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WSU assists the human element in oil business

Center works to craft solutions from issues that industrial sites face.

Dr. Jennie Gallimore is the director of the Ohio Center of Excellence for Human Centered Innovation at Wright State University. She looks over sample displays that an oil refinery operator might use in a visualization lab on campus Monday June 16.

Lisa Powell/Staff photographer Dr. Jennie Gallimore is the director of the Ohio Center of Excellence for Human Centered Innovation at Wright State University. She looks over sample displays that an oil refinery operator might use in a visualization lab on campus Monday June 16.

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 10:22 AM Tuesday, June 22, 2010

In light of the Gulf oil slick — and the warnings it offers — the research of a quiet center founded by Wright State University and a small Centerville company could draw more attention.

More companies in the “upstream” side of the oil production business are noticing the Center for Operator Performance, based at WSU, said Dave Strobhar, president and chief executive of Centerville’s Beville Engineering. The firm founded the center with WSU in 2007.

Conditions in the oil and petrochemical industries can be unforgiving, to say the least. Rigs and refineries put workers outside in torrid heat or freezing cold. Control-room operators find themselves dealing with dozens of simultaneous alarms during 12-hour shifts.

WSU’s center works with the industry to help master these problems.

The precise reasons for the Gulf spill are unclear. But Jerry Laws, editor of Occupational Health and Safety, can see the center’s potential relevance.

“If it turns out operator error caused this explosion, that should help to raise the center’s profile and showcase its value,” Laws said in an e-mail to the Dayton Daily News.

Jennie Gallimore, a WSU human factors engineering professor, calls the field “the human side of complex problems.” Just as an engineer wouldn’t neglect the electrical component of a mechanical system, neither should the “human component” be neglected, she said.

“We’re on the human side of problem solving,” said Gallimore, who runs an allied center based at WSU, the Ohio Center of Excellence for Human-Centered Innovation.

Oil and chemical industry jobs are demanding. Shifts can run 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Workers work four days before taking four days off. Outside stations are exposed to temperatures well over 100 degrees in Houston or 40 below in Alberta, Canada. Towers 10 stories high require workers to climb stairs, sometimes carrying heavy equipment.

“We’re dealing in a hazardous business here,” Strobhar said.

The center takes issues that industrial sites face and crafts solutions.

Robert Calmus, a spokesman for Marathon Petroleum Co., said Marathon was one of COP’s charter members and sits on its board. He believes Marathon already has a good environmental record, but there’s always room to keep striving.

“It just makes good business sense for our customers, our neighbors and our shareholders to just keep pushing,” he said.

With the center’s aid, Marathon has examined how information is conveyed to operators on monitors and alarms, aiming to prioritize them so that operators see what they need.

While the center has received more interest recently, that probably has more to do with an ongoing momentum rather than what’s happening in the Gulf, Strobhar said. But the oil spill is reenforcing that interest, he believes.

“We’ve got to show the world we are doing everything we can to be as safe and environmentally compliant as possible,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@Dayton

DailyNews.com.