Common sense is not so common

 I was chatting with a Plant Manager recently when he lamented the fact that his operators believed the instrumentation rather than common sense. A pump was not delivering the required flow, even though the current drawn by the motor was normal. The operators checked the position of the recirculation control valve in the DCS and it indicated close. They then requested maintenance to replace the pump twice but the problem remained. Finally they found out that the recirculation valve was open in the field though it was indicating close in the DCS.
I see similar things happen in complicated PSM systems where poeple loose sight of what is the objective of PSM. PSM is common sense applied to keep the hazardous chemicals where they belong.


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