- Tracking vast amounts of different and specialized equipment (assets).
- Hirings technicians to monitor and provide maintenance to the assets.
- Completing regulation inspections constantly from various governments and agencies.
The key to higher profits considering the significant expenses? Maximizing the productivity of your assets with the assistance of oil and gas asset management software.
Here we will explore three key elements:
- Asset Management Trends in Oil and Gas
- Asset Management Audit
- Benefits of Oil and Gas Asset Management Software
Asset Management Trends in Oil and Gas
Filling up our cars at the gas pump is one of the clearest ways that we as consumers notice the significantly fluctuating prices of oil. The oil and gas industry only seems to become more volatile in that regard. From an industry perspective, when oil prices are high, the focus tends to be on increasing production as quickly as possible. When prices are low, focus shifts to how to control expenses.
One of the largest expenses, as mentioned above, are the assets involved in the production. They are truly investments, due to their significant cost and their potential for increasing revenues. To maximize the productivity of these assets, oil and gas companies are looking to find the most effective ways to use them for increasing production, as well as providing predictability of production.
Automation is being used more and more often to find cost savings and efficiencies in oil and gas. Automation of maintenance scheduling, for example, to ensure that assets are proactively serviced. This automation allows increased production as downtime can be scheduled, instead of waiting for a breakdown which is much more disruptive and less predictable.
Asset Management Audit
In any industry, taking time to reflect and learn from the past, before moving forward is always beneficial. To identify areas for improvement in enterprise-wide asset management within an oil and gas organization, an audit is extremely valuable. An asset management audit looks at all the assets within an organization; their features, the interdependencies between them, and the components involved.
For example, gleaning an understanding of how performance has been affected by shutdowns, both scheduled and unscheduled. How much-unplanned downtime has there been in the past year? What is the current maintenance strategy? What is the ideal maintenance schedule for different types of assets, based on their unplanned maintenance thus far?
Another key factor to audit is compliance. How has your company been performing with respect to compliance, both completion of inspection reports and timeliness? Are there any bottlenecks in the process that is hindering compliance, for example, a lag between paper-based inspection reports coming back to the office, and final reporting? Lost paperwork from the field?
After auditing the current systems, a risk analysis can be performed. For example, one goal of risk analysis would be to ascertain which assets are most at risk of failure, keeping in mind their interdependencies with other processes.
Once an oil and gas company has a thorough understanding of their current asset management status, they are:
- in an informed position to plan proactive maintenance schedules company-wide
- understand the direction they wish to go in future
- in a position to understand what they need to do to get there.
Valuable Benefits of Oil and Gas Asset Management Software
Clearly managing such diverse assets, over many locations, is a mammoth task. A mammoth task with dire consequences if not managed well. This is where oil and gas asset management software can make a significant impact on the productivity and efficiency of a company’s assets.
There are without a doubt several different oil and gas asset management software options to pick from on the market. Where do you start? Here are some features to consider.
Compliance
You are certainly going to want to have a system that supports the compliance requirements which you must adhere to for each type of asset. Having the ability to update the different regulations as needed is also be key. This can be accomplished through a checklists feature and reporting engines that can produce reports on each piece of equipment compliance record.
Work order management
Having an asset management software that keeps track of your equipment, their maintenance schedules and history. If you can additionally have the option to create work orders for the upcoming inspections and maintenance, you can benefit from extra automation and assurance that nothing slips through the cracks.
Mobile optimized
How is the software and asset information connected to your technicians in the field? If they can receive a checklist to a mobile device, for example, efficiency can be increased and less time is spent in identifying what needs to be completed. In an ideal world, the technician should be able to quickly complete their inspection reports right in the field, to negate any need to re-key information back at the office, or any lost paperwork.
Dispatch to save dollars (scheduling automation)
Another feature to consider looking for in your oil and gas asset management software is the automation of scheduling. If your work orders can automatically link to a service scheduling software, you can ensure that all work orders are automatically scheduled on time, to the most appropriate technician. Additionally, with a routing feature, not only can you manage the creation of technician’s schedules, but also optimize their routes from one appointment to the next, saving more time and money.
Increasing profits by decreasing inefficiencies
If you feel that asset management within your oil and gas company is not running as effectively as it could be, it may be the time to consider oil and gas asset management software. Taking the leap to increased efficiencies and productivity, and reduced expenses through automation could be just what your profit margins need.