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Case Studies: Owner/Operators

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Contents

  1. Abstract
  2. Owner/Operator
    1. Case Study 1996-01
    2. Case Study 1998-01
    3. Case Study 2003-01
    4. Another One
    5. Another One
  3. Next

Abstract

[Enter abstract]


Owner/Operator

These case studies focus on the information asset that was developed along with the physical plant. Emphasis is on how much of the information asset used ISO 15926 and which parts.

Case Study 1996-01

Project Description

  • 6.6 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) LNG plant.
  • Located in the Middle East.
  • Owned by a consortium of multinational oil companies and local government.
  • Detailed engineering started in 1996.
  • Data warehouse development started in 1997.

Owner Requirements

  • A data warehouse in which to store certain information about plant objects.
    • All information about a plant object would be in one location, or referenced from one location.
    • Plant information could be queried and located without using any plant design system.
    • Easier for plant personnel to find information.
  • The data warehouse was to be standardized against STEP. (Later, ISO 15926.)
    • STEP contains the necessary information and relationships to create a usable database for plant information.
    • By standardizing the new database against STEP, the owner was gauranteeing a measure of quality.
    • The owner's standard practice was to store plant information in a STEP-compliant database.
  • The data warehouse was to be in a neutral format, not optimized for any vendor's software.
    • It is easier to reuse data between applications, and between plants, if it is in a neutral, industry standard, format.
    • The owner did not want to be tied to a particular suite of software.

Business Case

Finding information quickly after handover has always been a problem on large, new projects. Simply finding which document to look for and where it is stored is often a major issue. The proposed database would store the most commonly used attributes about plant equipment, and links to data sheets and vendor documents that contained more detailed information.

In addition, with the database, it would be easier for the owner to determine if the contractors had turned over all the information required to comission and operate the plant. For instance, if a certain document was normally required for a kind of equipment (say, a data sheet or maintenance manual) the database could be queried to verify that all such equipment had a link to that document. Scope

Included in the data warehouse:

  • Engineering data about equipment attributes.
  • Schematic data including P&IDs, Line Lists, Wiring & Control Schematics, Cable Schedules.

Not included:

  • 3D data

The database would contain summary information about plant equipment. A good metaphor is a 4"x6" quick reference card containing the attributes most commonly used during operations and maintenace. Data sheets and vendor documents would be linked to the summary information.

All documents were to be electronic.

ISO 15926 Implementation

STEP was the information standard in the beginning of the project, so the initial focus was the STEPlib library. By the time the project was finished, this had become ISO 15926 part 4.

The first step was to figure out how to make the data warehouse understand the Part 2 data model. Part 2 requires a different kind of data model than a normal relational database.

Q. If this project started before ISO 15926 was born, how could Part 2 exist?

ISO 15926 Part 2 data objects are very fine grained. They are definitions of atomic concepts that can be assembled together in various combinations to make pretty well anything. They are stored as simple statements:

  • This pump has this property
  • This vessel has this nozzle
  • This equipment has this part

Q. Why does this help?
- Handover data validation
- Storing summary information on the equivalent of 4"x6" card

To work with this sort of information, the project used a language called General Engineering Language, or Gellish. Gellish takes the simple statements and stores them as triples which consist of two objects joined by a relationship.

So one major task for the information handover was mapping all of the plant data in this form. But understanding how to work with Part 2 objects directly, was, and still is, very specialized. What the project found was that whatever the fine grained Part 2 object was being represented, there was a more business-friendly view. This spawned the concept of a Business Object which was later called a Usage Factor, and today is called a Template.

The database that was handed over did not, nor was it ever intended to, replicate all the information about all of the plant objects. A good metaphor is a 4"x6" card containing the most used information about each equipment. About two dozen attributes of plant objects were tracked. For further information, references were made to data sheets and vendor information.

The database that was eventually handed over was built in Microsoft Access.

Q. How does one go about standardizing a data warehouse against something like STEP?

Q. If the database that was turned over was Access, what happened to Prism?

Significance of this project to ISO 15926

  • This project started at about the time people were talking about STEP AP221 (a.k.a. ISO 10303 Application Protocol 221), and were thinking there should be something more. It was out of these ideas, and on this project, that ISO 15926 was probably born.
  • Much of the learning on this project has been distilled into Part 7 and Part 8.
  • Development of the concept of Templates to make it easier to use Part 2 data types.

(As an aside, one result is that Oracle Corp. spun off a separate project, called "Synergy", to develop software along these lines.)

To be continued...

Case Study 1998-01

Detail engineering started 1998.

Owner Requirements

  • A means of organizing the data from many different contractors and suppliers.
  • Building relationships between the data across supplier boundaries to make it easier to find.

Business Case

  • Easier access to plant data.
  • Personnel could access plant information through a single web portal from their desktops.
  • Navigate visually through P&ID models.
  • Engineering data integrated with other information.

ISO 15926 Implementation The physical plant project was already well under way when the owner decided to organize the plant information. The "Information Project" became one of developing an information portal. The underlaying data model was more-or-less the same as for the Oman LNG project. The main difference was the user interface, an ordinary web browser.

The ISO 15926 Part 2 data model was extended to include things like the Work Breakdown Structure, and relative priorities. Most of the data modeling was simply fitting it into the organization:

  • Structures and hierarchies of equipment
  • Types and uses of data
  • Different business processes

Significance of this project to ISO 15926

  • This was the second chance to try out the standardization of the Gellish templates.
  • First draft of Usage Patterns, which later were called Templates.

Case Study 2003-01

Detail engineering started 2003.

Owner Requirements

  • ...
  • ...

Business Case

...

ISO 15926 Implementation

...

Significance of this project to ISO 15926

  • ...
  • ...

Another One

Owner ??
EPC ??
Detail Engineering ??

Owner Requirements

  • ...
  • ...

Business Case

...

ISO 15926 Implementation

...

Significance of this project to ISO 15926

  • ...
  • ...

Another One

Owner ??
EPC ??
Detail Engineering ??

Owner Requirements

  • ...
  • ...

Business Case

...

ISO 15926 Implementation

...

Significance of this project to ISO 15926

  • ...
  • ...

Next


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