Digital Data Puts Out Your Fires

Many industrial-sector concerns revolve around communication silos where information is stored and sometimes obscured from other teams working on the same project. Teams rely on their own versions of information locked away in their laptops, exposed to loss, data corruption and error. One team’s facts may be deemed erroneous, ignored or diminished by another team. Reality becomes a matter of perception or even half-truths.

In asset management, particularly in the overall and planning and execution of complex brownfield site development, factual ambiguity creates confusion, frustration, delays and mistakes, adversely impacting the bottom line. Brownfield projects are often the bane of many project and construction professionals for these very reasons.

Putting Fires Out

During construction execution, things such as materials management, work packs and progress tracking are often paper-based or otherwise obscured from cross-functional uses. This makes it easy for signals to cross, for information to get muddled and to spend an inordinate amount of time firefighting.

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Edward Johnson, Business Transformation and Project Management Consultant says,

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“It can be very stressful when you're getting called at night or on the weekends, whether it be the clients, ‘Hey, why are you behind schedule?’ or your sub-contractors saying: ‘I'm going to have to charge you more because I couldn't gain access to the workface’. Or people on your team saying, ‘I've had it with this project because I keep hurrying up to just stand around and wait’. All these things create a tremendous amount of stress, so being able to anticipate and avoid that is priceless.”

Modern engineering teams maintain good metrics and data to produce weekly reports. However, linking engineering from multiple sources as is usually the case in large-scale projects becomes more challenging with a variety of formats and frames of reference.

Fabrication?performance, for example, is often difficult to incorporate into the overall plan. Fabrication, says Ed,“ is traditionally an opaque part of the business because the fabricators operate on very thin margins with little access to advanced data collection, analysis, and reporting. Paper-based systems rule in fabrication, making collection, reporting and analysis nearly impossible.”

The interface between engineering and fabrication is essential to smooth and quality-assured works.

“Most fabricators have a good idea of their progress and pinch points, but don’t always have accurate data in terms of how far along they are in receipt of raw material, assembly, testing or paint and, further, cannot easily convey that information to partners and customers.”

This glaring information gap handicaps fabrication efficiencies and impedes effective engineering communications. The link between materials management and effective project planning is undeniable.

“When it comes to construction, knowing exactly where you are relative to your plan, is critical,” says Ed.

With digital software solutions in place, essential questions are easily answered and those answers are easily accessible: How many cubic meters or feet of concrete have been poured? How far along are pipe supports and how many linear feet of pipe have been installed? Has all material arrived on site, complete and ready to install?

When information is digitized, sophisticated software alerts to potential problems or bottlenecks in advance.

“Bad news shared early is actually a good thing,” says Ed, “because then you have time to fix it.”

Check out the original blog where Ed shared his experience.

This article first appeared on MODS Energy Industry Blog?https://blog.mods.solutions/go-digital-for-a-transparent-future

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