A recent survey of oil and gas industry HSE, maintenance and operations professionals provided significant insight into the opportunities and challenges associated with operational excellence (OE).

Respondents to the “2016 OE Index” overwhelmingly agreed that OE is “the unrelenting pursuit of world-class operational performance. It requires everyone, from the boardroom to the front line, to consistently make the most effective operational decisions based on an integrated view of operational reality, based on risk, cost and productivity.”

Pressure to improve productivity and efficiency is increasing, and scrutiny from regulators and the public is higher than ever. As a result, organizations are moving toward an enhanced operating model, one driven by the pursuit of OE.

The Index revealed a broad consensus that the successful implementation of OE is crucial to the success of the hydrocarbon processing business, with more than 95% of respondents saying that it is important to their organization.

Productivity, risk and cost are inextricably linked, and the key to OE is to enable everyone from the boardroom to the front line to better understand how decisions impact their part of the business. The challenge is that organizations are struggling to get a clear view of operational reality through what is often a blizzard of complexity.

Senior executives are learning the same painful lesson as NASA did more than a decade ago—that a myriad of key performance indicators provide little insight into operational reality. In February 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. NASA was collecting 600 key performance metrics one month before the loss of the Columbia, none of which turned out to be helpful in identifying the increased risk of seemingly minor damage to the insulation, or predicting the disaster.
If OE is about giving organizations the information they need to make better decisions, what’s required is a simpler approach that connects disparate processes and people, and allows everyone to visualize and manage operational risk in a new way.

The Index recognized the role of digital technology in OE, with more than 92% agreeing that it is a key enabler.

According to a recent EY white paper, “with new technological advancements, we have the potential to improve business functions across the industry … technology has caught up with the industry’s needs.” They also found that companies that implement best practice OE programs see:

• An average 29% increase in production;
• An up to 43% reduction in costs; and
• A 29% increase in asset uptime.

Petrotechnics’ OE Index and EY’s numbers illustrate that OE has never been more necessary. And with technology, it has never been more achievable. The value of technology comes when it connects people and processes with data-derived insight—the real promise of big data in our industry. However, the right technology does not replace skilled, knowledgeable or experienced people.

Instead, it enables everyone in an organization to manage activity in a practical, joined-up, routine way. It empowers people to consistently make the best possible operational decisions. Top performing companies are connected enterprises. They arm every person with the right information to both understand the wider impact of their actions and to make better, safer, smarter operational decisions. This provides a path to the real benefits of OE.

An offshore approach to risk management

One North American offshore operator recognized a gap between the reality of risk on the front line and the understanding of the senior leadership onshore. The company came to Petrotechnics for a solution and is now deploying a common approach to risk management.

The goal of the project is threefold:

• Align site leadership in more structured, risk-based decisions;
• Engage front-line workers in process safety and barrier health—to raise awareness and develop more rigorous scrutiny of plant safeguards; and
• Provide onshore leadership with a window into real-time risk decisions.

Proscient is delivering substantial value to the operator by providing everyone across the organization with near real-time visualization of risk. Personnel can now view ongoing or planned activities next to deviations in risk control systems.
The operator is already beginning to benefit from this connected approach to risk management, including making daily planning decisions based on minimizing risk in the forward schedule.