Equipment identification, tracking and failure analysis process

• US 7,236,910 B1
• Filed: 02/01/2005
• Issued: 06/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ge Oil & Gas Esp, Inc. (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Wood Group ESP, Inc. (John Wood Group PLC)
• Inventors: Garrett, Mark, Decker, Ryan, Jay, Paul, Markowski, Jeffrey C.
• Primary Examiner(s): WACHSMAN, HAL D
• Application Number:
  US11/047,886
• Time in Patent Office: 875 Days
• Field of Search: 702/183, 702113-115, 702/6, 702/119, 702/123, 702/122, 702176-178, 702/179, 702/181, 702/182, 702/184, 702/185, 702/187, 702/186, 702/188
• US Class Current: 702/183
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A process for gathering data from a plurality of users at remote terminals connected to a central database that restricts the data entered into the central database by providing users with predefined responses to scripted prompts and screening the new data entered into the central database for erroneous responses by comparing the data with existing data through a series of rules. In an alternate embodiment, the present invention includes a process for gathering and analyzing information that includes maintaining a central database, accessing the central database from a remote terminal through an interface, entering information into the central database through the interface, validating the entered information against a set of rules and analyzing the validated information to generate performance indicators for the equipment placed into service. The interface preferably restricts the information entering the central database to a controlled group of responses to a series of scripted prompts.

Claims

1. A process for calculating a mean-time-to-failure (“

MTTF”

) metric for a given type of equipment placed into service, the process comprising;

maintaining a central database;

accessing the central database from a remote terminal through an interface;

entering performance information about the given type of equipment into the central database through the interface, wherein the interface restricts the entered performance information into the central database to a controlled group of responses to a series of scripted prompts;

validating the entered performance information against a set of rules; and

analyzing the validated performance information to calculate a mean-time-to-failure (“

MTTF”

) metric according to the formula;

MTTF=(N×

T)/F,

where,

N is a selected number of wells in which the given type of equipment is placed into service;

T is a selected time period; and

F is a number of failures; and

displaying the MTTF through the interface for use in improving performance of the given type of equipment.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the step of validating the entered performance information includes checking the entered performance information for temporal and geographic inconsistencies.

3. A process for calculating an equipment run life (“

ERL”

) metric for a given type of equipment placed into service, the process comprising;

maintaining a central database;

accessing the central database from a remote terminal through an interface;

entering performance information about the given type of equipment into the central database through the interface, wherein the interface restricts the entered performance information into the central database to a controlled group of responses to a series of scripted prompts;

validating the entered performance information against a set of rules; and

analyzing the validated performance information to calculate an equipment run life (“

ERL”

) metric, wherein the ERL is calculated as the average run life, from start to stop times, of a specific group or type of equipment; and

displaying the ERL through the interface for use in improving performance of the given type of equipment.

4. The process of claim 3, wherein the step of validating the entered performance information includes checking the entered performance information for temporal and geographic inconsistencies.

5. A process for calculating a failure distribution (“

FD”

) metric for a given type of equipment placed into service, the process comprising;

maintaining a central database;

accessing the central database from a remote terminal through an interface;

entering performance information about the given type of equipment into the central database through the interface, wherein the interface restricts the entered performance information into the central database to a controlled group of responses to a series of scripted prompts;

validating the entered performance information against a set of rules, wherein the step of validating the entered performance information includes checking the entered performance information for temporal and geographic inconsistencies;

analyzing the validated performance information to calculate a failure distribution (“

FD”

) metric, wherein the FD is a histogram of failures for the given type of equipment that occurred during a specified date range; and

displaying the FD though the interface for use in improving performance of the given type of equipment.