12 Benefits of Using Standards in the Design and Implementation of iMOM Projects

This blog is peer-reviewed by the MESA's Process Industries Working Group

By Stan DeVries, MESA member of the Process Industries Working Group

Download the supplemental guidebook: MESA Process Industries Guidebook: Adopting Integrated Manufacturing Operations Management (iMOM) in Oil & Gas and Petrochemical Industries, Leveraging Digital Technologies and Industry 4.0 Framework and join the public LinkedIn Group MESA iMOM for the Process Industries

In integrated Manufacturing Operations Management (iMOM), the ultimate goal of using software systems is to increase and sustain business benefits. In theory, this goal could be achieved by working with a single software vendor throughout the project lifecycle. In practice, though, single vendor approaches are not the best approach for the following reasons:

• No single vendor provides enough functionality coverage of the integrated iMOM functions.
• The manufacturing site and its parent company evolve over time – the site adds processing and procedures, the parent company acquires diverse manufacturing sites which use different software, and these activities often bring diverse iMOM vendors together.
• As Dennis Brandl wrote in previous MESA blogs, before standards such as ISA-95, iMOM activities were poorly defined, iMOM projects took up to 6 times longer, and the average success rate was less than 50%.
• Integration of iMOM systems with other systems, such as ERP, logistics systems, and automation/IoT can suffer the same failure rates as the core iMOM system implementation.
• It is impractical for most end users to develop and evolve their own requirements “language” to work with a single vendor or multiple vendors.

Another key challenge in applying software for iMOM activities is ensuring that the design and its implementation are actually improving the business processes and increase operational and business performance. This challenge spawned the definition of standards on software architecture design, which is synergistic to the standards on iMOM activities and information exchanges. A key project failure mode is doing the “right way” (using methodology) but implementing the “wrong things” (inconsistent business processes, partially automated procedures and incomplete information processing).

So what are the benefits of applying these standards? Here are 12 examples: 

• High success rates – both in terms of project completion as well as long-term adoption
• Transformed work – manual tasks can be minimized, procedures can be standardized, reactive procedures can be changed into proactive, training can be accelerated
• Thorough implementation – the use of standards enables a thorough definition, verification and analysis of functional and technical requirements and produces a consistent set of business processes
• Agile implementation – iMOM systems can be reliably modified to incorporate new technologies and cover more iMOM activities
• Phased implementation – management can prioritize and implement multiple iMOM activities across multiple manufacturing areas and sites
• Accurate and complete interface design, data transformations and data exchanges among the various iMOM components
• Efficient integration with the systems in the layers above and below the iMOM system, i.e. the ERP and the plant monitoring and control systems
• More efficient to work with multiple vendors and to combine different software into one iMOM solution
• Easier to adopt emerging technologies and standards
• Easier to share pools of experts across multiple facilities, including service contractors
• Easier to benchmark multiple sites or to manage and operate multiple sites from a central facility
• Easier to reuse and/or expand design and implementation work across other iMOM activities and other iMOM projects

Adopting standards helps the project and support teams to ensure a complete design coverage and to have an effective “language” for design, requirements definition and testing. Complex projects can reliably assign work to multiple specialized teams. As Dennis Brandl has summarized, the standards simplify the writing of the requirements for the end users, simplify the vendor’s understanding of the end user requirements, and assist both parties in ensuring that the requirements and the overall implementation are complete and correct.

About the Author
Stan DeVries
Senior Director, Digital Acceleration Consulting, AVEVA Software


In his current position as Senior Director, Digital Acceleration Consulting at AVEVA, Stan DeVries leads a team which advises on work enhancements and reference architectures for the company’s customers who implement plant engineering, construction, value chain, operations and maintenance.  Stan has been deeply involved in digital transformation activity since 1995, in the Intelligent Refinery since 1995, and he has consulted with a diverse range of national, independent and super-major oil and gas companies with a focus on changing teamwork for improved operations, HSE and business performance.  Stan has also consulted to leading pharmaceutical, specialty chemical and power generation clients since 2003, with a similar focus as the digital oilfield.