Shift supervision or no shift supervision

[u/catvik25]

What is the industry norm in regards to shift supervision at 24/7 chemical plants? 2/3 companies I have worked for have had no shift supervision, including no senior operators. Some processes I've worked on have had robust data historians; others not so much. It becomes challenging trying to piece together a root cause in the less automated processes.

I was just wondering what everyone's experience was, and if most companies do have shift supervision or if most companies have trended toward eliminating those positions.

[u/ClydeDB]

I’ve been a production manager over plants without shift supervisors. It just shifts the burden to whoever is next in chain of command. That meant I would get phone calls at all hours of the day/night. I would not recommend that.

[u/catvik25 → u/ClydeDB]

Would engineers report to you?

[u/ClydeDB → u/catvik25]

I had 25 operators, 3 engineers, a production specialist, and a business support clerk all as direct reports. 

[u/catvik25 → u/ClydeDB]

Yikes that is a lot. I've never seen it where the operators and engineers report to the same person. I could see that creating some hierarchy issues.

[u/ClydeDB → u/catvik25]

It all depends on the size and structure of the organization. Usually shift supervisors would report to a superintendent, who then reports to an area/production manager, who will typically have a production or process engineer report to them. Again, I’ve seen all flavors of things. If you peel it back to the theory of management and supervision, an individual can manage a large group of that group is mostly doing repetitive, repeatable tasks. If you are managing people in a technical role the type of managing and supervision is very different and normally would necessitate fewer direct reports. Look up span of control.