MY Journey®: Company General Use

Soft Startup - Visualization

Challenge & Selection

The first tool I used was the tool of Visualization, or Visual Thinking, to achieve a shared understanding of a problem  space to my management before proceeding to the solutions. I use this approach with my management in my  workspace because it allows me to visualize the issue in order for them to better understand and calculate the  magnitude of the issue for swift and efficient resolution. During my field deployment, l have used power point  technique with live streaming animations and infographic with an existing options that will visualize the issue to the  team, including management and counterpart project management team (PMT), grabbing their tension with all  possible challenges in the near future. The team, management and PMT, has diver’s specialty from mechanical, civil  and electrical engineering which will be hard in the first place to understand a process issue in a facility. The visual  presentation define the issue as part of the commissioning of new facility and how can we identify the best option  from integrity, cost and time.

Application

I start the process by creating infographic equipment’s and animated process flow. To develop these infographic  equipment’s, I used Visio simulation tools to enrich my slides with a detailed pictures and tools of all type of  equipment and process configuration. The Microsoft Visio is a drawing software with variety of diagrams including  flowcharts, org charts, building plans, floor plans, data flow diagrams, process flow diagrams, business process  modeling, 3D maps, and many more. If infographics are not available, then I search in public domain for visualize  equipment and configure processes to deliver highlighted efficient resolution.

I reflect a best practice called Soft Start-up activity during commissioning. Start-up and commissioning hydrocarbon  plants can present unique challenges. If these challenges are not anticipated and addressed in the precommissioning  and commissioning periods, the plant will not be able to start up and meet product specifications in a timely manner.  From this, l have used power point technique with live streaming animations and infographic with an existing options  that will visualize the best cleaning option and avoid starting up without proper cleaning which will lead to a lot of  issues, the presentations addressed to both management and counterpart project management team (PMT) to  grabbing their tension in the advantage of soft-startup to avoid or reduce the common commissioning  challenges of a new amine system (e.g., gas treatment facility), including foaming, the presence of  unwanted debris or materials in piping and vessels, etc., and to ensure the short- and long-term reliability  of an amine system facility, innovatively elected to implement the Soft Start-up concept on a massive  scale, where the amine circuits are filled completely with pure demineralized water (instead of amine),  then pressurized by nitrogen (instead of fuel gas) up to the operating pressure. This is done for multiple  safety and reliability reasons, mainly to

•  Test system tightness with a safer medium (nitrogen, as compared to fuel gas)

•  Debug the associated process control and ESD systems

•  Test the functionality and reliability of all rotating equipment

•  Clean the system from any remaining debris and suspended solids prior to charging with expensive  solvent into the unit

•  Limit the potential for future foaming incidents

MY Journey®: Company General Use

Insight & Approach

What I have learned from conducting this with management and PMT that visualization is a very powerful  tool. I have changed the answer from total rejection to a total approval with providing all possible support  and resources. The live streaming animations and infographic allow us to conduct proposed Soft Start-up  activity and helped us to avoid common commissioning challenges of a new amine system (e.g., gas  treatment facility), including foaming, the presence of unwanted debris or materials in piping and vessels,  etc., and to ensure the short- and long-term reliability of an amine system facility.

Since I discovered that the most valuable aspect is the shared insights and best practices, next time I would  use the visualization activity as a starting point for a series of design thinking activities which is a very  powerful tool.

