IBP1050_19
IMPLEMENTATION OF SOFTWARE FOR
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT OF
EQUIPMENT OF THE
NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION GRID
OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL
Charles S. Netto , Luis C. Niedesberg 2, Rogério A. Z. Santos3
1
Copyright 2019, Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute - IBP
This Technical Paper was prepared for presentation at the Rio Pipeline Conference and Exhibition 2019, held
between 03 and 05 of September, in Rio de Janeiro. This Technical Paper was selected for presentation by the
Technical Committee of the event according to the information contained in the final paper submitted by the
author(s). The organizers are not supposed to translate or correct the submitted papers. The material as it is
presented, does not necessarily represent Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute’ opinion, or that of its
Members or Representatives. Authors consent to the publication of this Technical Paper in the Rio Pipeline
Conference and Exhibition 2019.
Abstract
This work show the Implementation of Computerized System for Maintenance Management
and Inspection of the Natural Gas Distribution Grid in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The
Sulgás Maintenance area carried out this implementation during the years 2017 and 2018,
ending the use of decentralized databases. The software used was the Softexpert EAM. Initially
the equipment register was generated. From then on, software was created in the Inspection and
Maintenance Plans, which were associated with each type of equipment, generating the future
maturities, deadlines, execution dates of each maintenance and inspection. For each equipment,
data sheets, images, georeferenced location, and others were attached. After this basic work,
the software begins to generate the Service Orders for each future intervention in the
equipments. These Service Orders have information on the Term and Plan that should be
applied to the asset, which in the Planning phase of the Service Order, allow Responsible for
Inspection, Executives, as well as an annotation of Cost of work, inputs and full description of
the Activities taken. Approvals of documents are all done digitally with a record of the
electronic history of approvals viewed at any time. Currently, more than 12,000 natural gas
distribution network equipment is being controlled throughout Rio Grande do Sul and more
than 1,200 km of Gas Pipeline Extension. This implementation has generated excellent results
to Sulgás and can serve as a Success Case to other Companies, in order to eliminate manual and
paper records, adding technology and productivity.
Keywords: Natural Gas. Enterprise Asset Management. Software.
1. Introduction
This work aims to present another stage of the Digital Transformation that the Natural
Gas Company of Rio Grande do Sul - Sulgas has been going through in the last 10 years. Since
the implementation of the Automated System of Measurement and Billing in 2008,
Georeferencing System in 2010, Supervisory System in 2014, the Company has been
transforming the way of working to reduce costs, information quality, process optimization,
______________________________
1
Engineer - Gas Company of the State of Rio Grande do Sul - Sulgas
2
Technician – Gas Company of the State of Rio Grande do Sul - Sulgas
3
Technician – Gas Company of the State of Rio Grande do Sul - Sulgas
Rio Pipeline Conference and Exhibition 2019
greater efficiency and control of productivity. In 2017 another great step was taken to achieve
Operational Excellence with the implementation of the Asset Management System in the Sulgás
Maintenance area. With this new stage of the Digital Transformation, we aim to carry out the
complete management of the life of the assets of the operational area of the company.
2. The Problem
Expansion of the distribution network with an exponential increase in the number of
customers, coupled with the age of the older pipeline network, was generating a near-constant
need for asset interventions such as maintenance, calibration, and routine inspections. All this
work generated a large amount of reports and control documents, which were presented and
processed on paper since their generation, approvals and filing.
The procedures between Sulgás and the companies contracted to perform the services
depended on the evaluation of the documents, their return for correction, which could occur
several times, until their final approval, with the release for payment of services and filing of
the Orders of Service with your reports, which could have dozens of sheets, spreadsheets and
photos. A Bulletin of Measurement (BM), which is the monthly document that presents all
services provided with their values and quantities and could have 250 more service orders and
more than 2500 sheets, duly initialed and signed. Until the approval of the BM, we can still
consider that dozens of reports have been disapproved by the Sulgás Inspection and needed to
be reprinted, which we can infer a quantity of more than 5000 printed sheets per month in the
management of services.
The large number of OSs and reports delivered on paper also limited the services
planned during the month so that we did not have a decrease in the quality of the execution and
accountability of the services performed. All the management of the services and the assets was
controlled and managed through several spreadsheets and by several different people. A precise
reconciliation of data and information was difficult to access.
The performance indicators were also controlled by spreadsheets and those responsible
needed to reconcile various information from different sources until their closure. In the whole
process we had around 250 orders of service per month and a team of approximately 15 people
directly involved in the services.
Among the worksheets used we can mention those of budget control, control of
indicators, control of maintenance periods, control of services guarantee, control of works of
third parties, control of collection of interferents, control of delivery of documents, control of
term and execution services, among others.
3. Asset Management
Asset management is critical to prioritizing investments and focusing efforts on the most
critical assets that sustain the organization's processes.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) brings the solution to the supervision of the
equity of a company. It is a life-cycle management of physical assets.
In the EAM standard, intense control over the validity and intervals required for the
maintenance of each equipment of the collection is made. Thus, if a piece has a durability of
six months, before this deadline expires, the manager will arrange for its replacement.
The software allows you to register any type of entry related to the maintenance services
performed in the company's equipment. It also allows the planning and monitoring of scheduled
maintenance services. You can also automatically send documents, alarms, schedules, event
2
Rio Pipeline Conference and Exhibition 2019
history and graphics. In this way, the drop with the repairs is inevitable, since it is usually
cheaper to prevent than to remedy. Among the benefits that can be achieved are:
• Increased asset availability;
• Increase the safety of people and processes;
• Contribution to the organization's reputation;
• Effective management of the generation of value;
• Risk and responsibility management;
• Maximizing company results;
• Better financial performance;
• Improved planning of actions under assets;
• Optimization of the use of assets throughout their life cycle;
• Quality of services provided to customers;
• Traceability of assets;
• Reduction of capital and maintenance costs;
• Reduced costs in repairs and increased productivity;
• Safety and regulatory compliance;
• Asset investment decision making allowance.
4. SoftExpert Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
Sulgás carried out evaluations of existing softwares in the market and visits to other
Companies that already used software for asset management and opted for the implementation
of the SoftExpert EAM module, with licensing already acquired by Sulgás. The software chosen
has a very friendly web interface and is highly flexible, parameterizable, allowing configuration
according to the processes and needs of the Company.
The first part of the deployment consists of performing all the system parameterization
where the teams that would use the system, suppliers, service centers, asset types, model
activities, service checklists, service approvals, and others are registered.
The model activity register is where all the types of services that will be controlled from
the system will be registered. Among the registered activities we have the inspections in valve
boxes, calibration of flow computers, general maintenance in stations, reception of pipeline
network, painting of actuators, among others. The system now has more than 200 different
activities.
Asset type registration allows you to segregate and organize all the assets that will be
controlled by the system. Sulgás today controls its assets in 18 different categories, which can
be increased or changed quite easily.
Attribute registration is an extremely easy way to increment the registration of assets
and / or activities with information not available in the default version of the system. As an
example we can mention the attribute of Latitude / Longitude, type of meter, number of sections
of stations, ERP code or equity of equipment etc.
The system has several preformatted reports that allow for an easy consultation of all
available information as well as the progress of the services and the history of the asset's life.
In addition to the predefined reports you can also create any type of report or chart with the
Analytics tool. Another facility of the system is to allow create checklists that can be used in
performing the services.
As for the security and availability of the information, the system allows to separate the
access by type of asset, types of service, programming teams of services, executors and
approvers of the services. Service approval can be configured for different levels of approval,
which extends the security of the release to the payment of services.
3
Rio Pipeline Conference and Exhibition 2019
The SoftExpert EAM module also allows integration with other management modules
such as document management, risk management, input management, request management,
problem management
5. Deployment
Initially, all asset information, maintenance plans, maintenance history, asset
characteristics, information found in several spreadsheets and different sources of information
were collected.
Seeking the smallest impact in the day-to-day operation and the decrease of the
resistance in the use of the system it was decided to implant the system in phases based on the
complete cycle of the Asset type. The initial phase consisted of the parameterization of the type
of asset, attributes, creation of the TAG standard, types of services related to the asset,
maintenance plans and deadlines, asset registration, maintenance plans, generation of Work
Orders culminating with approval of the Orders of Services. For each equipment, data sheets /
specifications, images / photos, address, functional description, georeferenced location, and
others were attached.
From the evaluation and homologation of the implementation of the first phase, which
was the registration of the Steel Valve Boxes, the implementation of the second and subsequent
phases was started as follows:
• Stage 1 - Steel Valve Boxes
• Stage 2 - Stations
• Stage 3 - Odorizers
• Stage 4 - Gas Pipeline
• Stage 5 - HDPE valve housings
• Stage 6 - Manometers
• Stage 7 - Pneumatic Actuators
• Stage 7 - Cathodic Protection
• Stage 8 - Measurement System.
From the creation of Inspection and Maintenance Plans, which are associated to each
type of equipment, generating the future maturities / deadlines / execution dates of each
maintenance and inspection, also considering the last intervention carried out in existing
history. After this basic work, the software begins to generate the Work Orders for each future
intervention in the equipments. These Service Orders have Time and Plan information that must
be applied to the asset, fiscal and service staff, as well as to associate check lists and procedures
with the OS.
The system allows the parameterization of the opening of the OS of the maintenance
plans in the planning phase or directly in execution. If opened in planning the OS can still be
changed before being put into execution. It is also possible to program how many days before
the service the OS should open. This allows for a very dynamic and cohesive planning.
During the Execution of the Work Order, the Execution period of the activity,
Responsible for Inspection, Executives, as well as an annotation of Cost of labor, inputs and a
complete description of the Activities and Actions Taken must be informed. It is also possible
to include photos, images, plans, attached files that complement the report of any activity
developed
Upon completion of services the OS is available for approval depending on the service
can occur in one or two steps. If the service was configured for one approval only the tax would
be worth it if the service and reports were executed and presented correctly by approving and
4
Rio Pipeline Conference and Exhibition 2019
closing the OS. If the prosecutor does not agree with the detail of the service the OS is
disapproved and returns to the performer for the corrections of the report or even for the service
to be redone. If the OS has more than one level of approval, after the approval of the supervisor,
it is sent to the superior manager for approval. The second approval level may also fail the
service and it will return to execution again. With the approval of the OS the same is closed and
sent for payment.
All information flow and document approvals are done digitally with historical record
interactions, disapprovals, approvals and respective comments. Becoming available for viewing
and future audits.
One of the most important modules of the deployed EAM System is the Analytics
module that allows a complete extraction of the system data for creation of reports and
dashboards to follow the services of Online form, past evaluation and future planning of the
services and life of the Assets. Through this module were created Dashboards to follow the
Indicators of maintenance, budget control, evaluation of the checklists of the services, control
of Work Orders in execution among others. All dashboards allow their visualization by various
dimensions such as date, city, asset type, responsible teams, regional, contracted company, OS
status among others.
6. Conclusions
Currently, more than 12,000 assets of the Natural Gas Distribution Network are being
controlled throughout Rio Grande do Sul and more than 1,200 km of Gas Pipeline Extension.
Dozens of professionals that can work remotely and simultaneously, supervising the
services described technically and with images by the executing companies. The System still
generates control charts of each line of information of each asset, with pending, items to be
executed, graph by type, location, user, performer, service duration times and several other
parameters.
This implementation has generated excellent results for Sulgas by increasing the quality
of services, reducing rework, reducing service time and approvals of service reports, reducing
costs and especially the safety and reliability of the pipeline network, in order to eliminate
manual registrations and paper, adding technology and productivity...
