ENN (Engineering Network) Magazine, Vol. 316, 25 July 2012  

Intergraph Hosts Intergraph PP&M Asia-Pacific 2013 in Japan July 11-12 at Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu

Intergraph solutions are increasingly recognized as life-cycle solutions designed to meet owner operators’ requirements. This is due to a shift in the industry, acknowledging that CAD is not just a design tool, but also plays an important role in the management of facilities. In spite of this trend, most of the user sessions at this conference focused on design, which highlights a gap in the utilization of engineering data in Japan, compared to other countries.

Intergraph PP&M Asia-Pacific 2013 was held July 11-12 at Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu. Intergraph has been recognized as a CAD vendor in plant/engineering industries, with their solutions adopted by plant owners for information management and not just for engineering design. Intergraph provides various solutions for plant design and construction, as well as solutions across the entire project life cycle.

Focused on the requirements of owner operators For a long time, Intergraph has been focused on how design information can be provided to meet the requirements of owner operators. If owner operators maintain their engineering data using Intergraph solutions, they can then request for EPC contractors to use the same solutions for their projects. Intergraph has explored opportunities in the market for such linkages.

Throughout this event, Intergraph’s executive members often made comments regarding the plant life cycle. In the keynote session “Gaining Real Business Advantage throughout the Life Cycle” by Patrick Holcomb, Intergraph PP&M vice president of business development, he highlighted that to support the whole plant life cycle, it can be challenging to meet the requirements of owner operators. He covered how Intergraph is addressing this issue.

For example, JGC, a Japanese leading engineering company, is one of the EPC contractors for the Pearl GTL joint-venture project. JGC is handing over engineering data through a private cloud environment, which was specified by Shell, one of the owners of the project. Handing over data through the cloud environment removes the need for ongoing correspondence between contractors and owner operators, thereby improving the efficiency of the project.

As projects get larger and more complex, Intergraph recognizes that it is not feasible for customers to use Intergraph solutions exclusively throughout the plant life cycle. Intergraph has introduced interoperability with third-party solutions.

SmartPlant Interop is able to accept data from third-party products such as Bentley, Aveva, and Tekla. For now, such data is available for reading but not for editing; however, this interoperability feature plays an important role for users and helps to address the challenges of larger, more complex projects.

Intergraph’s policy for development is based on its users’ demands. As mentioned earlier, the private cloud environment for the Pearl GTL project was the result of a demand from Shell. Development of solutions based on user demand can help to eliminate risks from projects. Intergraph has set up Technical User Forums (TUF) on LinkedIn to collect feedback from users directly, and the number of users registering for growth grew seven times within a very short time.

Strong performance of Intergraph PP&M Japan Intergraph has been growing its business globally by focusing on owner operators. Its Japanese branch has also been performing strongly.

Sales profit has increased by 340% over the last eight years. Local Japanese customers such as Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering, Mayekawa, and SKDY have recently deployed Intergraph

ENN (Engineering Network) Magazine, Vol. 316, 25 July 2012  

solutions. These are not just SmartPlant Enterprise solutions, but also CADWorx & Analysis Solutions, which were added to Intergraph’s portfolio after a recent acquisition of COADE. The use of SmartMarine Enterprise solutions for shipbuilding and marine design is also growing in the Japanese market.

Kazunari Yoshihara from JGC Corporation presented a case study “Data Management with SmartPlant Foundation at JGC” at the conference. The company has undertaken activities to improve the engineering design process enterprise-wide, and has successfully reduced design rework.

Recently, many users require handover of engineering data, even in large and complex projects. Intergraph is currently satisfying this demand with SmartPlant Foundation, but is considering shifting this to the cloud environment to increase efficiency.

There were no case study sessions presented by Japanese owner operators at the conference as there are no owners in Japan currently utilizing engineering data. Intergraph has been developing its products and solutions based on the overall plant life cycle; however, the Japanese market is still focused from an engineering tool perspective. This highlights a potential gap between Japan and other countries in the utilization of engineering data.

It was reported that some Japanese owner operators are considering introducing Intergraph solutions. It may not be long before we can listen to their case studies at this conference.

Achieving Success through Use of Cloud Technology to Transfer Enterprise Data (page 45) Patrick Holcomb, Executive Vice President, Global Business Development, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine

The owner operator market continues to expand. Owners require firm project delivery, and therefore we need to help support and improve delivery procedures. To address this, Intergraph launched the Global Professional Services Methodology (GPSM), and as part of this activity, we have partnered with Accenture and SAP.

Large owner operators usually bring consulting companies like Accenture on board for their projects. By partnering with Accenture, this strengthens customers’ confidence in us while also building synergy through value-added services in consulting.

On the other hand, we use SAP systems for information management of assets. Users require an interface between their SAP maintenance modules and Intergraph solutions. To meet our customers’ requirements, we have collaborated closely with SAP, giving users the ability to import design data managed in SAP, which improves the design process.

Intergraph has continuously studied how we can easily provide enterprise data to our customers. We have chosen cloud technology as one of the methods. We had the first opportunity to use cloud technology for the Pearl GTL project in Qatar based on Shell’s demand. This enormous project was successfully complete using the cloud environment to share information among multiple companies in this joint-venture project.

Exchanging information using the cloud removes the need for traditional data handover on projects. We are also look at other means to standardize the customization and configuration process to satisfy the needs of owner operators without the cloud. With these options, we can offer a balanced service to our customers in a short period of time.

ENN (Engineering Network) Magazine, Vol. 316, 25 July 2012  

Strengthening Sales Activity for Japanese Owner Operators (page 46) Franz Kufner, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Intergraph Process Power & Marine

As of July 2012, Greater China is now a separate operating region independent of Asia-Pacific. I am responsible for sales activity in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Asia and Australia, excluding Greater China.

A year ago, we were focused on gas-related projects in Australia. However, these have been progressing slowly due to increasing labor costs. Such projects, where resources from offshore gas fields are transferred onshore for processing, have high costs, which can be difficult to produce a profit. Therefore, there is a growing trend in the industry for the processing to occur offshore as an FLNG plant project. FLNG plants are regularly operated overseas, even for engineering companies based in Australia.

In Australia, the mining industry was at its peak last year but has remained stagnant currently due to a slowdown in investment. However, the Malaysian business is forging ahead. Petronas has embarked an LNG plant construction project, which is generating demand. There is no major expansion in Singapore but our existing customers are implementing various projects, which gives us lots of opportunities. In addition, business in other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand is going well. The Vietnamese government is a little hesitant in investing in the energy business, so it may take a while for the business to move ahead.

In the meantime, we have an interest in Myanmar. The government has opened the country for business and foreign companies are starting to invest. As an undeveloped country, there is a great potential in Myanmar for Intergraph business. We have already contacted local offices of our existing customers in the oil and gas, and other industries.

In Asia-Pacific, there are also many opportunities from projects in Japan and Korea where there are several EPC contractors. There is a big difference between Japan and Korea. Korea maintains domestic vendors with strong competitiveness in engineering, while Japan primarily does a lot of work overseas.

The Korean EPC business is an active trade and the companies proactively export the knowledge for overseas projects – Korea is extremely strong in this field. Also, in the marine industry, Korea has tremendous potential with the top three companies: Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. In addition, there is a healthy owner operator market in Korea.

Compared to the Korean market, 90% of revenue in Japan was raised by engineering contractors. We have been very focused on the Japanese owner operator market over the last year, and Intergraph expects new business soon with a large refinery. SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators (SPO) and SmartPlant P&ID are some of our intelligent solutions that are very suitable for owner operators. Japanese owner operators are interested in these products, which can help to change how they operate their business.

We also expect to see an increase in demand in the nuclear power industry, with the restarting of nuclear power generation, particularly with pressurized-water reactors. This will be a big growth opportunity for Intergraph.

ENN (Engineering Network) Magazine, Vol. 316, 25 July 2012  

Focus on Simple and Intuitive Transfer of Information in SPO Development (page 47) Adrian Park, Global Executive Director, Owner Operator Solutions, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine

My role is to ensure that our product development is reflecting the needs of our customers. Many of our customers have recently been looking to extending the life of their existing facilities. SPO should ensure the reliability and safety of these facilities for effective asset management.

Solutions that are directly connected to the maintenance function, such as SAP and computer maintenance management systems (CMMS), need to receive high-quality engineering data. SPO plays a role in providing such information and ensuring the quality and accuracy of the data.

Several customers believe they can get the necessary and appropriate output from SAP. However, extracting good results from SAP is highly dependent on the quality of engineering data. Such high-quality data could be from reliability analysis, inspection, and DCS, all of which are very important for operations and maintenance. Also, the Japanese market values the management of deviation based on the engineering data, with an audit required to record who has done the inspection.

Recently, we can obtain the as-is plant data using laser scanning technology, not via engineering data. This includes XYZ coordinate information, providing an interactive interface. Such output can be utilized in SPO – data can be transferred to a mobile terminal and then brought on-site in a later phase. We believe that the integration of laser scanning technology will help to boost the SPO business.

Greenfield plants often have problems regarding data handover using SPO. Such projects encourage contractors to proceed with the joint venture that have multiple sources of information. A smooth implementation of the project requires proper business arrangements among all of the stakeholders; thereby information management becomes even more important.

In addition, handover of engineering from FEED to detailed engineering, or from detailed engineering to operations and maintenance cost about 1-2% of the project. Intergraph is looking at means to enhance the effectiveness of implementation in order to reduce such costs. For the Shell Pearl GTL project, data was transferred in a cloud environment without handover. SPO was installed in the cloud to provide access to design tools and EPC information.

Our development is based firmly on feedback from customers. These are the four main challenges we are currently aiming to address in SPO development: work process, user interface, mobility, and total cost ownership.

Work process will introduce the template of work procedures. Additionally, the workflow at turnaround and data loading to SAP or MAXIMO can be processed with each individual template.

We are also considering how we can utilize mobile terminals to reduce errors on-site. We believe mobile terminals can be effective tools to facilitate simple and intuitive data transfer.