Computerized Equipment Surveillance
Authors: Weaver E.G. 
Published: December 2007

Weaver, E.G., SPE-AIME, Exxon Co., U.S.A.

Effective equipment surveillance is an important consideration in today's production operations. The equipment surveillance programs described here provide for maintenance scheduling and programs described here provide for maintenance scheduling and failure reporting for all types of production operations. By avoiding complex forms and programming, this approach results in usable programs and an effective surveillance system.

Introduction

The application of computer programs to monitor and evaluate equipment performance has increased within the oil industry during recent years. These programs have offered many advantages in accumulating equipment information for evaluation. However, the programs generally evolved into more sophisticated ones that, because of their complexity, were not easy to use. Earlier efforts in Exxon Co., U.S.A. to use computer programs for equipment evaluation also resulted in programs for equipment evaluation also resulted in specialized and complex programs. Because of these factors and because experienced programmers were required to fully utilize the programs, the use of the programs was not uniform within the company. programs was not uniform within the company. Recognizing that no systematic, company-wide, equipment surveillance method was available, Exxon's production management approved, during 1972, the production management approved, during 1972, the development of computer programs to fill this need. The goal of the system was to create a useful and generalized set of programs that could be used by nonprogrammers for a variety of applications. This paper discusses Exxon's approach to computerized paper discusses Exxon's approach to computerized equipment surveillance and reviews the programs and their application, status, and benefits. The operating-area terminology used in this paper, in order of descending responsibility, is headquarters, division, district, and field. All offices, with the exception of field locations, have the usual staffs of engineers, geologists, and accountants. The Southeastern Div, is used as an example in several sections to better define specific methods, times, and benefits that occurred during the implementation of the equipment surveillance programs. programs. System Requirements

The primary task in designing an equipment surveillance system was to develop failure reporting and maintenance scheduling programs. General requirements for the programs included company-wide adaptability for all programs included company-wide adaptability for all types of production operations, use of common code tables and categories for both programs, and use of the same programming language with flexible reporting capabilities. programming language with flexible reporting capabilities. Specific guidelines for program development were the following. 1. A simplified system that could be used remotely by persons without computer experience. 2. A system in which manual data handling was held to a minimum. 3. A comprehensive, yet basic, method to input field information into the computer programs. 4. A system with the flexibility to furnish specialized reports in a variety of formats. 5. A reporting system in English so that an understanding of codes or the system was not essential to read and use the reports. A commercial File Management System met these guidelines and was used in the development of the equipment surveillance programs. programs. Surveillance Programs

File Management

The primary concept of the File Management System is the ability to manipulate files of data and the capability to allow nonprogrammers to fully utilize the system.

JPT

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