ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with the development of a classification scheme in operational terms, for decision making tasks which are encountered by plant operators in the Chemical Industry. Processes in the chemical industry can roughly be divided into batch and continuous processes. In batch processes, the various feed-stocks to the process are measured and are used to make a specified quantity of product. On the other hand, continuous processes are designed to maintain continuous production from a continuous feed. The balancing task is encountered where an operator must balance the rate of production of some resource with its rate of consumption. The actual task of rectifying the faults is usually referred to instrument mechanics or fitters, and the more unusual types of fault location problems are usually dealt with at plant management level. It may be the case that fault elimination can be encountered with any of the systems described in connection with the fault-finding tasks.