Patent Document

TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for managing task information of a plant. It particularly relates to a method and apparatus for managing task information of a plant that is operated in shifts. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Plants that are configured to operate in shifts typically employ different teams of plant personnel for each shift. The team for each work shift normally comprises a shift supervisor and a plurality of operators who may include engineers, maintenance staff, and workers of other designations. 
         [0003]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , during a current work shift of a plant  10 , each plant operator  20 , where applicable, uses a logbook  30  to record information  32  of the current work shift for the various aspects or particular section of the plant that the operator  20  is specifically in charge of. This typically includes on-going task information of one or more activities and status information for various pieces of equipment as well as other operational information that are generated by the plant and captured by a control system controlling the plant  10 . The information is normally displayed to the operator  20  on an operator console  40  on a client machine. Operator comments, evidences of work completion, events deemed significant by the operator  20 , equipment diagrams with handwritten annotations and so on are also commonly maintained by each operator  20  in his own logbook  30 . On top of his individual logbook records, each operator  20  may also contribute input  52  to a production summary record  50  that comprises values that are sampled at various time instances. 
         [0004]    Currently, at the end of every work shift, each operator  20  signs off on his own logbook  30  and the shift supervisor  60  collects  62  all the logbooks  30  and the production summary record  50  from the plurality of operators  20  in his team. From the information in all the logbooks and production summary records, the shift supervisor generates  64  a work shift summary report  70 . The work shift summary report  70  together with all the logbooks  30  are then handed over  72  to another team  80  of plant personnel who will be operating the plant  10  in the subsequent work shift. The handing over normally takes place at a shift hand-over meeting  90  of shift supervisors  60  that lasts around twenty to thirty minutes in an overlapping time interval between work shifts, comprising some five to eight percent of a work shift effort. The shift supervisor  60  of the subsequent work shift then updates his team  80  of operators  20  with the current shift information prior to starting work on their subsequent shift. This is repeated at the end of every work shift. 
         [0005]    Each operator  20  thus personally decides what information he sees on his operator console  40  and which parts of his activities (including communication with other shift members) to record in his logbook  30  and the production summary record  50 , and each shift supervisor  60  also personally decides what information he will summarize in his work shift summary report  70  or transmit to his team  80  of operators. Consequently, the quality, quantity and interpretation of plant information for each work shift are subjective and highly dependent on the individual plant personnel involved. This also means that information recorded in the logbooks  30  is not fully traceable to actual information generated by the plant  10 . 
         [0006]    In addition, writing in their paper logbooks  30  or keying in data into digital logbooks  30  is a time consuming task for the operators  20 . Handwritten reports also often suffer from legibility and insufficiency problems. It is also time consuming for the shift supervisor  60  to sift through all the logbooks  30  of his team  80  and generate the work shift summary report  70 . Obtaining historical information for further data analyses is difficult as the information is scattered in multiple logbooks  30  and a common context is missing. Much pre-processing and data re-entry is required if computerized software tools are to be used to analyze the information obtained for each work shift. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    According to a first aspect, there is provided an apparatus for managing task information of a plant, the plant being controlled by a control system and configured to be operated in shifts. The apparatus comprises a server for automatically obtaining and storing information from a current work shift of the plant from the control system; and at least one client connected to the server and comprising a logbook application module for manipulating the obtained information. Preferably, the server is configured to automatically transmit manipulated information to identified users of a subsequent work shift. 
         [0008]    The server may further comprise a report generator module for generating work shift reports from the manipulated obtained information, a report scheduler module for scheduling generation of the work shift reports, a follow-up task creator module for generating follow-up tasks and reminders for a subsequent work shift, a shift user resolver module to automatically alert identified users of the subsequent work shift to the follow-up tasks and reminders, and/or a database for storing information therein. 
         [0009]    According to a second aspect, there is provided a method for managing task information of a plant, the plant being controlled by a control system and configured to be operated in shifts. The method comprises obtaining information of a current work shift of the plant from the control system; storing the obtained information in a server; and manipulating the obtained information via a logbook application module in a client connected to the server. The method preferably further comprises automatically transmitting manipulated information to identified workers of a subsequent work shift. 
         [0010]    The method may further comprise generating work shift reports from the manipulated obtained information via a report generator module in the server, scheduling the generation of the shift reports via a report scheduler module in the server, and generating follow-up tasks and reminders for a subsequent work shift via a follow-up task creator module in the server. In the method, modules in the server are preferably controlled via a user interface in the logbook application module. 
         [0011]    For both aspects, the logbook application module preferably comprises a user interface configured to control modules in the server. The logbook application module may further comprise at least one function selected from the group consisting of: screen capture, screen annotation, adding task information, searching for previous reports, displaying and acknowledging follow-up tasks and associated reminders, and adding Uniform Resource Locators to shift reports. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    Exemplary embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, by way of example only, in which: 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a prior art information management workflow during a change of work shift; 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary embodiment of information management workflow during a change of work shift according to the present invention; 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart corresponding to the exemplary embodiment of  FIG. 2 ; 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention; and 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  is an exemplary screen shot of a logbook application module  44  on a client machine. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0018]    An exemplary embodiment of an apparatus and method for information management workflow of a plant during a change of work shift according to the present invention is described with reference to  FIGS. 2 to 4 , wherein plant information from each work shift is made highly traceable, simple to generate, easy to retrieve and readily available. As shown in  FIGS. 2 to 4 , the plant  10  is controlled by a control system  11  that captures information generated by various aspects and pieces of equipment that the plant  10  comprises. A server  12  is provided that automatically obtains information from the plant  10  at scheduled intervals, or on demand as appropriate, from data sources such as the control system  11  and any other task based operation systems  104 . The information obtained by the server  12  may include alarms and events form the control system  11 , check lists, task related information from the task basked operation system, cycle time statistics, reports of resources consumed by various tasks and so on. Obtained information  14  from the various plant operations is preferably stored in a database  13  in the server  12  and grouped by tasks or operational objectives or in any other appropriate manner. In this way, relevant contextual information is also implicitly captured, thereby simplifying knowledge management of the plant  10 . This also helps to avoid re-work and to improve reliability of the obtained information  14 . 
         [0019]    At the start of a work shift  100 , the operators  20  and shift supervisor  60  step up  22  to their respective operator consoles  40 ,  42 ,  102  from which they control the plant  10 . Each operator consoles  40  is connected as a client to the server  12 . Obtained information  14  from the server  12  is consolidated by a report generator module  36  in the server  12  and provided to the operators  20  on their respective operator consoles  40 . 
         [0020]    A logbook application module  44  is provided on each client operator console  40 ,  42 . The logbook application module  44  comprises a graphical user interface configured for manipulating the obtained information  14 , allowing the operators  20  and shift supervisor  60  to key in comments and make other entries to their respective records. Via the logbook application module  44 , each operator  20  or the supervisor  60  controls various modules in the server  12  and manipulates the obtained information  14 ,  106  by making selections, entering additional data such as comments or task or status information that may not have been captured by the control system  11 , and also contribute input to a production summary record  50 . Alternatively, the production summary record  50  may be directly generated by the operator  20  when default entries provided by the server  12  from the obtained information  14  are found to be acceptable and no additional user inputs are required. 
         [0021]    Each operator  20  may also create follow-up tasks for relevant operators of the subsequent work shift using a follow-up task creator module  32  in the server  12 . Alternatively, the follow-up task creator module  32  may be configured to automatically create follow-up tasks for a relevant operator  20  of the subsequent shift and to send reminders and/or other alerts to the relevant operator  20 . In this way, operators  20  in a subsequent shift may be automatically alerted to follow-up tasks during their shift, ensuring that no information is lost and that no important actions are missed. Tracking of follow-up tasks may be facilitated by way of shift level key performance indicators (KPI) such as the number of tasks completed on time, the amount of backlog cleared, the number of process alarms raised during the current shift, whether the time taken to complete any of the tasks bettered the historical performance record, and so on, to better ensure that the follow-up tasks have been performed satisfactorily. 
         [0022]    To manage different shift operators, a shift user resolver module  34  may be provided in the server  12  to automatically check a shift roster to identify users of a subsequent work shift and send relevant information, follow-up tasks, reminders and alerts to them. Preferably, the shift user resolver module  34  also creates a new page for the operator logbook  30  of the subsequent shift, based on a predetermined shift timing configuration. 
         [0023]    In a preferred embodiment, the logbook application module  44  is further configured to allow each operator  20  to also perform screen captures and make screen annotations to the presented information  14 . By manipulating obtained information  14  through the logbook application module  44 , each operator  20  thus generates an individual logbook or log record  30  associated with the respective operator console  40 . Information in each individual logbook or log record  30  is preferably stored in the server  12  on the database  13 . 
         [0024]    The shift supervisor  60  of each work shift tracks the progress of the individual operators  20  via their log records  30  as well as the follow-up tasks generated  108 . The shift supervisor  60  preferably operates from a dedicated operator console  42  comprising a shift supervisor logbook application module  44 . This special logbook application module  44  allows the shift supervisor  60  to retrieve and manipulate information obtained from the individual logbooks  30  and to control the report generator module  36  in the server  12  in order to generate work shift reports  70 ,  110  for the subsequent work shift. An exemplary screen shot of a report generator user interface of the shift report generator module  36  on an operator console  40 ,  42  is shown in  FIG. 5 . 
         [0025]    Preferably, whenever an operator  20  updates his individual logbook  30 , entries made are instantaneously accessible to the shift supervisor  60  on his operator console  42 . The shift supervisor  60  may therefore make concurrent selections of tasks or related information from the logbooks  30  and production summary  50  for inclusion in the shift report  70 , and also enter comments using the graphical user interface on his console  42  when generating the work shift report  70 . In addition to the operators  20  or supervisor  60  triggering the report generator module  36  to generate reports, the server  12  may further comprise a report scheduler module  38  for scheduling generation of the work shift reports  70 . By allowing the operators  20  and supervisor  60  to compile summaries and update their logbooks  30  as the work shift progresses, the apparatus and method save time and pressure at the end of a work shift to produce completed logbooks  30  is eliminated. Also, trends and operator screen may be captured as screen images together with annotation for illustration purposes for inclusion in the logbooks  30 , summary reports  50  and shift reports  70 . 
         [0026]    In addition to manipulating obtained information  14 , the logbook application module  44  on each client  40 ,  42  is preferably also configured to allow an operator  20  or supervisor  60  to search for and view earlier work shift reports  70  and logbooks  30  “on the fly”, display and acknowledge follow-up tasks and associated reminders, and even add Uniform Resource Locators of other sources of information to their individual logbooks  30  and/or work shift reports  70 , thereby reducing duplication of effort and information. 
         [0027]    As the current work shift draws to a close, the server  12  automatically presents the individual log records  30 , work shift report  70 , follow-up tasks and any other relevant information, reminders or alerts for use by the team  80  of operators  20  and supervisor  60  of the subsequent shift  112 . In this way, there is no need for a substantial shift hand-over meeting for the supervisor of the current to pass important work shift information on to the supervisor of the subsequent shift when the work shift ends  114 . Instead, the subsequent team  80  start their work shift  100  with simply stepping up to their respective operator consoles  40 ,  42 ,  102 . At their operator consoles  40 ,  42 , the subsequent team  80  are presented with the relevant information such as the respective individual log records  30 , work shift report  70  and any follow-up tasks and reminders generated from the previous work shift. 
         [0028]    The apparatus and method therefore provide all operators  20  and supervisors  60  with access to all the plant operation information that is relevant to them as necessary or desired, thereby keeping them fully informed of plant processes. There is therefore little or no chance of misinformation or information loss since there is greatly reduced dependency on human intervention to transmit information from a current to subsequent work shifts. The transmitted information would also be free of subjective interpretation errors. 
         [0029]    It should be appreciated that the invention has been described by way of example only and that various modifications in design and/or detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. For example, additional user interfaces for access to the logbooks on the server may be provided on hand-held devices for use by mobile field personnel. Voice data input or digital pen data input systems may be used in addition to or as an alternative to keyboard data entry on the operator consoles. Keyword search functions may be provided to allow searching through the database of previous logbooks and work shift reports for specific information. The server may be configured to provide an updated shift backlog summary based on the shift plan at the start of a shift and the actual plant or activity status at the end of the shift. The server may further be configured to provide a function to compare shift reports of multiple shifts for similar activities, tasks and/or related performance indicator such as cycle time and so on.

Technology Category: 3