Goble, W.
HP Automation Safety: It is easier to sit on the couch than go exercise
I like a routine each morning where I get up early and work on long-term projects—important tasks that lack the urgency of a short deadline, like reading that new safety critical systems book, wr..
HP Automation Safety: What are safety engineering ethics?
In many professional engineer (PE) programs, continuing education is required. In some US states, this education includes specific requirements for engineering ethics training. The author recently att..
HP Automation Safety: MTTR: Reality vs. calculation
Many reliability engineers trained before IEC 61508 know the acronym MTTR as “mean time to repair.” I certainly learned that definition. Naturally, I think of the time it takes to repair som..
HP Automation Safety: Maintenance capability: Does it matter in the long term?
I remember working in a test department, where a particular technician, known as Mike, seemed to destroy a significant percentage of the equipment he worked on. Since he reported to me, I tried extra ..
HP Automation Safety: It’s all about the safety PLC—not!
Focus on the big safety improvements and the real problems. This fundamental concept applies to many tasks in addition to functional safety.
HP Automation Safety: ‘Sticktion’: A dangerous failure mode
I set a wet glass on the old wooden kitchen table at our home. It sat there all night. The next morning, when I went to grab the glass, it stuck to the table. Yes, this event has happened before. But,..
HP Automation Safety: The imaginary hacker
Under recent economic conditions, it is understandable that a control-system cyber-security audit is not the top priority for many plant operators. Less staff due to layoffs and deferred maintenance c..
HP Control: Distillation column dual-temperature control-Part 1
This editorial takes issue with a claim by Mr. Greg Shinskey that distillation dual-composition control cannot be done effectively by a multivariable predictive controller (MPC), but can be done effec..
HP Automation Safety: The ups and downs of mentoring
Although it seems like old news to me, I have recently read articles describing an eminent engineering talent shortage. It could be real, especially considering the economic pain of the present enviro..
HP Automation Safety: Safety culture for operations and maintenance
While recently analyzing failure records from different petrochemical plants, some interesting trends emerged from the information. A particular instrument model experienced significantly different fa..
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