Shrey Gotri is a Control Systems Engineer at Mipac. In his 10+ year career, he has worked through the full life cycle of projects, from planning and design to testing and commissioning for the wastewater and food & beverage industries. These days, he spends his work days helping one of Mipac’s key North American clients to rationalise and reduce their alarms.
We sat down with Shrey to find out what a typical working week looks like for him.
What does a day in your life look like as a control systems engineer at Mipac?
I work on a team focused on the Elkview Operations part of our Elk Valley Resources (EVR)’s project, located in Sparwood, British Columbia, Canada. A typical day at work begins with interactions with the site engineering team, especially since it is close to the end of the workday for them in Canada. We hold meetings every other day to discuss the status of various projects.
What kind of project are you currently working on with the team there?
I primarily work on the Alarms Rationalisation project and participate in the weekly alarm review discussions with the site team. During these meetings, the site team and I analyse the top 10 to 20 alarms that have had the highest counts over the past weeks. We discuss potential reasons for these high alarm counts and explore ways to reduce them, particularly if they are identified as nuisance alarms.
That sounds interesting. What happens around those meetings?
Throughout the week, I review alarm data using the MPA Alarm Manager. I identify alarms, examine the alarming logic, look up data from trends (historian), and prepare a document with proposed changes to the logic aimed at potentially reducing the alarm counts. This document serves as the basis for our discussions during the weekly alarm meetings.
How long have you been working on this project?
I have been working on the Alarms Rationalisation project for nearly two years, and as a team, we have successfully reduced the weekly alarms on-site from over 15,000 to approximately 4,500 alarms per week.
Wow, that’s a great outcome. Did you take any courses or obtain certifications to work on these projects?
Do you get to work on any other projects?
Whenever I have the opportunity, I contribute to various other projects on the site. This includes developing HMI pages, writing PLC code for logic improvement projects, conducting internal code testing for the team, and making occasional site visits to support the implementation phase of the projects.
What would you say are the most important skills you need to have as a control systems engineer?
As a control systems engineer, it is essential to have experience or familiarity with at least one PLC programming software and one SCADA software. When an engineer has worked with a particular system and has gained an understanding of how to use it, transferring those skills to learn other similar software becomes much easier, as the underlying concepts remain consistent across different PLC manufacturers and software in the market.
OK. Anything else?
Yes. As a control systems engineer, it’s also important to have at least basic skills in Excel (and VBA), familiarity with SQL databases, and the ability to write basic queries, as well as some knowledge of server administration.
Why is that?
As engineers, we often need to perform tasks related to data processing, data manipulation, setting up virtual machines, or troubleshooting server settings (firewalls). In these cases, the skills above prove useful as they enable us to automate repetitive tasks and optimise our work.
What about ‘soft’ skills?
It may sound surprising, but it’s actually really important that engineers are effective communicators! We also need to be good at managing our time, and be adaptable and flexible – things change often, and quickly, in our line of work. Finally, because we work in project teams, being a good team player is also essential.