Who We Are
The Center for Operator Performance is a diverse group of industry, vendor, and academia representatives addressing human capabilities and limitations with research, collaboration, and human factors engineering.
Our mission to raise the performance level of our operators and improve Health, Safety, and Environmental effectiveness is accomplished through:
- Openly sharing knowledge and ideas
- Including vendors in research decisions
- Teaming with leading human factors researchers and universities
- Collaborating with a focus on HS&E
We understand the operational realities that operating safely requires redundancy of many components and operating competitively requires lack of redundancy of the human component. These complexities keep plant operators at the center of improving operational performance and at the center of our efforts bringing research insights into process plants.
Already a Member?
Our current members are:
- BASF
- Beville
- BP
- Chevron
- CITGO
- Emerson
- Koch Industries
- Marathon
- Yokogawa
All current employees of our member companies and their subsidiaries are invited to sign-up and explore the website to learn more about the organization, how to participate, and the tools available for you to use.
Unsure if your company is a member? Contact Lisa.Via@OperatorPerformance.com for confirmation.
Not A Member Yet?
Our membership is made up of oil refiners, chemical plants, pipelines, power plants, paper mills and those who support the industry. We are operating company driven, with research chosen for and by the operating companies.
We invite you to join us and become a participating member.
Explore
Since 2007, the Center for Operator Performance has been investigating how to improve operator performance in process control industries through manipulation of operator-system variables: Alarms, Graphics, Automation, Procedures, Workstation, Skills/Knowledge, Training, Workload, Job Design, and Organization. Download one of our ready-to-use Tools, or, if you want more background, visit Projects to review our comprehensive research library.
Get Involved
The more involved our members are, the more we all benefit. Join us at our next event to learn, promote a project, and network.
News
SAVE THE DATE! The COP Spring meeting will be held the week of April 27, 2026. Mark your calendars and keep an eye on your email for more details.
COP founder David Strobhar, PE and Traci Purdum recently had a great conversation about guidelines for effective operator training. Check out the lates Chemical Processing Podcast: Master 5 Critical Guidelines for Effective Operator Training.
In our January 21st call, we will first be discussing current and potential project updates. The latter half will be closed Board meeting to discuss succession planning. Check out the meeting page for agenda and Project Manager report. Please join us!
The December 2025 conference call has been updated with minutes and recording files. Be sure to check out the first part of the video where Al Schmaltz and Bryan Wachendorf of FHR led an open discussion on procedure use and deviation across member organizations.
Be sure to join the December conference call for a special discussion on Procedure Adherence - Successes & Opportunities by FHR.