Don't shoot the troubleshooter

Virtually all refineries and petrochemical plants in developed countries have been in place for a long time. While the technology usually is not new, neither is most of the equipment. Problems occur, and whether they are fixed correctly and immediately, bandaged over, or even ignored may determine the need for a troubleshooter sometime in the future.

An external troubleshooter enters a situation ripe for conflict, according to AIChE member Andrew Sloley of Process Consulting Services, Inc., of Houston, Texas, who discussed the special skills needed for troubleshooting at the Spring National Meeting.

Sloley said that the process begins when a process plant identifies a problem. Then, internal attempts to fix it fail. By bringing in an outside troubleshooter, an organization blatently admits that it doesn't have the personnel to solve the problem. "Even identifying a problem may be difficult. Faulty data that hides the true size of a problem is usually accepted without question," he said.

The specific people-management skills needed for troubleshooting are quite different from those required to manage general process plant operations, Sloley explained. "The preexistence of a problem situation dramatically increases the stress levels involved," he added. "When starting troubleshooting work, the initial investigation will almost invariably show the situation to be worse than expected."

The personnel issues involved with finding, identifying, and fixing plant problems may follow two concurrent tracks-a technical path and a psychological track, Sloley said. The technical path includes defining the objective, getting and analyzing data, figuring out what went wrong, gathering more data as required, formulating a solution, implementing it, and verifying the result of the solution. The psychological path of troubleshooting a problem follows the path of any other stressful situation, whether technical or personal. That includes denial, anger, action, apathy, and acceptance.

"It is typical (for management) in a costly revamp failure to spend one to two years in the denial and anger stages before even thinking about effective steps to solve the problem. This duration dulls memories and expectations," which can lead to acceptance as the norm, Sloley said.

Fixing a plant problem requires implementing a fix that meets technical, economic, and personnel requirements. The problem must be identified and a solution defined (technical). The solution must achieve sufficient improvement at an acceptable investment or cost (economic). The work process, the solution, and how the solution is implemented must be acceptable to the individuals involved (personnel). Failure to meet the requirement of any of these areas results in a "failed solution."

After the problem is identified, a solution must be proposed, implemented, and completed. "The identification of the solution may pose insurmountable organizational problems," Sloley cautioned. "Among these are inherent conflicts between individuals and organizations that may have to work together."

Since conflict is an inherent part of troubleshooting, specific techniques are often required, such as setting performance expectations in advance, negotiating the communication style, relaxing, selecting the team, avoidance, and developing incentives.

"All of these techniques must be used in the context that people are rational and doing what meets their true objectives," Sloley stated. "Determining people's true objectives," he said, "is the key element to applying any particular strategy. Understanding the specific sources of conflict is also required in order to apply specific techniques suitable for a given situation. With proper understanding and practice, conflict resolution can aid in the successful development of troubleshooting for revamps," he concluded.