TABLE OF CONTENTS Operator Training continues to increase in importance as systems become more complex, and the operator is expected to do more and more. It sometimes seems that, the more we automate, the more important it is for the operator to understand what to do when that automation system does not function as designed. This topic ties closely with the Modeling topic because simulated plants allow more rigorous operator training.
Automation professionals that only work on engineering projects in the office and leave the field work to others may not realize the tremendous amount of work required to get a system operating. Construction staff and plant technicians are doing more and more of the Checkout, System Testing, and Startup work today, but that only makes it more important that automation professionals understand these topics.
Maintenance, Long-Term Support, and System Management takes a lot of work to do well. The difference in cost and effectiveness between a good maintenance operation and a poor one is easily a factor of two and may be much more. Automation professionals need to understand this area more so that their designs can effectively deal with life-cycle cost.
A competent operator is a critical element in any manufacturing facility. Even though facilities operate at varying levels of automation, the operators are a key part of that system.
