By: Roy Lund, Skymira, LLC.
Summary
For the past three years, Compressco, a TETRA Technologies Company (NYSE:TTI), has been linking to remote information with the goal of streamlining processes, improving the bottom-line and setting the company up for rapid growth in good times.
The project initially started with the need to improve workflow through automated work orders, but quickly Compressco realized there was far more they could do. Skymira helped to map out a more comprehensive implementation, proving the savings through the work order automation, and then launching into additional planned phases -- all on a platform that allowed for easy additions and seamless integration with existing enterprise systems.
The benefit of approaching this as a pre-planned remote information ‘system’, rather than installing separate component applications, is that the company can continually add new applications guaranteed to easily integrate with existing infrastructure and combine data streams into more powerful management tools than if managed separately.
Compressco’s Business Model
Compressco is a leading manufacturer of Production Enhancement Solutions for Marginal and Low Pressure Oil and Gas Wells. The firm manufactures, leases and services its GasJack™ technology designed to increase production and total recoverable reserves of natural oil and gas wells. The GasJack™ is a mobile compressor, about the size of a road construction power generator. These units are placed along side the marginal wells where they add pressure, increasing the daily production rates. The technology allows the producer to extend the life and viability of these valuable resources.
Most of the placements are in extremely remote areas. The fields where these units operate covers an area of the US from Texas up through Alaska, and also includes Mexico. Units are also used in offshore locations. Compressco deploys a team of service technicians on a regular basis to service the units and to make repairs when required. Customer contracts typically include an uptime guarantee. At the time the Skymira solutions were implemented, Compressco had several thousand GasJacks™ in operation and over 180 full time technicians servicing them.
The Challenges of Operating Remotely
Compressco realized early on that manual processes for creating work orders, managing parts inventory and identifying machines requiring maintenance were significantly impeding their ability to grow as quickly as they required. The challenges identified as having the greatest near-term impact included:
- Work orders were all paper-based. Service records were handwritten and mailed back to the main office for manual data entry two weeks after the repairs were completed. With over 4,000 work orders each month, the amount of paperwork was extreme, taking three full time clerks and an entire conference room to handle it.
- Parts inventory on the technicians’ trucks was also manually managed. The inefficiencies of this process were believed to be resulting in higher costs for the company, but there was no way to effectively analyze the data to know where savings could be generated.
- GasJacks™ could go down in remote areas. Compressco would not be aware of the situation unless called by the people on-site, or discovered by a technician on a routine maintenance call. The downtime resulted in lost customer productivity and charge-backs.
- The specific reason for a machine’s failure was not known until the technician arrived on site. There was no way to assure if the proper parts were on the technician’s truck, or whether the technician’s skill set best matched the nature of the repair.
- Compressco’s current method of verifying the exact location of their units was paper-based records of last known location. They needed real-time GPS tracking to assure maximum use of resources.
- Without a centralized database, mining all of this information -- service records, technician time sheets, unit failure codes, etc – was difficult. The firm wanted to determine avenues to greater efficiencies and effectiveness.
With such a broad range of challenges, Compressco, with Skymira’s help, determined that several phases of implementation over a set period of time would be the best course of action. As such the project was delineated along three phases:
Phase 1, the Mercury project, would tackle the requirements of work order automation, vehicle location, real-time inventory management and technician access to machine data.
Phase 2, the ePumper project, would address the need for real-time equipment monitoring and failure code identification as well as GPS positioning.
Phase 3 would focus on data-mining, combining data streams and the resulting management decisions and process changes the firm would deploy.
Addressing the Requirements with Skymira’s TailorFit™ Solutions
As part of its Tailor-Fit™ solutions, Skymira employs a comprehensive approach to understanding each client’s needs and details of how they operate. This assures that clients are presented with a complete view of all areas within the business where access to remote information will drive increased returns. While most companies will initially implement one or two high return applications, Skymira has observed that companies continuing beyond this initial set of applications realize exponential benefits. Chiefly driven by the increased reporting made available, new combinations of data can be used to solve increasingly complex challenges, unlocking value often hidden within a company’s existing processes.
Before Skymira arrived on the scene, Compressco’s implementation team had already met with several potential providers. Upon review, they were disappointed to realize that most had proposed “canned” solutions that required costly customization in order to meet Compressco’s needs. The team wanted to avoid the headache of dealing with multiple suppliers. They also wanted a solution that would integrate with the way they were doing business, having the least amount of impact on operations. Adding to their frustration were proposals for equipment monitoring requiring at least two hardware devices at a cost of over $1,000 per unit.
According to Chris Anderson and Larry Brickman, Compressco’s project leaders, “Skymira got it right away.” “They asked the right questions and understood our requirements. They also had a process in place to offer us exactly what we wanted, but without the long lead-times one-off custom work requires. In the end, they made tailoring the solution part of the contract, everything in one place, easy and convenient.” When it came to the big hurdle of a single hardware unit for equipment monitoring, Skymira called in one of its key partners, SkyWave, and all three parties worked together to come up with an entirely new piece of hardware, delivered in half the promised time.
Project Scope and Implementation
Following the plan for phased implementation, Skymira offered two primary solutions that could later be easily integrated with one another for the third phase.
Phase One - Mercury Project Snapshot
Requirements:
- Mercury 1: Transform paper work orders (4,000 per month)
- Mercury 2: Add real-time inventory management system
- Mercury 3: Update work order, add ability for technicians to request status of compressors they are responsible to maintain
Hardware: EMS PDT100 for 180 trucks, Laptops
Carrier: SkyTerra satellite packet data
Skymira Services: Electronic Forms, Enterprise systems integration, GPS tracking
Phase Two - ePumper Project Snapshot
Requirements: Equipment monitoring, GPS tracking, terminal to be remotely configurable, near-global footprint, web-based SCADA management interface, web-based mapping for GPS tracking, information alerts in XML format via FTP server.
Hardware: Skywave DMR800, Intrinsically Safe, C1, D2
Carrier: Inmarsat ISATM2M
Skymira Services: Equipment Monitoring, GPS Tracking, Enterprise systems integration
Phase Three – Tying the systems together
Requirements: Tying Automated Paperwork, Real-time Inventory Management, GPS tracking and Equipment Status Monitoring so that the company’s service managers and remotely-located technicians would be able send and receive work orders, update them, assess the operating status of equipment, and manage parts inventory.
Example: Tie specific machine performance and resulting failure codes to the technician work orders as well as the parts inventory on their vehicles.
The Mercury implementation went very smoothly. With installation of new hardware in all 180 trucks having the greatest impact, Compressco coordinated the installation with regularly scheduled technician training. By the end of the day’s classes, the technician had a newly outfitted truck and was up to speed on use of the new system. Skymira also addressed specific software issues that were required. For the additional two phases, the impact was less given that these were predominantly software upgrades.
For the ePumper implementation, Compressco had emphasized the need for a rapid install of the new monitoring hardware. Work commenced immediately after final design was approved and the Skywave hardware started to arrive. As units were being installed, it became apparent that certain field locations were prone to vibration levels greater than anticipated. Skymira and Skywave immediately dispatched teams to the identified field locations and, together with Compressco, identified the specific cause and developed a solution. With DMR800’s ease of installation, Compressco was able to train their own technicians to do the equipment monitoring installation, making the switch cost effective.
Measurable Results
The positive results of the work order automation showed up almost immediately. Compressco could now check and make sure things were operating smoothly. Did the tech show up when they were supposed to? Did the work get done? Were there any unforeseen problems? Field efficiency and scheduling was greatly improved. Paperwork was streamlined and allowed the company to process more than double the number of work orders processed from 4,000 per month at project roll-out to 8,500 while simultaneously reducing the administrative clerk count from three down to just one. And with service reports being sent electronically, technicians were now freed up to spend more time on maintenance and less on paperwork. From a morale standpoint alone, the improvement was significant.
When inventory management came on line, the system began to provide checks and balances. Compressco could now check parts inventory on trucks, determine which techs were most successful and which ones might need more training based on hours and parts expended. They were also able to see which techs were located closest to projects. Perhaps the crowning achievement came during an extensive analysis of parts usage. With access to a complete database of information, Compressco was able to trim parts inventory costs by an astounding $200,000 per month. The results were timely -- given today’s economic environment, those savings are helping the company stay on its growth track.
When equipment monitoring went live, it really brought the whole picture together for Compressco. The company now knows at any minute how many units are up and running. With a contractual obligation for 95% uptime, they now have a much better way of assuring conformance by verifying a downtime situation the minute it happens and monitoring the level of service and average response time for repairs. Most dramatic is the reduction on failure rates resulting from the new preventative maintenance capability.
As a result of combining these applications, Operations can now capture a machine’s failure code, analyze the data and correlate the problem to the parts needed, verify if those parts are on the technician’s truck and, if not, dispatch another tech who does have the parts or the specific experience. Compressco has also instituted new policies designed to decrease costs, for example, technicians must receive authorization before using ‘high cost’ parts. “When data from multiple remote information solutions is combined, it produces exponential benefits for our clients,” comments Robert Landsfield, Skymira’s CEO, “Now that we are at the point where multiple applications have been deployed and data streams combined, Compressco technicians driving in trucks are able to check the status of equipment operating hundreds of miles away.” added Landsfield.
The cost savings have been significant. Yet Compressco believes they have only begun to scratch the surface. In time Operations will be able to even better control inventory by identifying expensive parts displaying higher failure rates and re-engineer them to save money. They also believe they will be able to increase the efficiencies of their technicians by identifying ‘outliers’ that perform at exceptional levels and leveraging their skills across the entire group.
Out in the field, Compressco’s clients and peers have tuned into the implementations. It’s become quite the story in the market. Technicians report they often hear the words -- “Wow. Laptops, satellites, no paperwork.”
Read the original article on Remote Magazine. (Please see page 14.)