i -Terminals Wipro Thought Leadership

Transcription

1 i -Terminals Wipro Thought Leadership By Goutam Mangaraj

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This paper showcases Wipro s thought leadership in Intelligent Terminals ( i-terminals) solution by utilizing the concept of operations intelligence. The solution (i Terminals) leverages technology to drive and support a more predictive, collaborative, and consistent way of working across terminals. The focus of the solution is around integrating data from multiple terminals to serve as a foundation for frequent and automated terminal benchmarking exercise and to provide a scalable platform for remote management of terminals from central sites.

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Terminal Operations Overview...4 Challenges in Terminal Operations...4 Industry Scenario Terminal Management...5 Industry Trends...5 Current Scenario...6 Future Scenario (Best-in-Class)...6 Concept of i Terminals...7 Vision of i - Terminals...8 Value Proposition of i - Terminals...11 System Features of i Terminals...11 References...12

4 Terminal Operations Overview A terminal is an industrial facility used for storing of refinery and petrochemical products. The facilities generally act as intermediate storage points from where these products are usually transported to end users or further storage facilities. Large, integrated Oil & Gas companies, such as Shell, BP, ExxonMobil own and operate hundreds of terminals spread across the globe. These terminals typically have disparate IT systems, such as Terminal Automation Systems, Tank Farm Management Systems, etc. and are disconnected from each other. Products from the terminals are transported (In & out) through the modes: tank trucks, rail tank cars, barges and pipelines. A typical terminal handles various kinds of inventories such as gasoline, gasoil, heavy fuel oil, naphtha, feedstocks, crude oil, natural gas, LPG, jet fuel, bio diesel, petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, etc. The existing landscape of terminals spans from terminals with manual processes to terminals that are automated, and have Terminal Automation Systems that control the loading and unloading of trucks, barges, rail tank cars, etc. The scope of this paper is on highly automated terminals that have IT systems in place to implement the features of an i Terminal. Challenges in Terminal Operations Reducing Operational costs: For a business as competitive as the downstream business, reduction of costs (i.e. improvement of margins) can go a long way in improving a company s competitive advantage and hence it is imperative to have standard processes and leverage best practices across the terminal network. Inefficient Performance Reporting: During performance reporting, terminal officials spend around 80% of the effort in collecting and compiling the data (costly operations with regards to man-hours involved) while only 20% of the effort is spent on analyzing the data thus resulting in insights below par. Limited Usability of Existing Systems: The daily terminal operations data and business data currently reside in many silos (various IT systems, manual records, etc) which are disconnected from each other. Generally the license cost of an existing software is a hindrance while trying to extend the access of business critical software to most of the employees for better and faster decision making processes. Hence, the business is not able get the maximum benefit out of the IT investments. Reactive mode of operation: As the focus is on data collection, processing and report generation, actions cannot be taken within the available opportunity window. Additionally, there are resource constraints because of prioritization conflicts with ongoing projects. Hence operating decisions are more like responses to an event as opposed to proactive decision making that minimizes lost opportunities. Incoherent Benchmarking Efforts: Generally, terminal operators try to benchmark respective terminals against certain performance metrics on an annual basis. Such comparisons are made at the HQ level, geographic level and at the individual terminal level. But most of the efforts are manual and hence consume a lot of time and resources. 4

5 Industry Scenario Terminal Management Industry Trends Increasingly, companies are looking to focus on their most strategic terminals and a group of terminals that conduct the bulk of the distribution for their businesses. Companies are looking to hive off non-strategic or non-standard terminals to focus on improving operations at their strategic terminals. Therefore, it becomes imperative that these terminals are operated keeping high quality in mind with globally accepted best practices. Terminal Benchmarking Remote Monitoring of Terminals i-terminals Sharing of Best Practices End to End Visibility of Supply Chain Terminal Benchmarking: This process of benchmarking gives the operators an idea about where their current operations stand in comparison to Best-In-Class operations; in terms of important metrics, such as maintenance and repair costs, operating efficiencies (gate-to-gate loading time) and cost KPIs (cost per m3 loaded, etc. Remote Monitoring of Terminals: This process will leverage technology to improve operating efficiencies, implement standard tools and rationalize processes across a group of terminals in close proximity to each other. Sharing of Best Practices: Once, the benchmarking is done and the best practices are identified then those practices need to be shared among other comparatively low performing terminals so that comprehensive improvements can be achieved in overall terminal operations across the company. End to End Visibility of Supply Chain: An end-to-end visibility fosters better management of available resources, such as empty tanks, berths, and truck bays, so that current capital investments can be maximized and potential losses, such as demurrage and inventory costs, etc. can be minimized. 5

6 Current Scenario The consumption of petroleum products and their derivatives has increased exponentially in recent times. To cater to the increased usage of petroleum products, the supply chain scenario of petroleum and petrochemical products across the world has undergone a major shift. There has been a spurt of new terminals across the world, and the existing terminals are undergoing major upgradations to handle the ever increasing load of operations. However, most terminals have not been able to keep up with the pace of economic development over the last couple of years. In fact, there exist many bottlenecks in terms of information sharing and physical status of the inventories leading to low productivity within the terminal. There are many obstacles in increasing terminal capacity through brown field expansions, with cost being a major factor. Higher operational efficiencies, near real-time information exchange and faster gate-to-gate vehicle turn-around times are among a few of the many critical factors due to which there is a pressing need for efficient management of terminals. There is an ever-growing need to bring in efficiencies in terminal operations by continuously reducing maintenance and repair costs, improving operational efficiencies, (through sustained improvement in gate-togate time, product gain/loss, etc.) and improving HSE compliance to reduce exposure to regulatory penalties. This can be achieved by bringing in improved visibility at the terminal level, across terminals (geo level), as well as at the HQ level. Future Scenario (Best-in-Class) Current Industry Scenario Disconnected IT Systems Incoherent Benchmarking Efforts Incomplete Visualization Delayed Performance Monitoring i -Terminals Future Industry Scenario Interconnected IT Systems Frequent & Automated Benchmarking Efforts End to End Visualization of Terminal Operations Near Real Time Performance Monitoring 6

7 Concept of i Terminals HR Sales Finance Energy Management Quality Control Supply Chain Inventory HSSE Operations i-terminals Maintenance End to-end Real Time Visibility i-terminals solution integrates the information flow within different functional boundaries across a single terminal viz. operations, inventory management, quality control, maintenance, health, safety, security and environment, supply chain, energy management, sales, HR, finance & accounting, etc. Further, it also integrates the information flow 7

8 Vision of i - Terminals Head Quarter Geography 1 Geography 2 Terminal 1 Terminal 2 Terminal 3 Terminal 4 Terminal 5 Terminal 6 Basically, the i terminal solution has been developed to help the terminal operators manage multiple terminals spread across geographies in the most efficient way thus generating huge cost savings for the parent company. The above diagram depicts a simple case in which the operator has nine terminals spread across three geographies and the HQ office is situated in a separate location. Intelligent terminal solution will allow the target companies to house their functional managers in a single location (preferably HQ office or any remote location) and allow them to monitor several critical parameters (CPs) of various terminals on near real-time basis. Further, it will allow them to compare the performance of various terminals against each other, and the performance of different geographies against each other as the need arises. The experts can then monitor, identify the best practices, and benchmark and propagate the same to other non-performing terminals, thus generating cost savings for the company. The solution will have a top view that shall focus on the overall company performance with regards to terminal business unit, and simultaneously allow for further drilldown to the geography levels as well as the individual terminal levels. The diagrams that follow show the hierarchical views as well as a sample top view. 8

9 Top View Geography Level View Terminal Level View A Sample Top View 9

10 The solution converts data from various sources into meaningful information. Data can be captured from different IT systems like Operations data (Terminal Automation System), Inventory data (Tank Farm Management System), Quality data (Analyzers/LIMS), Maintenance & HSSE data (in-house Oracle/SQL based systems), and Sales, HR & Finance data (ERP Systems). A sample terminal level dashboard is shown below. Terminal managers can have a snapshot of the terminal performance 24X7. The solution also allows monitoring of various key-operating parameters (KPIs) across functions on a single application. The solution leverages the existing applications in a terminal, which until recently were being used as silo applications, and allows integration into a common platform. It also allows for the visualization of KPIs in a contextualized manner. HSE Operations Quality No. of Incidents (Major, Minor etc) No. of spills (24 Hr, MTD, YTD) No. of overdue safety inspections No. of overdue audit items Amount of Spill Volume Capacity utilization ratios Maintenance budget v/s expenditure Major KOPs Pending critical Works Orders Total volume per receipt mode Opening v/s closing stocks (24/48 Hrs) No. of Off specs (24 Hr, MTD, YTD) Quality Give Away Quality Loss Blending Status Finance Loss & Gain (MTD, YTD) Utilities Total Opex Costs (MTD, YTD) Total Capex Costs (MTD, YTD) Total Revenues (MTD, YTD) Storage Margins Logistics Margins Terminal Cost per barrel (MTD, YTD) Jet Fuel (Volume, Cost) Gasoline (Volume, Cost) Diesel (Volume, Cost) Gas oil (Volume, Cost) Fuel oil (Volume, Cost) Other (Volume, Cost) Electricity consumption (MTD, YTD) Total utilities cost (MTD, YTD) Water utilization status Other utilities consumption (vol, cost) Gantry Status Jetty/Berth Status Inventory Status Avg. loading flow rate (24 Hr, MTD) Gate to Gate loading time Avg. Gantry Throughput Avg. Bay Throughput (24 Hr, MTD) Opening Hours per week No. of Trucks Loaded (24 Hr, MTD) Avg. loading flow rate (24 Hr, MTD) Avg. vessel delay per jetty Berth occupancy rate % of on-time arrivals Berth Schedule Jet Fuel (capacity v/s actual volume) Gasoline (capacity v/s actual volume) Diesel (capacity v/s actual volume) Gas oil (capacity v/s actual volume) Fuel oil (capacity v/s actual volume) Others (capacity v/s actual volume) ERP CMMS GIS SQL Server ORACLE LIMS TAS Gate Systems TMS 10

11 Value Proposition of i - Terminals Multi Systems Integration: Integrate information from multiple IT systems existing in a terminal like SAP, SQL server, Oracle, LIMS, Historians, TAS, and Gate Appointment Systems to provide actionable information through contextualization of data. KPI and Performance Summary: Provision of summarized, as well as a detailed view of terminal wide KPIs and other performance parameters. Faster Response Time: Information represented through animated visuals, drill down objects, which allows the discovery of underlying facts thus allowing quick analysis of complex business problems. Multi-dimensional Analytics: Provides multidimensional analytics of complex business problems to zero upon potential problem areas. Supports faster trouble shooting, and identification of improvement areas by highlighting lost opportunity and bad actors. Criticality Wise Alert Notifications: Push alerts to users through , SMS, etc. allowing them to focus their attention on areas that need immediate action. Unified Monitoring System: Platform for a common monitoring system across terminals and across geographies. Role based views showing information pertaining to action areas thus helping in taking proactive steps, as well as and reactive decisions followed by corrective actions. Benchmarking Across Sites: It provides an industry proven platform that will facilitate the benchmarking of terminal operations across geographies and the sharing of best practices within the organization. System Features of i Terminals The proposed Intelligent Terminal solution by Wipro will meet the following functional requirements of the Oil & Gas industry by leveraging various IT elements: Near real -time information display through intuitive graphics Simple and user-friendly interface, easy navigation 24X7 access to terminal information through the Internet Role based access to information and visualization Connectivity with terminal IT systems and business systems like terminal automation systems, and ERP. Alert notification system through , SMS, etc. for exceptions monitoring Reporting services to generate reports required to benchmark studies and management reporting 11

12 References Interviews with Wipro Industry Experts Interviews with Oil and Gas Professional Wipro Industry Research For more information on this paper, please contact Goutam Mangaraj at Visit Wipro at About the Author Goutam has over 6 years of experience in the IT services industry, with dedicated focus on solutions for the Oil & Gas industry. He has comprehensive knowledge of business processes involved across Oil & Gas downstream value chain viz. refinery operations, terminal & depot operations, downstream supply chain and retail operations. He has worked in several technology projects in various capacities for Oil Retailing Giant, Global Petroleum Super Major, World Class Refinery, Large Integrated Petrochemical Major etc. He is currently working as a Consultant within Wipro s Smart Solutions Competency Centre. He is a qualified software professional and holds an M.B.A in Oil & Gas Management. ABOUT Wipro is the first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMMi Level 5 certified IT Services Company globally. Wipro provides comprehensive IT solutions and services (including systems integration, IS outsourcing, package implementation, software application development and maintenance) and Research & Development services (hardware and software design, development and implementation) to corporations globally. Wipro's unique value proposition is further delivered through our pioneering Offshore Outsourcing Model and stringent Quality Processes of SEI and Six Sigma. 12