New Open Text Solution Addresses Compliance, Safety Rules For Process Changes At Refineries, Chemical Plants
Chicago, IL - Open Text Corporation , a global leader in enterprise content management (ECM), recently announced a new software solution that helps energy and chemical companies manage critical changes in processes at oil refineries and chemical plants. Management of Change (MOC) programs are a major challenge for plants, in terms of time, resources, and risks of fines, lawsuits or shutdowns if initiatives fail. Open Text's solution automates the content and processes for MOC, so that companies can cut down on the administrative burden, minimize risk and reduce costs. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Process Safety Management regulation states that any time a critical component in an oil or chemical plant changes, a formal MOC program is required to ensure that the proposed change is made safely.
Open Text's new Livelink ECM - Management of Change solution uses core content management and business process automation capabilities to simplify the MOC process. The solution manages all stages of the lifecycle of an MOC program, and ensures that every event in the system is auditable and reportable, providing transparency throughout the system. All documents and data are accessible via a single Livelink ECM repository to help ensure compliance, simplify the management of information and improve responsiveness to regulators.
Open Text designed the solution based on the best practices research of Gateway Consulting Group (http://www.gatewaygroup.com/), an Open Text partner and innovator in the design and implementation of ECM solutions for chemical and petrochemical plant environments. Dr. Rainer Hoff, president of Gateway, analyzed MOC processes at over a dozen chemical and petrochemical facilities in the United States. The resulting Gateway Group MOC Best Practices eliminates bottlenecks and identifies areas for improvements that provide facilities with real business benefits and savings. "Fundamentally, an owner of a chemical plant or petroleum refinery must know the configuration of the plant at all times. If the operators do not know what is in the plant, then it is impossible to operate the plant safely, and sometimes fatal accidents can occur," said Hoff. "The plant owner receives excellent drawings and documentation when the plant is built. But that documentation and those drawings must be updated with every change made to a plant. This isn't just a good idea-it's the law. To really excel at MOCs, a company needs an ECM system with an MOC application. Livelink ECM with the Plant Compliance Module fits the bill." Hoff and Chris Vassalotti, Director of Business Solutions at Open Text, released a podcast (http://podcast.opentext.com/public/channel/rss/ot-ecm-news/item/12-OT_MOC-podcast-v1.mp3) today where they discussed the OSHA requirements for MOC and the advantages of an electronic MOC system. Livelink ECM - Management of Change works by dividing the MOC lifecycle into a series of pre-defined "states" - Initiation, Classification, Design, Change Impact Analysis, Mechanical Integrity and Pre-Startup Safety Reviews. The decisions regarding which documents need to be updated, which tasks need to be completed and who the approvers (for any state) should be, are driven by pre-set rules. The application offers the flexibility to add or remove tasks and/or approvers based on the rules. All of the content associated with an MOC, such as equipment manuals, piping and instrumentation diagrams, CAD drawings, and email communication, can be stored in the central repository and are tied back to the physical assets of the plant. This ensures that all documentation that represents the physical condition of the plant is readily accessible for risk management and compliance purposes. "There's a lot at stake for customers when it comes to MOC and customers want a better way to manage the process," said Open Text's Vassalotti. "We've worked with Gateway Consulting Group to create a solution that provides a best-practices approach to the complexities of MOC, so that customers can have the control, consistency and efficiency they need to meet both the demands of their business and the requirements of regulators."
SOURCE: Open Text Corporation