While the benefits of digitally transforming your operations are well known—improved assets, reduced overhead, better data flow and greater safety—deciding whether or not, and how to get started can be daunting, to say the least. To jump from totally manual operations to a digital transformation journey could indeed be over the top, especially for a small to medium-sized company that often have people wearing many hats and already a plate that is overflowing with responsibilities, and extreme stress.
Your digital transformation journey, is just that; it's your journey! You can take that trip any way, on any time-frame and budget that makes sense to your operations. It can be made in baby steps, or giant leaps and bounds. You can take it a bit at a time and at your own pace, or if you're ready to put the pedal to the metal we can handle that too. But, we know every operations is at a different step on their journey, and what might feel right-sized to one operations may feel like wearing your pants on backwards to others.
There are benefits at every stage, so even the most basic phase can offer a significant return, and we're with you every step of the on the journey, no matter where your current operations may, or may not be; you are not alone.
First steps
One of the first steps in any project, no matter how large or small is to define the goal, and then fit your strategy to your target. When it comes to transforming your operations to a digitally transformed operations we can help you determine where your at, where you would like to go, and how to get there.
One easy win is to determine what you already have in place. If that's nothing at all, or just a few small pieces our experts are ready to help you figure out how our IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) can help you get started. That include things like sensors that are installed to measure pressures, temperatures and flow rates at remote sites and facilities. They can help you figure out how many should you install, how much information you want and then how to easily get that valuable data to your authorized people.
Best practices would suggest putting these IIoT sensors on every pertinent piece of equipment—something we call “pervasive sensing.” It’s the only way to get a complete picture of your facilities. Through communication devices onsite, these sensors connect with your data management system, onsite or on our cloud platform. Best practices would be on a Cloud, like our Zedi IIoT platform, which gives your decision-makers secure data anytime they need it. Our cloud platform brings you availability, reliability, and scalability; it's literally set it and forget it until you want to see the analytics - you don't have to do a thing, no IT, no hours of upgrades; it's just there when and how you want it.
This connectivity gives you a real-time aggregated view of your facilities without anyone driving to the site or making notes on a clipboard.
Let’s step back and think about that for a moment. Indeed, it’s okay to focus on cost savings, which are real, but the human factor is also huge. For example, during the shale boom, the Texas Department of Public Safety reported that counties with active shale plays saw their traffic fatalities skyrocket by 1,050%. That is an unacceptable amount of people who never made it home to their families.
In some regions of oil and gas, unlike most sectors, oil and gas jobs have relied on being out of the office most of the day, creating massive traffic snarls and dangerous road conditions as everyone rushes to their next stop.
The same could hold true for water operations; remote visits to an operations that is working perfectly fine, not only creates hazards for your people driving there, but other people on the road as well. Keeping water and people safe is always a top priority, and often times a huge challenge,
Benefits of IIoT sensors
What does IIoT have to do with remote monitoring? The more companies that install IIoT sensors, removing daily trips to hundreds or thousands of sites, the safer our roads become; for everyone. There will be less traffic, and the people out there will be more alert and less tired.
The economic benefits are also important. You learn of pump failures immediately instead of a day or so later, so you can make repairs and get the pump back in action faster. You also make your workforce more efficient, reducing the number of stops they make at sites functioning normally.
These and other benefits will appear on your bottom line in short order. Many companies new to the benefits of IIoT sensors are quick to say, “How did we ever get along without this?”
We're happy to help get you on the path to a successful digital transformation and have the experts ready to answer any questions you have.
