The upstream oil and gas industry is by nature asset-intensive. To a large extent, success depends upon intelligent management of big-ticket capital assets. More than ever, technology is playing a role in asset management, and powerful enterprise asset management (EAM) software has become a requirement rather than a luxury.

A typical EAM workflow covers all the bases efficiently and facilitates cooperation and coordination between operators and their third-party contractors. (Images courtesy of IFS North America)

EAM typically encompasses only the analysis and work management practices necessary to achieve predictive maintenance and avoid unplanned shutdowns. Much of the lifecycle of a capital asset, like the top drive on an offshore drilling rig, involves more than maintenance. That asset was engineered and fabricated by outside parties.?Outside contractors often perform upgrades or lifecycle extensions to assets on that rig, and at some point it will be retired and another one designed and fabricated to take its place.?Much of the asset lifecycle involves outside parties.?Incredible upsides can be realized by ensuring that information about that rig (or other asset) flows efficiently between the asset owner and outside entities that design or fabricate portions of that asset.

The handoff of asset information between parties represents an opportunity to eliminate costly mistakes and non-productive time. Design, Operate, Maintain (DOM) is a growing asset management discipline that not only eliminates the pitfalls that result when outside parties handle asset data but also allows the asset owner and outside contractors to discover new ways to get more from capital assets.

A workflow that actually works

DOM is more than a tool — it’s also a way of thinking that assumes that designers and those who operate and maintain facilities can work closely with the asset owner if efficiency and business profitability are to improve. While communication between these various entities has been labor-intensive (if performed at all), modern enterprise resource planning tools (ERP), EAM, and computer-aided design (CAD) packages are moving toward a point of integration that facilitate greater communication between these disciplines.

A proactive approach is doubtless the most important factor in implementing DOM processes in your organization. Technology can only facilitate and standardize your proactive, cooperative approach and in some cases can automate parts of the DOM process. Here are three steps that can help you realize the benefits of DOM today.

Maintain a flexible, open IT system

With an open IT system, all stakeholders have access to the information they need to do their jobs, including all records on a particular asset.

Whether they are used by you or your consulting engineering firm, proprietary data standards are barriers to communication. If you keep your operation and maintenance information in an open, easily accessed format, you can import and export information in a secure way and have application program interfaces (APIs) to handle export and import. If the asset information management solution you are using supports flexible and configurable import and export from standardized file formats such as Excel, XML, etc., you have a greater possibility of success.

To operate in a DOM modality, it will be important to use an asset management system with a layered architecture. This will enable you to view information on projects during the design phase and track them throughout their design and construction. At each step of the process, different departments can view any layer of a project that is relevant to them and provide feedback. This function automatically collects asset information during the design phase of a project and ensures the outcome meets your needs. This early access to information detects conflicts sooner in the planning process to keep projects on schedule and reduce the amount of rework by designers.?Additionally, data is collected for the preventive maintenance program, allowing its use the day the new production facility goes into operation.

Take control of your information

Information about your assets is extremely valuable. The cumulative operation and maintenance history data is used to optimize processes on an ongoing basis. Undertaking projects to improve production capacity requires a system that is able to share that information with the design engineers. This is done by agreeing on a format the operator and designer can both use.

Conversely, before work begins, agree with the design engineer on data formats and frequency of communication on the new design. During the design phase, generate a list of assets that will be managed in the EAM system, what specifications need to measured, how often preventive maintenance and inspections should be conducted, and what repair parts should be inventoried.

Determine what assets are needed at what points in the project and how data must be structured to tie into the existing asset management system. Whether it is an Oracle database, a series of Excel spreadsheets, an Access database, or XML documents, this data must be structured to allow it to be ingested by the current operations and maintenance systems.

Even coordination of routine maintenance is improved when the maintenance system is integrated with the operating system. With an integrated system, the maintenance manager can look to see when a rig will be returning to the shipyard or a production platform will be offline in order to plan maintenance and order parts that will be needed rather than requesting a shutdown that may not be at the right time.

Establish an ongoing dialog

Just as information needs to flow from design into your asset management systems, data needs to flow from your maintenance and operational history into the design process. Actively solicit suggestions from the designer on exactly what data and data format will provide them with the necessary insight to optimize project results.

The ideal DOM workflow involves a collaborative process in which maintenance and operational histories are freely available to design and planning. Specifications should be easily accessed by operators and maintenance personnel even as a project is being planned. Imagine the improvement in productivity when you are rebuilding your asset and the plans are integrated into the asset management system. When you see that new pumps and compressors are being planned to replace existing assets, it may make sense to forego unnecessary upgrades on the equipment that is about to be decommissioned.

Moreover, because you know the new specifications, you can begin ordering spare parts and other supplies for the equipment being installed before installation begins.?Better yet, when the old pumps are being sold, the EAM system should alert the inventory manager that some spares will no longer be needed and should be sold with the outgoing asset.?This increases the resale price of the pump, reduces inventory carrying costs, and saves space. The day the new or rebuilt rig goes live, you will have an excellent understanding of its performance and what it will take to maintain it.

Using an EAM approach ensures that everything that needs to be done is accomplished in minimum time, and at minimum cost, on your timetable. Even unexpected failures can be handled expeditiously if the appropriate spare parts are easily available and if complete maintenance records and upgrade reports have been maintained. Spare parts inventories can be optimized at the enterprise level so rarely required parts are not overstocked. Best of all, the two biggest profitability killers, non-productive time and lost production, are kept to a minimum.