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Asset Performance Management (APM) Software

Chevron Phillips Chemical - Revolutionizing Operations with APM Innovation

Introduction

Stephen Bates, a project manager at Chevron Phillips Chemical, provides an overview of the company’s extensive history and current efforts in implementing reliability digital enablement. Over a decade with Chevron Phillips, Bates describes the company’s long-term use of Asset Performance Management (APM) tools, particularly focusing on their reliability pillars: equipment criticality-based strategies, failure identification and elimination, and equipment health monitoring.

 

Chevron Phillips has leveraged APM for over 20 years, primarily focusing on equipment integrity. The reliability digital enablement project, covering 11 manufacturing facilities globally, aims to enhance this foundation by integrating advanced digital tools and processes. The project emphasizes not disrupting the existing integrity program while seeking improvements based on benchmark studies, highlighting significant opportunities to reduce unplanned losses and increase profitability.

 

The three reliability pillars form the core of the company’s strategy. The first pillar, equipment criticality-based strategies, assesses equipment's operational and maintenance importance, environmental impact, and safety concerns. This approach, initially applied to rotating machinery, is now expanding to other asset categories using a standardized criticality matrix and corporate-developed strategies.

 

The second pillar, failure identification and elimination, involves a comprehensive bad actor program. By conducting root cause analyses and leveraging global insights across all manufacturing sites, the company aims to prevent repeat failures and disseminate learnings company-wide. This pillar emphasizes a systematic approach to managing maintenance work history and identifying improvement opportunities.

 

The third pillar, equipment health monitoring, integrates operational data such as vibration and pressure readings into a centralized data lake. This enables the creation of policies to assess equipment health and trends over time, facilitating data-driven decisions for maintenance and operational strategies. The project has already achieved significant cost savings by detecting and addressing inefficiencies. The presentation highlights the cultural and programmatic shifts required to implement these strategies, including enhancing IT infrastructure and addressing cybersecurity challenges. Bates acknowledges the collaborative efforts with GE to align product enhancements with Chevron Phillips’ needs, emphasizing the importance of customer feedback in driving product development.

 

Overall, Chevron Phillips’ reliability digital enablement project represents a significant advancement in managing petrochemical manufacturing assets, ensuring operational continuity, and optimizing performance through strategic use of digital tools and data analytics.