LNG Import Terminal Gains Full Control Over Reliability, Compliance, and Cost

Asset risk mitigation is of vital importance in the Oil & Gas industry. Integrated solutions provide a costeffective way to analyse risks and secure safety compliance and reliable assets. With the help of MaxGrip and strEAM+, a large LNG import terminal in the Netherlands is gaining full control over reliability, compliance and cost.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is natural gas that has been converted to liquid form for easy storage and transport. It only takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas. The liquefaction process removes components such as helium, water, and heavy hydrocarbons, and then condenses the gas by cooling it to below -160 °C. This makes LNG cost-efficient to transport over long distances in cryogenic sea vessels.

Safe and reliable operations

LNG terminals are built to export or import LNG, respectively for liquefaction and regasification. The LNG import terminal in the Netherlands distributes the regasified product as natural gas through the pipeline system. The terminal serves as an independent distribution hub for European energy companies, improving supply security and allowing new players to enter the market. The terminal’s priority is to ensure that under any circumstances, all processes remain safe, reliable and operational for 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Maximo and strEAM+

Control over reliability and safety compliance is an obvious necessity,  but it can easily become a complicated and costly affair. With lots of pressurized equipment, the terminal needs to be prepared for Risk-Based Inspection (RBI). Compliance at all times with safety and environmental legislation has to be combined with maximum production reliability levels and consistently high quality, all at the lowest possible cost. This challenge is met with the help of  strEAM+. MaxGrip’s software solution seamlessly integrates Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) into Maximo, the EAM system used by the terminal.

Data availability

In a fast-track implementation process, strEAM+ helps to keep all relevant data organised. “There was a time when maintenance and reliability were mostly a matter of personal dedication and responsibility, entrusted to a handful of engineers and mechanics”, says MaxGrip consultant Wouter Boerefijn. “Those days are over. With strEAM+, all reliability and maintenance engineering processes are greatly enhanced and become a major operational focus. Valuable data are integrated into the system and become available through the familiar Maximo interface in all work processes.’

Achieving business goals

MaxGrip helped to complete the new Asset Register and analysed all critical components. With strEAM+, a preventive maintenance and inspection plan was developed for each of these components. This approach ensures that vital RCM elements are immediately operationalised in Maximo. “The addition of new elements creates an expanding IT landscape, and there are many complicating inter dependencies. Apart from the data migration and configuration, we also provide project management and intensive training sessions. The terminal clearly recognizes the added value, as strEAM+ enables systematically verifiable compliance and risk-based maintenance, helping to achieve business goals with regard to safety, performance and cost.”

Source: https://www.maxgrip.com/case-studies/full-control/

Road map For Digital HR Transformation Shared with Singapore Process Industry Members

Recognizing the various challenges that require vital changes in the way businesses operate, ASPRI – the Association of Process Industry – of Singapore organized a seminar for its member companies recently, focusing on key aspects of Human Capital Development. One of the main sessions was led by global Human Capital Management solutions provider Microimage HCM, where CEO Harsha Purasinghe shared the key steps for companies to meet these new challenges head-on and achieve true digital transformation in HR.

ASPRI Executive Director Wayne Yap said, “Technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate. Individuals are relatively quick to adapt to ongoing innovations, but organizations move at a slower pace. Many still retain structures and practices that are outdated. A number of converging issues are now driving the urgent need to ’rewrite the rules’.”

During the session, Harsha Purasinghe highlighted that “Identifying key pain points in managing people in today’s context and addressing them using a milestone-based digital talent experiences approach is a good start,” he said. “It’s important to leverage the power of data analytics for swift decision-making and allowing business leaders to directly gain access anytime anywhere on any device will make a significant impact to today’s workforce management.” “With digital HR solutions such as HCM Cloud, companies can move into the era of digital HR in a seamless manner. We are delighted to be sharing this transformation roadmap with some of Singapore’s leading process industry companies, and in particular helping SMEs on their journey,” he said.

Mr. Yap added, “At ASPRI, we are fully committed to helping our members professionalize their HR functions and optimize human capital to achieve sustained business growth. This seminar will help business managers and owners understand what is involved and how to implement the necessary changes.”

Attended by almost 50 participants representing 30 companies, the seminar was organized in conjunction with partners from Government, Professional bodies and Digital Service providers. The programme covered hiring, human capital management, talent retention and an overview of the government grants available for SMEs to take that first step.

Source: https://hrasiamedia.com/roadmap-for-digital-hr-transformation-shared-with-singapore-process-industry-members/

RPA – Redefining Finance and Accounting Processes

The end of the year is the perfect time to catch up with friends and family. So, on the Christmas eve, I met an old friend, who is now CFO of a leading firm. We spent a great time together, talking about old times and sharing work experiences. He said, “Being a CFO is not an easy task. You are on a continuous expedition to reduce costs, increase productivity and improve reporting.” And, with this, we raised a toast to all the CFOs, wishing them luck for the coming year.

It’s given that the Finance and Accounting (F&A) processes are still supported by the enormous amount of routine, mundane human tasks. And, CFOs face the challenge of reducing overall costs while managing these high-volume transactional processes.

As CFOs plan for 2018, there is a need to automate these repetitive, mundane tasks.

Getting the real advantage from RPA

CFOs are looking out for ways to facilitate faster operations and boost efficiency in their Finance & Accounting processes. And, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can come to their rescue.

With RPA, you can improve efficiency and reduce costs by replacing human work steps with bots. And, as a result, you free your workers’ bandwidth to perform more constructive tasks.

RPA offers galore benefits with various use cases in Finance and Accounting, Sourcing and Procurement, Regulatory Compliance, Financial Risk Management and others. However, RPA alone cannot deliver all of this.

You can leverage RPA to automate the mundane tasks in a business process, but BPM is what you need to transform processes end-to-end. The real advantage comes when you leverage RPA along with BPM capabilities.

Leveraging RPA and BPM together, you can enhance your strategy by automating the routine tasks and enabling continuous process improvement.

RPA in Accounts Payable

RPA along with BPM can prove to be instrumental in achieving higher efficiency in Accounts Payable (AP). Bots enable you to operate 24×7 and achieve better throughput. And, at the same time, BPM capabilities allow you to manage exceptions and drive process improvement. The duo can redefine the AP process by orchestrating processes and eliminating errors.

Here’s how you can create value with RPA in Accounts Payable processes:

  • Procure to Pay (AP) – You can streamline the intake of vendor invoices with BPM, and auto-assign invoices to workers based on pre-defined rules. With bots in place, you can reduce manual hand-offs and check vendor invoices & payments. Further, leveraging BPM’s case management capabilities you can manage vendor/supplier inquiries/disputes.
  • Order to Cash (AR) – You can analyze and establish sales quotes, and validate sales orders with bots. Leverage BPM’s Business Activity Monitor to monitor customer credit. Easily create, distribute and track customer invoices, and process customer payments.
  • Record to Report (GL) – With bots, you can eliminate manual work and mimic human actions to record journal entries. The solution can help reconcile accounts, collaborate and manage intercompany transactions, and maintain a detailed accounting master data for audit and regulatory purposes.

With RPA in place, Finance and Accounting departments can transform their current processes. You can automate all the manual work steps, eliminate repeatable tasks, and achieve tangible value and efficiency.

Well, as a CFO, if you are planning for 2018- it’s time to explore RPA and BPM technologies and take the first steps. Read this whitepaper to know how to get started. Meanwhile, I will share this with my dear CFO friend.

7 Cybercrime Questions for Business Leaders to Ask

Business leaders must recognize that cybercrime is now a day-to-day business reality and priority. No one is immune: It’s not a question of “if” your organization will be affected; it’s a question of “when.”

That’s a sobering thought, but also one that should inspire business leaders to change and move their organizations forward. A malware incident like the NotPetya attack of June 27 required a cascade of quick reactions to contain the incident, protect our clients and safely restore services as quickly as possible.

It also represented an opportunity for us to reflect on how we act and think as an organization.

First, it’s critical for everyone to recognize how truly malicious malware can be. Viruses and worms that once explored a limited network or stole a limited amount of data have evolved into the current crop of infiltrators capable of business disruption and destruction.

In this day and age, it is the difference between a burglar who comes into your house just to prove he can or a thief who steals a few valuables, and a new type of criminal who comes onto your property solely to wreak havoc and destroy everything possible.

These criminal viruses and worms are evolving each day and we must all work together to prevent their intended business disruption and destruction.

At Nuance, we have taken the time to go the extra mile, including implementing comprehensive network hardening and micro-segmentation. We also have enhanced security practices and protocols, for example, adding additional access controls.

While enhancing our systems and making them more resilient, we also are learning a lot about how individuals and teams perform during the pressure of an event like the malware incident.

We believe every organization should consider how to identify leaders who can inspire their teams, remain optimistic and help others handle the personal pressures of working through serious operational challenges. After all, cybercrime is not only a direct challenge to technology resilience—but also to business resilience.

To better prepare for the sophisticated cybercrimes of the future, business leaders need to ask the right questions now. Below are seven important security questions every leader should consider:

  1. Cybercrime is part of the new reality for every company, organization, and person. What can you be doing now to prepare for this scenario?
  2. Do those policies actually translate into deployed security capabilities?
  3. Have you developed a crisis and disaster plan and communicated it broadly throughout your organization?
  4. How would you communicate with your staff, your board, your customers and your patients?
  5. What are your primary vulnerabilities? What measures are you taking to ensure patient data is protected?
  6. Do you understand and align with your vendors’ security policies, and do you have the appropriate validation and/or risk assessment programs in place?
  7. Have you identified a team of outside experts to help in case of an incident, including cybersecurity firms?

We are learning and sharing everything we can from our cybercrime experience. This experience has made us and those that partner with us stronger.

Source: https://whatsnext.nuance.com/healthcare/seven-cybercrime-questions-business-leaders-ask/

Fire at Kemaman Oil Storage Facility Spreads to Third Tank

KEMAMAN: The fire that broke out at the Kemaman Bitumen Company Sdn Bhd’s (KBC) giant storage tank for crude oil, has spread to the third container at its factory premises in the Teluk Kalong Industrial area.

The New Straits Times Press was informed that the initial fire, spotted at 6.15pm at one of the 300,000-litre capacity tanks, had subsequently spread to a second tank.

The fire that broke out at the Kemaman Bitumen Company Sdn Bhd’s (KBC) giant storage tank for crude oil, has spread to the third container at its factory premises in the Teluk Kalong Industrial area. (NSTP/GHAZALI KORI)

“By 9.30pm, the fire had spread to a third tank.

“However, rescue workers have managed to control the blaze at the first two tanks by up to 80 percent and were now laboriously working on containing the fire at the third tank,” said a source.

It was learned that the first tank holding 4,800 liters of crude oil had burst into flames, with thick, black smoke covering the airspace around the area, and which could be spotted for several kilometers.

A while later, a 13,700-litre tank caught fire before the flames spread to the third tank.

Dozens of Fire and Rescue Department vehicles and 23 personnel, led by operations commander Kasyfi Syahmi Ghazali, from the Chukai, Kemaman, Kerteh, Kijal and Paka stations have been mobilized to the scene to contain the blaze.

“However, rescue workers have managed to control the blaze at the first two tanks by up to 80 percent and were now laboriously working on containing the fire at the third tank,” said a source. (NSTP/GHAZALI KORI)

They were assisted by the Kemaman Mutual Aid (Kema) volunteer brigade comprising workers from nearby factories. Up till Press time, firemen were still battling to extinguish the blaze at the tanks.

Source: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/07/387802/fire-kemaman-oil-storage-facility-spreads-third-tank