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Case Study

Developing a business case to improve engineering data management

oil refinery at night

Determining the benefits and cost of improving a client's current level of engineering data management maturity, and how.

The situation

Our client wanted to improve their current level of engineering data management (EDM) maturity, and required a business case to identify the opportunities and benefits to address gaps in the near term, and to develop a high-level plan to improve EDM practices in the long term.

Infographic: Near term - identify the opportunities and benefits to address gaps; and long term - develop a high-level plan to improve EDM practices

In partnership with Advisian Digital, our client conducted a comprehensive assessment across five of their facilities over eleven weeks.

Our approach

There were two key parts of this assessment:

  1. Mapping how each site fared against a defined maturity criteria for EDM

  2. Determining each site’s readiness for significant change

These two aspects were treated in combination and the following outcomes were accomplished through the assessment.

Maturity mapping

A scoring mechanism for maturity levels was defined with objective and measurable criteria. At the conclusion of the assessment, each site was mapped to the defined maturity levels.

With no common business processes defined across the sites, no common client roadmap and varying levels of historic investment in engineering data management, the current status of each site was different.

Site readiness

The readiness of each site to deliver a program of change for EDM was also established and was based on the following criteria:

  • Compelling need/change vision

  • Organisational capability

  • Actionable next steps

For a site to be classified as 'ready', it needed to meet all of the above criteria.

Roadmap for deployment

A roadmap that moves the sites forward and increases their level of maturity in EDM was developed and proposed over five key stages:

  1. Establish program

  2. Manage program

  3. Determine sites to get to foundational level of maturity

  4. Determine sites to get to effective EDM

  5. Integration and continuous improvement

A strategy for deployment of the recommendations across the seven client-operated sites was developed as well as the timeline for the proposed execution.

The final business case developed enabled the client to determine benefits and costs associated with improving the current level of EDM maturity, and how.

Results

The final business case developed enabled the client to determine the benefits and costs associated with improving their current level of EDM maturity, and how.

Specifically, the primary focus areas were:

  • Improved resource efficiency/productivity

  • Improved plant operational performance

  • Future cost avoidance

These benefits were driven by improved reliability and availability of engineering information/data coupled with the right tools.

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