How Intelligent Knowledge Systems Will Improve Operations and Safety in the Future

Abstract

Guest editorial In an era of high workforce turnover, capturing operational knowledge is vital to improving safety and achieving operational excellence. Modern solutions must address not only the replacement of paper-based processes, but also contextually weave together multidisciplinary information in a form that provides a holistic view of equipment across an operation. Going forward, the oil and gas industry should have intelligent, automated systems designed to capture data, learn from events, optimize production, and prevent safety-related incidents. The time is now for this step change in the industry as these fully integrated systems will become as necessary and as expected as the use of tablets and laptops. Trends and events in the oil and gas industry in recent years have shown that the focus on operation, maintenance, and safety requires more integration and embedding into operational processes. The industry has been aware of the issue of staff turnover for some time and the causes are not just aging baby boomers, but a change in working trends. The retention of employees is no longer assured through incentives, such as a good pension package, and the modern workforce recognizes that their skills are highly transportable. Lives are built more around portability, and information that would encourage one to realize new ambitions is more readily available than ever before. What attracted and retained previous generations of the workforce no longer has the same appeal. The industry must adapt to this new status quo and protect against the increasing risk that vital, safety-related information could disappear from an organization. With increased staff turnover, the risk that an organization might not keep required information is particularly high in activities that are not part of daily operations. Less frequent occurrences, such as an operation startup or coming out of a turnaround process, may leave the company particularly vulnerable. Information may be especially limited when it comes to taking long-life, rarely cycled equipment in and out of operation. However, it is under such less frequent conditions that accidents are more likely to occur. To combat the loss of knowledge retained by staff, intelligent systems should be not only work-process driven but also capture valuable information. These systems must be used by both seasoned and new employees and to capture and harness knowledge about various aspects of operations. They should learn, be intelligent, and make the knowledge they contain clearly available to operators as they work. In this way, when there are transitions, abnormal conditions, or opportunities for improvement, operators and engineers have ready access to the background and information gained from the past 20 years of accumulated knowledge. Such a system is a living, breathing application beyond anything that has been used in the industry to date.