Alright; stop, grab a seat, and listen… It was COLD in Texas. REALLY cold. However, with simple planning for reliability, Texans could have possibly prevented multiple pipe-freezing failures that are continuing to plague many as we thaw out from Winter Storm Uri. Hopefully, my story and observations of our collective pipe-freezing situation will remind us…
2020 was a tough year. Whether you merely survived or managed to thrive, 2020 took more out of you than other years. Each of us has a story to tell coming out of 2020 and the endings to some have not been written yet. Most of us know someone by now who did not beat…
Encourage employees and clients to ask why and listen with respect. Challenge everything. It shows you care, forces others to listen to their own convictions, and you’ll probably learn something. The corollary to this is it only works if you listen. If you wouldn’t let your kids do it, you shouldn’t do it. Process safety…
1. What are the challenges operators are facing when trying to maintain their relief system program in a low-price oil environment? The industry faces several challenges in the current low-price climate specifically due to the uncertainty in the pandemic-driven supply and demand pressures that extend beyond normal market economics. In addition to the impact of…
Time. There are so many quotes and books and scientific deliberations on the topic. Some say it flies. Others say it is relative. And a few believe it to be money. They are all right. Time is everything and nothing all at the same time. In previous blogs, I have waxed philosophical on my thoughts…
I worry a lot. No, seriously, I worry A LOT! I always have and I expect I always will. I sometimes worry that I am an un-diagnosed anxiety disorder patient wading through an ever-increasingly angst-filled world. To better deal with the increasing number of stressors in my life during the pandemic, I have adopted what…
As we go about our lives, especially during the Holiday season, we oftentimes find ourselves being pulled in many directions by imaginary, yet seemingly very real, strings. These strings tug at our mental capacity. They tug at our heart and soul. They tug at our physical faculties and muscles. They tug and pull and yank…
One of the elements of the PSM standard that most people are familiar with is Management of Change (MOC). The purpose of the MOC process is to provide a systematic way to manage changes to the process unit that are not “replacements in kind”. This process is managed differently by most companies, and sometimes, managed…
Do you have some place better to be? Do you have something better to do? Are you running from task to task and activity to activity so fast that you don’t seem to have time to care about the task or activity at hand? You know what you have to do, right? You know you…
As the famous artist, Vincent Van Gogh, said, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” The “small things” in process engineering are no different and can have a big influence on a project’s bottom line. The impact of process engineering on the economics of a capital project is often overlooked…
