Addressing the real-world challenges of offshore operational alignment

Offshore operators have unique challenges, simply because the operating environment is remote and subject to constraints not found in the onshore world. Keeping operations going is not just a matter of routinely scheduling drilling and completion activities. For example, there are maintenance, supply, inspection, and shutdown activities to be coordinated, with work and supply boats, helicopter flights, and special equipment needs. As well, the number of persons allowed on board a platform is a key constraint. Add in disruptions due to equipment failure, and weather-related delays, plus the need to adhere to a cost target and maximize production, and it’s obvious that a great deal of work has to be done to coordinate and use resources most effectively. A lot of “moving parts” have to come together to make the offshore environment work.

What’s surprising, given this complexity, is that scheduling offshore operations is usually performed manually with 1990s project management software. This requires the scheduler to keep a huge amount of information in his/her head, and a lot of work to keep things on track. In contrast, modern, advanced scheduling software captures all information needed to align operations, automates much of the laborious manual effort, and ensures that targets for cost, production, and other key objectives are always met.

In this post:

• The impact of siloed operations
• The journey to operational alignment via enhanced scheduling practices and tools
• Key benefits of aligning your operations

The impact of siloed operations

Many offshore drilling companies have siloed operations; they don’t coordinate activities effectively. The drilling group often schedules their program and assumes that other operational functions will fall in line to support them. But in practice this doesn’t always happen properly. It leads to schedule conflicts, it erodes value, and it degrades operational performance, sometimes severely.  A more effective business process, coupled with a more effective scheduling tool, plus a change in thinking, is what is required. The challenge of working with outdated tools that provide very limited functionality has to be overcome, to ensure that there is a single coherent composite schedule incorporating all key activities, so everybody knows what’s going on at any time.

The journey to operational alignment via enhanced scheduling practices and tools

A critical step in aligning operations is to move to an integrated business model, and to support that with an effective integrated scheduling approach and software tool. Actenum’s DSO scheduling software, for example, is designed for integrated scheduling, and can handle any type of activity, resource, and constraint. Since it’s modern software it incorporates many capabilities that save the user time and effort. And, it has an AI-powered optimizer built in, to enable operators to optimize their schedules for rapid alignment with business goals. Everything relevant to the operational environment is in one place, in one tool, for quick and easy access. Moreover, all the schedule data is accurate and reliable, so operators can use it to generate scenarios extremely rapidly and review various alternatives to decide on the best course of action to take in any operational situation.

Key benefits of aligning operations

Using DSO/Upstream, operators can easily achieve operational alignment to meet the requirements of their business plan. They can better predict how they will meet targets, exceed them, as well as determine where they might fall short and what may be done to resolve such a situation. They can also forecast costs to see how they are stacking up against budgets. Improved operational alignment also means saving money. For example, schedule misalignment issues can cost significant amounts of dollars to resolve, and if there are four or five issues in a quarter or six-month period, that money can add up. 

DSO/Upstream enables operators to answer questions immediately and make decisions that are effective, saving them stress, time, and effort. Money won’t be wasted doing things that are redundant or unnecessary. Instead, businesses will be putting their dollars and their equipment where they are most beneficial to the business.

To learn more about how to improve your operational alignment, please contact Actenum today at info@actenum.com.