"Right-sourcing" or obtaining the correct balance between in-house activity and the purchase of external services

During the last few years, and more particularly to face the LHC construction, several Information Technology activities of the ST Division have been outsourced. This concerns various domains such as desktop support, application software development, system maintenance as well as turn-key control systems. Among other motivations, this tactical approach was seen as a way to achieve higher product quality and service rationalization. The outsourcing success of IT activities resides in the mastering of a complex process that includes amongst other specification, purchasing, negotiation, contract management skills on top of advanced technical knowledge. The perception of the success of outsourcing differs also from one stakeholder to another. Nowadays, as CERN encounters a cash-flow issue, in-sourcing is investigated as an alternative path for savings. From this experience and the survey of current practice in industry, this paper analyses various parameters that should be considered to find the correct balance between in-house activity and the purchase of external services

Options for LHC safety-alarm transmission

The LHC safety-alarm system needs, for reliability reasons, two different media to transmit the alarms to the CERN Safety Control Room. This is a requirement of the French regulatory authority (Direction de Sûreté des Installations Nucléaires de Base). This paper examines the safety systems currently in use at CERN, with particular emphasis on the methods used for transmission of alarm information across the site. The general requirements for transmission of alarms are described. Several options for transmission of LHC safety-alarm information are compared: fieldbuses, telecommunications networks with analogue voice or ISDN lines, the time-division multiplex system, and packet switching 'mesh' networks. The reliability of each of these solutions is estimated, and different topologies for physical links described and compared. It is shown that options are available which give an accepted level of reliability, obviating the need for hard-wired connections

Safety alarms at CERN

In order to operate the CERN accelerators complex safely, the acquisition, transport and management of safety alarms is of crucial importance. The French regulatory authority [Direction de Sûreté des Installations Nucléaires de Base (INB)] defines them as Level 3 alarms; they represent as such a danger for the life and require an immediate intervention of the Fire Brigade. Safety alarms are generated by fire and flammable gas detection systems, electrical emergency stops, and other safety related systems. Level 3 alarms are transmitted for reliability reasons to their operation centre: the CERN Safety Control Room (SCR) using two different media: the hard-wired network and a computer based system. The hard-wired networks are connected to local panels summarizing in 34 security areas the overall CERN geography. The computer based system offers data management facilities such as alarm acquisition, distribution, archiving and information correlation. The Level 3 alarms system is in constant evolution in order to achieve better reliability and to integrate new safety turn-key systems provided by industry

The Challenges of the "Software Support for Industrial Controls" Contract

ST division is currently specifying a 'Software Support for Industrial Controls' contract. The application of this contract and its success will require several changes in our habits for specifying, designing, and maintaining control systems. This paper summarizes some key concepts which should be respected in order to obtain maximum benefits from the future contract and to optimize the software activities in the division. The contract concerns the maintenance and development of the monitoring and control systems used for supervising CERN's technical infrastructure (electrical distribution, cooling water, air conditioning, safety, and access control). The systems concerned consist of computer and communication hardware and software, tailored to provide specific functionalities for the remote operation, command, and monitoring of equipment. All these systems use commercially available software and hardware such as SCADA, PLCs and associated drivers, controllers, fieldbuses, and networks. It is intended to contract out these activities on a results-oriented basis

Software Support for Industrial Controls Contract

The contract covers the development and the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the monitoring and control systems used for supervising CERN's technical infrastructure. The contract involves those responsible for equipment in any current or future technical installation. We are outsourcing a complex activity which will require efforts on both preparing the specifications for new projects and setting clear definitions of tasks and procedures for O&M. It is a result-oriented contract in which performance will be continually evaluated by different methods and tools: project management plan and project follow-up, and CAMMS (Computerised Assets and Maintenance Management system). To be used effectively, this approach requires complete traceability of activities and documentation of the systems. Based on the analysis of the results measured and the shared (CERN and contractor) experience, the O&M activities will be reviewed and reorganised and operational procedures will be changed according to needs. A key issue of this contract is the challenge of establishing a good partnership with the contractor in order to reach the goals

Project management as a breakthrough at CERN

Building and maintaining control systems for high energy physics is becoming an increasingly complex and costly activity. The quickly evolving technology and the tight budget conditions require today a better management of our engineering activities. This situation led us to organise these activities as "projects" and to use modern project management practices already widely spread in industry. In this context, many aspects of the re-engineering of the controls infrastructure of the two CERN largest particle accelerators - SPS and LEP - as well as the supervision of the CERN wide technical services are fully conducted as projects with special control over the costs, resources, objectives, activities and maintenance aspects. This paper presents our experience in project-based management with special emphasis on its applicability in a research environment, on the impact on the current working pratices and on the potential benefits for the future. Some key concepts and techniques of project management are introduced and illustrated through pratical examples