Abstract
Teekay Petrojarl Production (TKP), the largest operator of Floating Production, Storage and Offtake (FPSO) vessels in the North Sea, has an ambition to retain its leading position as FPSO contractor in harsh environments while also expanding its business into benign waters worldwide. One of the important measures to attain this is by establishing and implementing best practice within E&P operations business worldwide. Several projects have been started to support TKP's effort to reach operational excellence. This paper is concerned with one of the projects, "Integrated Operations – A Key Enabler to Operational Excellence in maintenance Management of FPSOs". The main objective of this project is to enable TKP to take a step further into operational excellence by implementing more effective work processes, and developing new theory, methods and tools for maintenance optimization. TKP regards Integrated Operations (IO) as an important instrument to reach this objective. The research project focuses on three activities; 1) Describe and analyse future work processes for strategic and tactical analyses, 2) develop tools and methods to support strategic and tactical maintenance decisions, and 3) implement and verify work processes, tools and methods. Cases are used to develop, test and verify work processes, tools and methods prior to implementation, and have proven essential to create consensus. Recent experience shows that challenges with IO are more related to organisation and competence than technology itself. The Man, Technology and Organisation (MTO) focus is chosen when developing new work processes to meet the challenges related to competence and organisation. Close cooperation with onshore and offshore staff is critical when developing the new work processes. The main challenge for the development of tools and methods is related to balancing simplicity and theoretical basis. It is seen that many of the new tools and methods may be feasible just because the IO setting enables the use of onshore centralised expertise. The project has clearly seen that a successful implementation of IO, to reach operational excellence in maintenance management, requires full attention to balancing personnel competence, technology complexity and organisation (MTO), and ensuring management ownership (visions, maintenance strategy, measurable goals).
