MANAGING DATA ASKING QUESTIONS INVESTING FOR MEGA …

INSIGHTA publication of Intergraph® Process, Power & Marine // Issue 33 // Quarter 2, 2013

MANAGING DATA FOR MEGA-PROJECTS

ASKING QUESTIONS BEFORE HANDOVER

INVESTINGIN PIM STRATEGY

NEW LOOKAT ENERGY

FOCUS ON

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT»Woodside »Gassco»COOEC»CTCI» INPEX

QUARTER 2, 2013 » www.intergraph.com l INSIGHT 1

2 Letter from the Editor: Information

4 Successful Information Management for the Complete Life Cycle

6 View from the Top: Building on Trust and Collaboration

Customer Viewpoints 8 Woodside: Enabling Rapid Asset Data Capture

10 Gassco: Journey from Norway

12 COOEC: Making the Right Decisions

14 CTCI: Enhanced Information Sharing

Industry News 16 The Australian Oil & Gas Review: Managing Information

for Mega-Projects at INPEX

18 Maritime Executive: Tired of Talking Green

– Ask the Right Questions

20 Chemical Engineering World: Plant Information Management

– The Key Differentiator

23 Did You Know: Leveraging the Virtual Plant Asset

Features26 Did You Know: Intelligent 3D Data for All

Departments28 At A Glance

30 What’s Next

32 Eye-to-Eye: Taking a New Look at Our Relationship with Energy

34 Visionaries: SmartPlant® Engineering & Schematics Excellence Awards

35 Hexagon Synergies: Leica Geosystems and NovAtel

36 Industry Outlook: Speaking in the Language of Risk

contents I S SU E 3 3 / Q UA RT E R 2 , 2 0 1 3

26

Focus on Information Management

35

16

2 INSIGHT l Issue 33 » QUARTER 2, 2013

L E T T E R F ROM T H E E DI TOR

InformationWelcome to the latest issue of Insight, focused on information management. This is a key

topic that unites all our customers. Customer data is important, and when they trust us to help

maintain that data and preserve it, we take that commitment very seriously.

What is information management exactly? There are many good answers, but I like the

simple one the best: It’s the combination of work process and technology that gets the right in-

formation to the right people at the right time. Modern technology has enabled many creative

work processes that weren’t practical before.

In this issue, I am very excited to share our success story with Woodside, the largest opera-

tor of oil and gas production in Australia. Woodside has applied the new SmartPlant Fusion

technology, a combination of RFID, photorealistic laser scans and cPLM technology, to collect

and manage the technical information on a recently acquired floating production, storage and

offloading (FPSO) unit. Woodside worked closely with Intergraph technology teams to design

a fast and low-cost approach to capturing and managing old legacy information by leveraging

modern technology. That very real first experience on Woodside’s used FPSO was the basis

upon which SmartPlant Fusion was developed for the open market.

We also have a fascinating story from INPEX, one of the world’s leading oil and gas explo-

ration and production companies. INPEX is working on the AU$34-billion Ichthys LNG me-

ga-project. To create its integrated information management system and perform engineering

tasks for its project operations, INPEX has chosen our Smart 3D solutions, including Smart-

Plant 3D and SmartMarine® 3D, SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators and other prod-

ucts from our SmartPlant Enterprise solution suite. These solutions help INPEX work more

productively with its EPC contractors and ensure consistency between design and operations.

For Intergraph’s Process, Power & Marine division, information management has turned

into a global multi-million dollar market opportunity to help our clients work smarter and

faster. We’re here to help Intergraph’s customers stay on top with up-to-date, accurate infor-

mation by leveraging the best technology in the world. Because when it comes down to it,

information really is king.

Patrick HolcombInsight Editor

Executive Vice President, Global Business Development

Intergraph Process, Power & Marine

ConneCt engineering design with reality

EXTEND THE BENEFITS OF LASER SCANNING TO PLANT OPERATIONSThe Leica TruView Integrator for SmartPlant® Enterprise was created with the help of leading owner operators to support day-to-day plant operations and activities such as maintenance and inspection. It combines the power of trusted plant asset management software from Intergraph® with Leica Geosystems’ intuitive TruView software, helping you easily manage rich and complex engineering information.

The solution introduces photorealistic representations of plant assets to workers on the plant floor, enabling plant floor activities to be performed safely, quickly and cost-effectively. Owner operators can benefit from better decision making, reduced errors, simplified planning, improved communication, and productivity and safety gains.

www.intergraph.com/go/truview

© Intergraph Corporation. All rights reserved. Intergraph is part of hexagon. Intergraph, the Intergraph logo, and SmartPlant are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries.

Leica TruView Integrator for SmartPlant® Enterprise

» FOCUS ON «

INFORMATION MANAGEMENTSUCCESSFUL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT FOR THE COMPLETE LIFE CYCLE

VIEW FROM THE TOP: Building on Trust and Collaboration 6 CUSTOMER VIEWPOINTS: Woodside 8 Gassco 10 COOEC 12 CTCI 14INDUSTRY NEWS: INPEX 16 • Tired of Talking Green? 18 • Plant Information Management 20DID YOU KNOW: Leveraging the Virtual Plant Asset 23

Process, power and marine engineering is now a fully global market for execution and operation. This demands collaboration, delivery and integration of information between heterogeneous systems in a secure and timely manner. Differentiation, security and protection of knowledge capital will become more critical.

When teams and virtual organizations engage the skills of low-cost/high-value distributed centers, it not only facilitates the rapid pick-up, re-orientation and turn-around of tasks, but also enables fine-grained project control over stretched com-munication channels. Therefore, tools and infrastructure need to be as flexible as the business processes deployed.

They also need to be as adaptable and adept at managing the small, as well as the mega-project, and in doing so, they need to fully support standards for commu-nication, security and longevity. This is particularly true for the extended enterprise of multiple partners, suppliers and owners collaborating on joint ventures.

Successful information management improves productivity through the iden-tification, quantification and delivery of valid, significant and contextual infor-mation where “everything” is too much and “too little” is even worse. Design-ers and owners need management software with enhanced decision support capabilities to facilitate global design, production and life-cycle optimization.

Intergraph’s information management software maximizes efficiency for in-dustrial and manufacturing maintenance and provides comprehensive operation solutions. From concept and design through maintenance, operations and de-commissioning, Intergraph enables electronic management of all of the facility’s engineering information, integrating information on the physical asset, processes, and regulatory and safety imperatives.

Many EPCs and O/Os are deploying integrated information management solu-tions from Intergraph. Continue reading Insight to learn more about companies such as INPEX, Woodside, Gassco, COOEC and CTCI that have chosen Intergraph for their information management activities.


Insight: Hexagon acquired Intergraph in 2010, producing positive results for both companies. What do you think are the key reasons for Intergraph’s success?

Gerhard Sallinger: Our customers recognize our commitment to them,

and they trust us. This trust, along with the leading-edge solutions we offer, are key elements of our success. Hexagon supports us in this priority.

Another key to success is the power the Hexagon compa-

nies can bring to each other. We can learn

from each other, and Hexagon

has a strong culture that values sharing and collaborating.I’ve seen both Hexagon and Intergraph grow during this

time, both in our business and in the solutions we offer. Hexagon companies are working more closely. In the past, Intergraph may have had some partnerships with Hexagon-owned companies. Since we were separate companies with separate owners, though, we were limited in collaboration.

Those limitations have now disappeared. For example, look at our relationship with Leica Geosystems, which has existed for many years. Our cooperation has blossomed in the last 18 months to where we offer an integrated laser scanning-3D plant design solution that offers substantial business value to our markets.

Intergraph has always been deeply dedicated to providing information management. Tell us more about this collabo-ration with Leica Geosystems to offer the Leica TruView Integrator.

GS: I am very excited about this solution. Users of Intergraph’s cPLM product SmartPlant Foundation and SmartPlant Enter-prise for Owner Operators (SPO) can now benefit from intuitive, photorealistic access to asset documentation and data on PCs or mobile devices.

It is hard to imagine a more intuitive way to access plant en-gineering information than by means of a photorealistic plant browser. Our new Leica TruView Integrator will allow everybody at any plant to derive maximum value from the technical asset management information in SmartPlant Foundation.

With the SPO Mobile solutions, we are now bringing the tech-nical asset information where it’s needed on a daily basis for the different operations and maintenance activities. We are bring-ing it to the plant floor and remote operations locations where there is no network connectivity. These are game-changing and unmatched solutions that will significantly improve the way en-gineering assets are maintained.

FROM THE TOP

VIEW FROM THE TOP » I N T E RG R A P H P P & M

Building on Trust and Collaboration

» Intergraph works with Hexagon partners to offer powerful innovations for information management

Insight recently spoke with Gerhard Sallinger, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine president, about how Intergraph’s collaboration with fellow Hexagon companies has led to new solutions for information management.

What do you think Intergraph and Hexagon will look like in 10 years?

GS: If you look at Hexagon’s growth over the past 10 years, it is a phenomenal growth story. I expect Hexagon to continue to make a huge difference in our industries. With all of the synergies between the Hexagon brands, Hexagon has the opportunity to develop top-of-market products and solutions into the future.

I’m convinced that during the next 10 years, Hexagon will expand its leadership as the leading global provider of integrated design, measurement and visualization technologies. Hexagon as a whole and Intergraph PP&M as a part will continue to offer our customers best-of-class solutions and technology, and to help our customers provide safer, higher quality work more productively. ■


By JA NA M I L L E R

www.intergraph.com/go/truview

Jana Miller is editorial director of Insight and is based in Hunts-ville, Alabama, U.S.

Intergraph recently introduced a Leica TruView Integrator for SmartPlant Enterprise as well as offline mobile device support for SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators.

The new SmartPlant Enterprise/SPO TruView Integrator enables end-users to use photorealistic and intelligent TruView laser scans as an intuitive portal to access all plant information and documentation in SmartPlant Foundation. The new SPO Mobile Core and SPO Mobile Operating Plant solutions go one step further and leverage these intuitive, photorealistic access op-tions to support day-to-day plant operations and activities such as maintenance, inspection and equipment isolation in online and offline mode.

Ludwig Englmaier, head of the Engineering Department for AlzChem AG, said, “We have been using Intergraph tools for many years to manage the virtual plant asset for our plants at AlzChem. We recently selected SPO and will be rolling it into production over the coming weeks. We are excited about SPO Mobile Apps with TruView Integrator, and will be seeking to implement them as soon as possible.

Intergraph Leverages Leica Geosystems’ TruView to Connect Engineering Design Basis with Reality

“We believe these will help us bring the immense value of the virtual plant asset directly to workers on the plant floor. Today, plant workers performing inspection and maintenance activities spend too much time locating the items they need in the plant. SPO Mobile with photorealistic TruView visual-ization will help our plant workers carry out their work safer, quicker and better than ever.”

Free Leica TruView software allows anyone to panorami-cally view and quickly measure rich, laser scan point cloud data and corresponding digital images without having to be an expert in 3D, CAD or point cloud software. Users can ex-tract real 3D coordinates and measure distances, with results appearing immediately right on the point cloud image. Tru-View users can also generate markups, view proposed designs in their real world context, link to asset information, and read-ily share TruViews with peers, service providers or clients for more effective project communications and collaboration, even over the Internet. Qualified developers can also integrate Leica TruView into third-party software as an intuitive user interface for quickly accessing “as-is” scene information. ■


CUSTOMER VIEWPOINTS » WO OD SI DE

Enabling Rapid Asset Data Capture

» SmartPlant Fusion helps Woodside manage data for brownfield offshore project, including Leica laser scanning integration

oodside is the largest operator of oil and gas production in Australia, and also the coun-try’s largest independent dedicated oil and gas company. It produces about 900,000 barrels of oil each day from an extensive portfolio of fa-cilities. Woodside’s operated facilities include

six liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains, five offshore platforms (one under construction) and four oil floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels.

The Ngujima-Yin FPSO is currently moored 50 kilometers off the Western Australia coast. Ngujima-Yin is 333 meters long and the largest FPSO in Australian waters. The vessel operates

at a depth of 350 meters and has a daily production capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil.

Intergraph was engaged by Woodside to help prepare the en-gineering scope for execution. The engineering information for Ngujima-Yin was found in multiple data sources, including sever-al international locations. Data and documents were inconsistent and in different formats because they were managed differently at each location. There were also multiple versions of drawings and documents. Without a single set of masters, it was difficult to determine the latest and most accurate versions. To bridge this gap and move forward with the safe and effective operation of Ngujima-Yin, an accurate “as-is” status of the FPSO was required.

W


www.woodside.com.au

By E I L E E N TA N

Making unintelligent information smartWoodside chose SmartPlant Fusion, a new solution developed

by Intergraph to specifically tackle the challenges of managing unstructured information. SmartPlant Fusion is designed to rapidly capture, organize and make large volumes of previously unstructured information available through a simple Web portal interface in a highly organized and intuitive manner. The types of unstructured information include:

• Documents.• Drawings.• Lists and sheets.• 3D models.• Laser scan images.• High-resolution photography.SmartPlant Fusion is the fastest and smartest way to make

documents and drawings available for decision support. It en-ables intuitive navigation with an accurate representation of the way things are really connected, making unintelligent informa-tion smart.

SmartPlant Fusion automatically reads the loaded informa-tion as it incorporates many industry standards (such as data-bases) and new technologies. More than 360,000 documents (at about 1,000 documents per hour) were loaded into SmartPlant Fusion as a single source of information, with cross-referenced links to the original files. The Intergraph solution created as-sociations using unique alias pattern matching, such as tag-to-document relationships, even when the tag name was not always perfect. Woodside could then navigate and view the documents via a Web portal interface, as well as analyze the information to determine the set of master versions.

Improving project analysisSmartPlant Fusion helps to improve analysis time because it

enables the engineer to quickly search on a document and view every version before making an assessment. It also enables mul-tiple users to work within the single master data source, elimi-nating errors from duplication or working on outdated versions. SmartPlant Fusion contains an integral Web-based portal, pro-viding project personnel remote access to live data during the project phase, an important requirement for major projects. It is set up with Woodside’s workflow processes to enable documenta-tion approval and acceptance.

Integration with laser scan technologyWoodside could also execute field-based data capture us-

ing SmartPlant Fusion. The collection of accurate, as-built data is highly important for an existing brownfield asset. This would normally be a tedious and potentially dangerous process because the engineer would have to physically inspect the facility and col-lect such data. However, since SmartPlant Fusion can capture

and organize high-definition surveying information, Woodside could use Leica Geosystems laser scanners to provide an accurate “as-exists” view of the Ngujima-Yin FPSO. Woodside could then compare the “as-exists” view with the “as-is” engineering infor-mation to record the FPSO’s “as-built” status accurately. Smart-Plant Fusion reduces the amount of time required on-site, which helps to reduce costs and improve personnel safety.

Expanding the SmartPlant Enterprise environmentSmartPlant Fusion supports the intelligent organization of

unstructured data and documents, and improves the quality and integrity of engineering information. This solution can be easily applied to existing operating assets and brownfield facilities. The “as-exists” view provided by SmartPlant Fusion can then be inte-grated with Intergraph’s other SmartPlant Enterprise solutions.

About WoodsideWoodside operates facilities on behalf of some of the world’s

major oil and gas companies. It is also the most active exploration company in the deepwater provinces of Australia, having par-ticipated in about 40 percent of Australia’s deepwater exploration wells. Throughout Woodside’s 58-year history, it has pursued ex-cellence in its safety and environment performance, and it aims to ensure that wherever it operates, the community benefits from its presence. Woodside strives to be a global leader in upstream oil and gas. ■

Eileen Tan is a contributing editor for Insight and is based in Melbourne, Australia.


orway is the world’s second-largest gas exporter, supplying about 18 percent of Europe’s needs. Norway’s state-owned Gassco is responsible for transporting gas from the Norwegian continen-tal shelf to other European countries.

Since 2007, the company has maintained re-ceiving terminals in four European countries: Belgium, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Gassco exported 107.6 billion cubic meters to Europe in 2012, the highest level since the company was created in 2000.

“This represents a new record for Norway’s annual gas deliver-ies,” said Brian Bjordal, chief executive of Gassco.

“That reflects high and stable output from the Norwegian con-tinental shelf and strong demand, which confirms in turn that gas from Norway is more attractive than ever.”

Improvement plansThe company’s goal is to operate the integrated transport sys-

tem for Norwegian gas with the highest possible delivery regular-ity. An average regularity of 99.69 percent was achieved for the network last year, compared with 99.17 percent in 2011.

Providing a well-run transport system will benefit Gassco’s owners, users and customers in an increasingly challenging envi-ronment. To meet this goal, the company has developed a three-part strategy to:

• Increase the quality of technical data.• Enhance efficiency.• Improve work processes by creating a single place to access

all technical information and as-built information for all of its plants.

Adjusting capacityInformation management is very critical for Gassco opera-

tions. The company must allocate the capacity available at any given time in the pipelines and transport-related facilities, while being very responsive to changes in both the gas provider’s capac-ity and customers’ demand.

This was difficult because it had to deal with complex and var-ied data legacies in different formats and systems and different data quality found in each system.

So Gassco chose Intergraph SmartPlant Enterprise and de-ployed SmartPlant Foundation as its technical information management system. The company had some important objec-tives when it embarked on the changes. Gassco chose SmartPlant Foundation because it:

• Offers easy access.• Provides an easy way to navigate through all levels of tech-

nical information.• Ensures concurrent engineering management and accurate

revision control.Gassco also plans to change from “document-based” informa-

tion to more “intelligent” information by the use of engineering tools, which will facilitate operations and decision making within the company.

Enhanced integration across different systems will provide staff and contractors with correct, as-built information for proj-ects and modifications in a format that enables users to make changes in an easier and more efficient way.

Finally, standardizing the use of systems and the management of technical information and engineering data will:

• Improve coordination among the company’s sites.• Speed up operations.• Increase effectiveness.

Bringing everyone on boardThe team created standard processes for data management,

including import and export workflows. The efforts focused on ensuring that all as-built information was transferred to Smart-Plant Foundation from the old systems. The new engineering tools, which include SmartPlant Instrumentation and SmartPlant P&ID, provide all users (including contractors) with different lev-els of access to relevant information.

SmartPlant Foundation has been set up to support modifica-tions and project processes in Gassco. Operations, maintenance and engineering activities can be performed more quickly and efficiently thanks to the updated as-built information that Smart-Plant Foundation provides for new projects or modifications.

Experience shows that it is very important to have manage-ment commitment and to focus on work processes during the im-plementation of new technical information management systems.

CUSTOMER VIEWPOINTS » G A S S C O

Journey from Norway

» Gassco better manages change to move gas safely

By C R I S T I NA G ON Z A L E Z

N


www.gassco.no

The deployment of a new system takes time, as does having everyone up to speed. Therefore, sharing information and good coordination are essential to maintain the company’s normal operations.

Gassco customized its implementation to meet its business needs. After the team established a SAP® interface to SmartPlant Foundation and some code customization, all plants are now using the same technical informa-tion management system. This enables Gassco to operate its plants and ter-minals in a systematic, reliable and competitive manner.

Moving to SPOGassco is currently moving from SmartPlant Foundation to SmartPlant

Enterprise for Owner Operators (SPO). The main drivers include:• Support of Windows 7, Oracle 11 and Office 2007.• New features to support plant operation and maintenance.• Common portal for SAP and SmartPlant Foundation (SAP NetWeav-

er®).• Less customization because the code is preconfigured to O/O needs.• Centralized tag management with SmartPlant Foundation acting as

the tag master.• Less risk during upgrades.As SPO becomes the industry standard, Gassco will be able to work and

interact even faster and more efficiently with contractors, customers and other sector players. ■

Cristina Gonzalez is a contributing editor for Insight and is based in Hoofddorp, Netherlands.

Gassco headquartersin Kopervik, Norway


NOOC Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd. (COOEC) is a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). It provides offshore engineering and construc-tion services to CNOOC and companies around the world. COOEC specializes in the design,

construction and offshore installation and commissioning of oil and gas fields.

COOEC recently determined that it needed to improve its in-formation management process. Most of its information sharing was still done manually, which is tedious and unreliable, resulting in data inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

A traditional information management method also imped-ed the efficient sharing of information between disciplines and departments, which could result in a bottleneck and slow down project schedules.

This was a critical issue that COOEC needed to address, par-ticularly as it takes on more offshore engineering projects. Such information management inefficiencies needed to be eliminated for COOEC to meet its project schedules.

Improved project managementAfter a comprehensive evaluation of all solutions available in

the market, COOEC chose Intergraph SmartPlant Foundation. SmartPlant Foundation was the best fit for its requirements, en-abling it to establish an information management system to share design and engineering information effectively. COOEC could also then allocate its resources more efficiently, making the over-all project management process smoother and more accurate.

SmartPlant Foundation is the leading, standards-based capi-tal project life-cycle management (cPLM) solution for the process, power and marine industries, and is applicable for projects both large and small. It has been selected as the information and inte-gration system of choice by more than 500 owner operators and EPC companies worldwide.

SmartPlant Foundation has the broadest solution footprint in the industry with capabilities that span the entire project life cycle, ranging from simple document management to configura-tion management in highly regulated industries. Its strength is the ability to manage massively interrelated, interdependent and rapidly evolving data.

Making the Right Decisions

» COOEC makes better decisions with integrated information management system

C


www.cnoocengineering.com

Access to accurate informationIntergraph worked closely with COOEC for the imple-

mentation of SmartPlant Foundation, helping to customize the system to meet the company’s design engineering project requirements. Based on the workflow processes established in SmartPlant Foundation, COOEC engineers are able to complete the configuration for each design task, which is then recorded in the Intergraph system. This enables an automated and accurate flow of task information, reflecting the actual progress of the project.

With SmartPlant Foundation as its integrated information management system, COOEC is able to store and share critical engineering information centrally across multiple disciplines. This also provides management and key stakeholders with quick, easy access to accurate information for effective decision making. Making the right decisions early helps to improve proj-ect efficiency and productivity. This generates significant time and cost savings.

SmartPlant Foundation also helps COOEC to manage infor-mation from any subcontractors involved in the project. Even if a design was created offsite, all the engineering information is tracked via the central SmartPlant Foundation system. COOEC is able to supply real-time project information from all disci-plines and subcontractors to owners, which is accurate and con-sistent.

Continued business benefitsCOOEC is looking to expand the use of SmartPlant Founda-

tion to several new projects. The Intergraph solution has helped COOEC to improve productivity and save costs. The company wants to maximize the benefits of SmartPlant Foundation by applying the solution across its business operations.

About COOECCNOOC is China’s largest producer of offshore crude oil

and natural gas and one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the world.

It mainly engages in exploration, development, production and sales of oil and natural gas.

The company’s core operation areas are Bohai, Western South China Sea, Eastern South China Sea and East China Sea in offshore China.

Overseas, CNOOC has oil and gas assets in Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Oceania.

COOEC is a subsidiary of CNOOC, and is the largest off-shore engineering construction enterprise and also the only large-scale general contracting company in China integrating:

• Offshore oil and gas exploration and production design.• Onshore production and offshore installation.• Commissioning and maintenance. Its major businesses include:• Exploration of oil and gas fields. • Design and construction of auxiliary projects. • Offshore installations. ■

Eileen Tan is a contributing editor for Insight and is based in Melbourne, Australia. Eve Li is a marketing supervisor for Inter-graph Process, Power & Marine and is based in Beijing, China.


CUSTOMER VIEWPOINTS » C T C I

Enhanced Information Sharing

» CTCI boosts transparency of project data for improved collaboration and operational efficiency

By E I L E E N TA N A N D E V E L I

TCI Corp. (CTCI) is the largest EPC company in Taiwan, and was ranked No. 1 in the engineering and construction contractor category by Com-monWealth magazine in 2012. Its service port-folio includes engineering design, procurement,

fabrication, construction, supervision and project management, as well as testing and commissioning. CTCI is a leading EPC contractor and has collaborated with several internationally well-known companies in various projects within Taiwan and around the world.

To remain at the forefront of a volatile and ever-changing in-dustry, CTCI decided to establish a more sophisticated informa-tion management system to enhance information sharing across the entire project life cycle.

Improving data qualityCTCI evaluated all available options in the market and deter-

mined that Intergraph SmartPlant Foundation would be the best fit for its requirements. With SmartPlant Foundation, the EPC could ensure that its engineers could gain secure access to accu-rate, high-quality engineering information when they needed it. CTCI is then able to manage its engineering projects more effec-tively and eliminate any potential project delays due to inefficient information sharing.

CTCI implemented SmartPlant Foundation as its core infor-mation management platform for its projects, providing a single point of access to critical engineering data. SmartPlant Founda-tion features a user-friendly interface and CTCI’s engineers are able to find the data or documents they require quickly and easily. This improves work efficiency because the engineers are able to deliver work on time, benefiting the overall project schedule.

Optimized business processesUsing SmartPlant Foundation, CTCI was able to establish

project workflows and streamline business processes, deliver-ing accurate, high-quality engineering information. SmartPlant Foundation also supports version control for effective change

management, ensuring that CTCI’s engineers always have access to the latest, most up-to-date information, which reduces costs and errors from using inaccurate data.

To further enhance information sharing, CTCI set up a customized project sidebar within SmartPlant Foundation to facilitate communication between project members across all disciplines. This has increased transparency of relevant project information, which has significantly improved operational ef-ficiency because project information is readily accessible to all engineers and key stakeholders.

Application of SmartPlant FoundationCTCI has implemented SmartPlant Foundation for several

real-world projects, including:• CPC Dalin refinery project in Taiwan.• Amines plant project in Saudi Arabia.• SATORP Jubail Export Refinery project in Saudi Arabia.CTCI intends to continue using SmartPlant Foundation as its

information management system of choice. The EPC firm will continuously enhance the system to support sustainable project operations and increase its global competitiveness. ■

Eileen Tan is a contributing editor for Insight and is based in Melbourne, Australia. Eve Li is a marketing supervisor for Inter-graph Process, Power & Marine and is based in Beijing, China.

C

www.ctci.com.tw

Unlock yoUr Plant’s Potential

DISCOVER THE HIDDEN WEALTH OF YOUR LEGACY INFORMATIONInformation required to operate, maintain and optimize your asset is often saved in different formats, stored in various systems and used globally by projects. SmartPlant® Fusion gives you the ability to harness, extract and expose your hidden potential, making it globally available through an intuitive portal. With managed processes, you can clearly determine master documents, link photorealistic “as-exists” high-definition scans and contextualize your data. The result: a uniquely valuable “as-is” operational information asset that is the current plant configuration. SmartPlant Fusion reduces the time and cost required for on-site activities, ensures timely operational readiness and reduces costly errors caused by duplication and uncontrolled information.

Make the most of your information asset.

www.intergraph.com/go/fusion

© Intergraph Corporation. All rights reserved. Intergraph is part of Hexagon. Intergraph, the Intergraph logo, and SmartPlant are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries.

SmartPlant® Fusion


ith the energy and resources boom, Australia is seeing an increase in projects that are of a scale and complexity unlike anything seen before in this country. Ichthys is one such mega-project and INPEX is tackling the challenge head-on using Intergraph software solutions.

The Ichthys LNG Project is a joint venture between INPEX and Total, Tokyo Gas and other participants. Gas from the Ich-thys field, in the Browse Basin approximately 200 kilometers off-shore Western Australia, will undergo preliminary processing offshore to remove water and extract condensate. The condensate will be pumped to the floating production, storage and offload-ing (FPSO) facility anchored nearby, from which it will be trans-ferred to tankers for delivery to markets. The gas will be exported to onshore processing facilities in Darwin, Australia, via an 889- kilometer subsea pipeline. The Ichthys LNG Project is expected to produce 8.4 million tons of LNG and 1.6 million tons of LPG annually, along with approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate daily at peak.

The operational life of the facilities will be up to 40 years, with the vessels staying on station continuously, making it a huge and complex project.

Approaching the project differentlyTraditional project development practices create discon-

nects between the various project phases, resulting in poor information sharing. For the Ichthys LNG project, there are multiple EPC contracts, which add another layer of complexity and potential disconnects. The conventional maxim is that the information handover costs are between 2 percent to 4 percent of the total installed cost – for the AU$34-billion Ichthys LNG Project, this would be measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. INPEX intends to eliminate the handover stage and its associated costs by better information management throughout the project development.

INPEX determined early in the project that the desired out-comes for the facilities would be achieved by providing its opera-tions group with maximum access to design and operational data both during the project and into operations. The vision set by IN-

PEX for information management on the operating facility was an environment like Google or Wikipedia, with all information access from a single portal using a “point-and-click” approach, allowing users to move seamlessly between data sources as diverse as the 3D model and the plant production records.

Integrated information management systemAll data and documents will be cross-referenced and linked

with easy access via the portal. INPEX will use a combination of SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators (built on Smart-Plant Foundation) and SAP to meet this requirement. It has also committed to use Intergraph’s SmartPlant Enterprise suite of engineering solutions for project operations, including SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D (collectively known as Smart 3D), SmartPlant Instrumentation, SmartPlant P&ID and SmartPlant Electrical.

INPEX chose Intergraph because of its leadership in enterprise engineering software with the proven expertise and capabilities to tackle complex information management requirements for mega-projects. The ARC Advisory Group continually ranks Intergraph as the No. 1 overall worldwide provider of engineering design so-lutions for the industry. Intergraph software is widely used within the contractor community, allowing INPEX to carry the design tools into the operations and maintenance phase by specifying a delivery of design information from the EPC contractors mount-ed in SmartPlant Enterprise databases.

Innovative data managementINPEX has also taken a different approach to the way data

is collected on the project. The traditional “handover” stage (at which tremendous amounts of data are delivered to the client) has been replaced by a progressive delivery as the plant is designed and built. Documents are delivered as they are produced and the design tools (such as the 3D model) are delivered in monthly in-crements. This makes a big difference to the operational staff: they can have access to the data and own the design long before they have to take responsibility for the plant. This smooths the com-missioning and start-up phase, making a big contribution to the reduction in handover costs.

INDUSTRY NEWS » T H E AUS T R A L I A N OI L & G A S R E V I E W

Managing Information for Mega-Projects

» INPEX uses SmartPlant Enterprise for Ichthys LNG project

WThis article is reprinted with permission from the September 2012 issue of The Australian Oil & Gas Review.


www.inpex.com.au

Eileen Tan is a contributing editor for Insight and is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Another key difference for the Ichthys LNG Project is INPEX’s decision to use a specialized data management contractor (DMC) to assist the EPC contractors in the collection and management of information from their suppliers. This is an area that is notorious-ly difficult to get right on major projects and INPEX is targeting a data completion rate of 95 percent, as compared to an industry norm of around 40 percent. The INPEX philosophy is that sophis-ticated tools and data methods will not compensate for a lack of basic data content. The DMC is also responsible for populating the project’s spare parts catalog, a move expected to reduce the spare parts acquisition costs.

Managing riskSuch an approach has not been without its challenges. This

is not a conventional method of data collection, but INPEX has worked constantly with its EPC contractors to establish working procedures that achieve the desired results without increasing their costs. As part of this strategy, INPEX has employed its own team of experts in the design tools to assist the EPC contractors in using the SmartPlant Enterprise tools and ensuring their correct usage as both design and operational tools. INPEX has had to deal with differences in working practices between contractors and has developed new methods to ensure consistency between design tools, bridging the gap between design and operational usage.

On the path to success“Intergraph technology, combined with our drive toward con-

solidating our handover documentation in the Intergraph envi-ronment, is fundamental to delivering our vision of an integrated

information management system with a single point of access,” said Conor Walker, operations director of the Ichthys LNG Proj-ect. “We anticipate an expanded role for Intergraph tools as the project progresses into the operating phase, leveraging from the increasing volume of data held in the engineering data warehouse, which has been built on the SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Op-erators platform.”

About INPEXINPEX Corporation is a worldwide oil and gas exploration

and production company, with more than 70 active projects across 27 countries. Since 1966 INPEX has been growing steadily, from the core areas of Indonesia and Australia into the Middle East, the Caspian Sea region, the Gulf of Mexico and South Amer-ica. INPEX boasts a well-balanced portfolio of exploration and production assets, with a growing focus on LNG. This includes interests in Tangguh LNG and Bontang LNG in Indonesia and Darwin LNG in Australia. Planning is also well advanced on two new LNG projects – Abadi in Indonesia and Ichthys off the coast of Western Australia. These projects will see INPEX emerge as a new global force in LNG by the middle of this decade. ■

» INPEX uses SmartPlant Enterprise for Ichthys LNG project

By E I L E E N TA N


INDUSTRY NEWS » M A R I T I M E E X E C U T I V E

Tired of Talking Green: Ask the Right Questions

» Data transfer can be difficult – and expensive – when taking ownership of a vessel

By W E N DY L AU R SE N

ssues of data transfer at handover can occur between engineering company and shipyard, shipyard and owner, and between owner and purchaser of a sec-ond-hand vessel. Marcel Veldhuizen, vice president, Business Development for Intergraph Process, Power

& Marine, cites a recent example of an owner who purchased an FPSO second-hand. The paperwork did not match the vessel, and in the end the new owner scanned the whole vessel and started cleaning up the documentation from there. Should something go wrong, the new owner was concerned about insurance and liabil-ity. Correct information has value from a maintenance perspec-tive too, as these vessels are not expected to return to shipyards for maintenance very often in their lifetime.

Finding and validating informationThere are studies that show that 40 percent of the time needed

before a new owner can put a vessel into operation is spent find-ing and validating information that should actually just be there, says Veldhuizen. A lot of this is engineering data that forms the basis for the operational side of an asset, for instance, the sche-matics of process diagrams, line lists, equipment lists, etc.

At seminars, Veldhuizen uses the following analogy to illus-trate how owners need to think about the problem:

“Can I have a copy of your presentation?”“Sure, here’s the paper printout.”“No, I’d like to have it electronically.”“Sure, here’s the PDF, but please pay me royalty.”“No, I’d like to use the PowerPoint® myself, so can I get it in

native format?”“Sure, but since you asked after I provided you all the data,

and this is intellectual property, I need to charge you additionally.”So, says Veldhuizen, ask the right questions about informa-

tion transfer and ask them before finalizing contracts: “The re-

sults are quite staggering. Most new owners achieve 80-85 per-cent positive results by asking these questions up front. If they ask them afterwards, the only thing they hear is ‘Oh, it’s very difficult. It’s going to cost you money.’ ”

Make sure you also put the handover requirements for techni-cal data in the contract rather than relying on verbal agreement. “If you don’t, people have a tendency to forget,” says Veldhuizen.

Data handover can occur in intermediate steps so the new owner can start preparing earlier and shorten the time to bring the vessel into operation. For the shipyard, correct data from the design and engineering stages can save material costs and time and improve the quality of service to owners.

Connectivity issuesWith the growing use of smartphones and other mobile de-

vices, everyone wants data, says Veldhuizen, but many also take it for granted and do not think about connectivity across people and organizations. Spreadsheets, an engineering favorite, can eas-ily create time-consuming problems, even with a diligent project team.

A slight difference in the use of punctuation marks between different people can create matching problems when data from multiple spreadsheets is amalgamated. It is another data-format-ting and control issue that is easily overlooked until it is too late.

Although data management is particularly important for complex vessels such as FPSOs, FLNGs or LNG carriers, the IMO requirement that a ship carry stability calculations on board is another reason for ensuring data handover occurs in an accurate and usable manner. If the correct digital information is received, it can be used directly by stability software on board the vessel. With the future merchant fleet becoming increasingly complex, ship owners should take notice. >>

IThis article is reprinted with permission from the January 2013 issue of Maritime Executive.


“It’s amazing how much money is spent on bringing a ship into operation from a shipyard perspective versus an owner perspective,” says Veldhuizen. “The shipyard deliv-ers a vessel, but very often a lot more time and money is spent before the operator can actually use it.”

It can easily be one or two percent of the total installed cost, particularly for complex vessels such as floating offshore units. “If you look at some projects where you have 150,000 tag items, about 125,000 documents, where it’s a very small project with about 45 people, in gen-eral you see between $18-38 million saved on these proj-ects with better handover.” For something like a floating LNG unit, it could easily be ten times that amount. ■ www.maritime-executive.com

Wendy Laursen is a contributing writer for Maritime Executive and is based in New South Wales, Australia.


By E I L E E N TA N A N D X IAWA H UINDUSTRY NEWS » C H E M IC A L E NG I N E E R I NG WOR L D

Plant Information Management: The Key Differentiator

» Systematically improving plant operational efficiency

This article is reprinted with permission from the October 2012 issues of CHEManager Europe and Chemical Engineering World.

hese are troubling times for executives who are determining strategies and tactics for their orga-nizations. Gone are the safe, traditionally compet-itive, resourceful and technological advantages of the recent past.

Being “lean and mean” doesn’t cut it any more. Competition is global. The days of the “vertical,” self-sufficient organization are becoming numbered as specialist organizations appear on the Internet as if from nowhere to bid for plant assets being deployed in ever-more remote and cost-efficient locations.

So, what issues, strategies and tactics are prevalent today, and how does a plant information management (PIM) strategy play a part?

O/O and EPC benefitsMost of the focus on PIM technologies to date has been aimed at

O/Os since they have the most to gain financially. Technologies such as data warehousing, integration with enterprise resource planning and operations systems would seem to offer little to the EPC.

However, for the EPC, PIM is being linked to strategic busi-ness expansion, and in some cases survival, in an increasingly

T


competitive and complex marketplace relevant to both O/Os and EPCs.

There are three simple reasons to invest in PIM:• Reduce time to market (TTM) – Design and construct

the plant asset within budget, while avoiding schedule slippage and operating at capacity to meet the market window of opportunity.

• Maximize time in market (TIM) – Mitigate unplanned outages and delayed start-ups, optimize planning for en-gineering turnarounds and prevent safety, hazard and regulatory risks which would otherwise halt production.

• Optimize operating parameters (OOP) – Make the most of that which you have least (time, resources and schedule) to gain more of the things you want (through-put, safety and profit).

Moving away from traditional environmentsThe old ways do not lend themselves to lifetime PIM. Some

of these older methods include traditional:• Technical databases.• Engineering databases.• Data modeling. - Data models expressed in tables. - Foreign keys. - Joins and views. - Application hardwired to updating the data model.In these traditional types of environments, it typically de-

mands that extensive data modeling, integration points and interfaces be defined before data is generated, thus having a placeholder for the data before it is created.

eEngineering Integration HubIntergraph’s vision for PIM is called eEngineering Integra-

tion Hub. This approach underpins Intergraph’s data and in-formation management solution, SmartPlant Foundation. The tool is not designed specifically to be “the” corporate informa-tion portal or corporate “generic” document management sys-tem, nor is it designed in any way to compete with the existing capabilities of enterprise resource planning and other line-of-business systems.

SmartPlant Foundation is primarily developed for the con-solidation, aggregation, configuration, distribution and change management of engineering information across multiple sourc-es. Engineering information includes:

• Data.• Drawings.• Documents.• Models.The solution can establish and manage an ever-changing,

holistic, highly interrelated, high-quality/integrity and object-oriented digital representation of a plant. It:

• Ensures consistency, validity and accuracy.

• Provides the “single source of truth” for engineering ac-tivities.

• Offers a “source point of access to the truth” for non-engineering activities – access to non-engineering data for engineers and access to engineering data for non-engineers.

• Understands engineering support over the plant’s entire life cycle, irrespective of the multiple tools that will come and go during this extended period.

However, at the commencement of a project, limited time, resources and funds are available for such an activity. Typi-cally, as a result:

• High-quality data models are never deployed in time.• The data model becomes fixed too early and is inflexible

to change.• The integrity of data deposited is called into question.Furthermore, integrations either do not happen or do not

happen at the required level of granularity, and correlations and consolidations of data from multiple applications do not occur, resulting in inconsistent data. When proprietary data is received from a partner late in the project, there is little op-portunity to include it within the data set. And this does not take into account the vast quantity of data (sometimes of ques-tionable integrity and often with multiple duplicates) received from vendors and suppliers.

Continuous information turnoverA lifetime technical database must be:• Generic and flexible – Applicable to unlimited types and

formats of data, irrespective and independent of applica-tion and usage.

• Extensible and soft-coded – The data model is data-driv-en, self-describing and grows with the addition of new data.

• Capable of managing highly interrelated and highly in-terdependent, ever-expanding data types and sets.

By K E I T H DE N TON


This enables the PIM technology to be deployed as early as possible by the plant designer. It eliminates the need for lengthy pre-project data model development. It allows ongoing addition and adjustment, data integration, and turnover of a consistent, stable data set to the plant operator.

Commercial turnover of information from the plant de-signer to the plant owner also should not be viewed as a one-off activity. The PIM system should be an evolving entity with value to the plant owner from day one of deployment. Its content and latent knowledge capacity should be made securely available to engineering, construction, operations, maintenance and regu-latory parties alike − either locally or remotely − without the need for the source technical application on the desktop.

This evolutionary and continuous information turnover is available through SmartPlant Foundation. This capability is de-livered by a number of discrete functions, including:

• Dynamic, extensible, data-driven and flexible data model, which allows it to evolve over the life of the plant.

• Neutralized and normalized data (converted from pro-prietary formats) stored for remote access (i.e., streamed media) or delivered to populate plant owners’/regulators’ tools for maximum productivity.

• Secure, Web-accessible solution requiring non-special-ized, mainstream computer equipment designed for lon-gevity and convenience.

Long-term strategyManaging engineering data as an asset – as valuable as the

plant itself – is key to success. It feeds the operations/mainte-nance systems and is invaluable for decision support, but if not

given constant care and attention, its integrity will degrade and so too will the quality of decisions based upon the data. The strategy needs to be defined for a long-term, flexible, pragmatic and sustainable data maintenance and continuous improve-ment strategy that is harmonious for operations, maintenance, delta engineering projects and regulatory affairs alike.

Managing information inconsistenciesYou should manage information inconsistencies rather than

try to enforce consistency. The latter is not possible in engineer-ing projects, not only because disciplines in engineering proj-ects execute concurrently and not serially, but also because en-forced consistency would stifle innovation.

Progress and change are synonymous. Therefore, an over-arching program of informing and managing change across and between the disciplines and “line-of-business” systems should be more important than change management at the ap-plication or department level.

PIM strategyUltimately, integration comes in many forms, including:• Data integration.• Application integration.• Business process integration.The company PIM strategy should evolve to the highest form

rather than starting there from day one. Start small, keeping the big picture in mind, and grow organically, showing step-wise improvements.

PIM is not a technology as much as it is a philosophy − a methodology for systematically improving the operational ef-ficiency of a plant. ■

Keith Denton serves as vice president for the Global Power In-dustry at Intergraph Process, Power and Marine. He is based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.

www.intergraph.com/ppm/infomgt

» PL A N T I N F OR M AT ION M A NAG E M E N T

wner operators in the capital-intensive process, power and marine industries are facing greater challenges to ensure their profitability and long-term viability than ever before. Owners are ex-panding existing facilities and building new ca-

pacity to meet growing demands in the global market. They must perform these activities safely while facing a variety of challenges, such as:

• Finite resources.• Demanding schedules to minimize time-to-market/maxi-

mize time-in-market.• An increasing number of local and global contractors.• Stringent capital expenditure (CAPEX) budgets.All of this adds unprecedented pressure when trying to maxi-

mize asset performance to achieve safe, sustainable production at the lowest possible costs (OPEX).

Challenges of data validation and handoverThe handover of data and documentation occurs many times

during the life of a facility:• Initially. - From conceptual and basic engineering design contractors to O/Os.• In later stages. - Between design contractors and fabrication yards. - From different detail engineering contractors or package

suppliers to the O/O.The costs, resources and time required for handover are con-

siderable. The increasing adoption of Intergraph’s intelligent and automated systems by both contractors and owner operators has led to increasing demand for a solution to simplify the handover process for data and documentation between these systems.

At the same time, regulatory authorities’ demands for com-pliance are on the rise. The O/O’s “virtual plant asset” in-plant documentation and IT systems must be consistent with the cur-rent physical state of the plant in operation. Also, a demonstrable management of change process is needed with full traceability and a complete audit trail of plant changes.

Managing the handover of data and documentation from CAPEX projects and turnaround projects is a formidable activity,

requiring the take-on of thousands of documents and files and millions of data items. The handover of a US$1 billion plant can typically cost $10-20 million and take up to a year to validate and load operations systems. A large percentage of the data delivered from projects today has not been created by intelligent tools. For example, vendor tag and document registers may have been cre-ated in spreadsheets or simple ad hoc databases.

Solutions for data validation and handoverTo tackle these challenges, O/Os are searching for tools that

offer interoperability between the dynamic engineering design basis and other information systems in the context of critical work processes across a plant’s life cycle. The most advanced tool in the market, Intergraph SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators (SPO), provides preconfigured work processes and out-of-the-box integrations with operations systems to provide major efficiency and information consistency improvements across the owner operator system landscape. Comprehensive solutions for data validation and handover reduce the time and costs of data take-on and ensure the quality and completeness of data handover. The solutions support both the incremental and final handover of information and documentation among contractors and between contractors and the O/O.

The importance of the plant data lies in the information asset it represents, rather than in the data itself. It is an integral part of every phase of the plant life cycle, from the bid proposal and


By J E R RY F E LT SDID YOU KNOW? » SMARTPLANT ENTERPRISE FOR OWNER OPERATORS

Leveraging the Virtual Plant Asset

» The key to reduced CAPEX and OPEX

O


» SM A RT PL A N T E N T E R PR ISE FOR OW N E R OPE R ATOR S

conceptual design to maintenance and finally decommissioning. At some point in time, every person involved in the operation of a plant must access plant data to perform his or her tasks. There-fore, it is critical that data is input accurately by all disciplines, vendors and contractors, reflecting the physical as-built plant at all times, and that data is continually kept up to date.

Managing data relationshipsData and data interrelationships are the key to the plant’s asset

configuration and management. New technological solutions of-fer a much more effective way to create, modify and access plant information to support operational tasks. The owner can begin to significantly lower costs of commissioning and handover with the delivery of datasets in an accurate, well-organized and non-redundant format. Reusing and leveraging the engineering de-sign basis by building solutions for managing project execution, systems completion and operations on top of this virtual plant asset rather than in separate standalone systems can further re-duce costs and provide a better quality information basis for these work processes.

Managing relationships between tags, models, assets (serial equipment) and manufacturers is very important for plant own-ers. If these relationships can be established during a greenfield/ brownfield project, they provide an excellent basis for establish-ing the plant asset structure required in the plant’s computerized maintenance management system. Ensuring cross-references to the existing material catalog in SAP MM or another catalog pro-vides a basis for achieving MRO inventory reduction.

Delivering projects on time and in budgetConflicts arising from interface issues between project stake-

holders can have a major impact on project schedule and budget. A capital development project will typically engage multiple EPC contractors, all of which have hundreds of technical issues to re-solve with each other and the O/O. Other interfaces on a project may include major package suppliers, design institutes and au-thorities.

A typical CAPEX project will have between 50 and 100 inter-faces and between 1,000 and 100,000 interface items to resolve, dependent on the size and complexity of the project. Today, inter-faces are still often managed by individual interface-responsible engineers via ad hoc Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets, which leads to a lack of consistency in reporting and visibility to project ex-ecutive management.

However, advanced solutions available in the market offer a common, consistent method of registration and mechanisms for proactive follow-up of delayed interface item clarifications. Both physical and soft interfaces are managed by the process.

Users can link interface items to affected plant items, allow-ing retrieval via multiple search routes. Interfaces on a project are

broken down into a three-level hierarchy to simplify location of individual interface items and reporting.

Managing change from the beginningIn any major greenfield or brownfield project, there are typi-

cally thousands of engineering changes that need to be managed. Projects need to be managed as a closed system with a tightly bound scope, schedule and cost representing the project baseline. Meaningful measurement of progress can only be made where scope, schedule and cost are under close management.

Requirements creep is probably the single greatest influence on project costs and schedule. Therefore, it is essential that all proposed changes are captured in advance and subject to an ap-propriate level of scrutiny before being approved or rejected. Un-disciplined implementation of changes undermines the technical integrity of the facility, causes confusion, potentially creates safe-ty hazards and threatens the successful outcome of the project.

Lack of a good change management process is a major drain on project executive resources and can jeopardize project sched-ule, budget and safety targets. The need to distinguish change within the existing project scope (design development) to changes additional to scope (design change) is a crucial concept any man-agement of change solution must accommodate. SPO solutions facilitate the traceability, auditability and management of changes from the initial change proposal, through the review, approval and implementation cycle in both greenfield and brownfield proj-ects, including turnarounds. Template workflows ensure consis-tent handling in accordance with project procedures and delega-tion of authority mandates.

Linking changes to the plant breakdown structure and af-fected tags and documents facilitates the assessment of change impact against other changes being evaluated or approved. An assessment can be made of whether there are potential conflicts or synergies. These cross-references also enable retrieval of the change from the tool via multiple access routes. Linking changes to incoming technical queries and non-conformities enables total traceability of technical case handling.

Managing change on the operating plantManaging change on the operating plant is a complex, safety-

critical work process where many changes have to be managed in parallel and the owner operator must be able to demonstrate compliance to regulatory authorities. SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators provides a template work process to manage change and provide complete auditable traceability through the review, approval and implementation process.

Data resides in the computerized maintenance management system and other operations systems such as ERP inspection and reliability systems. Keeping this data updated with changes in the engineering design basis is essential to ensure that equipment is

properly maintained and inspected and that other processes, such as procurement, have access to the correct data when purchasing replacement parts. SPO addresses this problem by providing an automated interface to synchronize changes in the engineering design basis with other operations systems that depend on this data.

The process provided by SPO is highly generic and configu-rable, enabling a range of operations systems to be kept in-line with the dynamic, evolving engineering design basis during operations.

Reducing handover costs through the plant life cycleSPO includes two complementary solutions to manage the

handover of data and documentation from contractors, suppliers or existing legacy systems.

For data being handed over between parties using Inter-graph’s integrated design tools, the SPO Handover Solution en-ables handover packages comprising data and documentation to be scoped on the source system, exported and then imported to a target system. The inherent intelligence in the data and documen-tation of the source system will be preserved on the target system. For example, if the data to be transferred includes a 3D model and intelligent P&IDs published from SmartPlant P&ID, then the intelligent bi-directional navigation between these and other data will be preserved on the target system as if these deliverables were created locally.

The solution supports handover of both published deliverables from design tools and non-published data that has been directly created in database systems, such as vendor data and registers. Data can be handed over from a source system to several targets, such as from an engineering contractor to a fabrication contrac-tor. Full auditable traceability of what data has been handed over to which party and when is retained in the solution.

For data handed over from diverse non-intelligent solutions,

the SPO Validation, Transformation and Loading tool enables data to be taken-on into a staging area where it can be subject to verification against a wide range of business rules. Error reports can be then used as a basis for correction. Data which is satis-factory can be exported and loaded into target systems including Intergraph’s SPO but also third-party systems such as ERP, reli-ability and inspection systems. The whole process of importing data into the staging area and then the validation and loading of target systems can be automated end-to-end.

Replacing the “dump truck” with continuous handoverSPO offers preconfigured, world-class work processes cover-

ing the complete plant life cycle; interoperability with third-party operations systems such as maintenance, reliability and inspec-tions systems; and a common, role-based Web portal designed for O/Os. SPO is based on Intergraph’s SmartPlant Enterprise suite of industry-leading information management and design tool appli-cations. In addition, data exchange with contractors and suppli-ers and validation functionalities, transformation and loading of data exchanges facilitate project execution throughout the project value chain.

The tool incorporates a Management of Change in Operations business package to provide rigorous management of change (MOC) of engineering information with full traceability and au-dit trail. The preconfigured MOC process includes an electronic workflow for managing the review, authorization, design and ap-proval of changes in the engineering design basis, and optionally the notification of maintenance to perform changes by creating notification records in the plant maintenance system (SAP PM).

In summary, a well implemented technical information strat-egy can facilitate a continuous handover of technical informa-tion to operations and maintenance instead of the classic “dump truck” backing up to drop off the documentation. Engineering and facility systems are synchronized and management of change and project controls are in place to keep them this way. These are all good reasons to explain why clients want to invest in a techni-cal information strategy for technical information handover from the EPC to the facility operations and maintenance organization: time to market, time in market and the ability to optimize op-erational parameters. The availability of engineering information in the operating facility will result in shorter turnaround times, increasing production and lowering capital expenses. ■ Adrian Park serves as global technical director of owner operator solutions for Intergraph Process, Power & Marine and is based in Stavanger, Norway.


www.intergraph.com/ppm/spo


By E I L E E N TA N A N D X IAWA H UDID YOU KNOW? » L E IC A C L OU DWOR X™ F OR C A DWOR X ® F I E L DPI PE™

Intelligent 3D Data for All

» Laser technology helps companies keep a competitive edge

aser scanning and laser surveying technology pro-vide more efficient and accurate data to be used for modifications or expansions of existing facili-ties. Leica CloudWorx™ and Intergraph CADWorx® fieldPipe™ enable engineers to leave the site with an intelligent 3D model of associated works.

Changing technologyMobile phones are now a commodity, but I remember very

well when I started working as a junior sales engineer, having to share a mobile phone with four of my colleagues. The phone was expensive and analog, and it required an enormous, heavy battery.

Phones today are not only smaller and lighter, but also enable users to write text messages and emails, surf the Web and run powerful apps, turning phones into navigation or video-confer-encing systems.

I see the same development for intelligent 3D plant design. It will become a commodity in the next decade – not only in an en-gineering environment, but also for maintenance and operations.

The use of 3D plant design tools is already a logical choice for most medium- and large-sized engineering companies. The busi-ness benefits are so significant – shorter design process and better and safer design quality – that carrying out plant design without it just does not make sense anymore.

However, capturing intelligent, as-built data to create intelli-gent 3D models of existing plants still used to be a challenge – until now!

The brownfield challengeOwner operators and EPCs often have to deliver brownfield

projects – including revamps, turnarounds and extensions of ex-isting facilities – to:

• Increase plant capacity.• Reduce energy consumption.• Reduce maintenance costs.• Meet more stringent environmental or emission standards.These retrofit projects are arduous and usually plagued with

challenges, such as: • Missing or inaccurate as-built data.• Difficulties in applying 3D design techniques with the 2D

as-built data from the field.

• Changing data scopes.• Rushed schedules.In the process, risks may be taken, which can have a negative

impact on schedules, costs and safety. So, what is the best way to capture as-built data? Intergraph and Leica Geosystems, now sister companies under the Hexagon umbrella, offer synergistic products combining laser scanning and surveying tools with the AutoCAD®-based CADWorx fieldPipe solution.

Historically, an engineer had two options to capture as-built data in the field: either use expensive laser scanning equipment to produce unintelligent data or measure manually on-site.

To measure on-site, as-built data is compiled by using primi-tive measuring equipment such as tape measures, lead and spirit levels to draft simple sketches, which are then converted to a con-struction drawing back in the design office. Measuring manually presents a number of disadvantages because it may:

• Require scaffolding for measurements at higher elevations, disturbing operations.

• Expose personnel to hazardous areas in the plant.• Introduce inaccuracy and become time-consuming, mak-

ing the entire process inefficient and unsafe.Today, tape measurements are still used, but they are sup-

ported by hand-held laser measuring devices that deliver ultra-accurate linear results. Creating a 3D plant model from the cap-tured data has also been enhanced over the years by introducing intelligence and automated tools that can create the deliverables needed for ongoing construction.

Leica CloudWorx and Intergraph CADWorx fieldPipe now take this to the next level.

In with the newCollecting data with laser technology provides extremely ac-

curate information and reporting. It captures real-life data – all of it. All field data collected is non-specific, making it suitable for all engineering disciplines, such as steel, equipment and HVAC. Data collection from a laser-based tool comes in two basic formats:

• Laser scanning.• Laser surveying.In laser scanning, a true as-built model of the real live plant is

created in the form of a 3D image (point cloud) with a laser scan-

L


» Laser technology helps companies keep a competitive edge

ner. Scans are taken from different locations to develop a complete image of the facility. After the scanning process, all point clouds holding data will be merged into one. The good news is that in-vesting in a good laser scanner costs less than ever before.

Using laser surveying technology, a laser pointing device mea-sures different points on a pipe to make the routing. The laser sur-veying equipment is only suitable to measure pipe-by-pipe. How-ever, it is the more economical option, making it the ideal tool for smaller projects. The Leica Total Station becomes a “3D laser mouse” in the field to locate the pipe run centerlines by shooting four points on the pipe cylinder.

CADWorx fieldPipe is the only plant design software that sup-ports both laser scanning and laser surveying. Leica CloudWorx acts as a processing plug-in system, enabling users to manipulate laser scan data in CAD systems like Intergraph CADWorx and to create intelligent 3D models. Dimensions of existing pipes are automatically determined and center lines can be identified. In-line objects like flanges, valves and junctions can be surveyed and added automatically to the 3D model.

Using the point cloud data of a laser scan, CADWorx fieldPipe can visualize the as-built as a design, or the point cloud can be traced to deliver a true intelligent 3D model.

The 3D routing data obtained from a laser survey can be used immediately in CADWorx fieldPipe, and an intelligent model can be created directly on-site, in front of the engineer’s eyes.

Both options enable spool verification at the shop to verify it will fit in the field before leaving the yard. Fabricated units can also be verified to match an original design. The improved accu-racy and productivity of these integrated tools mean:

• No rework.• No extra site visits.• No sketches.• No costly errors.Once created in CADWorx fieldPipe, the model can travel into

the whole CADWorx plant design suite, offering all of the deliver-ables required, including Intergraph ISOGEN® isometrics, bills of materials, and even stress analysis for pipes and vessels through integration with Intergraph CAESAR II® and PV Elite®.

Managing asset in real timeLaser scanning and surveying have shown to be the best prac-

tice for gathering both the physical and dimensional aspects for as-built facilities. In the owner’s daily operations, laser data is proving to have extended value beyond conception and design, by using the data in asset management efforts. It becomes impera-tive that the resulting as-built data produced has to be tightly in-tegrated with both plant design and asset life-cycle solutions for owners to:

• Minimize maintenance costs.• Improve documentation accuracy.• Eliminate site re-visits.EPC revenue is project-based, so EPCs are always looking for

ways to reduce risk while increasing profit during a project. One way to achieve this goal is through laser scanning and laser sur-veying.

Another method that can reduce cost and increase profit is by reducing or compressing the project schedule. This can be done thanks to more collaborative engineering functionality across the various disciplines with tools such as Leica CloudWorx and CAD-Worx fieldPipe.

3D modeling will inevitably become the standard for de-sign, maintenance and operations. Intelligent laser technology is now available for less cost, which means companies executing small- and medium-sized projects can start leveraging the ben-efits. This step toward making intelligent 3D a commodity for all disciplines and companies of all sizes will enable them to keep a competitive edge. ■

Peter van der Weijde is vice president, Europe, at Intergraph CAD-Worx & Analysis Solutions and is based in Hoofddorp, Netherlands.

By PE T E R VA N DE R W E I J DE

www.intergraph.com/go/cadworx


By J E R RY F E LT S

At A GlanceARC Ranks Intergraph No.1 for the 6th Consecutive Year

ARC Advisory Group, the leading research and advisory firm for industry and infrastructure, ranks Intergraph as the No. 1 overall engineering design solution provider for industry based on revenues for the sixth consecutive year in its newest release of “Engineering De-sign Tools for Industry and Infrastruc-ture Worldwide Outlook,” which was first released in 2006.

Intergraph tops the rankings in three of five segments in which it com-petes – oil and gas, chemical and power – in ARC Advisory Group’s “Industry” category devoted to technology used in the design, construction and operation of process, power and discrete manufac-turing plants, as well as the shipbuild-ing and marine industries. Intergraph is the only engineering design solution provider ranked No. 1 in more than one industrial market segment.

Intergraph leads all direct competi-tors globally, and also leads all direct competitors in each of the four geo-graphic regions analyzed by ARC Ad-visory Group: Asia, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Latin America and North America.

www.arcweb.com

World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Reactor Built with Intergraph

ITER (meaning “the way” in Latin), a global organization of the European Union, China, Russia, Japan, India, South Korea and the United States, cur-rently is building the world’s largest and most advanced experimental nuclear fusion reactor in Cadarache, France. It has selected Intergraph’s SmartPlant Enterprise suite of products to handle the assembly, commissioning and con-struction of the plant, as well as its op-erations and maintenance.

The agreement comprises imple-mentation of SmartPlant Enterprise so-lutions such as SmartPlant Foundation, SmartPlant Construction, SmartPlant Materials and SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators.

The construction of the site and buildings has already started, and the contributing countries are starting the manufacturing of the equipment, such

as super-conducting conductors. Dur-ing the plant design, construction and completion/start-up phase, SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators will pro-vide preconfigured processes to support engineering and project execution work processes, and SmartPlant Foundation will play a key role in data synchronization and data sharing. The project will benefit from synchronized information and cen-tralized data that SmartPlant Enterprise offers to better manage work processes, control equipment and maintenance, co-ordinate contractors and manage change. The organization aims to build an efficient and safe plant that can provide energy to an increasingly demanding world.

www.iter.com

WorleyParsons Signs Global Alliance Agreement

WorleyParsons, a leading global en-gineering and project delivery company headquartered in Australia, has signed a long-term Global Alliance Agreement (GAA) with Intergraph. This five-year agreement covers the Intergraph Smart-Plant and SmartMarine Enterprise soft-ware suites, including SmartPlant 3D, SmartMarine 3D and SmartPlant 3D Materials Handling Edition (collectively known as Smart 3D), SmartPlant Foun-dation, SmartPlant Construction, Smart-Plant Enterprise Engineering & Schemat-ics applications, CADWorx, CAESAR II and numerous other solutions.

WorleyParsons is a longtime world-wide user of Intergraph technology and the global agreement gives it unlimited access to Intergraph solutions. The unique automation and integration capabilities, as well as the unmatched productivity of


Sisgraph Launches Intergraph Marine Excellence Center in Brazil

Hexagon companies Sisgraph, a Bra-zilian software and services provider, and Intergraph have teamed to form a Marine Excellence Center in Rio de Janeiro to meet the needs of the expanding marine industry in Brazil. Sao Paulo-based Sis-graph has been a provider of Intergraph solutions in South America for more than 30 years.

The new Marine Excellence Center opens with a team of expert engineers and consultants to provide technical support and training for Intergraph SmartMarine 3D technology. SmartMarine 3D is the world’s most advanced offshore and ship-building design solution, featuring break-through engineering technology that is knowledge-based and rule-driven to im-prove productivity and delivery sched-ules. The center also will provide tech-nical workshops throughout Brazil and cooperate with the country’s universities and technical schools to produce quali-fied students with an opportunity to learn using the latest Intergraph and Sisgraph technologies.

Sisgraph’s Marine Excellence Center mission includes disseminating and ex-tending knowledge about the marine and offshore industries through the diffusion of Intergraph’s next-generation technolo-gies for projects, creating a skilled labor force, and providing an unrivaled support structure ideal for large offshore and ma-rine projects in the Brazilian industry.

www.sisgraph.com.br

Review alongside its existing portfolio of tools.

Commenting on the software, Petrofac’s vice president, Operational Excellence, Stephen Major said, “It was an important decision for us to include SmartPlant Enterprise from Inter-graph in our engineering tools portfo-lio. We are confident that this will aug-ment our delivery ability and allow us to service the requirements of our cus-tomers with up to date and progressive software platforms.”

In its fourth decade of operations, Petrofac executes major projects in the oil and gas industry around the world, having a proven track record and has delivered impressive results, particu-larly in projects in the Middle East, North Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Intergraph’s integrated solutions provide advanced design-, construction-, materials- and engineering data management capa-bilities for the creation-, operation-, maintenance- and Project Lifecycle Management (cPLM) of process, pow-er, marine and offshore projects. The software’s life-cycle data management functionality will support Petrofac’s ability to achieve a smoother handover to owner operators and make it easier for owner operators to maintain, refur-bish or modify their plants.

www.petrofac.com

SmartPlant Enterprise and SmartMarine Enterprise, are delivering a competitive edge to the company.

“The Global Alliance Agreement is a natural progression for us to formalize our partnership with Intergraph,” said Jim Purvis, director of engineering systems at WorleyParsons. “It gives us the flexibility to quickly meet the needs of our engineer-ing projects across all industries, includ-ing the minerals, metals and chemicals, power, and oil and gas sectors. Worley- Parsons will make Intergraph solutions available globally and use them as part of our reference standard for global project execution.”

www.worleyparsons.com

Petrofac Deploys SmartPlant Enterprise

Petrofac, a leading international ser-vice provider to the oil and gas produc-tion and processing industry, has chosen SmartPlant Enterprise solutions to sup-port productivity goals across the execu-tion chain for major international projects.

SmartPlant Enterprise technology is able to add value in terms of improved design quality on projects, and support a competitive edge in today’s marketplace.

Enhanced productivity with improved quality of deliverables is one of the ben-efits Petrofac will be able to leverage by using Intergraph’s solutions. Petrofac also acknowledges the trend of some owner operators to standardize on Intergraph software.

The decision to work more closely with Intergraph and to enter into a long-term contract was taken by Petrofac recently. It now has SmartPlant 3D, SmartPlant Elec-trical, SmartPlant P&ID and SmartPlant


The Stanlow site’s use of SmartPlant Instrumentation, including the Calibra-tion module, enables Essar to realize even higher levels of efficiency and data quality in its operations. SmartPlant Instrumen-tation is the site’s central P&C database where any tag can be quickly interrogated for process data, wiring and trip settings as required. It is also the primary P&C design tool, with a staff of 12 designers all highly skilled in the use of the software.

“SmartPlant Instrumentation has in-creased consistency across the different instrumentation tasks and deliverables,” said Hughes. “It helps us shorten turn-around time, ensure compliance with our safety and environmental standards, and reduce operating costs associated with in-strumentation.”

The software is used extensively for all loop diagrams across the site. Legacy CAD drawings are being phased out and replaced by intelligent deliverables from SmartPlant Instrumentation, tak-ing advantage of the speed of drawing generation and editing as well as the high quality of data management. ■ Jerry Felts is a contributing editor for In-sight and is based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. Cristina Gonzalez is a contributing editor for Insight and is based in Hoofd-dorp, Netherlands.

VISIONARIES » ENGINEERING & SCHEMATICS

S M A R T P L A N T E N G I N E E R I N G & S C H E M AT I C S

Intergraph presented the SmartPlant Engineering & Schematics Excellence Awards to recognize 15 customers who have deployed and rolled out Intergraph engineering and schematics solutions and taken the extra step to stretch the solu-tions’ capabilities to achieve maximum benefits for their respective organizations worldwide.

Customers were chosen to receive the third annual awards for being valuable contributors in making Intergraph prod-ucts successful – not only for their own companies, but also for the entire industry. The 2012 Intergraph Engineering & Sche-matics Excellence Awards recipients are:

• Ljubomir Lozo, AMEC• Raksa Padjar, BP Tangguh Indonesia• Kyle Miller, Burns & McDonnell• Mariana Popa, Candu Energy Inc.• Christine Rech, CAXperts• Gerhard Brown, Eskom• Peter Hughes, Essar Oil UK• Niamh Hodnett, GSK Cork Ireland• Lu lin, Keppel Fels Ltd.• Yoshiyuki Otsuka, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.• Sirinada Niamyai, PTT Chemical

Public Co. Ltd.• Emanuele Stringara, Saipem S.p.A.• Gabriele Martini, Saipem S.p.A.• John Chirio, Sinclair Knight Merz• Rika Roux, Synfuels Int’l. Inc.

A SmartPlant Engineering & Schemat-ics Excellence Award was given to Peter Hughes of Essar Oil UK.

The company owns and operates the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex at Elles-mere Port in England, which includes the second largest refinery in the UK. The company specifies and uses SmartPlant Instrumentation for all projects and also uses it in plant operations.

Hughes serves as the Power and Con-trol (P&C) design office lead at the Stan-low refinery. He has used SmartPlant Instrumentation for over a decade, first with Shell – the previous site operator – and now with Essar Oil. He has worked to develop the SmartPlant Instrumentation implementation into one of the most ex-tensive systems in the industry.

Recipients use solutions to achieve maximum benefits for their companies

EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Peter Hughes from Essar Oil UK Receives Award

Peter Hughes (left) receives his award from Jone Kristensen, vice president, Northern Europe, UK and Ireland, Intergraph (right).

Robin Coleman and Peter Julius of SKM, Pieter Dubbelman of Intergraph, award winner John Chirio and Anthony Armstrong of SKM, Ronnie Moss of Intergraph and Brenton Lamb of SKM celebrate Chirio’s award-winning efforts.


Hexagon’s extensive range of products and services provide a constant flow of updated information. Hexagon compa-nies work together to offer the best solu-tions for their users. These companies include Intergraph, Leica Geosystems and NovAtel. Leica Geosystems provides innovative solutions and services for the capture, modeling and visualization of 3D spatial information. NovAtel is a lead-ing original equipment manufacturer of precision Global Navigation Satellite System components and subsystems.

Collaboration has been very fruit-ful in the area of product integration. Leica Geosystems and Intergraph have strengthened their collaboration to build on their synergies and open new oppor-tunities.

One milestone was the recent launch of Leica TruView Integrator for Smart-Plant Enterprise. The solution is one ex-ample of how the synergies between the two companies are solving customers’

Cristina Gonzalez is a contributing edi-tor for Insight and is based in Hoofddorp, Netherlands. Michelle Dai is an Americas marketing coordinator and is based in Cal-gary, Alberta, Canada.

challenges through technology. Leica Tru-View Integrator for SmartPlant Enterprise combines the power of Intergraph’s trust-ed plant asset management software with Leica Geosystems’ intuitive TruView soft-ware, offering easy management of rich and complex engineering information.

Joint promotion at international and national fairs and conferences has also taken off. Intergraph regional user confer-ences featured Leica Geosystems solutions in their agenda. Likewise, most of Leica Geosystems’ country road shows present-ed Intergraph’s tools.

An example of a joint effort at an in-ternational event was Spar Europe in The Netherlands in November. A shared booth offered solution demonstrations.

Mirko Stock, vice president of Global Business Development, Owner Operator Solutions at Intergraph Process, Power & Marine, was joined by Chris Thewalt, vice president of the Scanning Software Busi-ness at Leica Geosystems, to speak at a plenary session on extending the benefits of photorealistic laser scans and intelli-gent 3D models into plant operations and maintenance.

Plus, two recent webinars featured Leica TruView Integrator for SmartPlant Enterprise and accurate as-builts and 3D models from laser scan and surveying data with Intergraph CADWorx field-Pipe. These helped attendees understand how to optimize the use of scanning de-vices and data visualization software. ■ www.intergraph.com/go/truview

www.intergraph.com/ppm/webinars

The Intergraph office in Calgary, Al-berta, Canada, recently moved to a new office building shared with NovAtel. This move was certainly one of the most com-plex moves that Intergraph has undertak-en in Canada, involving relocation of 108 employees and contractors, build-out for the two businesses, along with network-ing and infrastructure affecting every Canadian employee as well as global con-nections. Dedicated Intergraph and Nov- Atel employees enabled the office to be up and operational in the new location on schedule.

Although Intergraph Calgary is not the first of the Hexagon family compa-nies to share physical space, this move is historic in the Hexagon world because the companies are the first to combine some of their services team into shared resources, such as information systems, reception and shipping. These efficien-cies will enable Intergraph and Nov-Atel to do an even better job at serving their customers in the Calgary area. ■ www.intergraph.com/global/ca

HEXAGON SYNERGIES » LEICA GEOSYSTEMS & NOVATEL

Working Together for Customer Success» Intergraph collaborates with fellow Hexagon companies

Intergraph and NovAtel share new Calgary office

Intergraph, Leica Geosystems build on synergies


efore commencing this ar-ticle, I wanted to share with you news of the acquisition of Trinity Technologies by EMC Corporation at the

end of 2012. The entire former Trinity team is now associated with this leading organization, and will be broadly enabled to provide energy plant information solu-tions and consulting around the world. It is a positive development for the industry and provides a continuum of Trinity’s mis-sion to provide effective solutions.

I recently went back and reviewed the “Operations Integrity Management Sys-tem (OIMS)” document released by Exx-onMobil. In the document, Rex W. Til-lerson, chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil, reaffirms and describes the standards to which ExxonMobil will hold itself in the design, construction and op-erations of its facilities. The document is important in that, in a single piece, Tiller-son describes a comprehensive set of tenets that ExxonMobil will follow in the areas of safety, security, health and environmental (SSH&E) concerns.

The OIMS document establishes a wide range of policies which, as a central goal, will reduce the risk of adverse events relat-ed to the core SSH&E operations. By defi-

nition, risk is “the potential that a chosen action or activity (including the choice of inaction) will lead to a loss (an undesirable outcome).”

The challenge we have as engineers who are creating, managing and making deci-sions based on plant information is that we do not innately incorporate the concept of risk. Our systems are deterministic, not probabilistic. We have a set of principles, for which the ExxonMobil document is an excellent example, to establish standards defined as “lower risk,” “higher risk,” “un-acceptable risk,” etc., but for which we have very few tools to actually measure.

The reason for this is historical. For many years, we did not explicitly consider probabilities related to load definition or materials behavior in our standards for de-sign. Later, we began to understand that all of these have an important probabilistic el-ement, but we translated these into deter-ministic “allowables.” On the operations side, there has been considerable work re-lated to probabilistic assessments of equip-ment failures given years of operations, environment, etc., but we still do not use

these in the context of total system reliability (another probabilistic term) or overall risk for adequate perfor-mance.

Increasingly, our plant information will require another dimension: the ability to define the number (load, operational life, “strength,” etc.) in the context of a prob-

ability. In short, we need to move from a deterministic world to a probabilistic one.

Why is this required? Because it is the only way to analytically confirm the com-mitment made by Tillerson that Exxon-Mobil will operate with the core standard of “... managing SSH&E risk and achieving excellence in performance.” Some of the key analytics that will be required as we move forward are:

• Accounting for high-impact/low-probability events.

• Identifying risk profiles across all systems and for a variety of condi-tions – We need to have an associa-tion between a potential design and the associated risk profile.

• Creating “maximum risk” parame-ters, which will unify our design and operations standards.

• Tying corporate commitments to operational and design standards.

This transformation will not be easy, because we have built most analytics on a deterministic framework. But there are some examples we can follow. The space program can provide substantial direc-tion, as can certain military procurement programs. The bottom line is that we will increasingly need to speak in a common language – that of risk and reliability. And our plant information must also speak that language.

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

Speaking in the Language

web.emc.com/informationintelligence

By J OE M OR R AY

Joe Morray is senior director of the Ameri-cas Energy and Engineering Practice of EMC Corporation’s Information Intelli-gence Group. He is responsible for leading solutions delivery related to capital proj-ects and asset information management for energy and engineering organizations.

of RISK

ACCELERATECONSTRUCTION

REDUCE RISK AND SHORTEN TIME TO MARKETProcurement, fabrication and construction represent a complex balancing act between profit-making and risk-taking that requires effective planning and control. Integrated together, advanced SmartPlant® Enterprise solutions from Intergraph® – including SmartPlant Materials, SmartPlant Spoolgen® and SmartPlant Construction – support your workflows and improve communication between project stakeholders. Everything remains on track to achieve on-time start-up and safe, profitable operation.

www.intergraph.com/go/pfc

© Intergraph Corporation. All rights reserved. Intergraph is part of Hexagon. Intergraph, the Intergraph logo, Spoolgen and SmartPlant are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries.

SmartPlant® Enterprise Solutions for Procurement, Fabrication and Construction

Change is TheOnly COnsTanT

MAKE YOUR ENGINEERING DESIGN BASIS WORK FOR YOUGood asset information is fundamental to good asset performance. Your operations and maintenance personnel need ready access to complete, accurate and comprehensive asset information to sustain a safe and efficient operating environment. But managing change is a challenge. Multiple, concurrent changes with overlapping scopes are a fact of life. SmartPlant® Enterprise for Owner Operators lets you take control of your engineering information across the entire asset life cycle with full traceability. Increase “wrench-time” by eliminating painstaking information searches. Increase productivity by avoiding plant walk downs for data validation. And improve safety and regulatory compliance with better configuration management.

Your facility changes every day. It’s time your facility information assets did, too.

www.intergraph.com/go/spo

© Intergraph Corporation. All rights reserved. Intergraph is part of hexagon. Intergraph, the Intergraph logo, and SmartPlant are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries.

SmartPlant® Enterprise for Owner Operators