Amidst the realities of increasingly challenging operating environment, some organisations are sailing past marketplace complexities year-on-year, recording superior productivity, time-to-market, customer experience, employee engagement and profitability.
Notably, technology-driven efficiency gains play a crucial role in helping these organisations not only adapt to emerging market trends, but also expanded the frontiers and possibilities of operational excellence.
In this article, we will explore the importance of driving operational excellence through the Asset Performance Management (APM) suite and how we can use this solution to help you stay ahead of your competitors.
From identifying potential issues before they become major problems to implementing proactive maintenance strategies, we will cover everything you need to know to get the most out of your assets.
What are the operational challenges organisations are facing today?
The performance of production assets has a significant impact on business success. In industries where operational uptime is critical to output, revenue, and profitability, any disruption or inefficiency can have significant financial implications.
Unplanned equipment downtime leads to halted production, missed deadlines, and increased operational costs, directly affecting a company’s bottom line. Inefficient asset performance can also result in higher energy consumption. Here are highlights of peculiar operational frictions in power, oil & gas and manufacturing sectors.
The Power sector
Power generating companies rely heavily on the continuous and efficient operation of their equipment to meet energy demands and ensure stable power supply. The lack of predictive analytics and real-time monitoring means that potential equipment failures can go undetected until they result in costly unplanned downtimes as well as potential regulatory penalties.
Also, reactive maintenance strategies increase operational costs and reduce the lifespan of critical assets. Without an APM solution, these firms will struggle to optimize performance, manage risks, and maintain the high levels of uptime required for stable and efficient power generation.
Oil & Gas sector
Oil and gas companies operate in a highly demanding and hazardous environment where asset reliability and safety are paramount. Equipment failures or unplanned shutdowns can result in substantial production losses, environmental incidents, and safety risks. Furthermore, the absence of advanced risk assessment tools makes it challenging to comply with stringent safety and environmental regulations, exposing companies to legal and financial penalties. Without the APM solution, these companies face heightened risks, operational inefficiencies, and reduced profitability.
Manufacturing sector
Manufacturing companies depend on the seamless operation of machinery and equipment to maintain production schedules, meet customer demands, and stay competitive in the market. Equipment breakdowns or inefficiencies can disrupt production lines, lead to costly delays, and compromise product quality.
The absence of real-time data integration and predictive maintenance capabilities means that potential issues are often not identified until they cause significant delays and increased operational costs. The result is reduced productivity, increased downtime, and diminished profitability, all of which can threaten the company’s market position and growth.
However, high performing assets across these process-based industries can help businesses increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. The key to maximizing asset performance is to identify potential issues before they become major problems.
With our APM solution, businesses can monitor asset performance in real-time, identify areas of improvement, and implement proactive maintenance strategies. This approach can help businesses avoid downtimes and risk of costly breakdown that could delay operation which impacts negatively on revenue/profit targets.
GE Vernova Asset Performance Management (APM) is a suite of software and services designed to help optimize asset performance and operation & maintenance (O&M) efficiency across equipment, the plant and the entire fleet.
Featuring Digital Twin analytics, work process automation and built-in GE industry expertise, APM provides unique value to modern industrial operations and particularly beneficial for industries with critical and complex assets, such as energy, manufacturing, and other process-based industries.
We can deliver the APM’s applications for Health, Reliability, Strategy, Integrity and Safety to be used independently or together to provide a comprehensive approach to asset and O&M management. APM is available both as a cloud-based service as well as on-premises software, and yields efficiencies in incident reduction, uptime, reactive maintenance, inventory cost amongst other operational areas. Below are results that have been achieved by deploying the GE Vernova APM solution:
By employing the APM software, we can ensure that companies will be able to drive continuous improvement and achieve the following:
- Monitor their assets: This will reduce unplanned downtime and increase availability and reliability by helping to ensure critical assets and systems are monitored and protected from emerging threats.
- Optimize productivity: Organisations will improve workforce productivity by prioritizing maintenance based on criticality and cost (condition-based), rather than schedule-based maintenance practices.
- Manage risk: The APM will protect the health and safety of employees, the environment, and business objectives, by reducing asset-related incidents and unplanned downtime.
- Predictive maintenance: Reduce costly emergency repairs by detecting problems early, turning unplanned downtime into planned/scheduled downtime.
- Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): This will reduce TCO delivered via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, providing flexibility and access to business insights where it matters with edge, cloud, and hybrid configurations.
- Faster time-to-value: The APM provides standardized way to connect machines, data, and people with a consistent interface for superior user experience, dynamic scalability, and extendibility to grow functionality as business needs evolve.
Conclusion – What is the future of operational excellence?
The future of operational excellence will be characterized by a seamless blend of technology, innovation, and continuous improvement, driving sustainable growth and competitive advantage. By staying ahead of these emerging trends and understanding their implications, businesses can not only navigate the challenges but also seize the opportunities that lie ahead by taking advantage of the advanced technology solutions such as the APM Suite.
With the highest failure mode coverage in the industry, the APM suite helps asset-centric organisations drive safer and more reliable operations while facilitating improved performance at a more sustainable and lower operational cost. Verraki working with GE Vernova can deploy the required APM Suite to clients across various industries and geographies to achieve the highlighted outcomes and benefits.