Does the dysfunction we tried to accommodate in the early DCS days plague your efforts to get value from you asset management system (AMS)? See if your experience was like mine: Before we installed the first DCS in our site, our instrument department serviced the entire control loop. It worked on the field devices. The instrument techs slapped new controllers in the panel, rebuilding relays, flapper nozzles and so on. The refinery where I worked had the Foxboro H-line, one of the early electronic controllers, and our instrument people serviced them too. But when we installed our site's first DCS, there was great consternation about the instrument techs poking around in the DCS, which was seen as a delicate assemblage only the properly ordained and sanctified should ever touch. Our instrument shop was populated entirely by people who had been operators. Some, but not all, were skilled and motivated individuals. Our work rules and overtime guidelines made picking and choosing who worked where messy, if not entirely forbidden. Even in those days, the reliability of the systems was such that training 15 or 20 people and getting them enough practice to stay proficient was thought impossible. So we drew a line.
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