over what cannot be helped.

FINAL COMMENTS

Process technicians need to understand that shift work is not sentimental. That is not to say it is unsentimental, it is just to say that it is a fact of life like the sun rising and setting. It happens without interruption and must happen if companies are to continue meeting production schedules. Your wedding anniversary, your children’s birthday, you or your wife’s birthday is important and precious, but if it falls when you are scheduled to work, then you work or you swap out with someone, who will take your place, and later you will fill in for them. Or you reschedule your celebration. A process technician receives great pay and benefits but you pay a price for them. It is a trade-off. You should understand that and be prepared to accept that trade-off when you hire on. If your son is on the high school football team you may miss several of his games due to your shift schedule.

Potential operators should also understand a very old and common operator saying, which is, “Leave your problems at the gate.” What it means is that your fellow crew members are really not interested in hearing about your personal problems. If your wife or husband is threatening to leave you the crew does not want to hear you whining and complaining about that for twelve hours day after day. You might pull a buddy aside and talk with him about it but he can’t help you, he can only listen and he doesn’t want to listen for twelve hours day after day. Don’t let your personal problems get in the way of your job or you may lose more than your spouse. “Leave it at the gate” is a very important aphorism. As an operator you are working with mechanical equipment that can injure or kill, high temperatures and high pressures, flammables and otherwise hazardous chemicals. Your mind needs to be on your job; otherwise you may harm yourself or fellow crew members. Leave your problems at the gate.

Once you have been on the crew for a year or two your fellow crew members will know your personality and daily reactions to events. They care about you and your safety, and their safety. They will recognize when you are not acting normal. The author knows of one instance when a fellow operator (female) was acting different from normal. Her mind was clearly not on the job; her body had showed up for work but not her mind. When pulled aside and questioned she said she had received a medical report that she might have cancer. All she could think about was the dreaded fact that she had cancer. To protect herself from injury, and the rest of the crew, and after discussing it with her fellow crew members, she decided to go home sick. The way she had been acting, it was a wise choice. Later, thank Providence, she found out her diagnosis of cancer was a false positive.