News

Posted On: 11/05/2008

Forum on the 'virtual asset' focuses on sustainability

PlantServices.com

RC's Asset Life Cycle Management Forum in Houston on Oct. 13-15 brought the attention of some 250 leading industrial professionals, consultants and analysts to concerns about how to handle design, operation and maintenance information in ways that optimize return on industrial assets.

“Asset information answers any reasonable question, about any asset, from any stakeholder in the asset life cycle management program in a way that suits their needs and helps them execute their ALM tasks,” says Sid Snitkin, analyst, ARC (www.arcweb.com). Asset information falls into two primary groupings of reference data and activity records, and is the “Virtual Asset” in the trinity of physical, human and information assets that make up a real operating facility. “The virtual asset is just as important as the physical equipment because humans need it to understand, analyze and improve the facility,” Snitkin says.

Asset information is produced, used and cared for by various groups throughout the asset’s life cycle. The value of a specific piece of information to an individual depends upon what he or she needs for his or her role in the life cycle. This leads to information quality problems when those responsible for generating information don’t use it in their jobs. Asset information reaches a level of excellence only when everyone agrees that it’s complete, accurate, consistent, accessible and timely.

“Asset information management [AIM] excellence provides rapid operational readiness, where plant startup happens flawlessly, and efficient, effective plant operation and upgrades,” Snitkin adds. AIM excellence can pay for itself quickly. According to a NIST study, it can provide a 1.3% savings in installed cost, a payback of 2.8% of the value of the asset during operations, and a 30% improvement in maintenance efficiency.

Jerry Gipson of Dow Chemical described the company’s build and modify facility work process (B&MF) for its projects that asks the central question, “Are we designing for what we want to accomplish with this asset?” One key way that Dow determines this is to drive more collaboration and more shared intent through AIM excellence. Dow also ensures that engineering data supports ALM, and Gipson acknowledged that the FIATECH organization is bringing the company together and is driving a shared understanding and associated shared outcomes.

Jim Simpson of Petro Canada discussed how his company is developing business processes and systems that will be used in the new Fort Hills oil sands project. He says delivering complete and accurate information about the as-built facility is mission-critical and provides real value. The owner/operator still has a lot of work to do after the information is received, so early delivery of selected information to the O/O can reduce risk and shorten time to startup.

Ric Jackson, director of FIATECH, moderated a panel discussion of AIM for capital projects. Panel members included Jim Humphries of Fluor, Jerry Gipson of Dow, Craig Llewellyn of Emerson, Scott Hillman of Honeywell, and Blair Wheeler of AspenTech. The discussion revolved around the questions of what the vision of ALM should be, what the benefits and challenges are and what is needed to attain that vision.

Humphries noted that most people are using stage gate processes such as Front End Loading (FEL 1, 2 and 3), but there’s no clear definition of the information flow across those stages. Owner/operators, engineering/procurement companies (EPCs) and suppliers need a common view of what those stage gate processes are and can then develop common processes and tools. He says Fluor is starting to drive ISO 15926 into project requirements, and proposed that a consortium of ARC, FIATECH and CII might be able to define the deliverables of stage gate processes.

A panel discussion of AIM challenges in operating, reporting, maintaining and improving life cycle processes included panelists John Cusimano of Siemens, Tom Hannigan of Zachry, Magnus Pousette of ABB, Jim Simpson of Petro Canada, Ian Gordon of Silcar, and Pradeep Nair of IBM Tivoli. Sid Snitkin moderated.

Hannigan says, “I want to give voice to all those maintenance technicians and superintendents who say the four words: ‘What were they thinking?’” He gave the example of a new power plant that experienced cracks in a 36-in. diameter steam lines located 18 in. from the floor in a room 74 in. high. Repairs required cutting a large opening in the roof and taking the pipes out with a crane. This is evidence of the need for a process within the gate system that ensures that operations and maintenance requirements have been built in, not just design requirements.

Hannigan points out that there’s a broad set of information categories in operations and maintenance that can be developed, like energy consumption, accessibility and safety issues. Engineering and design software vendors could add modules that force designers to look at these issues.