FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Lisa Via
Beville Engineering
(937) 434-1093
lvia@operatorperformance.org
Wright State University
Partners with Beville Engineering to Create
Center for Operator Performance
DAYTON, Ohio, March 5, 2007 – Wright
State University announced today it has formed the Center for
Operator Performance, an alliance of academic and process
companies to research generic issues facing the petrochemical
industry in the area of human factors and operator performance.
The Center for Operator Performance was
created to provide an open forum for the identification,
analysis, and dissemination of research in areas such as
selection/training, interface design, decision aides, simulator
effectiveness, automation, procedures, performance measurements
and control room design. Wright State has partnered with Beville
Engineering, a Dayton human factors engineering consulting
company, to establish the Center.
The Center for Operator Performance serves the
needs of member organizations by contracting with universities
and engineering organizations to conduct research that addresses
the common issues facing the petrochemical industry. It will
conduct training workshops to demonstrate methods to implement
research findings and will act as a repository for human factors
data in process control.
A pilot project on the nature of operator
expertise was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2006, with
sponsorship from BP, Flint Hills Resources,
Marathon Pipeline, NOVA Chemicals, ABB, Emerson and Suncor
Energy. Upon review of the results of the pilot study, the
decision was made to proceed with the Center.
Wright State’s College of Engineering and
Computer Science is a leader in engineering education and
innovation. The college is committed to advancing technology to
spur economic growth through training students for high-tech
jobs and commercializing new technology for the marketplace. It
offers nine undergraduate programs and graduate education
through the doctorate level, including a master’s degree with a
concentration in human factors engineering and a doctorate
degree in engineering with a focus on industrial and human
systems.
Wright State faculty members in both
engineering and psychology conduct extensive research in
human-computer interaction, operator modeling, decision support
systems development and display design. The Psychology
Department offers masters and doctorate degrees in human factors
and industrial/organizational psychology. Students and faculty
have access to state-of-the-art laboratories and a wide-range of
computer systems and network resources.
David Strobhar, chief executive of Beville
Engineering, said, “High cost and high risk decisions are being
made in the absence of industry-specific data on petrochemical
operations. Since no single company can afford to tackle these
issues on its own, it made sense to combine our resources into
one highly-focused entity. Employing the ‘sum is greater than
the parts’ strategy, the Center for Operator Performance hopes
to accelerate the means to quantify the nature of operator
performance for member organizations in a cost-effective
manner.”
Mr. Strobhar presented information about the
Center for Operator Performance at the National Petrochemical
and Refiners Association Technology Forum in Phoenix, Arizona,
on October 10, 2006. In his address to several hundred engineers
and technology specialists, he noted, “Companies are spending
millions of dollars on technology to enhance operator
performance with little understanding of what makes a good
operator and without the means to quantify the impact of their
expenditures.”
By sharing the costs of research and
development, the Center for Operator Performance seeks to add
collective value to the industry. Accordingly, it endeavors to:
find methods to enhance operator performance; facilitate an open
dialogue about industry issues; share the costs of finding
solutions to mutual challenges; exchange knowledge and ideas
about human factors efforts in other domains; provide access to
relevant human factors data and training for plants.
Cliff Pedersen, manager of product production
processes for Suncor Energy Inc., said, "We are pleased to be
part of this long overdue and much-needed organization. For many
years our engineers have done their best to design effective
process monitoring and control systems, but they were only
intuitively aware of human factors and its effects on our
operations. This new consortium gives us all the opportunity to
collaborate with researchers, industry leaders, suppliers and
each other not simply to help our own operators to run our
process units better, but also to achieve improved safety and
environmental performance of both our operating plants and new
projects. That knowledge will undoubtedly benefit us all."
Petrochemical plants, like other complex,
dynamic systems, depend heavily on human operators playing a
significant role in the safe and efficient operation of these
systems. Understanding the role of human operators - identifying
the spectrum of skills and knowledge they need for improved
performance, and effectively designing, implementing, and
testing decision aids, displays and training systems - requires
an industry/academic collaboration focusing on research
challenges grounded from an operational perspective.
“The Center for Operator Performance is an
exemplary partnership between petrochemical operating companies,
distributed control system suppliers and human factors
engineering companies focused on high-quality, interdisciplinary
research and education on human operator performance,” said
Professor S. Narayanan, chair of the Department of Biomedical,
Industrial and Human Factors Engineering. He added, “The Center
presents an excellent opportunity for WSU students and faculty
members in both engineering and psychology to apply their human
factors expertise to further the state-of-the-art knowledge in
practice aimed at increased safety, reduced environmental impact
and efficiency in the petrochemical industry domain.”
Mr. Strobhar added, “The Center for Operator
Performance is an industry-academia collaboration designed to
conduct research that directly benefits the process control
industry and informs decision-making. Such an organization
provides an open forum for operating companies, control system
suppliers and other organizations concerned with human
performance to collaborate on issues related to operator
performance and plant safety. This is healthy not only for
businesses individually but also for the petrochemical field
collectively. Everybody wins.”
All companies are eligible to join the Center
for Operator Performance, including refineries, pipe lines,
process plants, mills and suppliers. To learn more about the
Center, become a participating member, suggest a research need
or view research results, visit
www.operatorperformance.org.
About Wright State University
Wright State University is named after the inventors of powered
flight, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and carries on their
tradition of innovation. The university, now celebrating its
40th anniversary, offers more than 100 undergraduate programs
and nearly 50 Ph.D., master’s and professional degrees. Some
17,000 students are enrolled in colleges and schools in the
academic disciplines of business, education and human services,
engineering and computer science, liberal arts, nursing and
health, science and mathematics, graduate studies, medicine and
professional psychology. For more information about Wright State
University, visit
www.wright.edu.
About Beville Engineering, Inc.
Beville Engineering, Inc., formed in 1983, provides state of the
art human factors engineering technology to the petrochemical
industry. Human factors engineering is the scientific discipline
dedicated to improving the human-machine interface and human
performance through the application of knowledge on human
strengths, weaknesses, and characteristics. Beville offers its
customers an objective look at the human factors of plant
operations that is backed by over 20 years of experience and
data from more than 350 projects. Beville is a company dedicated
to identifying and solving difficult human performance problems.
For more information about Beville Engineering, visit
www.beville.com.
