An Engineer's Tools (How to Use them for the Process Industries)
Far too often I come across situations when engineers will be tempted to "engineer from the hip". Meaning they've been in the industry long enough that they think they can pull a solution out of their rear for any situation. Far too often they are missing the fundamental physics of how that process actually works. In these situations, I've had extremely good results from consulting literature and comparing that knowledge to in industry resources to find the best solution to the problem. When at lest 3 sources agree on what to do, a solution can then be derived from that knowledge. Being able to identify these situations and come up with a solution can propel a career forward by inserting oneself into a project that yields high quality results while being a major contributing team member.
Possible red flags to identify when this is occurring.
1) Meeting participants have been going back and forth on how to improve something for over an hour.
2) The topic has come up in recurring meetings multiple times but never goes anywhere.
How to move past these situations and capitalize on the moment.
1) Find a general literature source like Perry's Handbook.
2) Find a more detailed literature source like Unit Ops of Chem Engineering.
3) Find a QUALITY in industry source. Can be an industry specific handbook, vendors or engineers that have been at the plant for a long time and know its history.
4) When all these agree then take that knowledge and develop the solution.
Nonaffiliated links: I recommend you find these on amazon.
-Knife Engineering: https://www.amazon.com/Knife-Engineer...
-Unit Ops: https://www.mheducation.com/highered/...
-Perry's (Old editions are cheaper and highly relevant): https://www.accessengineeringlibrary....
-Process Controls: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Cont...