Hello 👋
We want to take a moment to recognize one of our most valued Community members: Yves Racette, who has reached Polestar🌟, the highest rank in our Community. 🎉
Yves is Director Technology at Valero Energy, the largest independent refiner in America, based at their San Antonio headquarters. He’s responsible for some key applications related to Process Key Performance Indicators (KPI) monitoring, engineering documentation management and analytics with TrendMiner.
As Yves prepares to retire, we did an interview with him to capture his journey, the lessons he’s learned over a full career as a process expert, and his advice for the rest of us.
Let’s Get to Know You
Can you tell us about your background?
I graduated as a Chemical Engineer from Laval University in Quebec City, Canada. I had an unusual career for a Chemical Engineer as I worked in Automation, with Data Historian systems and in software development during my entire career.
What’s your role day to day?
I typically manage user requests for monitoring process performance with measured or calculated KPIs, I make sure data and reports are available and accurate, support and train end-users and administrators and coordinate with Valero Information Services and Data Historian Support groups.
Your TrendMiner Journey
What was the first moment or use case where you thought, “TrendMiner really works!”?
We have a variety of data sources and use two major different brands of data historian systems. We needed a system that is capable of connecting to and exposing a range of time-series data for analysis and monitoring. The first applications I configured were a series of dashboards with corporate overviews by process unit type for Process Subject Matter (SME) experts.These dashboards include key metrics, trends, monitor statuses/counts and context item views with drill-down into site or unit specific detailed views.
When I finished configuring my first corporate dashboard showing data from 10+ data sources and witnessed how useful and time saving it was for our Process SMEs. Our data usage reports continue to confirm that these types of applications are being used day in and day out.
If TrendMiner weren’t there, how would your work look?
Process SMEs would have to consult multiple individual reports to get the status of their circuits and we would have to use Excel more to extract, join and analyze data. Filtering data outliers would be much more difficult.
“TrendMiner helped our SMEs with getting the right information faster, the ability to connect and analyze data from multiple sources, detect and analyze events, filter data outliers, etc.”
Your Community Experience
What would you say to someone who hasn’t joined the TrendMiner Community or TrendLab yet?
There is tremendous value in not only joining the Community but in being an active member. The time you invest in it is minimal compared to what you gain from using it. And definitely attend TrendLab; the two-day investment is more than worth it to take a step back, see what is out there, what the product road map is, how others use the product, engage and share with TrendMiner employees and other customers.
Was there a moment when an answer you found in the TrendMiner Community changed how you worked?
I was looking for ways to derive a rate of change for some process parameters and found the trick with a calculation using a time shift of the same tag and that was the perfect way to handle this.
Which parts of the Community do you get the most value from?
Essentially all of them. I make a point at registering to most webinars and watch the recordings if I cannot attend the live session. I often browse tips and tricks to learn new things from others, I post questions when I need technical assistance and I also posted a few product ideas, most of them being considered by the development team. I find all of this interaction and engagement very rewarding.
“There is tremendous value in not only joining the Community but in being an active member. The time you invest in it is minimal compared to what you gain from using it.”
👉 Yves solved problems faster by asking. He answered questions, shared tips, and posted product ideas (several made it onto our roadmap). He treated the Community as a tool, not a noticeboard, and that's exactly what earned him Polestar. 🌟
The best part? Anyone can start the same way. Ask your first question, answer one, or share a tip today.
In Part 2, we will share the lesson Yves believes every process expert should know, and his advice for the next generation:
