Method and apparatus for maintaining plant operation procedures

Abstract

A procedure document is maintained by storing procedure records identifying each procedure in the document, step records describing the steps performed in each procedure and substep records for steps broken into substeps. Internal references in one step to another step are delimited so that when the step sequence of a procedure is changed the internal step references can be automatically modified to correspond to the change which is made. In addition, the steps and substeps may contain references to instrument and equipment and setpoints of, e.g., pressure, which are pertinent to the procedure. The procedure records may contain a number of columns indicator which indicates whether the steps and substeps of that procedure will use one column or two columns. Seperate files are maintained to provide cross-referencing for the instruments and equipment as well as the setpoints. A description of the setpoints is maintained in a separate file containing unique setpoint identifiers. Exit conditions in the steps and substeps to another step or substep are also delimited and stored in another file to provide cross-indexing of the exit conditions. Yet another file is maintained with cautions and notes which are desired to appear at particular points in the procedure. Regardless of whether the procedure has one or two columns, the cautions and notes are output using the full two-column width.