The control loop in my neighborhood

Just like some 200 million people across the U.S., I spent the last weekend of January dealing with winter storm Fern. I’m lucky because, unlike more serious victims of the elements, my biggest concern was how my neighbors and I were going to shovel so much snow from our little enclave in the Pittsburgh area. Incidentally, this was the event once every couple of years that makes us wonder why we cancelled our snow removal contractor in favor putting on our boots and scarfs and just doing it ourselves, but I digress.

Because it was a Sunday with little else to do but sit around and watch the white stuff pile up, it occurred to me that we needed a good plan and some good data analytics. Following basic principles of process control, I knew we needed accurate input data (how many inches, rate of snowfall) and an optimized operation mixed with a bunch of safety procedures. Boy, could we have used a proficient level sensor, but we made do with an old-fashioned wooden yard stick from circa sometime in the 1970s, I presume.

Then there were our available optimization options. Should we go out there now while the heavy stuff still fell for a bit of preventive maintenance? Should we shovel the snow while it was still fresh, soft and easier to lift, but the wind was brisk and visibility was limited? A proper data analysis probably would have given us the information to make the most efficient decision for each case.

Of course, we had to mind the temperature. Was it futile or even too dangerously cold to shovel at the most optimal time of the snowfall? Perhaps, we should simply wait and react to the “damage,” i.e., buildup, but stay safe from frostbite?

Eventually, there would be several people working together—in quite a haphazard way. Where was our DCS? With so much snow and nowhere to put it all, we needed an efficiently designed flow control process to get the snow from the sidewalks and parking areas to a depository that wasn’t even more disruptive by clearing one car to only block another.

And don’t forget the feedback loops; everyone was reminded not to overexert themselves. After all, we’re a collection of legacy parts (people) developed in different eras. While some of the newer components moved more quickly, some of us needed to work at a slower, steadier pace, adding disproportionate stress to the newer, moving parts.

After the storm, I sat back, opened a winter ale, and thought to myself, everything really is a control system at work, isn’t it?