Photo Harald Pettersen, Statoil

Integrated Planning and Logistics (IPL) – the Statoil case

This page is a business case describing a case study or a pilot project involving one or several industry partners

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Published: 26/04/2013

Author(s): Grethe Osborg Ose, Lone Sletbakk Ramstad, Kay Endre Fjørtoft

Statoil has been one of the participating industry partners for the Integrated Planning and Logistics project since 2008. It has been a fruitful collaboration and much of the insight gained in this collaboration has been important in developing the tools and methods in this project. The business case has been covered fields like; Operational planning in Statoil, The use of work surfaces in plan meetings, Analyses of the logistical planning in Statoil, Optimization of resources, Collaboration with University of California Berkeley

Content

Statoil has been an important partner throughout the work with Integrated Planning and Logistics in the IO-Center. Several topics have been covered:

Integrated Operational Planning
Integration of the logistical planning to the operational planning
The use of work surfaces in planning meetings
Optimization of resources

In addition, Statoil has participated in workshops with the University of California, Berkekey.

Integrated Operational Planning

In the first phase of the IO Center, the collaboration with Statoil constituted of a pilot focusing on integrated planning at different planning levels and especially at the operational level. A survey was carried out at six plants for identifying the AS-IS situation and challenges in planning related to human-, organizational and technological (ICT) aspects. The findings from the survey is one of the main sources for input to the development of the IPL Framework (link to the figure) presented in the topic page for IO2), which has been the basis for surveys and analysis of IPL practice in other industry pilots.

Integration of the logistical planning into the integrated planning processes

Within IPL it seems to be a special huge potential for improving integration of logistics as part of integrated planning. Statoil has especially focused on this issue and how to design and facilitate for more efficient planning in the interfaces between The Logistics and Emergency response department and the users of logistical products. Related to this work, IO2 has conducted surveys and studies based on the IPL Framework, focusing on two different situational contexts/modes which characterize logistics services:

Stable/ controlled situations – Normal situation
Unstable situations – Event handling

These two situations are important issues when it comes to main challenges for logistics and SCM in offshore logistics; the challenge related to standard and specialized services. Earlier research (Asbjørnslett, 2003) refers that some actors within operations supply context has said that "10 % of the supplies on a daily basis are controlled or controllable, 90 % is a "surprise"- this put a considerable amount of stress on the standard supply system, and necessitates that the situation is turned around so that one gets a 90/10 situation instead of a 10/90 situation. This should be achieved through better commitment from all actors in and stakeholders to the supply system. In addition, there should be a clear separation between standard supply services to cover the planned situations and specially supply services that cover requirements and situations that will put to much strain on the standard systems.

These two situations require different planning capabilities. The first situation can be characterized as a context where lean capabilities are important, while the unstable context will benefit from utilizing agile management emphasizing agile capabilities . The lean capabilities are standardized logistical products and services where the needs are known in advance and can be planned whilst the agile capabilities are more flexible and can be adjusted and specialized for different needs that needs to be resolved quickly. In order to be able to resolve these sudden demands, relations, partners and resources have to be made ready in advance in order to be effective. Description of the principles behind lean and agile solutions is also presented.

The IPL Framework has been the basis for the research work related to the logistical planning in Statoil. Based on the framework, we present some of the key findings when it comes to the two main planning situations or conditions for planning. Figure 1 is a presentation of the important aspects that were identified related to the normal situation and Figure 2 presents important aspects that were identified related to the event handling.

Figure 1. Aspects of Enabling and Core Capabilities important for logistical planning during stable conditions

Figure 2. Aspects related to Enabling and Core Capabilities that are important in event handling.

The use of work surfaces in planning meetings

Planning of activities in this setting is also characterized by a high degree of uncertainty. A central challenge is the ability to manage the operational plan in the execution phase where deviations will occur. Limited resources, system failures, unscheduled maintenance, unpredictable weather, or even subsurface surprises causing interruptions to drilling, are some of the factors that make it difficult to complete work according to predefined plans. Often the consequences of such changes are not entirely clear, and while managing to postpone activities and adjust the plan accordingly, the companies are rarely able to exploit changes by mobilizing alternative activities where another had to be put on hold. In addition to uncertainties and the technical obstacles in today’s planning situation, there are a number of human and organizational factors influencing the coordination of planned activities. Issues such as unclear roles and responsibilities, unfamiliar work processes, lack of information sharing, lack of commitment to plan processes, and lack of ownership are all well-known challenges for the operators. Integrated planning in this setting means that activities planned by different disciplines that are affecting others, is integrated and prioritized in advance to avoid having to make these decisions during operation. Team work is required to prioritize and step out of own discipline and prioritize based on what is most optimal for the installation as a whole. The making and using of contingency plans when changes do occur, is also an important part of integrated planning.

The implementation of Integrated Operations in the petroleum industry leads to changes in the ways of working. The interfaces between different disciplines and the team work that is done in these interfaces are especially important for integrated planning. Designing these arenas for efficient team work in the interfaces is therefore a key issue for coordination, integration and development of shared planes. Knowledge management theory contributes to understanding how knowledge transition evolve based on the variety of knowledge which has to be shared, translated and transformed in the teams, here as a basis for integration and decision-making across disciplinary boundaries in the offshore domain. The needs for knowledge transition in planning is related to the different tasks at hand; from relatively simple planning of routine operations to complex planning of operations involving multiple disciplines where new knowledge has to be developed as a team effort in order to succeed in making and executing the plans. In this paper we suggest a model for the interfaces in integrated planning where the knowledge transitions are included as a supplemental dimension, some general examples from operational planning of offshore installations are included for illustrative purposes.