Collaborative Work Environments (CWEs) have provided significant benefits to Shell in production, field management and maintenance. The CWEs enable faster and better decision making by improved communication and easier sharing of relevant information and data. Business benefits include increased production, higher equipment reliability, lower operating cost and improved HSE. Considerable learning was derived that helps future implementations and ensures sustainability.
Around 2005, Shell began the journey to enhance collaborative working within its producing assets (Knoppe 2008). Today the advantages of working in a collaborative environment are well understood and the concept is widely embraced throughout the petroleum industry (e.g. Gilman 2012).
Shell embarked on a large-scale implementation in all its major assets around the world since 2011, under drive from the global production leadership. This forms part of the global Smart Fields programme (De Best 2012, Van den Berg 2010). Many CWEs are now in place (Fig. 1), by 2015 more than 60 Shell assets will have over 400 live CWE rooms. The global implementation programme has enabled achieving these benefits faster, by creating a common methodology, standardising technical solutions, capturing lessons learnt and transferring the knowledge and best practices to new assets. In addition, it has provided the business leadership a vehicle for standardising business processes in the many assets around the world.
