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Automate Something Because You Should by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC I’ve written many times about both the positives and perils of computer-driven automation. Automation, when properly applied, is a wonderful tool and a great timesaver. However automation, when misused and abused, greatly increases the likelihood of errors and omissions, and often results in wasting power, materials, and far more of the operators’ time than it saves - as well as creating new and unique safety issues. In this article, I’m referencing “The Hazards of Going on Autopilot” by Maria Konnikova in The New Yorker , September 4, 2014. We’ll start with the advent of automation systems in aircraft. In 1977, the House Committee on Science and Technology identified automa- tion as a major safety concern. What do they mean “safety concern”? Why, I thought automation improved everything! I would submit that automation, when properly implemented, will make any product or service better and less expensive to pro- duce. The key here is “properly implemented”. Poorly done or overdone automa- tion can be worse than no automation at all. Earl Wiener from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center cited the “let’s just add one more computer” phenomenon. More computational ability does not necessarily mean better performance or a better product. The issue is not so much the computational “power” you have at your disposal. The issue is how you use these computational resources to service a given application. I would liken today’s computer technology to automobiles when they first came out in the early 1900s. At first, people were impressed with the speed and power of the automobile over the alternative. Just like today, people are impressed with the power and speed of computers. Back then, nobody cared much about fuel economy or the fact the average car weighed between 4000 and 6000 pounds because of crude metals fabrication and casting practices using more materials than needed to do the job. Over time, the economics of this practice caught up to the automakers and they started producing smaller, lighter, more efficient cars. They did this primarily by not changing the basic operation of the car, but by evaluating what did and did not need to be built into the car to get the desired result. The article also brings up the problem that the more processes are automated, the more comfortable we get with them . . . in effect “ceding” our intellectual control to them. Take cruise control in cars. Does turning on the cruise control make you more aware of what is going on around you, or less? Right now, we’re using humans as backups to computers . . . a task humans are ill-suited for. Humans do not perform well in this role because of eventual fatigue - both mentally and physically. Our minds need constant stimulus to function at peak performance, and being a backup to a computer is the direct opposite of that ideal. In an autopilot application, why not have the pilot fly the plane manually and use the computer to monitor the pilot’s performance against the programmed procedure? Computers could even peri- odically test the pilots and note how quick- ly and proficiently they responded. The takeaways are, not all automation is good automation. Often, automation interferes with our ability to understand what is really happening in a given cir- cumstance. The automation itself may be poorly understood, and the extra com- plexity creates problems of its own. In all critical applications there should be a way to bypass the computer and directly con- trol the device from another source. Just becausewe can automate something does- n’t mean we should automate something. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com 8 JANUARY 2019 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® To see all the photos from this event, go to www.worldwidedrillingresource.com or click here. Feel free to download at will and print the photo(s) of your choice. Compliments of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® . Photos are copyrighted and released for personal use only - no commercial use permitted. Open the Doorway to all the Event Photos during CGA 2018. CGA 2018 Dealmakers The Consolidated Testing Laboratories crew was pleased to show their TH60 with the Epiroc Team of Sonne and Tom. Epiroc Send your deals to: michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com