The Challenge
Our client, a global provider of offshore drilling services, is responsible for the reliability and maintenance of a deep water oil and gas Operator’s drilling equipment. However, their effectiveness in this role was being hampered by the poor data in the Operator’s Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), specifically the asset hierarchy, which was not sufficient to support the level of operational uptime required.
Issues with the CMMS asset hierarchy included:
- Inaccuracies of equipment placement
- Inconsistencies between the rigs within the fleet
- Incomplete hierarchies with missing equipment and equipment data
- Outdated data due to decommissioned assets still present in the hierarchy
An accurate asset hierarchy is essential for the reliability, maintainability, and traceability of the assets within. With the right hierarchy in place, initiatives such as Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) can be pursued. Without such a structure in place, the benefits of a CMMS cannot be realized.
The Solution
Sullexis first created an Asset Hierarchy Editor tool (AHE) that enables a user to quickly review, update, add and delete assets from the CMMS. The AHE incorporates industry best practices for reviewing and grouping assets into logical systems (see ISO 14224). Sullexis then partnered with the offshore maintenance teams to verify and update master equipment list data, including location ID, make, model, and serial number.
Assets were grouped into logical systems and related sub-systems, and those that were not maintainable through planned maintenance and expected to be replaced, rather than repaired, were marked for removal from the hierarchy. Small instrumentation including indicators and gauges were common equipment types identified as being unnecessary to maintain in the CMMS as assets within a hierarchy. The AHE provided significant benefits in this engagement.
Although some CMMS systems have the ability to view the hierarchy in a tree view, the Sullexis AHE has been designed to support rapid updating of an asset hierarchy. By using a simple ‘drag and drop’ functionality, the AHE allows child assets to be moved to new parents. Users of the tool can also create new assets and edit or delete existing assets. Each asset update is logged and has the capability to be reverted back to its original state. After all changes are finalized, the user is able to generate a data load sheet (in native Maximo or SAP PM format) for direct loading to the CMMS, eliminating complex and error prone manual manipulation.
The Result
In a matter of weeks, Sullexis, with input from our client’s maintenance team, was able to review more than 8,000 assets, re-organizing them into a 12 level hierarchy across 18 major sub-systems, which included the blowout preventer systems, drilling systems, and transport systems.
Standardizing the hierarchy highlighted gaps in the existing structure that could then be walked down, reviewed, and updated. Because of the consistency in hierarchy structure across rigs in the fleet, the Operator was able to visually assess gaps in the various rigs’ regulatory critical equipment registers. These gaps were addressed during the engagement and a pending audit finding resolved.
Our clients maintenance team lead was impressed with the ability of the AHE to quickly make changes, commenting, ”this tool has enabled us to make changes 20X times more quickly than doing it manually and with fewer errors”.
In total, the changes to the hierarchy included:
- 630 new asset locations
- 300 relocated assets
- 700 decommissioned (or deleted) assets