Integrated, Transparent, Efficient Approach to Operations Management

Owner operators across industry verticals aim for safe, reliable asset operations and compliance. For any organization, the safety of its workforce is of paramount importance.

A key aspect in achieving this goal is to have shift reports made with accurate data, combined with effective communication whilst simplifying the routine tasks for shift personnel. The current pandemic and the “new normal” have given an impetus to existing businesses to digitalize to be more transparent and standardize shift operations with full audit trail capabilities.  

In real life, however, owners struggle to get a standardized shift handover process with data coming in from a variety of sources, as there are disparate ways of reporting across sites. The shift handover process and reports suffer from opaque, incomplete and siloed handovers. The operations logbooks and log sheets either in physical or spreadsheet format deny the opportunity for an easily accessible single source of truth for shift information.

Further, not being integrated with critical data coming in from a variety of data sources adds to the problem. And what a variety of data sources there are … local plant historians, maintenance work orders and notifications, lab results, operator inspection round readings, custom databases, daily operating instructions and log entries, just to name a few.

There have been many industrial accidents in the last few years where poor shift handover was a contributory factor.  

The need has long been felt for a web-based, centrally accessible, workflow-driven, mobility-enabled shift log database, integrated with real-time data to ensure that all the information is available to bonafide users from operations, maintenance, inspection and any other stakeholders in the operating assets.

Easy configurability for shift report templates has been another important business need since operations teams are busy with daily challenges and would not invest resources in customizing or coding required changes in shift report templates. Key process variables need to be monitored, and a mechanism needs to be available to ensure any deviations are red flagged automatically in the operations log.  

Hexagon PPM’s j5 Shift Operations Management is a proven operations management solution with spreadsheet-like configurability and enterprise scalability used across industry verticals, including Oil & Gas, Power and Infrastructure. j5 Operations Management Solutions global footprint includes 100 customers, 400 sites and 30,000 users in 20 countries across five continents, operating from a unified user-interface powered from a single, central server.

It can be accessed from common web browsers by authorized users connected to servers, regardless of the user location. Single Sign On, leading Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) and local languages are also supported.

Humans see things that machines can’t. j5 Shift Operations Management captures the data from “human sensors” and leverages that to achieve shift excellence.  

j5 Shift Operations Management improves accuracy and efficiency, makes shift data visible to authorized users across the enterprise and reduces shift data discovery time with fast search and filtering. j5 Operator Rounds provides notable field data using a variety of mobile devices working on Windows, iOS and Android.

Interface with data historians provides key process data that is relevant to specific shift handovers, daily production meetings or process log reports. j5 Shift Operations Management integrates with process historians, and j5 Event Manager enables the monitoring of real-time process data variables. Events can be identified in real-time, and log entries, e–mails and workflows can be triggered.

The asset lists, current work orders and notifications are made available from the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). The laboratory information management system supplies relevant laboratory results. j5 Control of Work includes functionalities to handle a variety of permits, isolations, certificates and risk management along with sample templates that can be easily modified. 

With j5 Shift Operations Management deployment, information becomes available to all members of the operations team and beyond, leading to enhanced communication flow, time savings and increased accuracy. By harnessing the right information quickly, a formalized, standardized and templated j5 Shift Handover process contributes to improving decision-making and reducing the risk of accidents.  

Industry has struggled with the problems of largely manual and disconnected shift handover methodology affecting operations for a long time. j5 Shift Operations Management ensures a transparent, complete and integrated shift handover supporting safe, reliable, efficient and compliant plant operations.