Fourth Edition Update Comments

I wrote this chapter in 2002. Now, as I review computer control and computer modeling for this fourth edition in 2014, my attitude toward both aspects of computer technology has not been altered  

In the 700 plus process troubleshooting seminars 1 have instructed in the past 31 years, no experienced plant operator or design engineer has taken issue with the above two points. 

Humans have instinctive drives, among which is the desire to fix things. I d bet, having read this far, that you have that inner desire to make repairs. 

Growing inside me, growing stronger as I age, is a frantic, fanatical need to repair mechanical devices. There are times when I ve risked my life on a rickety scaffold to measure an outlet temperature from a heat exchanger. 

My career is studded with the quick-fix solution to process problems. The quick fix that lost me a 100,000 engineering fee to redesign a fractionation tower. That overpowering desire to impose my will on the inanimate world, regardless of the consequences. 

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