Within the oil and gas industry, production plants along the value-added chain are often networked with each other, so that cross-divisional planning and coordination requires a great deal of effort. Moreover, the plants are designed for a long service life and are often very complex. Although the plants are already controlled by a central control station, there is often a lack of information for an optimal design of the processes. Retrofitting sensors, actuators and systems leads to major challenges in the course of continuous operation and must not affect the safety of existing systems.
The digital transformation with the help of the Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index offers potential for the optimal design of processes. This also includes the indirect areas. Since pilots are often not possible within the plants, a structured approach is needed that avoids restrictions in ongoing operations and enables scaling potential within the global value chains.