The conflict between design engineers and operators is as old as Methuselah. Unfortunately there has often been merit to this argument. When engineers work closely with the operators during the entire design process and consider their concerns before finalizing the design, the final product is much more effective. It’s not good enough for the engineer to just have operators review the final design.

From the very beginning of my career in Instrumentation and Control, I have found operators in the field to be indispensable wells of information for successful troubleshooting and repair of various issues, and the installation and upgrade of various field devices, SCADA and HMI. It is paramount for I&C Engineers to always consult operators for their take on issues at hand because they can give pointers such as when the issue started, possible triggers, duration of the problem and other leading factors can help immensely with root cause analysis. I therefore think that it's a no brainer to find various ways of bringing operators into the picture to enable successful production not just for I&C Engineers but all Maintenance Engineers.

What I try to do is involve the operator(s) in as much of the design process as possible. I get their input on machine function, but more than that, I ALWAYS get their input on HMI design, flow, and function. I also try to incorporate good, clear, functionally informative maintenance screens on every HMI, that show IO conditions, allow firing outputs when practical, and helps maintenance diagnose the piece of equipment without the need of a laptop.

It's often described that to be effective in troubleshooting a problem, you need to listen to what Operators have to say. Operators have the most hours spent on the equipment. They're likely to get you closer to the fault location or be able to create machine motions that Control Technicians might not feel comfortable doing. Most importantly if you exclude operators from the discussion, you probably alienate them from future discussions as well. No one person is greater than another when the goal is reaching target production levels, staying safe and preventing repair tech calls for reoccurring issues! Operators are critical to the repair troubleshooting process and should be treated as such.

When operators see us, they associate us with machine failure, and low production numbers. The accountability falls on them unfairly in their meetings. The golden rule is to value their production numbers as much as they do. This requires balance because the controls engineer must value his deliverables as well. A clear assignable downtime for engineering is supposed to help, but the end result is still the same. Their line did not meet its goal. Often, they are held accountable regardless. They work over time, or worse, they get sent home. The 2nd rule is to actually learn the operators name, and mind your manners. These stressful situations can be reduced, but they will consistently occur throughout your career.