Background
MODEC is a global supplier of offshore floating platforms for the offshore oil and gas industry and is recognized as a leading specialist for Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) vessels, Floating LNGs (FLNGs), Tension Leg Platforms (TLPs), and Production semi-submersibles.
The Challenge
Although MODEC was already using IBM Maximo including the Oil and Gas Industry add-on, its configuration did not enable the full potential of this powerful Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) platform. MODEC’s Maximo EAM system was running legacy versions on different add-ons and was highly customized by the previous vendor. The integration of the system upgrades, overall support, and data synchronization were the main issues that the client faced. Keeping the data current within MODEC’s global environment was also proving very onerous. These issues with the information flow were impacting purchasing and stock levels, causing costly over-stocking.
The Solution
Cohesive (SRO), which is an IBM Platinum Business Partner, and has unique Marine Industry expertise, was chosen by MODEC to audit and redevelop the existing Maximo system. Since then, Cohesive (SRO) has carried out several projects that took more than 1,300 hours to implement and saw it delivering staff training on the new solution. The transformed system workflows included service requests, work orders, purchase requisitions, requests for quotations, purchase orders, and deferrals. It is also equipped with a built-in feature to record shipping manifests to track outbound and inbound deliveries and a label printing function so that all items received are automatically given a barcode.
Fafa Buama, the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) administrator for MODEC states:
“The recent ‘Inventory Reorder and Expediting’ project has helped improve upon the core Maximo purchasing and inventory functionality to better suit our business which should lead to direct savings in inventory costs.”
Jonathan Ritchie, Senior Maximo Consultant at Cohesive (SRO), adds:
“After improving problematic areas using IBM’s Maximo, we implemented some additional features and functionalities to help with the inventory movements between the vessels and onshore storerooms feeding offshore storerooms, resulting in increased speed and accurate inventory usage and volumes.
“As an example, before implementing these changes in Maximo, if MODEC needed ten of a particular item and there were five in stock, the old system would just reorder ten and the five would remain in stock instead of being used. The new system just orders the five items needed.”
Jonathan continues:
“Because the system was not fit for purpose originally, the level of trust in Maximo when we first started working with MODEC was low, so another challenge has been in building up that trust.”
Fafa Buama, who has worked closely with Cohesive (SRO) over the past two years says:
“Cohesive (SRO) has assisted MODEC in developing our Maximo system for best use throughout the business. Their expertise, both in the product and our industry, has allowed them to help us define our Maximo strategy, and refine the system to meet our exact business needs, whether this is through extensive planning and workshopping for projects with our key stakeholders, or the ongoing flexible implementation of required changes and fixes.”
Agile Approach
Fafa and the MODEC team were further impressed with Cohesive (SRO)’s Agile Framework:
“Rather than just delivering to our requirements during projects, they scrutinized and challenged them to ensure that our business processes were always best practice, due to their agile approach. With such practices in place, focus on business value and stakeholder engagement is key, and the project results to date have been promising.”
SRO senior consultant Jonathan Ritchie, who led the MODEC project for Cohesive (SRO) adds:
“The business processes MODEC was working under were not fit for purpose, with various records being work-flowed to the wrong people for approval and then having to be moved around, resulting in delays.”
Training
Another part of Cohesive (SRO)’s work has involved training MODEC’s workforce in the software and helping to change behaviors.
Ritchie continues:
“Just before the latest project, we created a document that MODEC could share with employees to enable them to get buy-in for the improved system, which provided several hints and tips for rolling out new functionality to the users, such as ensuring they’re involved as early as possible in the project during the requirements gathering phase and user acceptance testing.”
Cohesive Data Replication
For MODEC the Maximo system needed to be available to all users across the remote locations and their FPSOs so the chosen solution to tackle the connectivity issue was Cohesive Data Replication software (CDR). It synchronizes data across the business and empowers the organization by enriching applications through the use of real-time information, capturing data that is only pertinent. It automatically compresses, recovers, and encrypts data down to a more manageable size making it easier to handle.
CDR benefits
- Data automatically encrypts, compresses, and synchronizes
- Built-in collision handling
- Highly configurable
- Copes with high latency and low bandwidth availability
- No manual intervention is required
- Intelligent session recovery
- Heterogenous data replication
The result
Cohesive (SRO) has been running this digitization upgrade project since 2018 and it has resulted in a more efficient Maximo with Oil & Gas Industry solution. They all work in sync and offer an accurate inventory for MODEC in Ghana, specifically streamlining its onshore headquarters in Accra with its vessels the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah (KNK) in the Jubilee Oil Field and FPSO Professor John Evans Atta Mills (JAM) in the Tano Ennyera Ntomme (TEN) Oil Field.
The key benefits
- Upgraded Maximo and add-ons are fully supported
- The system provides enhanced functionality
- Access to Maximo Anywhere
- CDR (Cohesive Data Replication) enables Cohesive (SRO) to support MODEC’s Maximo and an end-to-end replication
- CDR ensures MODEC can work with up-to-date data on a daily basis
”"The work we’ve done with MODEC has been transformational for the business in saving time and money and improving accuracy in an industry that demands the highest standards," Jonathan Ritchie, Senior Maximo Consultant at SRO
Fafa Buama, CMMS administrator for MODEC
"SRO has assisted MODEC in developing our Maximo system for best use throughout the business. Their expertise, both in the product and our industry, helps us to define our Maximo strategy and refine the system to meet our exact business needs,"
Understanding Agile Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
DSDM aims to ensure that a project is ‘aligned to clearly defined strategic goals’ and ‘focuses upon early delivery of real benefits to the business’. There are eight fundamental principles:
- Focus on the business need
- Deliver on time and budget
- Collaborate
- Never compromise quality
- Build incrementally from firm foundations
- Develop iteratively
- Communicate continuously and clearly
- Demonstrate control.
CDR is a unique, proven, application-agnostic, highly configurable data synchronization tool that enables disconnected remote sites full access to up-to-date information through dependable session-based data replication.
