WO2014185869A1

WO2014185869A1 - Xpsoes (1) expert system operational excellence safety

Info

Publication number: WO2014185869A1
Application number: PCT/TR2013/000138
Authority: WO
Inventors: Küçükefe Yaşar; Yakup BOSKURT
Original assignee: Küçükefe Yaşar; Boskurt Yakup
Priority date: 2013-05-15
Filing date: 2013-05-15
Publication date: 2014-11-20

Abstract

A method for checking the isolation of an equipment of an industrial plant. In order to work safely on the equipment, the equipment is identified by reading an identification code with a mobile device, a safety condition request is sent to a server through the mobile device and a message is sent to the mobile device by the server informing the user if the equipment is in a safe condition or not.

Description

XPSOES (1) Expert System Operational Excellence

Safety

1 DESCRIPTION

Any industrial system needs to be operated and maintained by humans. It is the safety controller's and working party's responsibility to protect the worker from system derived danger by isolating the particular piece of equipment to be worked on from the system. This is done by closing/locking/tagging a valve, an electrical power supply and/or by releasing stored energy by draining/venting/cooling. Human errors play a major part in workplace accidents. Momentary lapse of attention, lack of training, poor instructions and bad design are among the factors that can lead to human errors and accidents consequently. Even though vast amount of written work and safety procedures are generally available and people are constantly encouraged to consider all possible risks before performing any action, mistakes and lapses might still occur, especially under stress. Moreover, it is crucially important that the plant apparatus is correctly identified and it is safe to operate or perform maintenance work.

The developed expert system (1) is aimed to help prevent human errors by giving advance warning to operators and maintenance staff before an operation is performed or a work is carried out on an equipment which is not safe to people to be worked on. This is done by using real-time plant data and condition tables formed in accordance with safety procedures. A mobile application (2) developed to provide on-site functionality identifies the plant apparatus by reading a unique QR code in the field and sends the apparatus identification code wirelessly to the main server for evaluation of preconditions required to perform the intended task as opposed to the actual plant status, In case the predefined conditions are not present at the analysis time, a warning message (3) on the mobile device display appears to stop the intended operation or plant work. The conditions may he not present due to various reasons like human error "being at a wrong equipment", human error "wrong isolation of plant", system failure "passing/leaking valve", system failure "sticking contactor" etc. etc. Any of these issues will lead to an accident with harm to people. Logs of each mobile query requests (2) and responses (2) given are stored (4) in a database for further engineering analysis if necessary.

The condition/decision tables are formed by a panel of specialist staff for each possible operational action and maintenance work by taking into account the conditions normally required as part of operational procedures and safety permit process, respectively. Accidents due to wrong identification of plant or apparatus can be prevented as with the location's unique QR code XPSOES (1) will analyze (2) the live actual condition of that plant or apparatus.

As an example: Let's assume a work to be carried out on a pump, its tag is 19LCB11AP001. In the area of work are 3 pumps with the tags 19LCB21AP001, 19LCB11AP001 and 19LCB31AP001. None of the pumps are switched ON. The pump 19LCB11AP001 is isolated/locked/tagged from the system. Normally and all industry's safety procedures expect the worker to identify the correct pump. He can do this only by visual check of the permit document and the tag on the equipment. It happens unfortunately that the worker goes to the wrong pump due to human error, because he misses to differentiate the tag numbers which are nearly identical up to the single digit in the middle of the ID. Sometimes the worker even misses or forgets to look and check the correct identification. With XPSOES (1) he will direct his

Smartphone to the QR code on the part he wants to work on and within 1 second he will know (2) if that particular part is safe to be worked on. When the part is not correctly isolated or when the worker is on a wrong equipment i.e. a running or standby equipment not isolated he will get an ALARM (3) with an explanation why that part is not safe to be worked on. When the actual condition is shown on the screen the worker can type a note (4), which is saved and available and displayed at the next time. This (4) is a provision for effective knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing via note tags included in the proposed system. XPSOES (1) is to be patented:

XPSOES (1) is the system that reads the identification code of the equipment (e.g. via optic, magnetic or other reading) in the field, requests and gets the required and related actual live physical values (voltage, current, pressure, temperature, level etc.) of pre-defined tags from the plant's automation system or server (PLC, DCS, PI, SAP etc.), runs the values through the pre-set condition logic (2) and gives either a "OK" or a "STOP" (3) to continue to work on the equipment related to the QR code.

Any other system able to check live conditions in the field and deciding if the equipment is safe to be worked on shall be under the patent protection of XPSOES.

Following systems have to be available or will be set up before XPSOES (1) is built: A Wireless network with sufficient signal strength, all plant's physical conditions are measured with instrumentation connected to the automation system, a server connected to the automation system which is providing all required tags and their current values on request.

Claims

2 REQUESTS

1 XPSOES is a set of hardware and software, its feature is the ability to identify the equipment in the field, query and evaluate live conditions related to that equipment and provides feedback whether there are system derived hazards on the equipment or not.

2 Is the mobile application of (1), its feature is the ability to query live if it is safe to carry out work on an equipment in factories or similar industry.

3 Is the display warning massage at the point of work, its feature is the ability to warn the worker at the location of the equipment to be worked on, whether it is safe to carry out work on it.

4 Is the note section of (2), its feature is the ability to allow notes to be written down and display these notes at the next time when a query is carried out on that equipment.