Helping operators navigate the new operational landscape

Technology such as document management, CAD visualization, engineering data warehouses, and Web-based collaboration solutions are all helping to make the handoff process more effective, but ultimately it comes down to the human element.

By Roberto Michel February 24, 2015

Technology such as document management, CAD visualization, engineering data warehouses, and Web-based collaboration solutions are all helping to make the handoff process more effective. Ultimately, though, handoffs involve a heavy dose of human effort.

Kevin Price, enterprise asset management (EAM) product director for Infor, asserted that moving data from design systems to EAM is relatively easy, but then a verification process typically takes place. "You can import data, but then someone has to go in and verify it, which we call a comissioning process," says Price.

Another success factor is training, and not just on physical equipment, but on all the software that drives the industry’s increasingly digitized infrastructure. It’s crucial that training starts early for the various software user interfaces operators need to know, points out Dave Huffman, business development industry solutions manager for the U.S. chemical, oil, and gas sectors for Swiss-based ABB.

"The operators need to learn how to maneuver through the graphical environments that have been created for them," said Huffman. "Almost every automation vendor has a unique look and feel about its product that operators need to learn to accomplish the tasks they need to perform. Especially in today’s rapidly changing environment, training helps to provide operators a more information-based view rather than a traditional flowchart or a piping and instrumentation (P&ID) style graphic view of previous generations, so that they can respond better to abnormal situations and better manage plant KPIs."

The biggest piece of advice is to have methods and supporting technology in place so that O&M needs become part of the plant design process. Other tips for handover include:

  • Recognize there are multiple systems involved, not just plant design to EAM, but also systems such as asset performance management, that might need to be tapped for data.
  • For a complete asset data build, think beyond the asset data itself to documents such as SOPs, tasks lists, and maintenance strategies. The ISO 15926 standard provides a base information model for handoffs, but individual owner/operators may have their own maintenance strategies or best practice documents that need to link to the data.
  • Raise your awareness level of the latest technology solutions for information transfer, visualization of design data, and Web-based information management.
  • Ensure designers receive relevant information on equipment performance and reliability from like assets in the field.
  • If you don’t have operational readiness teams or employ project management methods such as phase gate, consider using them.

There is complexity to handoff challenges, but also consensus that methods, which merge O&M concerns with plant design processes, will aid readiness. The sooner this merge starts, the better. "If you are only invited in at the final review," Gant noted, "it’s a little late to affect the design."

– Roberto Michel is a freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years experience as an editor with business-to-business publications.

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Original content can be found at Oil and Gas Engineering.