Sometimes the simplest steps lead to exemplary execution. That was certainly the case when Huffman Engineering became part of a 10-year $113.4 million capital improvements initiative at the water treatment facility in a Midwest city.
Constructed in the early 1950s, this facility was the single treatment facility performing all water treatment for the city, servicing approximately 35,000 residents. The city first focused on upgrading instrumentation and control systems that were approaching their end-of-life. Other top priorities included the replacement of the 1990s era filter interface panel (FIP) to include new hardware, new human- machine interface (HMI) software, modernization of filter control techniques and network upgrades. The FIP monitors and controls the filtration and backwash processes, including flow control, filter activation/deactivation, backwash blower control, backwash pump control and backwash system valve control.
Methodology
Properly addressing all constraints of this project with multiple parties required close coordination and active communication between all the team members. Blending best practices from three organizations produced a plan-based project execution model to address the known and unknown challenges, and ultimately achieve all objectives.
In simplistic terms, a plan-based project execution model consists of a deliberate process to build a plan which identifies and mitigates known and unknown risks, provides a method to ensure the plan is briefed to all required entities, executes as briefed, establishes communication mechanisms to re-plan/re-brief as necessary, and debriefs at the conclusion of the execution phase to gather lessons learned for use in follow-on plans.
Specific to the FIP project, the project team used the following mechanisms:
Planning
- Weekly planning meetings with team project leads following a set agenda to track and address known issues, identify potential future issues and create/revise a detailed schedule.
- Develop “methods of procedure” to provide a granular level of detail required to identify specific tasks.
- Conduct dry runs of critical or high-risk developments prior to actual execution to provide an additional level of risk identification and risk mitigation.
Briefing
- All hands brief every morning using the city-provided Job Hazard Analysis format to ensure everyone understood the day’s planned activities, the risks involved and the mitigation measures in place to reduce or eliminate the risks.
Executing
- Execute the plan as briefed and, if there was a need to deviate from the plan, brief the new plan to all hands prior to re-execution.
- Establish clear and concise communication between the plant operations team and the hardware/software team.
Debriefing
- An all-hands debrief outlining planned objectives met, what went well, what could have gone better, lessons learned and follow-up action items.
- Outline the expected plan for the next day and readjust as necessary based on results from current day activities and additional input from the team. This included tasking the night crew as needed regarding backwash requirements.
Results
There were challenges along the way, of course, considering this was a team that had not previously worked together. The hardware was not a simple one-for-one swap of old equipment to new equipment. The plant operation team, although in support of the upgrades, needed to learn new systems both visually and physically.
Despite these challenges, strict adherence by the team to a plan-based project execution process paid off.
The project provided the city updated hardware with increased redundancy and modernized filter control through software, graphics and programming updates. Additionally, the project was completed on budget, a month and a half ahead of schedule with zero safety incidents, zero unplanned outages and zero clean water impacts to customers.
In every project there are ample opportunities to stray from proven project methodology. But time and time again, attention to detail, great communication and adherence to the methodology pays off.
Nick Hein is a mechanical engineer at Huffman Engineering Inc., certified members of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). For more information about Huffman Engineering, visit its profile on the Industrial Automation Exchange.
