2007-03-02 - An advanced ergonomic workstation has been installed at one of ABB’s sites in Aberdeen, to support its oil and gas customers.
An advanced ergonomic workstation has been installed at one of ABB’s sites in Aberdeen, to support its oil and gas customers.
The new facility is an ABB Extended Operator Workplace (EOW) installed at the company’s Commerce Street office in Aberdeen. It will allow ABB to support its customers by training operators, testing control system modifications and upgrades and simulating software enhancements to customers’ existing control systems. The facility will also allow remote monitoring and fault finding customer installations.
The ABB EOW is an ergonomically optimized workstation designed to enhance the operator’s working environment and effectiveness with features that reduce fatigue and extend the operators range of understanding. Incorporating a large contoured high resolution screen up to three metres wide, as well as an array of up to six smaller monitors, the ABB EOW includes an ergonomically designed motorised desk that can be adjusted to suit the needs and working style of operators.
Designed primarily for ABB’s System 800xA control system, the EOW at Aberdeen can be linked via a network to other ABB control systems in remote locations, to suit the particular system in use with the customer.
The large, front projected display normally shows an overview of the process, but can show or incorporate any type of information, for example a technical drawing or video of key locations on the plant. The individual monitors usually show process displays from different parts of the plant, but can also feature other data, such as alarm lists, trends, operator instructions, service and fault finding information and other documentation. All data is selected according to individual operator needs and all displays can be moved freely between monitors, or spread out over several monitors for enhanced visibility.
John Wood, one of ABB’s Account Managers for Oil and Gas, says: “The EOW gives the operator a much higher level of visibility, saves space compared to the equivalent size of flat screen back projection system and makes it easier for one person to control a complex process. Groups of operators can also more easily discuss what they are seeing from the system.”
Variants with larger screen sizes and more monitors enable more control room operators to cope more easily with a larger workload.
Much more than a static background, the large overview screen is an interactive part of the operator’s working environment and can be easily adapted to every situation to allow faster, more informed decisions.
The independent ARC Advisory Group says of the EOW “Creative approaches like the EOW are critical in light of the current trend to consolidate control rooms and focus more responsibility on operators”
Capable of being used both on and offshore, operators are using the EOW in applications as diverse as the remote control of oil and gas processing facilities and even remote commissioning.