Maintenance and Operation of large facilities and plants require proper management of asset documentation

In addition to the articles on Engineering Document Management in Capital Projects, I would like to welcome you to a couple of new articles with a different perspective on EDM and introduce the terms: Asset Lifecycle Documentation (ALD) and Asset Document Management (ADM). It is the perspective of an owner/operator who has to manage operation procedures and maintenance documentation as well as pure engineering documents. Furthermore, owners/operators are interested in the whole lifecycle of the plant documentation, from the planning of the asset through building, handover, and operation to decommissioning.

With this article, I am starting a new series of articles about Asset Lifecycle Documentation (ALD) for operation and maintenance in the process industry. The objective of these articles is the management of As-built documentation as well as reliable and traceable management of change but also the planning, management, and handover of documentation in green field investments. The target audience is owners and operators of large facilities and plants.

Introduction

Up to 80% of an employee´s time in the process industry is spent looking through unstructured information to get work done. The industrial process sector is spending up to 3x more time than the general industry average searching for information. https://blogs.opentext.com/climbing-the-worlds-tallest-mountain-energy-sustainability/

That may not be relevant for every organization, but it is obvious that a whole lot of information is needed to operate a process plant save and efficiently. I know from my own experience that it is a big challenge to keep this information always up to date and available where and whenever needed.

Every production-based industry today is driven by operational excellence. Getting the most from new and existing assets has never been so important as today when profit and revenue are increasingly harder to generate. Asset Document Management (ADM) solutions give you better control over your engineering, operation, and maintenance information to help to improve your engineering and O&M processes.

Before I go into details and hard facts, the above is the underlying challenge for the industrial process sector.  I am well aware that the impact it has on productivity, project delays, asset downtime, compliance, safety risks, and customer service differs from company to company. And I am as also well aware of the fact that the accelerating pace of digitalization lets look some organizations better than others.

But, given the fact that critical information is not available at the right time, right place, right person, and right task to safely, cost-effectively operate, and repair the plants, there is always room for improvement with Asset Document Management (ADM) systems at every company in the process industry. https://blogs.opentext.com/the-costly-goldilocks-approach-to-energy-maintenance/

New articles on ADM for Operation and Maintenance of plants

I am responsible for the rollout and deployment of Engineering and Asset Document Management products for so many years now. But I still see a lot of potential for ADM at my customer base in the process industry. I feel encouraged to share my knowledge and experiences about the scope, best practices, and pitfalls of Engineering Document Management solutions with my community.

I am going to address the following topics:

  • Goals of Asset Document Management (ADM) for Operation and Maintenance

  • Introduction of concepts and industry standards for ADM in the process industry

  • ADM processes and the Workspace concept

  • Tag Management: Document-Asset/Equipment relationship

  • Capital projects and handover

  • Revision Management and Document Naming

  • External Collaboration

  • Migration of Engineering documents from legacy systems

  • Redlining and Change Management

Asset Lifecycle Information and Asset Document Management

In the following articles, I will be looking at Asset Document Management (ADM) from the Operation and Maintenance perspective of a process plant.

ADM is a major part of Asset Lifecycle Information Management. Both are aiming to: 

  • Structure asset and engineering DOCUMENTATION as effectively as possible and

  • Organize asset and engineering documentation PROCESSES as efficiently as possible

Across all phases of the lifecycle of a plant which are:

  1. The initial creation of engineering and maintenance documents during the capital project phase through

  2. Handover of as-built documentation to

  3. Operation and Maintenance (O&M) on as-built documentation and continuous management of change in engineering projects.

  4. Documentation of decommissioning and destruction, along with the archiving of documentation and retention management.

Summary

I will publish a set of articles about Asset Document Management (ADM) for Operation and Maintenance in the process industry. My goal is to provide an overview of the most important aspects but also introduce the most important concepts and functions which are required to manage the handover of new plant documentation as well as the change of as-built documentation.

Author: Jens Friehmelt is a Senior Manager in OpenText Professional Services EMEA leading an international team that combines multiple OpenText technologies to serve customers with best-practice solutions for Engineering, Construction, and Maintenance processes.

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