Trusting Flowmeters pt 1

To effectively control and optimize industrial processes, trusting measurements from flowmeters is vital. In today's episode, Sean addresses the topic with Simon Lillie, Yokogawa's expert in flowmeters.

Transcript

[00:00:12.290] - Sean 
This is a Yokogawa Australia and New Zealand podcast. Welcome back to Yokogawa Debunks, conversations with industry experts to uncover the truth behind myths and misconceptions surrounding the industrial automation and industrial instrumentation space. I'm your host, Sean Cahill, and thank you for joining us. Today We welcome Simon Lillie, product manager for Flow Technologies at Yokogawa, Australia and New Zealand. Now in today's episode, we'll be discussing the importance of being able to trust the measurements from your flowmeters. Now we all know that good decisions come down to having trustworthy data to base them on. 

[00:00:50.150] - Sean 
So to effectively control and optimize industrial processes. It's vital that we have trust in our measurements. With that in mind, in today's episodes, we'll be discussing the importance of being able to trust the measurements from your flowmeters. So welcome, Simon. 

 [00:01:06.470] - Simon 
Thanks for having me along for today's discussions. It's great to get to talk to our audience here on this podcast episode about a very important issue that many end-users are facing, and that's the need to trust the data coming from their flow meters. 

[00:01:19.850] - Sean 
That's great. But look, I mean, Simon, before we begin, I'd really like to start our conversation by getting you to tell us a little bit about your involvement in flow measurements. 

[00:01:28.550] - Simon 
Well, I've been involved with flow measurement for many years. I guess it probably started all the way back in my university days when I was studying things like fluid dynamics and fluid flow measurement. After that, I joined Yokogawa and started selling a range of flow solutions. I've been the product specialist now for Flow Solutions for 16 years and in that time been involved with many of the flow products, the different types of applications and seen many issues that our end-users have been facing. 

[00:01:55.310] - Sean 
Look through that. I guess trust is defined as the reliance on the integrity, strength, or ability of a person or a thing. So why is trust that important when it comes to flow measurements? 

[00:02:06.590] - Simon 
It's a very important point. Well, flow meters are vital to plant operations. The flow meters on the plant will operate, most likely 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The data they provide on applications like batching, dosing, doing plant material balances is vital to the safe and efficient operation of the plant. If you're going to operate and control your plant at its optimum, you must be able to trust your flow measurements. 

[00:02:33.170] - Sean 
I can see that there's a high level of importance around trusting measurements used to control an industrial facility. Is this something that's always been around, or is it something that's becoming more important as time goes along? 

 [00:02:46.010] - Simon 
Trust and flow measurements has always been important, but it's getting even more critical these days. The important thing to understand is that we are using the data from our flow meters to make decisions on how we operate and control the process plant. With less operation staff on a plant these days, the trustworthiness of the data is getting even more critical. If we don't have good data, how can we make good control outcomes? To safely and efficiently operate a plant, we must trust the data we're getting from our flow meters. 

[00:03:15.830] - Sean 
You make some really valuable points there and we're seeing across industry that the loss of skilled labour and that it's making operation and optimisation of process facilities that bit more difficult. Now, do you think that there's even more challenges yet to come? 

[00:03:31.130] - Simon 
Yes, I do. I believe that in the future it's going to pose even more challenges around trusting flow measurements. Think for a moment about all the plants currently utilizing or considering moving to remote operations with a remote operation plant, the plant operators in our hundreds or sometimes thousands of kilometres away from the physical plant. All the data they have to base their decisions on is what's presented to them on their operator screen. If they can't trust the flow measurement, it's very hard for them to control the plant. 

[00:04:00.470] - Simon 
Unlike a traditional plant, they can't go out on the plant and look at the flow meter itself to get the trust back. So having trust in the data that's coming to them is essential. 

[00:04:09.770] - Sean 
I can definitely see that trust is vital in those remotely operated plants. What about flow data used in plant data analytics? 

[00:04:14.810] - Simon 
Moves toward greater use of data analytics is happening across the process industries today and will continue further into the future. Process plants generate a lot of data during their normal operations. If this data can be analyzed sufficiently, many insights into the process and methods for improvements can be achieved. Hence, there's some great benefits to be found in data analytics. However, the problem with data analytics is that if the data being used can't be trusted, then the results of the analysis should also not be trusted. 

[00:04:49.430] - Simon 
If you don't have confidence in the original flow measurement, how can you ever trust new control strategies determined from data analytics that have been based on those measurements? 

[00:04:58.310] - Sean 
That's very true. I guess the idea of incorporating artificial intelligence into plant operations, trusting your flow data becomes even more vital. I mean, what are your thoughts on this? 

[00:05:09.470] - Simon 
That's exactly correct. The move to artificial intelligence makes trusting flow meter data even more critical. If we're going to use computers to gather and analyze data to optimize control loops, it can only be done if it's based on good quality data. With AI, poor data in will result in poor recommendations coming out. Trust has always been met with flow measurements, but in the future it's getting even more critical 

 [00:05:37.550] - Sean 
from this short discussion so far today I can already see how critical trust is for safe and optimized operations. Can you let me know what some of the results may be on a traditional process if we don't have or if we lose trust in our flow measurements? 

[00:05:51.410] - Simon 
Yeah, sure. Let me pull out some data here that can back up what we're discussing. Studies have shown that the average person will make around 773,618 decisions over their lifetime. Unfortunately, of those around 18.5%, which is about 143000 of them or one in six decisions we will come to regret. When we look at it, making a good decision generally doesn't provide a special reward or recognition. However, making a poor decision can potentially have catastrophic implications. What we are typically seeing in an operating plant is that when something starts to go wrong, the instrument, like the flow meter, typically is the first to get the blame. 

[00:06:32.570] - Simon 
While it may not be the flow meter's fault, it could be a process upset issue or some other problem, the operators will class the flow meter is non-trustworthy until we can re-establish that trust in the flow measurement, it can have a range of adverse effects on the plant. The result of a lack of or losing the trust in the flow measurement can range from minimal to critical. Let's take a look at an example. If you're making a batch of product by mixing two components, say part A and part B, to make part C. 

[00:07:02.030] - Simon 
If you lost the trust in one or both of the measurements, how can you have any confidence in what your final product C is going to be? This is the product that you want to sell to your customers. So, if you don't have trust in your flow meters, then the final specifications can be incorrect. Now, what are the implications of that? Well, if you sold this offset product, it could damage your reputation. If you needed to rework that product, it could cost you thousands of dollars to rework it. 

[00:07:28.250] - Simon 
On the other hand, if you had to dispose of it completely, it could cost you in the tens of thousands of dollars. So, the implications can be very high. And that's why you really need to trust your flow measurements. 

[00:07:39.410] - Sean 
I can certainly see that the implications of off-spec product can really hurt your bottom line. But what about other implications to the physical plant or the environment? 

[00:07:49.370] - Simon 
Lack of trust in flow measurements can also lead to failures of process equipment. If we're using, say, a flow meter to measure water or oil, which is being used to cool a pump. If we can't trust the measurement, then the flow may be too low, and it could cause that pump to fail. This could then lead to additional costs in maintenance or an unwanted plant shutdown. If we're looking at a flow meter that's being used for environmental discharges, if we lose that trust in that flow meter, it could lead to a succeeding our discharge license, which could cause environmental damage and have severe cost as well as social implications to the company. And the worst case, of course, in all cases, is damage to plant personnel. 

[00:08:29.510] - Sean 
So as you've just highlighted the consequences for a lack of trust in flow measurement can be very serious. Now, one of the items that I've heard from many end users is the inability to trust the settings in their flow meter. Do you see this as an issue? 

[00:08:43.910] - Simon 
Yes, that statement is true. On many plants, changes to a flow meter settings can be made unintentionally. This can be due to an accident or due to inexperienced staff. The changes can have a significant impact on your flow measurement. As an example, if someone unintentionally changed the size setting in your flow meter, the measurement can be multitudes out from what it actually should be. 

[00:09:05.210] - Sean 
Industry is facing many issues, and with many end users facing skill shortages, changing labour force, and less personal on sites, is there any way to protect the flow meter settings from accidental manipulation? 

[00:09:18.890] - Simon 
Well, in the past, it was often an issue to protect the flow meter settings. As the options were very limited. Older generation flow meters had functions to either have all the settings open or all the settings locked. It was very black or white. If all the settings were open, then people would go in and make mistakes. And if all the settings were closed, then even your experienced team members had difficulty in accessing the settings they needed to get to. With modern flow meters, they now have a feature called User Roles. 

With this functionality, you can have different levels of access into the flow meter settings. 

[00:09:51.830] - Sean 
Okay, I wasn't aware of that. User roles do sound like a very user friendly, simple, and important tool to have in the Kit bag for protecting the trustworthiness of your flow data. Could you give us a few more details on this? 

[00:10:03.650] - Simon 
Sure. We use a role in a flow meter. There are three roles that are possible to set. There's an operator role, which is basically a read-only setting so you can't get in there and make changes intentionally or unintentionally. With a maintenance role or a specialist role, you can get in and change different amounts of parameters. Obviously, the specialist has the greatest access and can change all the parameters in the flow meter. But to gain access to either the maintenance or the specialist role, you need to have a password. So, this allows you to limit who on site has access to the deeper levels of the flow meter settings. 

[00:10:37.130] - Sean 
Simon those are great insights, but unfortunately, we've run out of time for discussions today. I'm sure based upon this discussion, there are many other items that we need to discuss and what's turning out to be a very important topic. So, I'd like to invite you back for a continuation of our discussions on trusting you for measurements in our next episode. 

[00:10:56.990] - Simon 
Well, thank you very much. There definitely is still a lot worth discussing. So, I look forward to coming back on the next episode and speaking with you again. 

[00:11:05.330] - Sean 
And thanks to you, our listeners, for joining us once again, please remember to like and share the Podcast as we look forward to welcoming you back for our next episode. So, until next time, stay safe and remember Yokogawa Debunks.