Course Details

This course is appropriate for a wide range of professionals but not limited to:

• Process Engineers
• Plant Engineers
• Operations Supervisors
• Maintenance Engineers
• Reliability Engineers
• Control & Instrumentation Personnel

• Expert-led sessions with dynamic visual aids
• Comprehensive course manual to support practical application and reinforcement
• Interactive discussions addressing participants’ real-world projects and challenges
• Insightful case studies and proven best practices to enhance learning

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• Apply systematic troubleshooting methods
• Identify root causes of plant problems
• Analyze process and equipment performance
• Troubleshoot control and instrumentation issues
• Improve plant reliability and efficiency
• Develop effective corrective action plans
• Utilize engineering problem-solving tools
• Support operational excellence initiatives

DAY 1

Fundamentals of Process Plant Troubleshooting and Engineering Problem Solving

• Definition, objectives, and scope of process plant troubleshooting
• Characteristics of effective troubleshooters and systematic troubleshooting approaches
• Common causes of process plant problems and their impact on reliability
• Structured engineering problem-solving models and problem definition
• Data collection, verification, and fact-based decision making
• Understanding PFDs, P&IDs, process variables, and equipment functions
• Process control loops, plant-wide interactions, and operational constraints
• Root cause versus immediate cause and cause-and-effect relationships
• Fishbone, 5-Why, Fault Tree Analysis, and causal factor analysis
• Process trends, abnormal conditions, data interpretation, and historical plant data
  
   

DAY 2

Troubleshooting Process Equipment and Control Systems

• Process data analysis, performance monitoring, and identification of abnormal conditions
• Troubleshooting pumps, compressors, and rotating equipment
• Diagnosing flow, pressure, vibration, cavitation, surge, and recirculation problems
• Mechanical seal and bearing failures and corrective actions
• Troubleshooting heat exchangers, condensers, reboilers, and cooling systems
• Diagnosing fouling, scaling, corrosion, temperature imbalance, and thermal inefficiency
• Troubleshooting distillation columns, separators, vessels, filtration, and reactor units
• Managing process upsets, stability concerns, and abnormal operating conditions
• Troubleshooting sensors, transmitters, control valves, calibration, and control loops
• Diagnosing DCS, alarms, electrical systems, motors, UPS, compressed air, steam, and utility problems
   

DAY 3

Advanced Troubleshooting and Reliability Improvement

• Advanced troubleshooting using FMEA, RCM, and risk-based approaches
• Predictive, condition-based, digital monitoring, and process analytics techniques
• Human factors, cognitive biases, and common troubleshooting errors
• Effective communication, shift handover, and decision-making under pressure
• Troubleshooting startup, shutdown, equipment trips, and process interruptions
• Identifying process bottlenecks and maintaining safety during troubleshooting
• Performance gap analysis, process efficiency, and energy optimization
• Debottlenecking, continuous improvement, and operational excellence
• Integrated case studies covering equipment, process, instrumentation, control, and utility failures
• Root cause identification, corrective action planning, preventive measures, lessons learned, and long-term reliability improvement