The Data-Driven Approach to Controlling Costs and Maximizing Production in Asset-Intensive Industries

Business leaders in asset-intensive industries are facing more pressure than ever to perform while transforming. Depending on the industry, measures of success can include some combination of maximized revenue or increased production yield and hitting those targets can push risk. With Asset Performance Management (APM) software, business leaders can ensure they achieve or exceed plan by developing a more reliable operation.  

Across energy and other asset-intensive industries, revenue means different things to different organizations. For example, in oil and gas enterprises, revenue is increased when demand increases and requires more production. Today oil companies are operating with surplus profits, but they face more uncertainty as they confront how to help deliver energy sustainably and profitably amidst the energy transition.

For regulated utilities, revenue is fairly predictable and determined based on a rate of return of the initial capital investment. Yet demand for affordable, reliable electricity is higher than ever before, so utilities must finetune operations to maximize production and efficiency. For mining and metal organizations, revenue can be affected by supply constraints and macroeconomic volatility impacting commodities. However, demand for raw materials is increasing thanks to the energy transition and alternative energy technology, such as battery storage. 

The common challenge is that asset-intensive organizations are being asked to produce more – profits, energy, raw materials – with fewer resources, to push the bounds of their existing assets, to put off investments in new technology until return can be better quantified, and to operate efficiently and reliably despite these barriers.   

For energy and materials enterprises, the ability to deliver maximum revenue and production yield is impeded by legacy processes that struggle to keep up with the number and complexity of assets and streams of data and systems that have to be managed today. The energy transition adds a further layer, as organizations must balance the trilemma of affordability, reliability, and sustainability while fulfilling demand. 

Several interconnected factors have led organizations to focus on containing costs despite strong revenue.  

1. Aging assets: Many operators in oil and gas, power generation, and other heavy industries are managing plant equipment and remote assets that are decades old. Keeping aging assets running can lead to increased and sometimes unnecessary spending on Operations & Maintenance, often not prioritized by the criticality of the issue or asset. More frequent breakdowns and unplanned maintenance shutdowns undercut production and profitability. 

2. Macroeconomic volatility: Inflation, commodity prices, geopolitical conflict, and supply chain challenges can have an outsize effect on asset-intensive industries.  

   For example, despite record-breaking oil and gas profit, according to the International Energy Association, almost half of the additional capital investment made in the oil and gas sector in 2022 is likely to be eaten up by higher costs.

   Higher commodity costs impact power generators that run fossil fuel plants. Even as the use of renewable generation increases, utilities and independent operators have to address the variability of energy produced by filling the gap with fossil fuel production. 

3. Talent attrition and loss of domain expertise: Established industries, such as oil and gas and power generation, have been plagued by an exodus of older engineers and operations experts, while struggling to attract a younger workforce who wants to work in tech-forward industries. Replacing the loss of domain expertise can be costly and time-consuming, and can lead to delayed decision-making, failure to identify potential issues, and loss of productivity.  

4. Fluctuating investment priorities:  As industry leaders parse what the energy transition and digital transformation means for their companies, they’re delaying investments in technology that could propel innovation and growth.  

   According to an Ernst & Young analysis, the fight for internal investments in Oil & Gas in a cost-cutting environment is prohibiting innovation. The consultancy says, “This is particularly problematic because deploying digital technology and data analytics to improve asset and operational performance is imperative.”

   McKinsey and Company also identified underinvestment as a key mining industry challenge and that miners should focus on enabling incremental growth with future capital investments. “Recent years of underinvestment and somewhat sparse project pipelines mean exploring opportunities for capital expenditures—and identifying suitable projects for execution—will be crucial.”

Making more with less can only be possible with digital technology that increases efficiency and productivity, reduces costs related to breakdowns or excess fuel, extends asset lifecycles, and eliminates unnecessary maintenance spending, and most importantly, enables innovation and future growth. 
 

Making compliance integral: To ensure that investors, stakeholders, and the organization are exceeding yield and revenue goals, organizations must maintain compliance and avoid potential fines. Implementing the latest technologies, such as AI/ML, Generative AI, blockchain, and others is great for a business, however, it is equally important to ensure that a solution has embedded expertise that can support engineering groups.

For organizations that need to ensure compliance, decrease risk, eliminate loss of containment events, and adhere to emerging standards, the time to digitize compliance processes is now. Through asset performance management (APM), users can gain access to: 

• API standards built into applications 
• Root Cause Analysis best practices for assets  
• Outage reporting to regulators  

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI/ML): Although not new, AI/ML is more mainstream than ever. Nearly every software vendor has rallied to offer some form of the technology. At the foundation of AI, ML is used often to force the AI to learn based on large datasets and outcomes. ML techniques work quickly to find patterns in data the AI can leverage to make predictions and recommendations. In the asset-intensive space, much of what is called “AI” today is actually simple machine learning that points users in the right direction.  
 

At GE Vernova, our solutions span across most types of AI/ML – from simple data investigation to neural networks. By truly leveraging AI, organizations can get continually smarter in how they do business by benchmarking big data and automating business outcomes. To gain more from AI/ML investments, organizations require a single pane of glass for data aggregation, as well as applications with native analytics to leverage that data for critical work processes.
 

Some Asset Performance Management applications that GE provides to support increased yield are: 

• APM Reliability, an asset reliability software powered by SmartSignal analytics 
• APM Performance Intelligence for thermal monitoring and operating optimization 
• Accelerators and Digital Twin blueprints to get the most out of your APM from day 1 
• APM Connect for easy integration with EAM, ERP, CMMS and Historians of any kind 

Strategy optimization through investment allocation: Balancing the challenges of aging assets, macroeconomic shifts, workforce attrition, and varying investment priorities makes it incredibly difficult to maintain rigor around programs such as asset performance management and reliability.  For organizations looking to solidify investment funds for asset performance management programs, it is important to find a digital solution that enables the ability to build strategies, decide asset criticalities, generate recommendations, and ultimately prove a firm dollar savings. Generating a digital solution for strategies gives organizations the ability to repot out on program success and show investors the return on investment on spending capital on digital solutions like Asset Performance Management. 

Get started on building an efficient enterprise that maximizes revenue and yield. Learn more about deploying enterprise APM.