Apparatus and method to estimate the value of a work process and determine gaps in current and desired states

• US 20070078703A1
• Filed: 09/25/2006
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chevron USA Incorporated (Chevron Corp.), Schlumberger Technology Corporation (SLB)
• Original Assignee: Chevron USA Incorporated (Chevron Corp.), Schlumberger Technology Corporation (SLB)
• Inventors: Carney, Michael, Guthrie, Charles, Tuk, David, Dotterer, Rick, Lundy, Paul, Shipley, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,565,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change

Abstract

A method involves identifying work elements of a work process which may be enhanced to provide a biggest impact on enhancing an overall value of the work process. The method involves identifying a plurality of work elements comprising a work process, interviewing one or more knowledgeable interviewees and determining existing states and enhanced proposed states of the plurality of work elements, visually displaying the existing and enhanced proposed states of the work elements, and estimating and visually displaying a change in value of the work process due to an enhancement of the work elements from the existing states to the enhanced proposed states.

Claims

1. A method for identifying work elements of a work process which is enhanced to provide a biggest impact on enhancing an overall value of the work process, the method comprising:

(a) identifying a plurality of work elements comprising a work process;

(b) interviewing one or more knowledgeable interviewees and determining existing states and enhanced proposed states of the plurality of work elements;

(c) displaying the existing and enhanced proposed states of the work elements; and

(d) estimating and displaying a change in value of the work process based on an enhancement of the work elements from the existing states to the enhanced proposed states.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) selecting one or more work elements having the biggest impact on enhancing an overall value of the work process; and

(f) enhancing the work process by enhancing the one or more work elements selected in step (e) to enhance the work process.

3. A method of optimizing at least a portion of an oilfield operation used to generate hydrocarbons from a downhole reservoir comprising:

(a) identifying a plurality of workflow elements of the portion of the oilfield operation;

(b) identifying at least one current work element used to perform the oilfield operation, the at least one current work element corresponding to at least one of the plurality of workflow elements;

(c) determining an alternate work element for each of the plurality of workflow elements of the oilfield operation;

(d) selecting an optimized work element for each of the plurality of workflow elements, the optimized work element having an optimized work element rank at least as high as a work element rank associated with the at least one current work element.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of workflow elements comprise at least one of measurement, data capture, data quality, data access, data validation, analyst, decision quality, decision timing, learning system, and value.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the work elements comprise one of all measurements relevant to workflow, no measurement relevant to workflow, all electronic, and all paper.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the work elements are selected by interviewing an operator of the oilfield operation.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one of the plurality of work elements is selected automatically.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

(e) determining a current performance of the portion of the oilfield operation, wherein the current performance is based on the at least one current work element; and

(f) determining an optimized performance of one of the plurality of workflow elements, wherein the one of the plurality of workflow elements is associated with the oilfield operation.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

(g) determining a change in value based on a difference between the optimized and current performances of the portion of the oilfield operation.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

(h) determining that the change in value fails to meet a predetermined criteria; and

(i) repeating steps (a) through (g) until the change in value meets the predetermined criteria.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of workflow elements comprise at least one of measurement, data capture, data quality, data access, data validation, analyst, decision quality, decision timing, learning system, and value.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the work elements comprise one of all measurements relevant to workflow, no measurement relevant to workflow, all electronic, and all paper.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the work elements are selected by interviewing a knowledgeable interviewee.

14. A system for enhancing a work process, comprising:

a data storage for storing a template;

a data input device for receiving a knowledgeable interviewee rated element of an enhanced proposed state based on the template; and

a processor for combining at least one knowledgeable interviewee input, the processor operatively coupled to the data input device, wherein a work element having a biggest impact on enhancing an overall value of the work process is displayed.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the work element comprises one of all measurements relevant to workflow, no measurement relevant to workflow, all electronic, and all paper.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the work element is a technique for data capture.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the work element accelerates production in a well-bore operation.

18. A method of estimating a value of an oilfield operation having a current performance, comprising:

identifying a plurality of workflow elements in the well-bore operation;

obtaining at least one work element for each of the plurality of workflow elements;

ranking the at least one work element to form a work element rank associated with the at least one work element; and

determining an enhanced proposed value based on a selected work element, wherein the selected work element is associated with a first work element rank that has a higher rating than a second work element rank in the plurality of workflow elements.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

displaying the selected work element rank and the second work element rank;

selecting a work element for each of the plurality of workflow elements based on the work element rank to form the selected work element; and

implementing the selected work element.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein each selected work element is selected by interviewing an operator of the oilfield operation.