Support apparatus, method and system for real time operations and maintenance

• US 20040153437A1
• Filed: 12/31/2003
• Published: 08/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation (Halliburton Company)
• Original Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation (Halliburton Company)
• Inventors: Buchan, John Gibb
• Granted Patent: US 7,584,165 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

An apparatus, system and method for facilitating decision-making in connection with management of enterprise assets are disclosed. A real time expert decision support module is interfaced with an access portal including a navigation table for asset management, and with an historical parameter database associated with a distributed control system of plant end sensors and actuated control elements of a production process. The access portal and navigation table provide access to tools in the support module that facilitate real time decision making information delivery to the functional teams that support an asset, line of sight management performance models of team performance, practical performance analysis tools that extract information in real time from the process control system and other sources of asset data for translation into actionable information, and a real time interactive schematic environment.

Claims

1. An apparatus for real time process asset management, comprising:

(a) a distributed control system to receive readings from facility sensor devices and transmit control signals to actuated elements to monitor and control the process;

(b) an historical database comprising process parameter data interfaced with the distributed control system;

(c) an expert system interfaced with the historical database to generate expert status and trend reports on uptime, production status, production loss, equipment loss, equipment performance, or any combination thereof;

(d) an access portal for displaying the expert reports to a user;

(e) a work management system to schedule a corrective work procedure to equipment or system of the process in response to a request to resolve a production loss from the access portal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the expert system comprises logic rules and algorithms for generating the expert reports.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a knowledge capture tool to update failure logic rules in the expert system.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a telecommunication device linked to the expert system to transmit the expert reports to a remote user.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the access portal includes a graphical user interface to display expert alerts and to input requests to resolve the expert alerts.

6. An apparatus for real time production process asset management, comprising:

(a) a distributed control system to receive readings from facility sensor devices and transmit control signals to plant actuated elements to monitor and control the production process;

(b) an historical database comprising process parameter data interfaced with the distributed control system;

(c) an expert system interfaced with the historical database to generate and transmit expert status reports to a user interface device, and expert trend reports to a user via an access portal;

(d) a work management system to schedule a corrective work procedure to equipment or system of the process in response to a request to resolve production loss via the access portal.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the expert system comprises calculation instructions and logic algorithms to report statistical data selected from the group consisting of uptime, process status, production loss, equipment loss, equipment performance, or any combination thereof.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the user interface device comprises telecommunication equipment.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the expert system is linked to one or more input devices for real time data selected from the group consisting of engineering analysis, operations loss, process capacities, and combinations thereof.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the engineering analysis data include equipment and system performance data.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a process simulation model linked to the expert system for the process capacities data.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a reservoir simulation model linked to the expert system to provide reservoir capacities data.

13. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the access portal comprises a graphical user interface to display the expert trend reports and to input the requests to resolve production losses.

14. An apparatus for real time process asset management, comprising:

(a) a distributed control system to receive readings from facility sensor devices and transmit control signals to actuated elements to monitor and control the production process;

(b) an historical database comprising process parameter data interfaced with the distributed control system;

(c) an expert system interfaced with the historical database to generate and transmit variance reports to a user interface device, and optimization opportunity reports to an access portal;

(d) a work management system to schedule an optimization procedure to equipment or system of the process in response to a request to adjust an operating parameter sent via the access portal.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the expert system comprises logic rules and algorithms for process or production optimization.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein a process simulation model is interfaced with the expert system for updating the expert system with simulation data.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising an input device for process engineering model data, configuration information to adjust the process simulation model, production optimization logic rules or algorithms in the expert system, or a combination thereof.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising an input device for process engineering model data and configuration information to adjust logic rules or algorithms in the expert system.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the user interface device comprises telecommunication equipment.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the access portal comprises a graphical user interface.

21. A method of real time process asset management, comprising:

(a) operating a process with a distributed control system for receiving readings from facility sensor devices and transmitting control signals to actuated elements to monitor and control the process;

(b)interfacing the distributed control system with an historical database comprising process parameter data;

(c) exchanging process data between the historical database and an expert system for generating expert alerts to notify a user of alert status;

(d)transmitting instructions to the distributed control system for initiating an automated corrective action in response to one or more of the expert alerts;

(e) updating failure logic rules in the expert system;

(f) transmitting a corrective action request to a work management system in response to one or more of the expert alerts;

(g)performing a corrective work procedure on equipment or system of the process in response to the corrective action request;

(h) repeating (a) through (g) on a real time basis.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the expert system comprises logic rules or algorithms for generating the expert alerts.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein updating the failure logic rules comprises capturing knowledge from failure analysis.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein one or more of the expert alerts comprises remote user notification via a telecommunication device.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein one or more of the expert alerts comprises notification via an access portal graphical user interface.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the transmission of the corrective action request to the work management system comprises generating a request to resolve one or more of the expert alerts via the access portal.

27. A method of real time process asset management, comprising:

(a) operating a process with a distributed control system for receiving readings from facility sensor devices and transmitting control signals to actuated elements to monitor and control the process;

(b) interfacing the distributed control system with an historical database comprising process parameter data;

(c) exchanging process data between the historical database and, an expert system for generating expert status and trend reports on uptime, production status, production loss, equipment loss, equipment performance, or any combination thereof;

(d) updating equipment, system, operations loss, and process capacity data in the expert system;

(e) transmitting a corrective action request to a work management system in response to one or more of the expert reports;

(f) performing a corrective work procedure to equipment or system of the production process in response to the corrective action request;

(g) repeating (a) through (f) on a real time basis.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the expert system comprises calculation instructions or logic algorithms for generating the expert reports.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the updated data in the expert system comprises engineering analysis, production loss reporting, simulation model output, or a combination thereof.

30. The method of claim 27, comprising delivery of the expert reports to a remote user via a telecommunication device.

31. The method of claim 27, comprising display of one or more of the expert reports in a line of sight format via an access portal graphical user interface.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising sending a request to resolve production loss via the access portal to a workflow engine for root cause analysis, issue resolution, or a combination thereof, to generate the corrective action request to the work management system.

33. A method of real time process asset management, comprising:

(a) operating a process with a distributed control system for receiving readings from facility sensor devices and transmitting control signals to actuated elements to monitor and control the process;

(b) interfacing the distributed control system with an historical database comprising process parameter data;

(c) exchanging process data between the historical database and an expert system for generating expert reports to notify a user of report status;

(d) transmitting instructions to the distributed control system for initiating an automated corrective action in response to one or more of the expert reports;

(e) updating logic rules for process optimization in the expert system;

(f) transmitting an optimization action request to a work management system in response to one or more of the expert reports;

(g) performing an optimization procedure to equipment or system of the process in response to the optimization action request;

(h) repeating (a)-through (g) on a real time basis.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the expert system comprises logic rules or algorithms for process or production optimization.

35. The method of claim 33, further comprising exchanging simulation data between the expert system and a process simulation model.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising adjusting processing parameters between the process simulation model and process engineering model data.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising adjusting optimization parameters between the expert system and the process engineering model data.

38. The method of claim 33, wherein one or more of the expert reports comprises production variance data.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the production variance data are transmitted to a remote user via a telecommunication device.

40. The method of claim 33, wherein one or more of the expert reports comprises optimization opportunities.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the optimization opportunities are transmitted to a user via an access portal graphical user interface.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the transmission of the optimization action request to the work management system comprises generating a request to adjust operating parameters via the access portal.

43. A method of real time performance management, comprising:

(a) interfacing an enterprise system database with one or more functional system databases and a user interface;

(b) exchanging data between the enterprise system database and an expert system for calculating performance metrics of the enterprise functions;

(c) exchanging data between the expert system and the one or more functional databases;

(d) building a functional group performance model for use by the expert system;

(e) sending status reports from the expert system to a user;

(f) displaying trend reports via a line of sight access portal graphical user interface;

(g) transmitting a request to resolve functional group performance issues via the access portal to a workflow engine for the respective functional group;

(h) sending a corrective action request from the workflow engine to a work management system;

(i) repeating (a) through (h) on a real time basis.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the expert system comprises logic rules or algorithms for generating the expert reports.

45. The method of claim 43 wherein the logic rules updating comprises capturing knowledge from functional group performance.

46. The method of claim 43, wherein one or more of the expert reports comprises remote user notification via a telecommunication device.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein one or more of the expert reports comprises notification via an access portal graphical user interface.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the access portal includes a navigation table comprising a first dimension of grouping attributes comprising planning, actions, and results, and a second dimension of grouping attributes comprising people, equipment, and cost, grouping access to tools associated with the support module.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the planning group provides access to maintenance tactics and strategy tools, the actions group provides defect elimination and loss prevention tools, and the results group provides facilities, maintenance, and production performance tools.

50. The method of claim 48, wherein the navigation table includes access to an operations knowledge capture tool.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein the operations knowledge capture tool is a database of information collated on process equipment items and respective recorded system defects, containing engineering and operational experiences of causes and effects of the system defects.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the operations knowledge capture tool includes a database filter based upon a selective combination of two or more of system, manufacturer, sub-system, and defect.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein recorded systems defect data comprise symptoms, severity, consequence, detection mechanism, or any combination thereof.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein recorded systems defect data further comprise data selected from the group consisting of defect occurrence frequency, logic rule frequency, rules, recommended remedial actions, report recipient, miscellaneous comments, and any combination thereof.

55. The method of claim 47, comprising using an updating tool associated with the operations knowledge capture tool to populate the enterprise database with data selected from the group consisting of shutdown incident report data, vendor data, expert knowledge, and combinations thereof.

56. The method of claim 47, wherein the navigation table includes access to a shutdown incident report register tool.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the shutdown incident report register tool includes access to information from shutdown incident reports selected from the group consisting of report number, time back, functional responsibility, date raised, product lost, fault found, loss category, cost, corrective action, sent to, cause category, asset focal point, source location, independent service contractor loss, outstanding action, maintenance work request, time down, responsible asset, review process, explanation of problem, explanation of event, close out, and any combination thereof.

58. The method of claim 56, wherein the shutdown incident report register tool provides access to tools selected from the group consisting of administration, shutdown incident report generation, root cause analysis, maintenance strategy, planned maintenance routines, technical changes, report generator, and any combination thereof.

59. The method of claim 58, comprising defining shutdown incident report templates via the administration tool.

60. The method of claim 58, comprising operating the shutdown incident report generation tool to generate a shutdown incident report including data selected from the group consisting of person generating, person sent, loss category, independent service contractor loss, cause category, responsible asset, explanation of event, source location, time down, and any combination thereof.

61. The method of claim 58, comprising operating the root cause analysis tool to generate a shutdown incident report including data selected from the group consisting of date raised, focal person, execute root-cause-analysis-preventive-corrective-maintenance (RCA-PCM) date, recommended corrective action, actions completion date, cost benefit analysis, approval or rejection date, planned execution details, implementation date, close out date, and any combination thereof.

62. The method of claim 58, comprising operating the maintenance strategy tool to generate a shutdown incident report including data selected from the group consisting of date raised, execute root cause analysis and preventative care maintenance date, strategy number, action completed date, cost benefit analysis, execution planned date, execution implemented date, close out date, and any combination thereof.

63. The method of claim 58, comprising operating the maintenance routines tool to generate a shutdown incident report including data from the group consisting of date raised, execute root cause analysis and preventative care maintenance date, strategy number, action completed date, cost benefit analysis, execution planned date, execution implemented date, close out date, and any combination thereof.

64. The method of claim 58, comprising operating the technical changes tool to generate a shutdown incident report including data from the group consisting of date raised, execute root cause analysis and preventative care maintenance date, strategy number, action completed date, cost benefit analysis, execution planned date, execution implemented date, close out date, and any combination thereof.

65. The method of claim 58, comprising operating the report generation tool to generate a report including data from the group consisting of total asset shutdown performance, downtime by cause categories for source locations date range, downtime by source locations date range, downtime by loss category for responsible asset date range, production loss by functional responsibility date range, recurring events date range, shutdown incident report date range, issues report date range, and any combination thereof.

66. The method of claim 48, wherein the people grouping comprises tools selected from the group consisting of preventative maintenance workload, history and plan, maintenance supply and demand, critical actions register, idea database, action log, preventative maintenance compliance, ratio of preventative maintenance to corrective maintenance work, productivity, corrective performance, man hours expended, total maintenance backlog, completion of defect elimination action, and any combination thereof.

67. The method of claim 48, wherein the equipment grouping comprises tools selected from the group consisting of operations knowledge capture, real time influence diagram, criticality assessment, RAM simulation potential, equipment strategy matrix, equipment database, equipment performance, critical equipment status, crane status, shutdown incident register, shutdown incident reports, asset performance metrics, top failures by cause, top failures by location, and any combination thereof.

68. The method of claim 48, wherein the cost grouping comprises tools selected from the group consisting of maintenance budget, maintenance key performance indicators, maintenance budget control process, total maintenance costs, maintenance budget tracking, corrective maintenance costs, maintenance key performance indicators tracking, and any combination thereof.

69. The method of claim 43, comprising accessing via a home page of the access portal, tools selected from the group of asset performance metrics, leadership team, maintenance, supply chain management, planning, well operation, human resources, emergency response, field team, facilities, engineering and construction, and any combination thereof.

70. The method of claim 43, comprising displaying a geographical representation of the plant process on the access portal.

71. The method of claim 43, wherein the access portal includes an asset performance tool.

72. The method of claim 71, comprising providing real time asset statistical data selected from the group of production rate, deferment, uptime, and availability, and any combination thereof, via the asset performance tool.

73. The method of claim 71, comprising operating the asset performance tool to access tools selected from the group of infrastructure overview, choke model, status, traffic light, production performance, expert, satellite overview, shutdown incident report, compressor envelope, uptime and availability, loss summary, and any combination thereof.

74. The method of claim 73, comprising operating the infrastructure overview tool to generate a pictorial overview of the respective asset for a selected process area.

75. The method of claim 73, comprising operating the choke model tool to generate a display of flow along a supply chain.

76. The method of claim 73, comprising operating the status tool to generate real-time status of an asset.

77. The method of claim 73, comprising operating the traffic light tool to generate a display of availability and efficiency of an asset.

78. The method of claim 73, comprising operating the production performance tool to a display of generate the potential and actual production performance of a selected production process area.

79. The method of claim 73, comprising generating defect alarms and recommended actions via the expert tool.

80. The method of claim 73, comprising operating the satellite overview tool to report process flow rate over time.

81. The method of claim 73, wherein the shutdown incident report tool provides access to tools selected from the group consisting of administration, shutdown incident report generation, root cause analysis, maintenance strategy, planned maintenance routines, technical changes, report generator, and any combination thereof.

82. The method of claim 73, comprising operating the compressor envelope tool to generate a display of compressor status performance and envelope map showing a current operating point on the map.

83. The method of claim 73, comprising operating the uptime and availability tool to generate a display of the uptime and availability of an asset expressed as a percentage over a user-selected period.

84. The method of claim 73, wherein the loss summary tool is operated to generate a summary of shutdown incident report information with respect to losses for a selected asset and detail losses attributable to an independent service contractor and deferred production for the respective asset.

85. The method of claim 73, wherein the transmission of the corrective action request to the work management system comprises generating a request to resolve one or more of the expert alerts via the access portal.

86. A system for facilitating decision-making in connection with management of enterprise assets, comprising:

(a) a real time expert decision support module;

(b) an access portal for user access to the real time expert decision support module;

(c) a navigation table accessible via the access portal providing a line of sight through the enterprise.

87. The system of claim 86, wherein the navigation table includes a first dimension of grouping attributes comprising planning, actions, and results, and a second dimension of grouping attributes comprising people, equipment, and cost, for grouping access to tools associated with the support module.

88. The system of claim 87, wherein the planning group provides access to maintenance tactics and strategy tools, the actions group provides defect elimination and loss prevention tools, and the results group provides facilities, maintenance, and production performance tools.

89. The system of claim 86, wherein the navigation table includes access to an operations knowledge capture tool.

90. The system of claim 89, wherein the operations knowledge capture tool is a database of information collated on process equipment items and respective recorded system defects, containing engineering and operational experiences of causes and effects of the system defects.

91. The system of claim 90, wherein the operations knowledge capture tool includes a database filter based upon a selective combination of two or more of system, manufacturer, sub-system, and defect.

92. The system of claim 90, wherein recorded systems defect data comprise symptoms, severity, consequence, detection mechanism, or any combination thereof.

93. The system of claim 92, wherein recorded systems defect data further comprise data selected from the group consisting of defect occurrence frequency, logic rule frequency, rules, recommended remedial actions, report recipient, miscellaneous comments, and any combination thereof.

94. The system of claim 89, wherein the operations knowledge capture tool is associated with an updating tool to populate the database with data selected from the group consisting of shutdown incident report data, vendor data, expert knowledge, and combinations thereof.

95. The system of claim 86, wherein the navigation table includes access to a shutdown incident report register tool.

96. The system of claim 95, wherein the shutdown incident report register tool includes access to information from shutdown incident reports selected from the group consisting of report number, time back, functional responsibility, date raised, product lost, fault found, loss category, cost, corrective action, sent to, cause category, asset focal point, source location, independent service contractor loss, outstanding action, maintenance work request, time down, responsible asset, review process, explanation of problem, explanation of event, close out, and any combination thereof.

97. The system of claim 95, wherein the shutdown incident report register tool provides access to tools selected from the group consisting of administration, shutdown incident report generation, root cause analysis, maintenance strategy, planned maintenance routines, technical changes, report generator, and any combination thereof.

98. The system of claim 97, wherein shutdown incident report templates are defined via the administration tool.

99. The system of claim 97, wherein the shutdown incident report generation tool is operable to generate a shutdown incident report including data selected from the group consisting of person generating, person sent, loss category, independent service contractor loss, cause category, responsible asset, explanation of event, source location, time down, and any combination thereof.

100. The system of claim 97, wherein the root cause analysis tool is operable to generate a shutdown incident report including data selected from the group consisting of date raised, focal person, execute root-cause-analysis-preventive-corrective-maintenance (RCA-PCM) date, recommended corrective action, actions completion date, cost benefit analysis, approval or rejection date, planned execution details, implementation date, close out date, and any combination thereof.

101. The system of claim 97, wherein the maintenance strategy tool is operable to generate a shutdown incident report including data selected from the group consisting of date raised, execute root cause analysis and preventative care maintenance date, strategy number, action completed date, cost benefit analysis, execution planned date, execution implemented date, close out date, and any combination thereof.

102. The system of claim 97, wherein the maintenance routines tool is operable to generate a shutdown incident report including data from the group consisting of date raised, execute root cause analysis and preventative care maintenance date, strategy number, action completed date, cost benefit analysis, execution planned date, execution implemented date, close out date, and any combination thereof.

103. The system of claim 97, wherein the technical changes tool is operable to generate a shutdown incident report including data selected from the group consisting of date raised, execute root cause analysis and preventative care maintenance date, strategy number, action completed date, cost benefit analysis, execution planned date, execution implemented date, close out date, and any combination thereof.

104. The system of claim 97, wherein the report generation tool is operable to generate a report including data selected from the group consisting of total asset shutdown performance, downtime by cause categories for source locations date range, downtime by source locations date range, downtime by loss category for responsible asset date range, production loss by functional responsibility date range, recurring events date range, shutdown incident report date range, issues report date range, and any combination thereof.

105. The system of claim 87, wherein the people grouping comprises tools selected from the group consisting of preventative maintenance workload, history and plan, maintenance supply and demand, critical actions register, idea database, action log, preventative maintenance compliance, ratio of preventative maintenance to corrective maintenance work, productivity, corrective performance, man hours expended, total maintenance backlog, completion of defect elimination action, and any combination thereof.

106. The system of claim 87, wherein the equipment grouping comprises tools selected from the group consisting of operations knowledge capture, real time influence diagram, criticality assessment, RAM simulation potential, equipment strategy matrix, equipment database, equipment performance, critical equipment status, crane status, shutdown incident register, shutdown incident reports, asset performance metrics, top failures by cause, top failures by location, and any combination thereof.

107. The system of claim 87, wherein the cost grouping comprises tools selected from the group consisting of maintenance budget, maintenance key performance indicators, maintenance budget control process, total maintenance costs, maintenance budget tracking, corrective maintenance costs, maintenance key performance indicators tracking, and any combination thereof.

108. The system of claim 86, wherein the access portal further comprises a home page with access to tools selected from the group consisting of asset performance metrics, leadership team, maintenance, supply chain management, planning, well operation, human resources, emergency response, field team, facilities, engineering and construction, and any combination thereof.

109. The system of claim 86, wherein the access portal includes a display geographically representative of a production process.

110. The system of claim 86, wherein the access portal includes an asset performance tool.

111. The system of claim 110, wherein the asset performance tool is operable to provide real time asset statistical data selected from the group consisting of production rate, deferment, uptime, availability, and any combination thereof.

112. The system of claim 110, wherein the asset performance tool is operable to access tools selected from the group of infrastructure overview, choke model, status, traffic light system, production performance, expert system, satellite overview, shutdown incident report, compressor envelope, uptime and availability, loss summary, and any combination thereof.

113. The system of claim 112, wherein the infrastructure overview tool is operable to generate a pictorial overview of the respective assets for a selected field of production process assets.

114. The system of claim 112, wherein the choke model tool is operable to report flow of production along a supply chain.

115. The system of claim 112, wherein the status tool is operable to report real-time status of an asset.

116. The system of claim 112, wherein the traffic light system is operable to display availability and efficiency of an asset.

117. The system of claim 112, wherein the production performance tool is operable to display the potential and actual production performance of the selected complex.

118. The system of claim 112, wherein the expert system tool is operable to display defect alarms and recommended actions.

119. The system of claim 112, wherein the satellite overview tool is operable to display production flow rate over time.

120. The system of claim 112, wherein the shutdown incident report tool provides access to tools selected from the group consisting of administration, shutdown incident report generation, root cause analysis, maintenance strategy, planned maintenance routines, technical changes, report generator, and any combination thereof.

121. The system of claim 112, wherein the compressor envelope tool is operable to display compressor status performance and envelope map showing current operating points on the map.

122. The system of claim 112, wherein the uptime and availability tool is operable to display uptime and availability of an asset expressed as a percentage over a user-selected period.

123. The system of claim 112, wherein the loss summary tool is operable to generate a summary of shutdown incident report information with respect to production losses for a selected asset and detail losses attributable to an independent service contractor and deferred production for the asset.