The August virtual technology evening was hosted by Eric Carter of turboTRAIN on the subject ‘Instrumentation fault finding: why it is problematic and what can be done about it’.
During the presentation Eric outlined some of the knowledge deficiencies prevalent amongst instrumentation staff, especially the younger ones. He highlighted how these gaps can range from Ohm’s Law, through to understanding of thermocouples, lack of measuring ability, especially when it comes to current, through to ignorance regarding output devices.
He went on to highlight how staff need to be able to grasp the bigger picture; how to dive into the details from there and how training, including the use of graphic illustrations in the form of posters, can help to rectify the problems.
From there, he discussed the need to develop people, and to get the most from their capabilities. He also delved into the need for greater communication with the HR department, particularly when it comes to recruitment.
At the start of his presentation, Eric stressed that it would be about conventional I/O, but that a future presentation could do something similar with fieldbus devices. Of course, this could be extended to control systems and loop understanding. Hopefully, this will also spark some thought about the training systems we put in place for our people.
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