Maintenance, repair and operation
Training in XR-Star simulations
The immersive program provided by Virtual Reality technology also allows the on-place training of personnel in MAINTENANCE and REPAIR, helping operators to perform intervention more effectively and efficiently: reducing time, mistakes and producing saving on budgets. The platform is extremely efficient both in new-resources/employees training as well in updating senior professionals.
Practice & remember
A wide range of options can be geared as to optimize the training path of new personnel; pre-visualization is then a powerful tool to enter trainees in the new ambient of the plant, while if applied to senior operators, it strengthen the memorization of upgrades facilitating, at the same time, the review moments. The trainer system also provides an “Instructor Station” where events are driven by the Instructor who monitors how Trainees behave and react to simulated situations. VR-STAR® platform is also suitable to subject trainees to assessment tests.
- Faster learning process
- Higher understanding of ordinary and extraordinary processes and procedures and thus delivery of higher effectiveness of training through learning by doing, through interaction and participation
- Higher knowledge transfer from the “virtual” training environments to the real world activities e.g. Animations of equipment functioning provide better training results thanks to visualization and interactivity
- Higher knowledge retention over time thanks to the chance to recreate an hyper realistic simulated environment, an higher interactivity generated by the virtual reality missions and the possibility to repeat them and other tasks over time
CUT DOWN COSTS
Conceived as part of the Operational processes, VR-STAR® training contributes to simulate processes and thus understand the best operational conditions and variables (know how the processes work in ordinary and extraordinary situations), as well as visualize and optimize operations, prevent and diagnose problems, help to save costs.
- Time and cost savings from 30% to 40% originate from on-the-job training for new large personnel requirements, considering downtime savings and replication of training programs from plant to plant
- Time and cost saving from 15% to 25% originate in case of planned or unplanned shutdown in comfortable or uncomfortable weather conditions
- Maintenance savings from 1% to 3% originate by improving maintenance accuracy and by using data from the training experience as input to improve predictive maintenance strategies
- Cost savings originates from diminishing of trends incidents
(Costs from incidents can be of considerable amount – e.g. Deepwater Horizon oil spill estimated cost is around 69 $ billion)
Source: www.isa.org – Setting the Standard for Automation – InTech – May/June 2011
