Use of electronic document management systems at Amoco

Amoco Corporation has been a creative user of Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMSs) since the early 1990s. From internal operations like automating the accounts payable process, to management of plant documentation for operating processing plants, it has been in the forefront of those innovative companies benefiting from EDMS technology.

However, like most petrochemical companies, Amoco was confronted with a constant stream of major construction and refurbishment projects that generated hundreds of thousands of documents and manuals containing specifications, engineering drawings, vendor data, purchase orders, and other engineering information required to engineer, construct, operate and maintain the physical assets. The challenge it faced was how to keep these documents, which all related to each other and constantly changed, up-to-date and available to users in geographically dispersed locations.

In addition, as Amoco extended its operations by building new plants and expanding existing ones, it became clear that there was a problem in receiving—in a timely manner for operations—the documentation and engineering drawings that reflected the actual construction.

Managing changes

In any major construction project, some changes inevitably occur while the project is in progress, possibly causing discontinuity between planned and actual construction documentation. This can prevent a smooth transition from the construction phase to the operation phase of a new plant or expansion.

Typically, after the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) process was complete, the project team would begin the process of project closeout. This involved packaging thousands of documents and drawings from everyone involved with the project into cardboard boxes and preparing them for delivery to the customer. This included the deliverable documentation that was the responsibility of the primary EPC firm, along with documents from various subcontractors used on the project.

The Amoco Worldwide Engineering & Construction (WE&C) group recognized the inefficiencies of this process and saw this as an opportunity to develop a value-improving practice. Knowing that the EDMS Amoco used internally for central engineering document control was capable of managing all the drawings and other technical documentation that gets created during the EPC phases of capital projects, the group decided to expand the system's use.

The first obstacle was to create a standard that organized the documentation into a rational order so that everyone understood where each piece of paper fit into the overall document scheme—as well as the connections between the related documents. To solve this problem, WE&C established a set of document requirements to be imposed on the contractors used to develop and implement plant design.

The company worked with its EDMS vendor to supply the subcontractors with the software necessary to access the system. The contractors are free to develop the documentation in whatever method and format they choose. Amoco does, however, dictate the format of the documents they would like delivered. Also, a data model is developed for each document type so that not only is the document captured, but the related data that is necessary to properly catalog and reference each drawing and document is present.

Case history

Amoco's most recent use of an EDMS involved a job called the Trinidad LNG Upstream Development Project. The document management goal of this project was to enter all high-level documents and the data associated with the EPC phases into a turnkey EDMS that would facilitate the handling of pertinent documents and deliverables to WE&C's customer

In this case, the customer was Amoco Trinidad Oil Company at Galeota Point. The Trinidad LNG Upstream Development Project consisted of two offshore platforms, onshore and offshore pipelines, and onshore processing facilities. It involved the processing and shipment of crude, natural gas and condensate. The engineering effort lasted about 33 months and involved thousands of documents. The value of the system was not recognized during the early phases of the project because the design and implementation of the EDMS system wasn't started until 15 months into the engineering phase. However, value was recognized during the construction and startup phases as data was available remotely through the Web interface to the EDMS.

"By the time the plant becomes operational, it is too late to dictate the form and format of the documentation that we'll need from the people doing the design and construction," says Chuck Cervas, Business Applications Consultant at Amoco WE&C. "We've not only addressed that problem, but found that our people are in a much better position to manage the development of the project if we can, at any time, look into the document management system and access current documentation of the design development.

"EDMS has helped us control the massive amount of documentation and supporting data generated by each project," Cervas comments. "We received significant value from using the document management system during the EPC phases of the Trinidad project by: reducing the quantity of technical job data books produced: providing access to current design documents during construction and startup, providing remote access for maintenance and operations staff: delivering a turnkey electronic vault to the customer; and in training Trinidad staff for accessing, storing and retrieving their documents once the system was delivered to Amoco Trinidad Oil Company."

The system also allows authorized users in dispersed geographic locations to access the documents they need from their desktops using PCs and the World Wide Web. It also provides an audit trail for e-mail messages, which are often critical to communications between WE&C, the EPC firm and the many subcontractors working on any given project.

"Since the development of the plant typically takes place in offices throughout all parts of the world, the ability to share information in a timely manner, regardless of where the participants are located, has proven to be one of the greatest benefits of using the EDMS," Cervas concludes.