Managing information

Addressing project information management and collaborative engineering. Improving integration in engineering processes. Meeting clients' recurring requirements for a commercial engineering document management system.

These were the main issues in Snamprogetti's search for a new production information system. Above all, the system had to be capable of integrating activities and applications, managing data and documents, and capitalising on solutions and experience to ensure their reuse.

After considering all available products on the market, the company - the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company headquartered in Milan - chose a customised version of Directa from Intergraph Process, Power & Offshore. It was felt that Directa's references, strategies of development and integration with other Intergraph tools used by Snamprogetti - such as Plant Design System (PDS), SmartPlant P&ID and INtools - best met the contractor's requirements.

Snamprogetti envisioned a data-centric document management system with integration between applications and an enterprisewide operating environment where all interested parties, including purchasing and construction, could access information.

Its goals for the new system included: effective management of the plant structure and associated documents; use of data and documents across projects; automation of the most frequent activities; ability to interface with other sites, vendors, licensors, etc; and ease of integration with other applications.

Establishing a document-centric management system using Directa was achieved by using a modular approach covering the following areas:

<UL><LI>Design and prototyping. This involved outlining the overall structure of the solution according to Snamprogetti's requirements and project objectives. <LI>Implementation. This included defining the data model, configuring and customising the system, implementing the interfaces to the main company engineering tools, developing the interface architecture and designing links to third-party organisations. <LI>Startup. This involved verifying the solution's stability and consistency. A test was conducted on a pilot job, and all the activities of the production process were simulated, from project startup through detailed engineering and construction.</UL>To improve user operability and meet project requirements, Snamprogetti customised the system in a number of ways. For example, item tag classes were tailored to reflect Snamprogetti's management coding and to allow item search through a limited set of technical attributes with relevant units of measurement.

The document workflow and approval cycles were also tailored to reflect Snamprogetti's procedures (such as 'prepared', 'checked' and 'approved').

More than 1000 commonly used documents were coded to ease the internal distribution management of project documents through a preconfigured distribution matrix. These documents include specifications, drawings, P&IDs and isometrics. Each document is placed in the plant structure, and is connected to one or more objects by multiple links, allowing the management of forms, contract documents and communication documents.

A module was developed for bulk loading of documents and items into the system. This allows creation and update of documents and items, checks for correct syntax of loading tables and checks correct matching between the Directa and SAP item lists. The document management (DM) system also had to be integrated with the main company engineering tools, and interfaces implemented to enable the exchange of files and data between document management and the main applications Snamprogetti uses (PDS 2D and PDS 3D) - a preliminary step toward a data-centric solution.

Following the customisation of Directa, the solution - which was first conceived to meet the needs of owner/operators - became an integration tool best suited to meet an EPC company's requirements. Snamprogetti intends to use the system in all of its offices, for a total of more than 1500 users, in addition to external users such as site personnel and vendors. It is now installed in Snamprogetti's Rome and Milan offices, and will soon be installed at construction sites.

A major benefit of the customised approach has been the streamlining of procurement technical activities. The plant structure includes two types of objects - the technical enquiry package (TEP) and the technical supply package (TSP) automatically created from the company's SAP system.

The TEP collects documentation associated with purchase requisitions and the relevant item tags. This solution allows vendors' bids and related information to be loaded into Directa and connected with the TEP object. The TSP collects all the documents required for procurement of items and item tags themselves, at supply stages.

In May 2001, Snamprogetti began using Directa on clients' projects. Although most of these five projects are still at a relative early stage, a major improvement has already been noted. This is the enhanced communication between different engineering departments. A key contributing factor here is the new system's strong document organisation - the linking together of items and documents, to each other and to plant objects, enabling ease of navigation and retrieval.

Clients have also said that the greatest appeal of the solution is its plant structure representation and document association to plant objects.

Guido Enrico Cerrai is Snamprogetti's AIM Continuous Improvement Project Manager.