VigilantPlant Services™ is a suite of comprehensive services that realise Yokogawa’s VigilantPlant concept, helping manufacturers to achieve safe, reliable, environmentally friendly and profitable plant operations. From design through project execution, operations and maintenance, VigilantPlant Services make it possible for manufacturers to maintain operational excellence over the entire plant lifecycle.
The packaged solutions provided by VigilantPlant Services are aimed at supporting manufacturers in their continuous improvement activities throughout a plant’s lifecycle. These services focus on adding value within the operations domain in today’s always challenging and competitive business environment to ensure that plants remain safe and environmentally friendly while operating with optimal profitability.
VigilantPlant Services takes into consideration the current stage of development and the range of each customer’s existing continuous improvement programs, and is divided into three categories:
- Opportunity Identification Services™ to identify new improvement possibilities and proper solutions
- Solution Implementation Services™ to implement already identified improvement solutions
- Lifecycle Effectiveness Services™ to sustain and enhance existing solutions
Opportunity Identification Services
Opportunity Identification Services are positioned as the first step for clients to identify potential areas of improvement which will generate the fastest return on investment. They provide a phased approach tailored to individual customer needs such as the following:
- Identifying opportunities for improvement prioritising
- Those opportunities based on fastest return on investment (ROI)
- Assessing the weaknesses, threats and risks to the success of an identified opportunity
- Selecting a best-in-class, effective solution
- Best-practice training services for effective solution implementation
- Master plan creation including budget planning and ROI targets
- Project leader training and mentoring services for customer staff involved in these projects
VigilantPlant Services that address the above needs include:
- Free plant analysis, a service that identifies high-level opportunities
- Comparative effectiveness analysis, a benchmarking service to identify operation improvement opportunities
- Yokogawa management seminars to provide high-level idea/opportunity stimulation
- ‘Master plan’: a consulting service to generate the investment justification case
- Improvement leader development: training services to educate customer staff
Solution Implementation Services
Wherever an opportunity for improvement has been identified, Solution Implementation Services are available to realise those opportunities. Solution Implementation Services are packaged consulting and/or engineering services that help clients implement an effective solution based on standardised methods and practices. Yokogawa has adapted the ‘Six Sigma DMAIC’ best practice approach to develop a standardised implementation methodology that guarantees project success. The Six Sigma DMAIC steps are as follows:
- Define the target to be achieved
- Measure the necessary information
- Analyse measured information to identify root causes and countermeasures
- Improve identified issues using selected solutions
- Control the achieved improvements
Solution Implementation Services achieves its key aims as follows:
- Ensuring HSE: regulatory control stabilisation; best practice pilot; alarm rationalisation; incident analysis
- Maximising asset availability: field digital baseline tuning; control valve diagnostics; heat exchanger diagnostics; pump diagnostics
- Optimising plant productivity: advanced process control, covering multivariable control and blend property control; control room design
- Enhancing business agility (using Yokogawa’s Real-time Production Organizer™): business workflow standardisation and optimisation using Workflow Composer VP™; production schedule coordination using Production Coordinator VP™; task execution assistance using Production Instructor VP™; performance monitoring and analysis using Production Supervisor VP™; on-demand production tracking using Production Tracker VP™
Lifecycle Effectiveness Services™
Lifecycle Effectiveness Services are the third and final step of VigilantPlant Services. This is the maintenance phase in which Yokogawa helps clients sustain the effectiveness of their implemented solutions. These services help clients who want to maintain effectiveness throughout the plant lifecycle and identify when improvements need to be made. Key elements are:
- Service and support, including 24/7 response, with a single contact for all customer service needs
- Maintenance management, with vigorous maintenance plans and support for all unique needs, along with pinpoint identification of problems using condition-based maintenance
- Operator effectiveness, supported by a wide range of training courses to meet all needs
- Inventory management, including parts stocking for emergencies, allows users to minimise capital investment by parts management programmes and operate their plants and equipment with the latest hardware and software
- Regular effectiveness analysis, to provide clients with an opportunity to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of their implemented solutions. A Yokogawa consultant visits the client site on a regular basis – typically once a year – to obtain the latest information on the installed solution so that its effectiveness can be evaluated. In cases where degradation has occurred, Yokogawa offers its Solution Implementation Services to restore effectiveness
- Migration support, to minimise the threat of diminishing resources and parts obsolescence, and to use a proven migration roadmap to reduce the risk of operating older control systems
Adding value
Each aspect of VigilantPlant Services is designed to deliver one or more of the following benefits:
- To ensure health, safety and environment (HSE)
- To maximise asset availability
- To optimise plant productivity
VigilantPlant Services will provide value to any manufacturer who wishes to:
- Identify new opportunities for operational and business improvement
- Implement cost-effective solutions that deliver on promised return on investment
- Sustain and enhance the effectiveness of existing solutions to deliver continuous benefits
All these elements are achieved by utilising Yokogawa’s products, knowledge, experience, methodologies, skills and quality-driven ethos.