Future-proof production with better maintenance

2018 was a volatile year for the oil & gas industry. Given rapid and significant change, it can be difficult for oil & gas companies to plan for anything. Since budget, team, and organization depend on your strategic planning, what can be done to create efficiency and better forecast needs?

Making strategic improvements to the maintenance process can have a big impact. Day-to-day operations are one thing a company can control. Streamlining operational procedures will help keep the team informed, improve time management, and safeguard assets for the future.

A company’s daily maintenance work and planning can have a major impact in your efficiency. With technology like computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), oil & gas manufacturers can take control of their maintenance strategy.

Developing a maintenance strategy for oil & gas applications

A solid maintenance strategy includes:

• Digital record-keeping
• Mobile workflow
• Preventive maintenance program
• Digital asset management.

Having a digital and mobile dashboard for daily work, automating scheduled work, and having a place for asset data empowers a team to avoid foreseen risk.

A strong preventive maintenance program identifies equipment issues before they interrupt production. Adding an Internet of Things (IoT)/predictive strategy can turbocharge this. Also, with better asset management records, technicians can know everything about an asset during maintenance and repairs. Also, keeping up to date with an asset’s history, performance, and lifecycle can help inform budget projections for repairs or replacements.

Despite all the factors that reside outside of your control, communication is something that you can always improve. For the oil & gas industries, technology like a CMMS can help team communication, including staff and contractors on your team, as well as with managers and executive sponsors, to share your goals and needs.

When you have a system to collect and summarize your daily work data, you’ll have the ability to pull data that makes a difference to decision makers. That could be in the form of any number of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as the ratio of corrective/preventive maintenance, on-time/late work orders, safety issues, and downtime.

With a data-driven strategy for maintenance and smart technology to help you operate more efficiently, companies can bravely embrace the future even in the midst of other uncertainties.

Paul Lachance has spent his entire career devoted to optimizing maintenance teams by enabling data-driven decisions and actionable insights. He wrote his first CMMS system in 2004 and has since spent his professional career designing and directing CMMS and EAM systems. Lachance currently serves as the senior manufacturing advisor for Dude Solutions.

Original content can be found at Oil and Gas Engineering.

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