Translation of article in "KE-blikk" (7/97), an internal publication in Kværner Engineering
During the bid evaluation phase for the Åsgard B project a proposal for implementation and operation of a so-called POSC/CAESAR based data warehouse was made. Kværner and Statoil have now agreed to execute the option. Consequently the Target Cost of the project will increase.
All work in connection with the data warehouse will be organised as a special activity in the Åsgard project. Trond Nymoen will be the manager of this activity on a full-time basis. In addition to IT personnel contribution from instrumentation, electrical and mechanical disciplines will be necessary. As this is a development project characterised by the uncertainty of the extent of the implementation work, detailed plans for 6 to 9 months will be work out during the project period. However, the following milestones have been established:
Our main task in connection with the data warehouse will be to populate it with data from the integrated project (CET) as well as from our sub-contractors and partners. In addition Kværner will be responsible for the data technical operation of the system. This means that we will have to make data from KEDAT available in a format and of a quality good enough to be put into the data warehouse. In this connection an important task will be to map our data fields against the equivalence of the POSC/CAESAR data model. This work will require engineering as well as IT competence.
Åsgard B data warehouse will be the first practical test of the POSC/CAESAR project's development work which has been going on for more than two years. As the implementation of the POSC/CAESAR data warehouse in Åsgard B will be a parallel activity to a traditional DFO (Data For Operation) process in the operation system of Statoil, the extent will initially be limited to cover certain types of equipment. Currently work is being prioritised based on data sheet types and the contents of various engineering registers, but to a great extent the demands of Statoil's operation organisation will be focused. To Åsgard B it is also important that dedicated resources for the data warehouse activities are released, so that the initial project will not be asked to do extra work.
In the long run, i.e. after Åsgard B, using such a data warehouse will mean a totally new way to acquire project information as all project participants will have direct access to a project specific data warehouse. To us for instance it will mean that all standard equipment components from the suppliers will be available as from the start of the project.
This means that the demand for documentation of these components may be reduced if they are already in the data warehouse. Moreover we suppose that all exchange of engineering data against the system vendors will take place through the data warehouse as this should be able to handle all text documents, drawings as well as complete engineering registers.
A data warehouse may store data from various sources and systems in a uniform information structure. In this case this structure is in accordance with the POSC/CAESAR data model.
Intergraph with their AIM (Asset Information Management) system has been chosen as supplier of the data warehouse. In addition to the standard functionality of AIM, Intergraph will implement the POSC/CAESAR data model by the time of the installation at Lysaker in August this year.
We in Kværner will do our utmost to ensure a successful implementation of the data warehouse and regard the option as a good opportunity to acquaint ourselves with a new technology which is exciting, but to a great extent, still not tested. Moreover to us it seems as if constantly more operators think the way Statoil does, and we therefore think knowledge of this technology will give us an advantage which can be utilised in other projects.
Updated: June 25, 1997. Send questions and comments to webmaster@posc.org