Responding to a Changing Industry

Innovation for a new era in plant design

AVEVA PERSPECTIVES
Published June 2012

Responding to a Changing Industry - AVEVA PERSPECTIVES

Contents

Page

1. Introduction

2. A New Industry Era

3. Plant Design Fundamentals

4. Future of Plant Design

5. Summary

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Responding to a Changing Industry - AVEVA PERSPECTIVES

1. Introduction
The intensity of change across plant industries is unprecedented
from the impact of operating in a new economic climate, to
increased opportunities in resource extraction and expanded
market openings in emerging regions.
Industry players must determine how best to seize new market
opportunities in an affordable and sustainable way. Responding to
new levels of demand for energy and resources will require largescale investment in infrastructure and plant assets. Decisions made
today will influence the development of societies and industries
for many years to come.
With a need for faster asset modification and creation to address
new opportunities and increasing regulation, new pressures will
be placed on capital project execution.
This paper looks at what is needed for modern plant design; it
addresses the key fundamentals to project success and sets out
to define the future of plant design.

With new opportunities to expand

market reach and increasing global
demand for resources, power and
process industries are reviewing
how best to modify and develop
the capital assets that will support
growth and sustainability.

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Responding to a Changing Industry - AVEVA PERSPECTIVES

2. A New Industry Era

Power and process industries around the world are undergoing a
period of intense evolution. Industry players must navigate the
fast-changing economic climate while evaluating how best to make
the investments required to support the worlds energy, resources
and pharmaceutical needs for the decades to come.

extensive modification work. This means that capital projects are

growing in complexity and scale. They also require higher levels of
governance to ensure deliverables remain on schedule, compliance
is ensured and risk is managed effectively with external partners
and in-house teams.

The scale of the challenge is evident in the energy sector alone.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that a
$38 trillion investment will be required to create and modernise
the worlds energy system infrastructure, in order to meet projected
energy demand through to 2035*. Chemical, pharmaceutical and
mining industries also face new infrastructure investment demands.

For the Engineering Procurement & Construction (EPC) company

this means the creation and management of more complex process
and power assets. This places more pressure on the speed and
quality of project execution in order to maintain competitiveness
against a background of changing regulations. The ability to
orchestrate engineering skills, minimise costs and streamline
management decisions to respond faster to evolving market
conditions has never been greater.

To increase production capabilities, Owner Operators are moving

into new geographies. Plant assets are being established in more
remote, more hostile and higher-cost locations (such as the Arctic,
Eastern Siberia and the Caspian), more challenging environments
(such as deepwater), and more complex geopolitical situations.

To support new growth strategies and asset development, in a

climate of economic uncertainty and growing focus on social
responsibility, more collaborative conditions are emerging between
Owner Operators and EPCs that place a greater emphasis on
communication, data sharing and traceability.

In addition, many Owner Operators are looking to maximise the

capacity of their existing plant assets as they pursue new routes
for growth. Increasing the production capabilities of existing
plants often results in plant lifetime extension projects involving

This changing environment makes new demands on the processes

involved in capital projects and the supporting technologies that
contribute to their success, such as plant design software.

* World Energy Outlook, 2011

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Responding to a Changing Industry - AVEVA PERSPECTIVES

3. Plant Design Fundamentals

So what should plant design software provide to help meet these
challenges? Here, we outline the key fundamentals to the future
of plant design.

Plant design software must be agile to deploy

Plant design software is inherently complex in nature and rich

in functionality. It has to be, to allow engineers to be able to
accurately do their jobs, but the implementation and deployment
of plant design software, within the organisation and across into
multiple partners or suppliers, need not be similarly complex.
Focus needs to be applied to the engineering itself rather than
to the technicalities of software configuration such as IT
infrastructure and firewalls. Software must be employed which
presents the fewest technical hurdles to implementation and
deployment, while still delivering the correct functionality,
scale and performance.

Simple to use rich in capability

Having powerful software, which is easy to deploy across the globe

is a great starting point but, since the software does not produce
the deliverables on its own, it is important to consider the human
factor. In order to help the drive for productivity, design software
needs to be easy to use, with organised user interfaces, not only to
help users in their daily tasks but also to reduce the need for lengthy
and costly training workshops, or complex system administration
roles. Software must be employed in which the core tasks for design
are intuitive and even enjoyable to use.

User mobility will accelerate design assurance

After a period of initial frenzy over the opportunities which mobile

computing could present, the dust will settle on some simple and
pragmatic applications to help project teams to speed up the review
and approval process for design. Mobile devices such as tablets
will play a key role in project management, giving decision-makers
more agility and faster access to critical information for review
and approval.

Greater process automation will be needed throughout

the design chain

Plant design software must spare engineers from menial and

repetitive tasks, to help maximise their contribution to the design.
Engineers who spend hours checking data formats and ensuring
that the designs meet with corporate procedures are not being
effectively employed. Plant design software must not only offer data
integration support and greater usability features, it must also be
able to deliver more embedded checks and validation capabilities
to speed the design process, reinforcing corporate standards and
ensuring that safety is at the heart of the design.

Increased visibility is essential to driving efficiency

Rather than simply providing efficiency gains for the design office,
plant design software should also present opportunities for
improving efficiency in the construction phase. The information
created from the plant design system represents the as-designed
view of the asset, and this information hardly ever matches up
perfectly to the as-built asset. Narrowing the gap between the
design office and the on-site construction team will help to expedite
reworks, reduce materials errors and, with the use of laser data,
improve accuracy for dimensional alignment on site.

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Responding to a Changing Industry - AVEVA PERSPECTIVES

4. Future of Plant Design

As we look to the future, we have anticipated what will be
required of the new era of plant design in terms of benefits
to the plant business.

Plant design software that can be deployed in days

To gain competitive advantage, projects have to be up and running

in the shortest time possible, but speed must not compromise
quality or safety. However, by increasing the speed at which critical
software can be deployed, EPCs can provide deliverables more
quickly and accelerate their capital projects.
AVEVA is developing a plant design system that will reduce time to
deliverables and enable project teams to be up and running in days.
Design work is coordinated as part of a global concurrent engineering
system, integrating all partners in a project and allowing authorised
users full transparency of the design at all times.

Full design validation and authorisation

Projects are becoming more diverse and the requirements for

collaboration across multi-disciplines and territories are increasing.
The ability to embed checking and validation throughout any design
process will enable EPCs and Owner Operators to accelerate project
delivery times by enforcing faster authorisation. This approach
also supports a more collaborative relationship between Owner
Operators and EPCs, which is critical to faster project delivery,
and essential in todays volatile climate.
In addition to collaboration, reducing risk and costs are at the heart
of AVEVAs product development. Support for new mobile technologies
and embedded design checks will accelerate and extend the review
and authorisation capabilities of project teams.

Linking design and construction

Greater design efficiency across dispersed teams

Greenfield and brownfield projects will be able to check each

stage of construction against the as-built earlier stages to ensure
that the next stage of construction fits first time without rework.
If the design model parts are found not to fit with the as-built
construction, they can be modified using the scanned data to fit
the constructed environment, hence ensuring they fit correctly
on site. The new level of plant design needs to support a richer
collaboration between the design and site teams.

From design checking to supporting reuse, AVEVAs new generation

of plant design software is designed from the ground up for global
project teams. Powerful design capabilities, such as integrated
drafting with 3D models and integrated laser scanning will increase
design efficiency by 1020%.

The powerful combination of laser scan data and design models will
enable customers to save money in construction and hence increase
profitability. Support for mobile computing will help site and office
staff to keep abreast of the rapid rate of change on the construction
site, accelerating informed decision making and improving the quality
of collaboration between design and construction.

Having a design system that can respond to the iterative nature

of the design process, with complete control, supports first-class
engineering project execution and enables plants to be up and
running more quickly.

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Responding to a Changing Industry - AVEVA PERSPECTIVES

5. Summary
With global demand for resources rising fast, the opportunities for
EPCs and Owner Operators are abundant and highly remunerative.
Yet with a changing market there are new challenges: working
across multiple locations involving multiple corporate partners,
EPCs and Owner Operators must continue to deliver exceptional
quality but at higher speeds.
A new era of collaboration has consequently emerged between EPCs
and Owner Operators, through the need for design, construction
and maintenance coherence: digital representations of physical
assets are now crucial to this process, allowing for improved asset
management, better design control and lower costs.
With unprecedented pressures on capital project financing and
delivery continuing unabated, plant design software will need to
expand on current capabilities to deliver greater collaboration,
faster project deployment and enhanced traceability throughout
the design and build process.
As we look to the years ahead, next generation plant design
software will be instrumental in:
z enabling fast capture and transfer of expertise across global
teams, multiple disciplines and project management
z facilitating faster decision making, design and construction,
and providing access to critical design data and transparency
of the design at all times
z enabling safety to be engrained in the design process
z accelerating project execution without compromising system
stability, accuracy and compliance.
AVEVAs new initiative Defining the Future of Plant Design focuses
on creating a new generation of plant design software that
addresses the dynamics of a changing market.

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Defining the Future of Plant Design

AVEVA has been at the forefront of engineering and information management
software for 45 years, and pioneered the worlds first 3D plant design system.
With 46 offices in more than 25 countries, AVEVA has developed relationships
with some of the biggest names in the process plant, power and marine
industries. The Defining the Future of Plant Design initiative sets out
the companys work to create the most comprehensive plant design system
developed for 21st Century plant requirements. AVEVA will unveil more
details of its initiative over the coming months.
To be among the first to know about this exciting project to Define the Future
of Plant Design please subscribe to the regular updates on
www.aveva.com/futureofplantdesign

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Copyright 2012 AVEVASolutions Limited and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. ABP/DFPD1/12