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by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Monday, 21 September 2009
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What's the secret to making the most of your assets?
It's an old story, not only in the Middle East, but all over the world. You have a large utility company that opted to build its own in-house software in, say, the 1990s to cope with various different processes. But fast forward 10 or 20 years and that legacy software is absolutely helpless when it comes to offering all the solutions that modern IT can provide.
While other companies are seeing the impacts of real-time monitoring and the integration of the various arms of their business, your company is lagging behind. So what steps can you realistically take to improve matters?
The onus is on each firm to maximise the use of its assets, whether these are plants or distribution networks, to ensure that they offer the most value and minimise costs throughout their lifecycle.
"So on a macro level, management of this capital asset can be seen as one large project, and the technology used to operate and administer such an industry must allow for full Asset Lifecycle Management [ALM]," explains Ian Johnson, sales manager for IFS Middle East.
"From a complex task like a seasonal shut-down for maintenance and refit, to a small task like the rebuild of a single pump, absolutely everything that happens to this asset must be managed and accounted for in an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) tool, and that EAM tool must tie into the general ledger of the enterprise and with the overarching ALM technology used to administer the asset," Johnson adds.
Typically, a successful implementation of asset management software should be able to actually increase your asset's lifecycle. "You can not only expand that lifecycle, but you can also reduce disruption to your clients," says Bastian Fischer, vice president and general manager, EMEA, at Oracle Utilities, which includes local giants like Palm Utilities and ADWEA in its customer base.
And by optimising internal processes, you can offer your staff more time in which to operate. "This means that technicians do not waste their time in locating the right pieces on the truck or having to go back and forth between the storage location and workplace, but they have resources, tools, machines, and HR integration at the sites where they are needed," adds Fischer. "This means that the best interests of the both the client and the utility are kept at heart."
Time to implementation
Needless to say, the implementation of this type of solution can be a lengthy procedure. It can range from almost immediately - for simpler standalone tools that can be downloaded from the vendor's server, provided with the appropriate data and then put into operation - to as long as 18 months or more for a complex solution that needs to integrate a large number of assets.
UME Focus: The niche product
Substation design is a key factor in the creation of transmission networks. But this process has been complicated by the need to design locations around particular vendors' equipment, and the substation also needs to include a wealth of complex assets, such as electrical systems, wiring systems, control systems, connectivity for the transformers, A-frame designs and so on. Using an amalgam of different software tools to integrate all these elements can make it almost impossible to manage the workload.
"Our Bentley Substation V8i product is the most unique product we have on the energy utilities side of the business," says Bentley's Richard Zambuni. "No-one else has the systems designed to offer the physical design of a substation; everyone else has to do that in multiple products and we do it in one unified environment. Doing the work separately can seriously impact an EPC or an owner's productivity when designing substations."
Bentley's substation design product was launched in July, but it's already receiving strong interest, according to Zambuni.
"We've just closed our second deal on Substation V8i; we have one buyer in Spain and one in Canada," the Bentley executive explains. "So while we've not yet sold any of this line in the Middle East yet, I forecast that this is going to be a very successful product in that region."
UME Focus: The challenges
IFS sales manager Ian Johnson reveals the major control challenges his firm considers when implementing its solutions:
• Life cycle support - quotation through to install and as-built service management - technical and financial data
• Project management and administration
• Resource planning, of design, of installation, or service engineers
• Documentation management, from many sources, in many media formats
• Purchasing of materials/services and follow-up on costs
• Time and expenses reporting and costs of work
• Project budget planning in a fiscal domain
• Progress and milestone reporting
• Sub-contract and outsourcing control
• Service and maintenance
• Spares supply which recognises the installed network or construction
• Serial numbering of parts with life time traceability.
• Base lining, measurement of accuracy in estimates to actuals.
• Call center for case management and dispatching
• Work Order Management
Substation design is a key factor in the creation of transmission networks. But this process has been complicated by the need to design locations around particular vendors' equipment, and the substation also needs to include a wealth of complex assets, such as electrical systems, wiring systems, control systems, connectivity for the transformers, A-frame designs and so on. Using an amalgam of different software tools to integrate all these elements can make it almost impossible to manage the workload.
"Our Bentley Substation V8i product is the most unique product we have on the energy utilities side of the business," says Bentley's Richard Zambuni. "No-one else has the systems designed to offer the physical design of a substation; everyone else has to do that in multiple products and we do it in one unified environment. Doing the work separately can seriously impact an EPC or an owner's productivity when designing substations."
Bentley's substation design product was launched in July, but it's already receiving strong interest, according to Zambuni.
"We've just closed our second deal on Substation V8i; we have one buyer in Spain and one in Canada," the Bentley executive explains. "So while we've not yet sold any of this line in the Middle East yet, I forecast that this is going to be a very successful product in that region."
UME Focus: The challenges
IFS sales manager Ian Johnson reveals the major control challenges his firm considers when implementing its solutions:
• Life cycle support - quotation through to install and as-built service management - technical and financial data
• Project management and administration
• Resource planning, of design, of installation, or service engineers
• Documentation management, from many sources, in many media formats
• Purchasing of materials/services and follow-up on costs
• Time and expenses reporting and costs of work
• Project budget planning in a fiscal domain
• Progress and milestone reporting
• Sub-contract and outsourcing control
• Service and maintenance
• Spares supply which recognises the installed network or construction
• Serial numbering of parts with life time traceability.
• Base lining, measurement of accuracy in estimates to actuals.
• Call center for case management and dispatching
• Work Order Management
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