Nynas Digitalizes Refinery Asset Lifecycle Information Management with Hexagon
Nynas, one of the world’s largest producers of naphthenic specialty products and bitumen, wanted to improve engineering and operations efficiencies and reduce risk. They decided this was to be achieved through digitalizing asset lifecycle information management and enabling collaboration between the different disciplines.
Facing document management challenges
Initial efforts were focused on the refinery at Nynäshamn. The existing legacy document management system did not offer workflow automation. There were also frequent concerns about the accuracy of the documents as users were unsure whether they were working with the most recent version of each stored file.
It was very difficult to know whether information was consistent between different disciplines and departments. This inconsistency prevented smooth handover of documentation from engineering to operations and maintenance because changes to documentation were neither consistent or automatic.
Digitalization and automation
Nynas took the decision to replace its existing system with engineering and asset lifecycle management solutions from Hexagon’s PPM division. The first goal was to control and align tag management and engineering design data across the different systems and disciplines. This will be followed by implementing an interface to the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne ERP system.
Intergraph SmartPlant® Foundation sits at the heart of Nynas’ engineering function, acting as a data exchange hub that stores all design data and documentation — including from third-party solutions. The system now manages around 200,000 – 300,000 documents in different file formats with more than 69,000 tags, providing an essential information resource for the engineering, maintenance, HSE and operations departments.
Nynas has also introduced other Hexagon tools to further improve its digital capabilities. Project versions of P&IDs are created with Intergraph Smart® P&ID, while all the instrumentation-related wiring, loops, instrument schedules and datasheet information are created in Intergraph Smart Instrumentation.
SmartPlant Foundation applies automated workflows to change management, ensuring that each update is reviewed and approved before submission. A similar approval process will be applied to documentation shared with external stakeholders and partners before they are loaded into the management system.
What did Nynas gain?
Hexagon solutions have allowed Nynas to build a collaborative environment that makes data management more transparent and exposes data to tools used by other departments across the organization. It also enables data from the tools to be easily published and made readily available in SmartPlant Foundation. This has also improved the overall quality of documentation and data and the ability to trust that the entered data is correct and has been checked appropriately.
Please read the complete case study to learn more about what Nynas has achieved with Hexagon solutions — and what the next stage of its digitalization efforts will involve.