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News Release from: Spitzer and Boyes | Subject: Experienced engineers?
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 08 November 2007
Does new technology need experienced
engineers?
Does new technology make experienced engineers less important, on a process plant, in an age of instrumentation globalisation? David W Spitzer presents the opposing views
There are a number of trends in instrumentation (in general) and measurement (in particular) that seem to be converging Whether this is good or bad can be a matter of opinion
Recent discussions about globalisation might lead one to believe that this phenomenon is something new, but it's not.
In the 1500s the Portuguese Caravelas, for example, sailed the seas to provide goods, services, and information to far-flung corners of the world.
Recent technology advancements, such as the Internet, have made it easier for people in different locations to connect, but globalisation isn't a new concept.
You might wonder what this has to do with instrumentation....
Selection of instruments used to be performed by an instrument engineer.
Installation used to be performed by an instrument technician.
These people were familiar with the intimate details of the instrument, in part because they had to deal with their predecessors, in earlier generations of the same equipment.
For example, keeping track of intermediate signal ranges was important before technology enabled them to take care of themselves as digital values.
BUT: In recent years, many experienced engineers have retired.
With many instrumentation engineers being retired, or if not 'retired', being assigned to do more, located in new plants without seasoned personnel, or being eliminated, it is technology and globalisation that is taking up the slack.
Diagnostics that used to be performed by people are being embedded into instruments and/or made available on-line.
Instruments are being designed to be more tolerant of the process and operate under more extreme conditions.
Stated differently, instruments are being designed to be more tolerant of misapplication.
This allows instrument selection to be performed by less-skilled individuals because the instrument has a better chance to take up the slack and remain functional - or at least to diagnose the problems itself.
But are the people receiving these diagnostic messages understanding what is being said?.
The forces of globalisation are clearly at work in instrumentation.
And yet there are the reverse examples.
On one plant, it took about six months for a company to finally invite a former employee to come in for one day to investigate suspected excessive energy consumption - and it took the "old-timer" only 30 minutes to confirm their suspicions.
Not long ago, a "modern" instrumentation system in certain countries was pneumatic and made locally.
It required many people to install and maintain, but there were plenty of people available.
Diagnostics and technologies such as fieldbus, which are designed to reduce high labour costs, are being installed in countries with lower and lower labour costs in order to reduce the number of workers needed for installation and maintenance, while increasing process availability.
As a result, it now takes more than a quick glance from an "old timer" to determine if equipment is operating properly.
As noted earlier, whether this is good or bad can be a matter of opinion ...
but it's not going to stop.
Contact information for David Spitzer and further stories from Spitzer and Boyes can be seen on http://www.processingtalk.com/news/stz/stz000.html.
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