Digitization helps oil and gas plant manufacturer boost productivity by +30%

How important is a quick reaction when a crisis breaks out? How important is it to develop solutions openly and without restrictions? A strong example, when really everyone feels like they're in the same boat.

Initial Situation

The outbreak of the Lava-Jato crisis in Brazil threatened the future of a second generation family business, which manufactures machinery and plant for the oil and gas industry.

When the corruption cases first broke, management took immediate steps to mitigate the impact. As well as taking advantage of new construction projects to maintain production platforms in the Atlantic, the firm sought the help of iManagementBrazil Ltda., to reorganize the business and deliver a transformational change project.

As a result of the solid financial situation, the reorganization could be taken up in a forward-looking manner. The very often necessary path of massive cost cutting with mass layoffs did not have to be chosen. The company was not involved in corruption; however, the system suppliers were directly involved and affected by the Lava-Jato investigations. And these companies were our client's customers.

Production plant at HQ, Brazil

Solution

The aim of the project was to strengthen innovation, which was already a key element of the business, and increase productivity.

Traditionally, R&D had been driven by links with universities. The focus was shifted to encourage employees to take the lead when it came to generating ideas and developing new products, production processes and manufacturing procedures. An innovation team was set up and a digital platform was developed to receive suggestions, which resulted in eight ideas being put forward every month for evaluation.

Three directors and 39 managers underwent face-to-face training on how to incorporate innovation into routine operations. Another 630 people underwent virtual training and this is now mandatory for new employees.

In terms of production and productivity, the company has invested in an online training platform for technicians who take care of the maintenance of the machines and production facilities. Detailed digital videos and manuals are used and in the first eight months, 215 people went through 57 training modules.

iManagementBrazil developed the transformation strategy and completed a number of consulting assignments to manage and implement different aspects of the project, including the introduction of greater digitization, which has been an element in many of iManagementBrazil’s recent projects. In this case, sensors were installed along the production chain on all machines and assembly stations, both at the client’s premises and at the seven key suppliers. These collect valuable data on performance and indicate immediately when maintenance issues arise.

Of course, the data collected is not yet a basis for artificial intelligence. All collected data is much more based on run times, monotarized maintenance runs, downtimes. However, sensors have already been installed to record vibrations of the production machines. The idea in the future is to then be able to analyze such data through AI systems. Even though this data does not allow any real conclusions to be drawn today, it will be used to build up a database.

If AI should be possible at some point in the future, one simply has to have data for this in order to be able to train these systems. And here the motto is: the more, the better.

Conversion and maintenance of drilling platforms

Outcome

Digitization of production data means it is now possible to monitor the entire machine run time cycle to identify abnormalities. This has resulted in a more robust planned preventative maintenance system and continuous improvement process.

Total costs have been reduced by 11% through improved efficiencies, including energy and water use reduction.

Almost all processing machines were equipped with measuring sensors.

Numerous measures have been implemented to improve productivity. The adoption of smartphones and tablets has saved time for the maintenance teams who can now receive information on the move. In 18 months, productivity increased by 30% in all plants. The rework index decreased by 50%. Machine maintenance time has shrunk by 25%. Overall, the cost of a unit produced fell by 12%. With less time spent solving emergencies, the technical team has more hours to plan for continuous improvement.

Maritime off-shore drilling unit being prepared for deployment to ultra-deepwater areas in the South Atlantic.

iManagementBrazil has found, through the many projects it has carried out, that automation and digitization can enhance performance throughout the manufacturing value chain, increasing productivity by up to 15%, reducing maintenance costs and time to market and resulting in a decrease in machine downtime of up to 50%.

The return on investment over the cost of using iManagementBrazil was many times higher than the ordinary complete costs and expenses for our service.

Modular components of the service contract, which transparently accompany the project phases, give the customer the security of receiving efficient project management and being able to track the benefits step-by-step. Such a way of working also massively simplifies the project reporting system and makes follow-up meetings very efficient.