Rebuilding After the Storm
It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on
a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and
encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.
— Charles Caleb Colton
In December, we asked Pacesetter readers to name their most pressing issue
for 2010. The answer was loud and clear--decision makers are looking for
ways to muster existing resources to rebuild after the economic storm that
has battered virtually all industrial sectors in 2008 and 2009.
Rebuilding a company with limited resources can be compared to repairing a
damaged vessel in the middle of the ocean. Crew members may have been lost
and all efforts may have been focused on keeping the vessel afloat. Once
the storm has passed, the crew has to get on with repairing the damage and
with getting the ship back on course.
This imperative will be a common refrain as companies face the economic
reality for 2010 and beyond. Positive economic reports for Q4-09 have been
tempered by warnings that the good news was not due to natural forces, but
to an unprecedented level of government intervention in the American,
Canadian and other economies. There is no evidence that the current recovery
will lead to the kind of reliable growth that "raises all boats" -- instead,
there are concerns that economic activity will lose momentum late in 2010
when the stimulus money dries up.
Consequently, there is a reluctance to increase production levels, expand
facilities or hire additional staff. Growth for many, therefore, will be
nurtured with extreme caution.
The need to manage a tighter ship is nothing new. Throughout the past
decade, industrial companies of all types have made huge gains in efficiency
by automating processes, eliminating redundancy, tightening controls and
reducing defects. Many are getting more done with fewer resources than they
had a decade ago. US Department of Labor statistics, for example, show steady
rises in productivity in many sectors.
Digging Deeper
Moving forward will be all about efficiency as organizations dig even deeper
for ways to save money and improve profitability. Deficiencies that would
hardly have been noticed until recently will become critical in the coming
years. Consequently, many companies will:
- Improve maintenance in order to increase uptime and maximize the utilization of high-cost equipment
- Tighten process controls to get production closer to allowed tolerances
- Improve utilization of staff in order to minimize dependence on outside contractors
- Reduce costly inventories
- Closely monitor and manage the performance of wells and other remote installations
- Comply with government- and customer-mandated requirements in the most economical way
The ability to achieve objectives like these is what we refer to at Matrikon
as Operational Excellence. While Operational Excellence involves many activities,
there is a common theme, and that is the handling of information. In a nutshell,
companies will need to unlock the inherent value in the data they have, develop
the ability to anticipate conditions, and finally, act strategically based on
what the information is telling them.
Unlocking What We Know
To say that industrial companies today have more information than ever before would
be a gross understatement--the quantity of data in organizations is growing in many
companies by as much as 60% per year.
This data is a huge potential asset, and for many companies, a hidden one. Controllers,
instruments and recording systems are all software-driven and network compatible, so
virtually all of the information they collect and store can be accessed. In other
words, when it comes to what is going on in our operations, we know everything, at
least in theory!
The bad news is that like a truckload of bitumen, the data in its raw form is useless.
Without the proper tools, there's no way to establish a link between the data and the
human interfaces required to run the business.
Industrial companies collect their information in a complex, multivendor environment
that spans a huge range of data types, network protocols and presentation formats.
Many of these are unintelligible to standard computer systems, and much of the data
is redundant. In order to make this information useful, it has to be brought into a
common repository where it can be sorted, deciphered, given context and presented to
humans. Furthermore, it has to be applied to workflow, reporting and other user
applications.
The key to unlocking this information is to give it context -- a unified view of the
organization’s data assets so that business and industrial processes can co-exist
seamlessly. The OPC standard enables interfaces to be created to virtually any type
of data-generating device. Through a combination of the OPC platform and context,
data from three levels in the organization can be pulled together under a single
pane of glass. They are:
- Control data: This includes information from PLCs, analyzers, relays and Digital Control Units (DCUs). Using wireless interfaces, information from mobile equipment, such as mining vehicles, can also be captured.
- Operations data: This includes information from Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs), SCADA applications, data historians and reporting applications.
- Business data: This comes from the traditional IT infrastructure behind the firewall and includes ERP and Business Intelligence applications, reporting systems, compliance applications, maintenance management systems and web applications.
Matrikon has a long history of leadership in connectivity at all levels. Unlike most
software companies who started with applications and moved into connectivity after the
fact, our roots are in providing engineering information at the field level. We have a
deep understanding of measurement and control, and have developed hundreds of OPC
drivers covering virtually every type of equipment. Matrikon is also an active participant
in the OPC standards groups and is recognized as a global leader by the OPC community
and end users alike. MatrikonOPC took top honors in the 2010 Control Readers’ Choice
Award OPC Connectivity category.
Sometimes "knowing" is about putting information in a common and convenient format.
Matrikon Operational Insight
helps companies quickly pull data together from their operation to gain a consolidated "big picture"
and support centralized monitoring initiatives.
Anticipating Conditions
The maxim "if it ain't broke don't fix it" works fine if your mechanic is just down the
road, but if you're driving a mining vehicle in northern Alberta, that could be a very
expensive approach!
A high brake temperature warning on a mining truck deep in the field, for example, might
be too little, too late. Intervention could involve the high cost of pulling the vehicle
out of the field and interrupting production. The question is how can problems like this
be foreseen in advance?
By collecting sensor data frequently and recording and analyzing the results, it is
possible to pinpoint dangerous trends, such as an abnormal brake temperature increase.
Consequently, corrective maintenance could be conducted on the brakes to head off a
potentially expensive situation.
The practice of anticipating problems rather than waiting for them to occur is what predictive
maintenance is all about and is one of the keys to Operational Excellence, especially in
a cautious economy.
Matrikon Mobile Equipment Monitor
helps companies crunch the numbers and make smart maintenance decisions based on a wide
range of indicators affecting factors such as structural integrity, electrical and cooling
systems, tire pressures, and power train.
Sometimes the problem is too much information. In the mining industry, sensing equipment
is often programmed by manufacturers to send alarms for every possible situation. This
covers them against possible lawsuits, but is a bit like the boy who cried "wolf." Operators
may be receiving far more alarms than they can possibly manage.
Matrikon Alarm Manager
allows organizations to sort through alarms and anticipate where the real hazards are,
resulting in a safer environment for workers. Alarm Manager also helps companies comply
with ISA standards for alarm reporting.
When monitoring an offshore well, the information scenario gets very complex and the
stakes very high. Information may be coming from hundreds of instruments and can be
confusing and contradictory. Often an important parameter can't be measured directly
and engineers have to rely on inferential models that, for example, might surmise the
state of variable "C" based on what's known about variables "A" and "B." As well,
variances are common and continuous comparison with known trend profiles is required to
help engineers sort out "noise" from vital information.
Matrikon Well Performance Monitor
helps engineers make sense of all these numbers so that potential issues can be
identified and avoided. Powerful graphic and visualization tools also provide a
view of the economic health of the well, allowing engineers to manage according to
key performance indicators (KPIs) for production, efficiency and profitability.
Acting Strategically
In the current economic climate, small variations at the operational level can have a
major impact on the bottom line. The ability to anticipate and respond to these variations
puts senior managers in the driver's seat when it comes to responding to current economic
realities. Operational Excellence eliminates the guesswork, allowing an accurate approach
to questions such as:
- Where the most profitable and lowest risk opportunities are for increasing offshore oil production with existing wells
- Whether or not it would be economically advantageous to outsource the maintenance of mining trucks and other vehicles
- At exactly what point in a production cycle it will be cost effective to add staff
- How to optimize the performance of a refinery based on new environmental regulations
The quality of decisions on such matters depends on timing and accuracy. Operational
Excellence gives decision makers a direct line to grassroots activity that creates the
value that customers buy--a link that will become essential in the next decade.