Workload and Staffing Analysis Overview

Market, competitive, and regulatory pressures demand that the utilization of refinery and plant personnel be efficient and productive. These pressures are often competing, requiring that more be accomplished with less people. Having too many people is inefficient, not having enough is dangerous. In many cases, the problem is not the number of operators, but how they are being utilized. Unfortunately, evaluation of operating positions by plant personnel is too often influenced by who has worked a job in the past and over-emphasizing infrequent (yet memorable) events.

Beville provides an independent and objective method to assess refinery and process operator workload and unit staffing needs. Beville examines both steady state workload requirements and upset/off-normal workload requirements. An imbalance between the two is addressed through potential expansion of operator functions and/or automation of upset tasks.

If upset staffing requirements are greater than steady state staffing for a unit, two sets of options are developed. One option entails increasing the steady state workload to improve personnel utilization. The other option involves automating upset tasks to reduce the workload needed to handle an upset.