Key Words: Virtual Reality, Interoperability, Asset Information Management, Asset Lifecycle Management, Materials Management, Global Workshare Concepts, Asset Performance Management, Major Capital Projects Management
Summary
The 17th annual Digital Plant event, incorporating the former Daratech Plant forum, was recently held in Houston, Texas. ARC Advisory Group and Fiatech co-hosted the three-day event.
The event featured keynote addresses from IBM's VP of Industries Research, Katharine Frase; Wayne Crew, Director, Construction Industry Institute; and Jerry Gipson, Director, Manufacturing & Information Technology, The Dow Chemical Company.
In the opening day general session, Ms. Frase spoke about IBM's inquisitive system, "Watson," and discussed the future of artificial intelligence in the process and power industries. Leading off day two, Mr. Crew addressed the need to improve best practices in capital project delivery to meet the challenges of volatility in today's business environment. Mr. Gipson initiated the final general session of the event by relating Dow's Odyssey, "Driving Innovation to Improve Asset Performance." ARC and Fiatech hosted sessions that dealt with asset information management (AIM), asset performance management (APM), and improving the delivery and operation of capital assets.
In addition to keynotes and presentations, roundtable discussions covered on issues such as future technologies, advancing interoperability, materials management, workshare concepts, standards, asset and information management, and APM.
ARC and Fiatech Focus on Interoperability and Asset Performance
Fiatech sessions during the first day of the conference included sessions on interoperability in capital projects and the impact of i-Ring and ISO 15926. Sessions directed at enterprise materials management, including integration of automated procurement and execution and data-centric information consolidation, followed. Later sessions dealt with global work share concepts, deployment, and associated technologies and processes.
Asset Lifecycle Information and Performance Management
ARC's program track presented attendees with an overview of asset lifecycle information management (ALIM) and asset performance management.
ALIM Includes Individual ALM IT Strategies and an Overall Strategy for Sharing Asset Information
ARC's ALIM model includes the individual strategies for information management of projects (PIM), assets (AIM), and portfolios (APPIM). Together, these strategies should support all the needs of their respective process stakeholders. An ALIM strategy ensures compatibility and interoperability across all these information management strategies to ensure efficient and effective information sharing. Experience clearly shows that information sharing will never be coordinated or efficient without well-defined processes and supporting technology, and demonstrates the need for an ALIM approach.
The APM session described how asset performance solutions help operations and maintenance improve asset availability and utilization while also considering critical issues and meeting environmental, health, safety and other constraints to reduce total cost of ownership (TOC). APM solutions enable complex decision-making by providing metric-based information to the right people at the right time. Another value-add of APM solutions is the ability to leverage information to optimize asset availability and utilization. This is accomplished by using analytics and financial metrics while balancing operational constraints to improve financial results.
APM Synchronizes Operations, Maintenance, with Organizational Goals
Last Word
In addition to the conference sessions, presentations, panel discussions, workshops and demonstrations, Digital Plant 2011 hosted a showcase area with more than 20 exhibitors. Notable exhibitors included Bentley, Siemens, Trimble, Blue Cielo, Industrial Information Resources, Mclaren Software, and Fiatech.
The Digital Plant 2011 Event provided value to both attendees and participants. It set the stage for two major events to follow that will expand on the Digital Plant 2011 themes. These are next week's ARC Advisory Group's 2012 World Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida, and the Fiatech Technology Conference and Showcase, April 2-4, 2012 in Miami, Florida.
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