Process Engineering Division – Instrumentation and Automation Section – Daily Topics – Topic No. 2020-11-23
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Process Engineering Division – Instrumentation and Automation Section – Daily Topics – Topic No. 2020-11-23: Discussion question: Should electrical and instrumentation be organized as one department or two separate departments (workshops or branches)? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two options?
They should be separated and managed professionally, especially in larger enterprises and organizations.
In large enterprises, electrical and instrumentation tasks are usually separated into two separate workshops or departments; although both deal with electricity, they have their own distinct characteristics. Apart from 220V AC, instruments can generally be repaired while still powered on (in situations where this is permitted), but electrical components generally cannot.
They should be separated and managed professionally.
They should be separated and managed in a specialized manner
Divide it into two departments and strengthen the connection between them.
They should be separated and managed in a specialized manner
This depends on the actual situation of the company. In small factories with few control points, it’s necessary to combine them. When hiring staff, it’s important to ensure that they are proficient in both areas, or have at least 5 years of experience working with instruments; this way, there will generally be no problems with low-voltage electrical systems. Additionally, management personnel must be skilled experts – otherwise, things won’t get handled properly； For large factories, it’s better to keep them separate; there’s no advantage to merging them
It should be one department, but here it’s two separate departments. I’ve seen very skilled workers who, working alone on a shielded pump, managed to remove the pressure transmitter and thermometer along with the cables in half an hour. (Personal preference); those who are unwilling can still work in 2 shifts of 2 people each (6 people in total), for a total of 1 hour. . . How should I put it? . . To outsiders, mechanical, electrical, and instrumentation tasks all fall under the maintenance department; ordinary people simply want to deal with one department only – if something can’t be fixed, it’s the responsibility of the maintenance department, thereby reducing passing the blame around.
For applications that require a high level of control system sophistication and involve a large number of such systems, a separate department should be established; for organizations with fewer instruments, one department is sufficient.
Depending on the actual circumstances, it can be set up as one department, or one department with two teams, or two departments.