What is a Program Manager?

Not to be confused with a Project Manager, a Program Manager oversees an entire technical area on behalf of an organization or public utility. The ultimate responsibility of a Program Manager is to act in the best interest of the customer by acting in the same capacity as a dedicated employee of the organization or public utility. Within the context of this article, HRA has a very specific skillset that many entities do not possess: Industrial Automation Engineering. There is a huge void of proper understanding and proper application of Industrial Automation Engineering throughout the industrial world. Without a proper understanding of this important field, you are taking a huge risk every time you start another project that includes any facet of Industrial Automation. Most organizations or public utilities don’t have the budget or staff to properly support projects that require modification, installation, upgrading, and/or repairing your Control System.

Do You Need an Industrial Automation Program Manager?

When HRA is contracted to be your Industrial Automation Program Manager, we will sit on ‘your side of the table’ and operate as your employee who will engage Engineering firms and/or System Integrators to ensure that the Industrial Automation portion of your projects are properly designed, installed, configured, calibrated, programmed, etc. We’ll also make sure that the final product meets or exceeds your expectations while also staying within the confines of your budget. Industrial Automation (also referred to as Electrical & Instrumentation or Instrumentation & Controls) is an extremely important part of every modern industrial process. Regardless of whether or not you are gearing up for an upgrade or other major project, if you have an Industrial Control System (ICS) of any sort and don’t have any highly skilled support staff, we can work with you to make best of your current system. If you are unsure if you need a service such as this, HRA offers Operational Troubleshooting “Efficiency of Operations” services, which are comprehensive site inspections where we go through all of the pieces of your control system and deliver a report of everything that we find…both good and bad. This report will empower you to make an informed decision in regards to the future of your ICS.

What Are The Benefits of an Industrial Automation Program Manager?

First and foremost, an Industrial Automation Program Manager will ensure that your organization or public utility has consistency throughout your entire ICS. I can’t tell you how many times HRA has seen ICS that have been worked on by several different groups of people with the end result in being a bunch of different components from multiple manufacturers that are strung together (and many times unable to communicate with each other). These systems don’t have a clear and concise top-end Human Machine Interface (HMI) that enables the Operations staff to be able to view, control, troubleshoot, and view historical data of the entire process. We also constantly find ICS that aren’t backed up which means that a single catastrophic failure of a single PC or Server would basically erase every important piece of historical data, configuration, programming, etc. that are integral to the continued operations of the ICS. If your ICS (DCS, PLC, SCADA, RTU, etc.) isn’t backed up, you certainly need to contact HRA so we can get the process started before your find yourself in a terrible situation where you’ve lost mission critical data and/or control functionality.

About Hampton Roads Automation (HRA)

If you haven’t already heard, Hampton Roads Automation (HRA) is an Industrial Automation Engineering and Consulting firm serving municipal, commercial, and industrial clients by offering a myriad of services. If you are interested in learning more about how we can support your projects, please contact us to schedule a virtual webinar to hear a presentation of our services and earn PDH’s.

The Team at HRA was brought together by pure fate; our working relationships and close friendships have grown very close over a 20+ year period. We are a TEAM in the truest form of the word. We’ve climbed the mountain of Industrial Automation together and now that we’ve reached the summit we are absolutely excited about the opportunity to share our collective experiences with you…our customers.