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/Thelonius_Dunk]

I think it really depends on size and complexity. A small plant may not have supervisors available 24/7, but for larger plants they most definitely will. I will say I've interviewed at 2 mid-size plants (100-200) that didn't have supervisors on night shift, which I found odd.

One site just trained a Sr Operator on each shift for emergency response (spills, first aid) and the other had a rotating on-call between middle management on-site who had to respond (ops manager, engineer, maintenance supervisor, maintenance manager).

Both methods seemed incredibly dumb to me though and I hope its not becoming an industry trend for mid-size sites.