It seems like no matter how much technology, training or new things we get…we just keep doing stupid things :
- Don't keep drawings up to date, even though they are the key to fixing things fast. Without them, modernization/upgrade projects are a nightmare.
- In spite of the fact things fail a lot, we don't make the information we will eventually need available for immediate use. For the love of everything that could function well….tablets and phones are ubiquitous now.
- It's almost as if we pretend we will not need the PLC and HMI code someday. So, we go ahead and put it on some random USB stick in some drawer. Multiple revisions are scattered about and fully not managed.
- Leave several thousand, maybe millions, of dollars of high end controllers and visualization systems not ready for making changes that will keep up with shifting operations requirements.
- Cyber security…don't get me started…the primary automation vendors who are now trying to play catchup pretend they aren't a key part of causing the problem. Marketing causes huge problems when trying to sort through what the real issues are. Cyber security is almost achieved when every part of the system is managed well. Unnecessary complexity is a real enemy here.
- Why isn't everything on Ethernet by now?
- Do we even care what makes up our systems? Is there a document that lays all of that out….and isn't 3 years behind (or more)?? What about all the little to big pieces of information, where is that kept?
- Continuous Improvement…it's a fun idea…does anyone really, actually think this way and live it out?
- Thinking, Common Sense and calm reasoning…this would really help a lot of things. So would passion to understand how to build these things well.
It is easy to do better than we have done. The work to get there is significantly frustrating and expensive but it must be done.
I am very curious if you agree, dispute or can add to the list. Let me know, I want to understand these dynamics better...