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L.N. Revathy

A Singapore power utility says the use of software has charged its business practices with positive energy and boosted returns. Here's how.

FOR asset-intensive industries such as power utilities, transportation and oil and gas, the secret of making significant reductions in operating expenses lies in optimal utilisation of the capital asset. This is no great finding, but a recognised truth.

Yet, in business, we often come across corporate houses that either left production capacity idle or made huge, unviable investments in view of demand in the foreseeable future.

If such players recognised the value of Asset Performance Management (APM) solutions, they probably will plan better to maximise return on investment, PowerSeraya of Singapore might well say.

PowerSeraya is in the business of providing the energy critical to power Singapore's economy. To strengthen its position as a top energy supplier, the company started to look at offering more energy options.

But the major block was in attending to the thousands of work orders efficiently, while maintaining the workflow. There were delays in operational and maintenance responses, and these critical areas needed immediate attention, particularly power generation-related issues.

And so, the company opted for an asset performance management solution.

Offering some insights into the pros and cons of such a move, Bernard Lee, Vice-President (Process and Innovation Group), PowerSeraya, says the challenge was in automating the workflow, for prompt and efficient management of work orders.

"Due to the absence of a computerised system, historical records went missing and there was tremendous difficulty in the tracking of warrantees. There were also problems in negotiation of service and maintenance contracts with suppliers and vendors. There was no centralised database to handle work orders."

PowerSeraya went in for the DataStream 7i Solution. It faced several impediments and challenges in the implementation stage, in convincing the workforce about the need for such a solution, in integrating all work-related data into an asset register management platform and in justifying the cost of investment.

It also carried out an inventory/equipment classification review process, going through all its equipment and part-numbering conventions.

Adequate training was imparted to the staff, which in turn helped them to churn out reports, using the available statistics, through the new system.

The solution helped in resolving maintenance and tracking issues. The company could track vendors' service maintenance contracts and assess work orders.

According to Lee, the implementation of the system resulted in cost savings of about S$290,000 per day or S$1.7 million for six days.

Apart from the savings on cost, the system has:

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