Chemicals

Texas Chemical Industry is facing a mountain of technical debt – estimates put this as high as $65 billion in legacy systems with Texas representing the largest concentration of aging assets. Technical debt is magnified in Texas by a wave of retiring experienced operators and engineers combined with the scarcity of younger qualified talent willing to work in demanding plant environments. With constant funding battles to address known issues, often most can’t step back and address issues because of conflicting priorities. At the same time, Texas producers are under pressure to keep pace with industry standards, evolving regulatory requirements, and a rapidly shifting Operational Technology (OT) stack. Annual operational costs of unaddressed technical debt (e.g., maintenance, downtime, lost productivity) are estimated between $3M – $20M. For many producers, these challenges feel overwhelming leaving leaders asking how to move their organizations forward.

There’s good news. You’re not alone many share in these common challenges! Top producers which modernize achieve 20–30% higher operational efficiency. These gains are realized through reductions in energy use, decreases in downtime, and improvements in asset utilization. To help you reach these same results, Avid has established strategies designed to guide you in a structured manner based on proven industry experience. The following steps highlight our approach.

Step 1: Define Your Strategy - Operational Automation Plan (OAP)

Many producers lack a comprehensive long-term vision, short-term plan, and a framework to guide their decision-making processes. Consequently, projects become episodic, inadequately scoped, and misaligned to a 5–7-year vision. Without consensus among IT and plant OT, corporate engineering, finance, and operations, it’s challenging to secure funding, achieve and maintain buy-in, or establish agreement on project priorities. High-performing peers recognize it’s essential to establish and reach mutual agreement on a strategic framework before carrying out individual projects. With a vision and a strategy defined, your peers efficiently prioritize and execute projects and quickly recognize the benefits of modern OT systems and solutions.

To help your organization move forward, Avid has developed an Operational Automation Plan (OAP). This strategic framework is designed to provide practical and actionable direction for Automation and Operational Technology (OT) decisions. This document outlines the main steps for setting a vision, short-term plan, strategies to achieve alignment, and a structured means on prioritizing projects. It also includes best practices for identifying specific technical debt within plant assets. Producers who employ a strategic framework are considerably more effective at identifying, prioritizing, and implementing projects leading to substantial reductions in operational costs.

Step 2: FEL 1/2

With an OAP in place, execute Front-End Loading (FEL) projects to understand scope and investments required for migration and upgrade projects. Executing FEL projects starts with following a FEL-framework which helps drive better asset utilization over the 20-year lifespan of the assets.

A clear understanding of migration scope during the FEL stage is frequently not addressed. Many perform FELs only for parts of the scope, missing a holistic approach which often results in overruns and lost opportunities. Understanding existing physical hardware future hardware needs is relatively straightforward. Evaluating software applications is more complicated as it involves the understanding of previous approaches, what missed the mark from operations perspective, and current standards which must be now met. Future software applications require alignment to operations, corporate standards and support continuous improvements. By far the most often overlooked portion are downtime constraints and how to implement. Here a proper understanding of production needs, system dependencies, and interoperability requires a well thought out plan. Typical deliverables of a FEL are defined scope, implementation plan, budget, and a schedule.

Utilizing the OAP framework, projects are then prioritized based on mutually agreed upon criteria of ROI, risk, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and critical must-do initiatives (safety, cybersecurity, sustainability). Understanding your business objectives and level of detail required drives the FEL stage investments. Here a tailored approach is utilized based on your criteria for success defined up-front by all stakeholders in your OAP.

Step 3: Project Planning

With FEL completed, projects are prioritized and management can set a project and funding schedule to resolve the most urgent issues. This defines needs for current, next, and the following physical year budgets. All technology decisions and project execution strategies are carefully aligned with the OAP vision and short-term plans. This is done to drive maintainability, operability, and supportability. By prioritizing infrastructure projects and implementing phased approaches suited to downtime and cut-over limitations, technical debt is systematically reduced at the lowest risk.

Step 4: Project Execution

The OAP is a living document and requires periodic reviews. An annual review of the OAP and project progress enables stakeholders to assess strategies, ROI, and priorities. Discussions focus on alignment, value, and commitment to ensure continued support.

Step 5: Annual Assessment

Take initiative to tackle technical debt head-on. Accepting the status quo and postponing critical alignment discussions merely extends the timeline for addressing technical debt. For more information on how your organization can benefit from Avid OAP program or FEL services contact us today for a no-cost consultation.

Why work with Avid?

  • We’ve been in your shoes. We leverage deep operational experience to help you manufacture smarter.
  • We act like an owner, we are built on agility, and we excel at purpose-driven innovation.
  • We are focused on operations, predicting asset issues, lowering unplanned downtime, and driving down support costs.
  • We are a pacesetter in remote system deployment, support, and optimization.
  • We’re a low-impedance partner and easy to do business with.

We Can Help!

If you are ready to INNOVATE, OPTIMIZE, and TRANSFORM your operations, Avid is eager to help! Contact Avid for an initial discussion. For additional insights or to learn more on how we solve client issues, check out our services.