"I think that maybe inside any business, there is someone slowly going crazy."
Joseph Heller
Something Happened
Can you relate to this? The business of business is not simple. We probably all wish we knew a little more about what we do and how we might change our businesses for the better. In his book 'The E-Myth Revisited' (ISBN 0-88730-728-0) Michael Gerber relates that the greatest business people he has met are determined to get it right, no matter what the cost. That there is something uplifting, some vision that is served by 'getting it right'. He says: "The simple truth about the greatest business people I have known is that they have a genuine fascination for the truly astonishing impact little things done EXACTLY right can have on the world."
Gerber contends that after a business reaches adolescence it gets to a point where it pushes beyond its owner's comfort zone and exceeds the owner's ability to control it - to touch, feel, and see the work that needs to be done. At this point one of three strategies is available: return to infancy, go for broke, or hang on for dear life. The last option he describes as the most tragic of all - where owners survive knowing that the only way to do so is to be there - all the time; being consumed by the business.
Gerber's solution is to systematise business. He points to the rigorous development and application of systems as the primary reason that franchised businesses like McDonald's have achieved such stellar success. In these enterprises there is a standard way of performing each task. These standards are documented, shared, and are the only way that any employee executes these tasks.
The need for a systematic approach applies even more so to the engineering disciplines which are covered by this publication. Engineering success can only be achieved by the careful application of well-documented and communicated standardised solutions. In this issue we cover PLC programming standards, the benefits that can be derived from their application, and the results of our survey on the subject. I urge those who have not yet adopted, or who are not applying such standards to take up the challenge. To those of you who have followed this route: tell us about it so that we can share your successes with others. Insanity may be the only other option.
Please also take the time to look at our 'DCS and scada alarm management survey' and to respond on-line at www.instrumentation.co.za/alarm_survey. We will summarise your responses and cover the topic in our September issue.
We have recently started blogs for each of the Technews publications. Please visit the SA Instrumentation and Control blog at www.techtalk.co.za/instrumentation/ and use this to share instrumentation and control related news, events and comments, and to post and respond to technical questions. This is going to be a learning curve for me, but with your help I am sure that it can become a valuable meeting place and resource to the whole I&C community, both here and abroad.
Andrew Ashton
Editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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