AVEVA NET Accesses and Manages the Digital Asset · AVEVA NET Accesses and Manages the Digital Asset

By ARC Advisory Group

ARC WHITE PAPER

JUNE 18, 2013

AVEVA NET Accesses and Manages the Digital Asset

Executive Overview .................................................................... 3

Project Risk: Inaccessible, Unreliable Information .......................... 4

AVEVA NET Focuses on the Business Value of the Digital Asset .......... 6

Conclusions ............................................................................... 9

VISION, EXPERIENCE, ANSWERS FOR INDUSTRY

ARC White Paper • June 2013

2 • Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com

As-BuiltAs-Designed

As-Operated

Digital Information Hub

AVEVA NET Enables Access to All Plant Lifecycle Information

The flexible repository of associated information, the unified information model: AVEVA NET Workhub

The configurable validation process to check incoming information against a data standard:AVEVA NET GateKeeper

The way to get information into the

DIH:AVEVA NET Gateways

Docs

3D

2D

The way for a user to view the information in the DIH:

AVEVA NET Dashboard

AVEVA NET Supports the Creation of a Digital Information Hub


Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com • 3

One of the single most significant issues associated with projects is

the lack of accurate, complete, and timely information that can

add substantial risk to the project in terms of cost, time, and safety.

Executive Overview

Global demand for new process plants, power plants and infrastructure is

increasing steadily with the growth of regional economies and the business

and industrial requirements that accompany this growth. Along with this

demand, comes increased risk for new projects that tend to be larger and

more complex, making it more difficult to meet time and cost constraints,

and deliver plants that can operate with maximum efficiency and safety.

One of the single most significant issues associated with projects is the lack

of accurate, complete, and timely information that can add substantial pro-

ject and operational risk in terms of cost, time, and safety. EPCs, project

managers, and owner-operators all concur that access to information

throughout all phases of construction project is critical to meeting schedule

and cost goals. According to ARC research in the Power and Process sector

information management and access is equally important to EPCs and

owner-operators. Nearly all of the owner-operators want information

turned over in a form that they can import into asset manage-

ment/maintenance management systems that they use to operate and

maintain the facility.

This is often not a case of information that does not exist, but rather the im-

pact of project and operational information that is unreliable, inaccessible,

and incompatible. The challenge of having the right information at the right

time is an issue that impacts all stakeholders across the plant design and

operation lifecycles for designers and engineers,

EPCs, and owner-operators.

Businesses in the power, process, and AEC sectors

typically waste a significant amount of time and

money attempting to retrieve and re-create existing

data. In the design phase of a project, engineers rou-

tinely spend up to half of their time searching for existing design files and

models, as well as other project information. On the operations side, one of

the biggest revenues losses is the result of operators not having access to

critical information which can cause downtime and production delays. To-

day’s knowledge workers cannot make accurate critical decisions and react

effectively to unplanned events without access to all operational and asset

information.



In a typical plant environment operational and asset information resides in

multiple systems, is maintained by different applications, and comes in a

variety of formats. One of fundamental concepts of engineering design is

reuse. An inefficient flow of information between people, systems, and ap-

plications significantly obstructs efficient reuse for both project and

operational plant lifecycles.

AVEVA understands that information is the life-blood of their customers,

and offers AVEVA NET to address the challenges of information accessibil-

ity, providing a Digital Information Hub (DIH) for the engineering

information lifecycle.

Project Risk: Inaccessible, Unreliable Information

It is not uncommon to see as much as 15 percent of up-front project costs

accrued in the requirements phase of a major capital project. A significant

portion of these early phase projects costs can be attributed directly to the

time and effort expended by engineering and project planners to find and

access existing design and build information from the many different and

disparate sources that are critical to the project. Additionally, the challenge

for these early project phase stakeholders is not only locating and accessing

information, but obtaining quality information that is current, accurate, and

relevant to the project.

ARC research in the area of Power and Process project management, in-

cluding interviews with leading EPCs has indicated that projects are getting

very large both in scope and cost. These projects typically have high pro-

posal costs due to the lack of access to up-front information, and EPCs are

becoming increasingly selective of projects to reduce risk. EPCs will re-

duce risk to a certain degree by adopting technical innovation such as

information management solutions over pure cost cutting, and will seek to

be become more profitable through increased use of these tools.

This initial requirements phase activity is often referred to as project “pre-

work”. Providing accurate and complete pre-work information is essential

to overall project success in terms of cost, scheduling, allocating resources,

and most importantly, meeting project requirements and objectives. An ef-

ficient and productive pre-work phase is incumbent upon having access to



An efficient and productive pre-work phase is incumbent upon

having access to the right information, for the right

person, and at the right time.

the right information, for the right person, and at the right time. Moreover,

the goal of the project manager is to reduce the up-front cost and time gen-

erally associated with the requirements phase. Being able to access and

aggregate the necessary information in order to move

through the requirements phase of a project efficiently

while meeting functional design and build criteria helps to

reduce these up-front costs.

Equally important as access to information is having quali-

ty information that satisfies the design, build and overall

project requirements. Providing quality information means having the lat-

est engineering models and design information that has been managed

throughout the engineering change and version control process. It also

means delivering asset information from projects with similar requirements

that provide engineers with reusable models, build data, and specifications.

Meeting the Requirements for Operations and Maintenance At the most basic level a plant or any piece of equipment within the plant

becomes an operational asset when the owner-operator places it into ser-

vice. At handover the owner-operator becomes responsible for operating,

maintaining, and sustaining these assets. At this point, the owner-operator

needs a range of support from EPCs, contractors, and the OEM equipment

suppliers to be able to effectively manage the plant. During the handover

of a typical plant project an EPC provides to the owner-operator a wide

range of electronic and paper documentation in various formats covering

the plant, process layout, design and basic equipment specifications.

To meet business objectives for production, quality, safety, environmental

performance, and profitability, personnel need to have access to all aspects

of plant operations. This includes everything from the physical infrastruc-

ture to all the equipment installed in the plant. The question remains, how

can this diverse range of information be made available to the owner-

operators, ideally in a centralized, transparent manner?

All of this presents some very real challenges for the EPC that must design

and build the plant, and the owner-operator that operates and maintains

the plant once the handover process is complete. Fundamentally, access to

asset information is equally important to each stakeholder in the lifecycle,

whether it’s the EPC that needs access to information from multiple design

applications, or the owner-operator that needs access to equipment draw-

ings and service bulletins. The challenges are common to all stakeholders.



Asset information usually resides in multiple systems. Design models and

other engineering information are maintained across a variety of applica-

tions and formats where interoperability can present major issues that often

results in the inefficient flow of information between people, systems, and

applications.

As a project progresses across the plant lifecycle the number of stakehold-

ers involved in the process increases dramatically and the scope of the

information required must become part of a digital collaborative environ-

ment that is shared and exchanged by multiple organizations across the

project. Not only must historical and newly created information be accessi-

ble, but it must be shared in real time across all processes in the lifecycle.

This follows AVEVA’s basic vision that for every physical asset there

should be a digital asset that reflects the active state of the as-built envi-

ronment.

AVEVA NET Focuses on the Business Value of the Digital Asset

In order to address the information challenges facing all of the stakeholders

across the plant lifecycle, the information in its entirety should be regarded

as a digital asset that represents all of the physical assets that must be de-

signed, operated, and managed. In essence, the digital asset becomes just as

valuable as the physical asset. It represents all stakeholders involved in the

lifecycle of the plant, making it easier to discover, access, exchange, and

change the digital asset that is being designed, built and operated. This

provides a clear business value for all the players in the plant lifecycle pro-

cess. These benefits include:

• More informed decision making through access to reliable, quality data

• More efficient collaboration for project information

• Faster and more efficient handover process to owner-operators

• Reduced information discovery time through intelligent search

This is where AVEVA NET comes into the picture. The basic concept of

AVEVA NET is to capture all of the information regardless of format or



source and make it available to support the lifecycle process from a single,

open DIH platform.

The reality in today’s plant lifecycle environment is that no one vendor can

offer a complete solution to EPCs and owner-operator for every domain

and discipline in the lifecycle. This means that it’s necessary for users to

seek out the best available tools and applications to fit their needs. The

AVEVA NET approach allows users to discover all the information used in

today’s very heterogeneous environment. AVEVA NET allows users to

search and validate their engineering information assets at any phase in the

plant lifecycle through the identification of assets they know and the dis-

covery of what they don’t know.

AVEVA NET Helps to Meet the Vision of an Open Digital Information Hub A DIH concept provides a central repository to access lifecycle information

from any source and AVEVA NET plays a major role in achieving this vi-

sion in combination with other discipline specific and information

engineering applications. The architecture of AVEVA NET is designed to

provide the open flexibility demanded by the technically complex reality of

a plant environment that is serving the diverse needs of many stakeholders.

AVEVA NET Gateways function as the way to get information into the

AVEVA NET repository. Gateways are the link between information

sources such 3D model and 2D drawing files of various formats, structured

and unstructured documents, and the output from any number of third

party applications, and the AVEVA NET Workhub. Working to ensure

that information coming into the AVEVA NET environments is quality,

useable, and valid is the AVEVA NET Gatekeeper, which functions as a

configurable validation process to check all incoming information against a

data standard. Once information is validated and standardized the user is

able to access and view the information through the AVEVA NET Dash-

board providing the required project and operational information to make

informed decisions.

Each of the functional components of the AVEVA NET product family pro-

vides a range of specific capabilities and business benefits. The AVEVA

NET Gateways, aside from functioning as the link between information

sources and the AVEVA NET Workhub, provides connectivity, meaning

and context to the user’s information assets. EPCs can realize business ben-

efits through more efficient access to project information, reduced handover



and commissioning costs, and improved overall project collaboration. For

the owner-operator there are improved operations and safety efficiencies,

increased plant uptime, assistance in meeting regulatory compliance, and

reduced maintenance and training costs.

The AVEVA NET Workhub is primarily a secure, centralized repository for

information and connectivity, but it also offers users an environment to ag-

gregate, contextualize, and cross-reference data and documents from any

source. The AVEVA NET Dashboard is a web-based tool that allows users

to visualize and collaborate on asset data and documents from a multitude

of source applications through in a single intuitive interface. The AVEVA

NET Workhub and Dashboard also provide significant business benefits for

stakeholders across the plant lifecycle. This collaborative environment al-

lows engineers and designers to use a structured and intelligent process to

discover, view, and share a wide range of project information that enables a

much better informed decision making process.

AVEVA NET Provides Operational Integrity across the Asset Lifecycle Interoperability of design data and asset information is essential to not only

the EPC but also to the operations and maintenance domains of the plant

lifecycle and the owner-operators that depend on this information to oper-

ate their facilities. In the course of a typical hand-over from EPC to owner-

operator asset information can come in many forms, formats, with many

complex linkages, and many users with specific roles. This information can

originate from different design systems and involve multiple models, doc-

uments, drawings, and data organized in all manner of lists, files,

databases, and proprietary formats. This presents a significant challenge to

all stakeholders across the plant lifecycle, but especially to those that need

this information to operate and maintain their facility.

It is clear that AVEVA NET addresses many of the challenges facing engi-

neers, designers, and construction contractors in the design and build

phases for major capital projects. Discovering and accessing essential in-

formation from the pre-work phase through detail design and construction

represents significant business value. However, once the handover phase of

the project is complete and the plant becomes operational, the owner-

operator must have access to much of the same information that the EPC

needed during the design and build phase of their project. One of the major

benefits of AVEVA NET is that it continues to provide access to the vital



operational information that ensures operational integrity for the long-term

plant lifecycle.

AVEVA NET’s major benefit to the operations phase of the plant lifecycle is

that it helps to facilitate Operational Integrity Management (OIM), which is

a broader initiative in place across most owner-operators to improve the

effectiveness of all their information sharing. OIM encompasses both pro-

ject performance management and asset performance management where

the integrated project execution and handover and commissioning phases

transition to the operations readiness, operations and maintenance, and in-

plant engineering phases. Thus, AVEVA’s Digital Information Hub concept

supports the operations and asset management domains of the plant lifecy-

cle the same way it supports the design/build domains.

From the perspective of the owner-operator this means that AVEVA NET

can provide access to vital asset information to support operations, mainte-

nance, and reliability. AVEVA is able to support the goals and objectives of

more effective operations by delivery a number of key capabilities:

• Full integration of design, engineering, materials, procurement, and

maintenance information, Maintenance, Materials Management and

Procurement

• Optimized management of physical assets to reduce through life costs

• A platform for connecting people, processes, and assets

• A holistic view of plants asset base that enables managers to control

their operations for quality, safety, and efficiency

In essence, AVEVA NET enables the full integration of digital assets into

the operations, maintenance, and reliability environment of the plant.

Conclusions

Major projects across the power, process, and AEC industries are becoming

significantly larger, more complex, and more costly. This impacts all the

players across the project and operational lifecycle, EPCs, equipment

OEMs, and owner-operators. Vital to all of these stakeholders is access to

quality and reliable information at all phases of the project, as EPCs, project



One of the most effective ways to deal with today’s large

project challenges and risks is simply to have access to all

quality and reliable information required to drive the project.

managers, and owner-operators all concur that access to

information throughout all phases of construction project is

critical to meeting schedule and cost goals.

Dealing with increasing complexity while trying to contain

project schedules, resources, and cost, is the challenge fac-

ing all companies in these industries. They must find ways

to mitigate the significant risk inherent in major capital pro-

jects and long-term operations. EPCs will reduce risk by adopting technical

innovation such as information management solutions over pure cost cut-

ting, and will seek to be become more profitable through increased use of

these tools. One of the most effective ways to deal with these challenges is

to simply have access to all quality and reliable information required to

drive forward projects and operations throughout the entire plant lifecycle.

ARC research has shown that information management and access is equal-

ly important to EPCs and owner-operators, and AVEVA NET directly

addresses this with a comprehensive information platform that supports

the full extent of the plant lifecycle for EPCs and owner-operators. Clearly,

all of the owner-operators want information turned over in a form that they

can import into asset management/maintenance management systems

used to operate and maintain the facility. Moreover, the open and flexible

AVEVA NET environment provides a platform that enables users to lever-

age the business value of all their digital assets. Access to the right

information at the right time is helping companies make informed and

timely decisions that improves the quality of their deliverables and reduces

project and operational risk.



Analyst: Dick Slansky

Editor: Paul Miller

Acronym Reference: For a complete list of industry acronyms, refer to our web page at www.arcweb.com/Research/IndustryTerms/

ALM Asset Lifecycle Management API Application Program Interface CAD Computer Aided Design CRM Customer Relationship

Management EAM Enterprise Asset Management EPC Engineering Procurement &

Construction ERP Enterprise Resource Planning

HMI Human Machine Interface IT Information Technology MIS Management Information System OIM Operational Integrity

Management P&ID Piping & Instrumentation

Diagram PLM Product Lifecycle Management ROA Return on Assets

Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group is the leading research and advisory firm for industry. Our coverage of technology from business systems to prod-uct and asset lifecycle management, supply chain management, operations management, and automation systems makes us the go-to firm for business and IT executives around the world. For the complex business issues facing organizations today, our analysts have the industry knowledge and first-hand experience to help our clients find the best answers.

All information in this report is proprietary to and copyrighted by ARC. No part of it may be reproduced without prior permission from ARC. This research has been sponsored in part by AVEVA. However, the opinions expressed by ARC in this paper are based on ARC's independent analysis.

You can take advantage of ARC's extensive ongoing research plus experience of our staff members through our Advisory Services. ARC’s Advisory Services are specifically designed for executives responsible for developing strategies and directions for their organizations. For membership information, please call, fax, or write to:

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AVEVA NET Accesses and Manages the Digital Asset · AVEVA NET Accesses and Manages the Digital Asset