VALUE IMPROVING PRACTICES
CONTENTS Page
- VALUE IMPROVING PRACTICES (VIP’s) 2
2.0 TECHNOLOGY SELECTION 4
3.0 CLASSES OF FACILITY QUALITY 4
4.0 PROCESS SIMPLIFICATION AND VALUE ENGINEERING 5
5.0 ENERGY OPTIMISATION: PINCH ANALYSIS 8
6.0 PROCESS RELIABILITY MODELLING 9
7.0 WASTE MINIMISATION 10
8.0 DESIGN TO CAPACITY 11
9.0 MINIMUM STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATION 11
10.0 CONSTRUCTABILITY 12
11.0 PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE 13
1.0 VALUE IMPROVING PRACTICES (VIP’s)
A range of Best Practices are proposed by CII, ECI, Active, Crine and other bodies, access to which is described elsewhere.
Because front-end engineering is essentially a client business led pre-project sanction activity, we need to be aware of customers’ priorities and how his performance is evaluated by his senior management. Project results are the final measure, however he would like to know earlier along that path that he and his contractors/consultants are focussing their best efforts on those activities he views as likely to add most value.
The following Value Improving Practices (VIP’s) are used by the most comprehensive upstream and downstream benchmarking groups of major/independent E&P, Refining & Chemicals companies. These VIP’s have been proven over the past 10 years to have the most significant impact on project results. They are intended to be applied primarily during front-end engineering.
- Technology Selection ensuring best available technology is considered
- Classes of Quality selective design austerity
- Process Simplification reducing number and complexity of chemical/physical process steps
- Value Engineering scope reduction for equipment hardware, material selection etc.
- Energy Optimisation reducing consumption, heat integration, waste heat recovery
- Process Reliability Modelling
- Waste Minimisation
- Design to Capacity limiting excess processing capacity, making difficult to de-bottleneck
- Minimum Standards and Specifications
- Constructability
- Predictive Maintenance failure mode and effect analysis, equipment condition monitoring
2.0 TECHNOLOGY SELECTION
Technology Selection (TS) is a systematic process to search for and evaluate use of potential new technology (as well as improvements to existing technology) to ensure the most appropriate technology is selected for a development to maximise competitiveness of facilities and improve ROI (return on investment). TS is the earliest VIP employed and has potential impact greater than any other VIP.
Technology awareness must be maintained to understand technology issues/gaps and recognise the opportunities/impact of emerging technologies. To incorporate the potential impact of new technology into opportunity studies and strategic business decisions, it is important to have a clear understanding of asset development cost drivers to enable effective screening reviews.
Systematic search and evaluation of technology alternatives involves both internal and external reviews of process, equipment and materials which may range from emerging to fully commercial technology. External reviews should include patent and literature searches, peer reviews with clients, vendors, and benchmarking of other similar developments. The objective of such screening is the synthesis of alternate development and processing concepts which identify the critical few technology opportunities that offer the majority of potential improvements in competitiveness. The idea is to challenge the status quo and “the way it has always been done” prior to repeating previous concepts.
It is imperative that new technology applications are identified early to allow any necessary technology development, or required validation work, to be accomplished prior to project sanction such that development uncertainty is reduced. Historically, projects involving a significant amount of new or innovative technology have seen major cost escalation. The following management practices for innovative technology projects help to mitigate such risk:
- Identify new technology projects correctly
- Think strategically about project objectives
- Develop realistic project expectations for new technology
- Ensure appropriate conceptual and FEED engineering for the level of technology innovation
- Examine key trade-offs in a disciplined and consistent manner
- Recognise criticality of team communication and personnel continuity
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