Benefits of predictive maintenance in the oil and gas industry with Edge Computing
Mid-tier oil and gas companies cannot afford unplanned
downtime. Research has shown that unplanned downtime can cost tens of millions
of dollars a year in lost productivity and repairs, in addition to the physical
risks associated with equipment failure. Fortunately, the appearance of the
Industrial Internet of Things, or IIoT, is allowing operators to expand their
ability to monitor performance, temperature, flow and more with low-cost
sensors and make better maintenance decisions based on the data they collect.
Preventive maintenance and its benefits?
Preventive maintenance uses data such as temperature,
vibration and flow rate that are collected by sensors and then analyzed for
warning signs or abnormal results. This data is then rummage-sale to forecast when
maintenance must be completed to avoid degraded efficiency or equipment
failure.
For mid-tier oil and gas companies, cost control is always
important. Companies that can better manage operating expenses during a
recession are more flexible and better equipped to handle margin pressures.
Preventive maintenance can help save costs by requiring fewer hardware checks
and unnecessary updates.
A good preventive maintenance program will help you make
more informed decisions based on your maintenance budget. Operators can further
control costs, enabling efficiencies against service costs to determine service
schedules. Due to the remoteness of assets, the maintenance costs of individual
sections increase or decrease depending on logistics. A definitive understanding
of the degradation in transmission line efficiency will create an environment
for making truly informed decisions regarding maintenance planning.
Preventive maintenance script
To begin developing a preventive maintenance plan,
organizations must follow several steps:
Compare your current capabilities - how much are you
currently spending on maintenance and how much downtime do you have?
Identify opportunities - where can you add sensors to
collect critical data? Are there bottlenecks or access points causing problems?
Create pilot programs with well-defined metrics to see if preventive
maintenance improves results.
Get a scalable, automated preventive maintenance solution
designed from the ground up and built on a platform that resists downtime.
Oil and gas predictive maintenance solutions
Preventive maintenance is best performed from the periphery
- in a process area close to a pump, compressor or terminal - rather than in a
remote location, in a control room or in the cloud, where transmission, bandwidth,
latency issues and data integrity can arise.
Stratus Technologies offers an industrial-grade integrated
redundant platform designed specifically for peripherals. It is ideal for any
predictive maintenance solution in the oil and gas industry that requires
reliable data collection in mission-critical environments.
Summary For midsize oil and gas companies, preventive
maintenance has many advantages over reactive or scheduled maintenance,
including extending equipment life, optimizing equipment performance, reducing
equipment downtime, and reducing wasted time team's. To learn more about how
Stratus Edge Computing can help midsize oil and gas companies, click here or
speak with a leading Stratus computing expert.