The chemical industry faces a number of challenges, such as rationalising unprofitable facilities so as to compete with newer, more efficient plants. And since it often difficult to find highly-educated staff to work night and weekend shifts, there is a need to able to operate with as few staff as possible.
To achieve this, control rooms need to be improved to enable operators to manage more units, and where possible to make unmanned operations possible. UReason technology - in particular OASYS-AM - can help in this regard, by improving the quality of alarm messages, identifying possible causes of upsets, and guiding operators into following appropriate procedures. Non-urgent messages during nights and weekends can be stored, analysed and provided later to a day-shift in the form of of a document attached to an email.