Chemical Engineering August 2017 - 55

BAW Architecture
from the authors' extensive experience
in designing and building control
rooms and buildings include
the following:
* Allow enough time in FEED to start
a control room project off right
* Workstations, as well as small and
large screen placement, should
be designed concurrently with the
building design
FIGURE 4. Allowing sufficient time for front-end design work, including conceptual sketches and human
factors engineering, can save time and reduce costs as the control room project progesses
* Sustaining new positive behaviors
after implementation
Chemical engineers certainly understand
the importance of solid
change management, and their experience
is essential to help support
the organizational change management
that is necessary for planning
and adapting to a new control room
or renovation.
Steps to success
Following a set methodology,
each control room design process
- for both new construction
and renovations of existing facilities
- can deliver exceptional and
tangible results. When a project
need is identified, a design team
is formed. The makeup of that
team
can
facilitate the project
process. An experienced controlroom
design team integrates lessons
learned and best practice
knowledge for the new facility.
The design is fine-tuned throughout
the design process based on
feedback from many parties. As a
result, the control room will have
received input from operators,
staff and key project stakeholders,
often including chemical engineers,
and is a multi-disciplinary
collaborative creation.
Build a great design team. The
motivation to design or renovate
a control room usually begins with
operations, but is mostly decided
by company leadership. Engaging
an experienced architectural team
consisting of architects, engineers,
human-factors engineers and interior
designers is an integral first
step in the process. Understanding
the value that a new or renovated
control room can bring to an
organization involves a comprehensive
approach. The roles and
responsibilities of each discipline, described
below, are a vital piece to a
complex puzzle:
* Architect: oversees the overarching
concept and the design team
(including structural, mechanical
and electrical considerations,
among others) and keeps the
project on course
* Human factors engineer (HFE):
ensures a human-centered approach
based on ISO-11064 and
industry best practices
* Interior designer: integrates all the
disciplines together into an operator-centric,
ergonomic and functional
environment
Hiring experts in the design of
control buildings ensures the building
will be designed correctly the
first time, reducing human error,
avoiding costly renovations, accidents
and illness related to poor
design. Together, the team of specialists
works collaboratively to design
a control building that meets
the needs of the operator. Lastly,
an experienced building contractor
can make or break the project by
providing cost and schedule control
to keep the project on budget and
on time, as well as risk mitigation so
that the job site stays safe. Collaborating
with the owner and architect,
the contractor turns the team's vision
into a reality.
So the next time there is talk of
designing a new control room or
renovating an existing control room
at your organization, remember the
reasons why you should get involved
- the operator, collaboration and
change management. What these
three areas have in common is the
need for a cross-functional approach
to job design, work design and planning
and implementation, all focused
on improving process safety, efficiency
and productivity.
Some additional lessons learned
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
AUGUST 2017
* Incorporate area for future growth
in the control room, rack room
and infrastructure
* Communication and collaboration
across the design team and with
operational staff (including chemical
engineering) and the construction
team is key to successful organizational
change and control
room design.
■
Edited by Mary Page Bailey
References
1. Goman, Carol K., Seven Insights for Collaboration in
the Workplace, Reliable Plant, April 2010.
2. International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
11064, Ergonomic Design of Control Centres,
November 2013.
Author
Brad Adams Walker is an architect
and founder and owner of
BAW Architecture (300 South
Jackson Street, Suite 430, Denver,
303-388-9500;
Email:
He
CO 80209; Phone:
info@
bawarchitecture.com; Website:
www.bawarchitecture.com).
completed his first control room
design in 1987 and founded
BAW Architecture in 1992. Pushing the boundaries
and conceiving new operator-centric configurations in
control room design led to commissions that earned
him international recognition relatively early in his career.
Since then, Walker has completed over 100 built
control-building projects over the past 25 years for
several global petrochemical companies. He is a distinguished
speaker who has made presentations at
numerous conferences related to optimal control room
and control building design.
Peggy Hewitt is an independent
consultant providing businessdevelopment
support to BAW Architecture
(Email:
bawarchitecture.com).
phewitt@
Before
working at BAW Architecture,
Hewitt spent over 30 years at
Honeywell in four industrial business
sectors. While there, she led
the ASM Consortium, a group of
leading companies and universities involved with the
process industries that jointly invested in research and
development to create tools and products designed to
prevent, detect and mitigate abnormal situations that
affect process safety in control-room environments.
Recently, she was interim vice president of membership
at the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation
Institute (CESMII). In partnership with the U.S.
Department of Energy, CESMII brings over $140 million
in investment to improve the precision, performance
and efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.
55

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Chemical Engineering August 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering August 2017