Optimizing the Value of an Operator Training Simulator

When evaluating the value of an investment in training simulator technology for your plant, it's important to first consider how and in what type of facility the training simulator would be used. For example, would the simulator be used to train plant managers, engineers, and/or maintenance technicians as well as operators? Would the simulator also be used to test control strategies in a safe, offline environment? And, perhaps most importantly, is the target plant a new, grassroots facility, or an existing brownfield facility?

The answers to these questions will help end users determine the best types of technology to implement for simulating both the process itself and the control system. Depending on what the end user hopes to accomplish, the relative fidelities of both the process and the control system simulations should be aligned to optimize the value of the technology and, ultimately, the return on investment.

Why does it make a difference whether the plant is a new or existing facility? In a new facility or a plant expansion, the cost of the OTS can often be budgeted as part of the overall project, for which it would typically represent a very small percentage and thus not be overly difficult to justify. The need to train operators in a new facility is also usually more obvious than in an existing plant, in which the operators have already gained a considerable amount of operating experience. Furthermore, in established plants that have often been in operation for decades, the, "We've managed fine without one so far," mentality often dominates.

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Keywords: Operator Training Simulator (OTS), Process Control, Simulation, Software Testing, Engineering, ARC Advisory Group.