Present in 30 countries, Equinor is Norway’s largest energy company, supplying energy to 170 million people every day and operating the world’s largest integrated offshore pipeline system. It is the largest pipeline gas supplier in Europe and the third largest net seller of crude oil in the world. In 2022, the company celebrated 50 years of turning natural resources into energy for people and progress for society.
From manual to machine processes
In the past, Equinor had relied on manual processes for asset management decision-making, but as the company expanded, it began to adopt a data-driven approach with automated dashboards. However, decision-makers recognized the need for further advancements and planned to introduce condition-based maintenance (CBM).
This transformation would enable a more autonomous, machine and data-driven approach to asset management, freeing up valuable internal resources and allowing team members to handle multiple cases simultaneously.
“Equinor wanted to move from condition monitoring to condition-based maintenance,” explained Tom Naastad Svennevig, senior engineer at Equinor. “For the past eight or nine years, we have operated a monitoring center where a few groups of equipment are monitored using self-developed dashboards as well as third-party expert systems. However, as the number of assets connected to the center increased, more and more resources were needed. We believe that applying condition-based maintenance of equipment, where it is possible to link a remedial action to a degradation mechanism, will relieve the burden on the resources working in the monitoring center.”
CBM is a paradigm shift in asset management that enables companies to move from traditional calendar-based maintenance schedules to a proactive approach based on data-driven insights. While traditional maintenance strategies often result in unplanned downtime, CBM enables operators to make informed decisions based on the real-time condition of equipment, minimizing disruptions and maximizing asset reliability.
“The main purpose of condition-based maintenance for us is to provide confidence in continuous safe operation and to avoid disruptions,” added Svennevig. “We believe that several degradation mechanisms we have had in the past can be automatically detected and actions taken without human intervention.”
Advantages of an integrated solution
For Equinor, SAP Asset Performance Management was the best choice because it offers a number of tangible benefits, especially according to the Equinor manager: “Unlike third-party solutions that require data migration, SAP Asset Performance Management integrates seamlessly with existing SAP systems. This eliminates the need for redundant data entry and ensures data accuracy across all platforms.”
Other benefits Equinor sees include:
- Reduced administrative burden and increased overall efficiency
- Automatic updating of plant information across all relevant components
- Importing device health status from third-party expert systems
- Storing evidence of safe operation and triggering actions in case of deterioration
- Generate notifications based on health monitoring rules for quick response to potential device issues
- Seamless ingestion of sensor data from field systems into SAP Asset Performance Management
- Pre-assign tasks to maintenance notifications based on asset strategies and failure modes
- Empower maintenance teams to act quickly and effectively, minimizing downtime and preventing potential equipment failures. Scale seamlessly to accommodate additional equipment and assets.
Optimized visualization of asset status with SAP Asset Performance Management
Effective visualization of asset status is critical to making timely and informed decisions. That’s why SAP Asset Performance Management offers comprehensive dashboarding capabilities through embedded SAP Analytics Cloud. Users can select specific assets or entire fleets to get a detailed overview in a central view. This allows potential problems to be quickly identified and proactive maintenance interventions to be carried out.
The dashboard uses clear, intuitive labels to indicate the condition of the asset, from “excellent” to “unacceptable,” simplifying decision-making. Critical alerts are clearly displayed in orange, immediately catching the attention of maintenance personnel and providing the necessary context and guidance to ensure timely and appropriate action is taken.
In addition, the dashboard integrates seamlessly into Equinor’s broader SAP ecosystem, enabling real-time data exchange and integration into existing maintenance processes.
Effective change management: Important for CBM implementation
Equinor has implemented a CBM-driven maintenance approach. CBM is running in production. Work to roll out the solution has started. The change management process will be the main focus going forward.
“We will achieve this through clear leadership commitment, extensive communication, a pilot project to prove concept, optimized data smoothing for accurate monitoring, role redefinition for CBM management, setting KPIs for continuous improvement and empowering employees through involvement,” explained the Equinor manager. “Our goal is that this will lead to a transition to a proactive maintenance approach for 40% of our equipment and a significant reduction in maintenance costs and equipment downtime.”
“SAP Asset Performance Management helps us optimize maintenance processes and enable proactive preventive maintenance,” Svennevig concludes.
Karin Fent is Senior Director of Global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain at SAP.
Top image courtesy of Equinor | Ole Jørgen Bratland © Equinor
