By understanding the crucial role technology will play in the future landscape of asset management, developments in construction, maintenance and many other departments can be optimized for efficiency.
When implemented successfully, technology solutions can provide real-time data and can be utilized to enhance productivity onsite, according to Ann Colwell, ventures executive for ExxonMobil.
At the ExxonMobil Beaumont jobsite, Colwell saw how ExxonMobil’s first VR model enhanced productivity on capital projects and in daily site operations.
"It was really neat to see in Beaumont as we started rolling out our first reality model, our VR model was our new asset. We were using it to train operators and to write operating procedures and maintenance procedures and think about crane placement for our first turnaround," said Colwell. "A lot of the things that we were able to deploy on a big capital project helped our maintenance, frontline supervisors and operations supervisors. And there was a pull from the site to help export a lot of what we were learning for the major capital project into day-to-day site operations."
When implementing digitization efforts, Colwell said it’s important to meet the people who are doing the work in the field to help them see the value.
By utilizing cutting-edge digitization applications, operators can predict failures and increase asset health visibility. Each benefit through digitization results in value-added services, said Kevin Cox, leader of IT services, Americas Region with SABIC, during a panel discussion at Downstream USA 2023 held in Galveston, Texas.
"Two key things when we’re looking at with digitization is to have a clear value add back to the business and ensure that it’s capable — you can measure the success or the failure of it," explained Cox. "What we did within the terminal operations was we looked at three or four different points around safety, around reliability and at sustainability as well. If you look at simple things — there’s no more manual, tank level checking, other things like that. That data is all being fed to you on a screen, you don’t have to send somebody out there to go do it."
Digitization efforts can enhance safety, ROI in operations
Pictured from left are Kiran Dasari with L&T Technology Services, Bojan Knezovic with ENAP, Theunis Myburg with LyondellBasell, Ann Colwell with ExxonMobil and Kevin Cox with SABIC.
Cox said modeling and quantifying the risk of equipment breakdowns to make data-driven decisions and improve asset reliability is another value-added service offered through digitization integration.
"We can look at the mean time between failures and we can look at predictive failure rates with certain equipment we think is going to fail, which really increases our reliability," said Cox. "From a sustainability standpoint, we look at our energy usage for each of the terminal facilities to see what how much energy we’re using, and we can compare it to similar sized terminals."
For companies that have already implemented digitization efforts, it is important to remember that digital transformation is always evolving, and it’s vital to be able to adapt to change.
"Digital transformation is not an end goal, it’s a journey," said Theunis Myburg, digital portfolio manager for LyondellBasell. "Whatever you’ve done today is going to be outdated. If it does not provide value, stop and go look at what that next item is on your roadmap. Don’t be so enamored by the work that you and your team are doing that you just keep spending money on things that aren’t going to provide anything for your organization. If you need to stop it, have the courage to stop it, and then move on to the next item on your roadmap, your evaluation strategy or new emerging technology program."
