At the 2011 Fiatech Technology Conference and Showcase in Chandler, Arizona earlier this year, Neil McPhater, (Aveva) outlined the flagship deployment of the ISO 15926 standard on Statoil’s Snohvit project. Aveva translated some 2,420 DGN files on the Snohvit LNG project into 120 PDMS databases (around 15 GB). ISO 15926 is said to have helped with the data translation by allowing ‘full intelligence’ to be transferred to the catalogues. Over 12,000 process lines and nearly a quarter of a million structural steel sections were involved in the project.
Joel Gray (Coreworx) emphasized the strategic value of front-end planning (FEP) and enabling technologies. The US Construction Industry Institute (CII) defines front end planning as ‘the process of developing strategic information, addressing risk and committing resources to maximizing the chances of project success.’ Coreworx builds on CII resources such as the FEP toolkit and the Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI/www.oilit.com/links/1106_18), part of a ‘trilogy’ of planning tools for major capital projects. The CII Front End Planning (FEP/www.oilit.com/links/1106_19) toolkit also ran. Checkout the Coreworx Chevron case study on www.oilit.com/links/1106_17.
John Chesser described Atlas RFID Solutions’ turnkey solution for site materials management on ‘large, complex EPCM1 projects.’ Atlas’s solutions include barcode, passive or active RFID and GPS surveys that provide pinpoint positional accuracy and traceability of equipment during construction. Atlas’ Materials Visibility Portal (MVP) is a site materials management system (SMMS) that replaces hand written field material control with automated, electronic field data collection.
The site is first mapped with a GPS survey which forms the backdrop of the MVP. Tagged equipment is located on a map of the site which provides click through access to equipment data. Such information is visible to mobile computers, smartphones etc. Materials movement reports are generated automatically as equipment moves around the site. Chesser recommends that EPCs develop a material tagging/tracking strategy, ‘If you are going to have a supplier add a tag or a barcode to material, include this requirement and instructions in all bid documents.’ User should also require an electronic piece list from suppliers and ‘make sure your identification numbers are unique.’ It is a good idea too to nominate a SMMS coordinator to supervise the whole caboodle.
Gustavo Aguilar who is a student at the University of British Columbia believes that current safety management software fails to provide comparable incident ratios and industry wide information. He is proposing a Construction Real Time Information and Communication System for Safety (C-RTICS2). This should be free use and access and is to be administered by the university.
James Hollopeter (GIT Satellite Communications) has extended the Atlas RFID solution above with a bi-directional worldwide satellite network of GPS location and sensor data. The ‘low cost, lightweight, portable hardware solution was originally developed for the US Air Force ‘NETS’ Contract. The mesh sensor network provides a company-wide parts tracking and inventory database spanning the globe. More from www.oilit.com/links/1106_20.
1 Engineering, Procurement, Construction Management.
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