​ ​Hallmarks of so called digital enterprise companies are that they are able to mirror and refine the real-world way of conducting business in the digital world, and in some cases even blur the boundaries between the two. ​ ​Such companies design their business processes (their “ways of working”), implements them digitally, executes, and measures their processes continuously. The measurements are then used to optimize and adjust the business processes both in the real and digital world. ​Emphasis is put on company services being protected by cyber security measures to sa ..read more

I realized through a question from a young consultant the other day that I’ve never really written about the main portion of what I do as advisor. Sure, I write about the strategies and outcomes of those, but not really about the advisory role. Coming back to the question from the young consultant, she asked me “what would you say is the single most important ability for you as an advisor?” I thought for a while before responding: “the ability to keep my mouth shut”. She looked at me like I just fell out of the sky, so some further explanation was needed. In my experience, especially when a ..read more

All facility owners want a facility that produces 24/7, 365 days a year, however, nobody has it. Production needs to be halted for all sorts of reasons both scheduled, like planned maintenance, and un-scheduled, like interventions due to failures in critical equipment. The digital twin promises that if you have an exact data-based replica of your physical facility which actually “talks to” and “understands” your physical facility, you will be able to greatly optimize operations, maintenance, risk management, safety etc. How? Well, if data is acquired real-time from sensors on equipment in t ..read more

This time an article that aims towards the more traditional Product Lifecycle Management domain and especially towards configurable products or so called Configure To Order (CTO) products. This article is a direct result of discussions I’ve had with Henrik Hulgaard, the CTO of Configit, on Configuration Management in general and Product Configuration Management in particular. Configit specializes in Product Configuration Management, or as they prefer to call it Configuration Lifecycle Management.   Most businesses that design, manufacture and sell products have a system landscape in pla ..read more

During the last eight articles we have covered different aspects of facility information management in a real-world project. In this article I will focus on a facility’s configuration management. If you would like to read previous chapters first before we take a deeper dive into facility configuration management, you can find them all here: Archive   In my view there are two important parts to facility configuration management. One is the management of changes, traceability and control of the individual information structures we’ve talked about in previous chapters, so, how is the inform ..read more

Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC So why this strong focus on structured and connected data? Throughout the different chapters we’ve looked into the details of how the European Spallation Source have defined data structures needed throughout the lifecycle of the facility, and how interoperability between connected objects across those data structures is achieved by utilizing governed and shared master data. If you would like to read previous chapters first before we take a deeper dive, you can find them all here: Archive ​ The figure below shows an overview of where ESS have ..read more

Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC In previous chapters we’ve discussed the different data and information structures that needs to be in place in order to support a capital facilities project like the European Spallation Source from engineering through operations, maintenance and ultimately decommissioning. Structured data is excellent, but wouldn’t it be even better to also have aligned definitions across data-structures and tools? It certainly would, so in this chapter we’re going to look into what has been done at ESS to achieve interoperability across both data structures ..read more

Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC ​ In this chapter we’re going to take a look at how physically installed assets are treated from an information management perspective, how assets are related to their specifying tag information, physical location and work performed on the assets themselves from arrival on site to installation and commissioning. If you would like to read previous chapters first before we take a deeper dive, you can find them all here: Archive ​ Figure 1. ​ As physical assets arrive at ESS they are registered in the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system th ..read more

Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration Team In the past chapters I’ve talked an awful lot about structured data and information structures, and yes, in my view this is very important as it is the very essence to obtain effective Plant Lifecycle Management, however in this chapter let’s take breather from the data structures and have a look at how ESS manages the aspect of space management (which is also a structure….. Of course I almost hear you say, but it looks a lot shinier, and by the way, yes it is connected to the tag structure (FBS) and the other information structures). At ESS th ..read more

Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC In chapter four we will enter familiar and traditional PLM territory as we will take a closer look at product designs and EBOM’s (Engineering Bill Of Materials). European Spallation Source face the complexities of pure Engineer To Order (ETO) which means that they will only manufacture one of the designed products in the facility, as well as product designs that will be manufactured in series. It is important to note that some of the products going into the facility was not even invented at the time the decision was made to build the European ..read more