The ongoing improvement of refinery operations is often met with challenges caused by resource constraints and information flow.  Overload of raw historical data makes it very difficult to extract important, actionable information in a timely manner so that correct decisions can be made to positively affect refinery profitability.  There is often a lack of accurate and timely information about the current and future economic performance of the refinery.  As such, it is likely that some of the decisions made by the operators will result in higher than necessary operating costs.

There is also a lack of accurate and timely information about equipment reliability.  If this information was readily available it would be possible to minimize costs (especially energy and maintenance), and increase throughput without jeopardizing the safety of people and the environment.  Refineries are also finding it costly and time consuming to maintain planning models so they correctly represent actual performance of the refineries’ processes.

IPS helps petroleum refiners realize significant economic returns on their investments.  We can help reduce the cost of supply by improving the yield of more valuable products and by improving the energy efficiency.  IPS improves the refinery’s revenue by safely improving its reliability, minimizing fuel blend reworks and movement errors, and by transforming when, where, how and which personnel collaborate to prevent outages and exploit market opportunities.  These results lead to greater refinery profitability.

In addition, IPS improves operator performance and plant safety by enhancing operator skills with operator training solutions.  We enable better economic performance of a refinery by giving on-line current and forecast visibility to operators, supervisors and managers.  IPS also enhances equipment reliability by providing the most actionable forecast information of performance trends and possible failure to help teams make informed decisions and safely extend overhaul schedules.

To address the challenges and unique requirements of the refining industry, IPS brings together key elements from our comprehensive product portfolio with powerful solutions including:

• Critical Asset Management transforming your operations to a predictive and proactive approach encompassing operations, maintenance and supply chain to accelerate production, reduce lifting costs and extend asset life  
• Operator & Engineering Effectiveness enhancing overall team productivity and utilization through right-time scenario evaluation, training and critical situation management while providing a highly productive and intuitive environment with templates that enable consistent, high quality engineering solutions in a collaborative environment  
• Maintenance Effectiveness providing the required availability at the lowest possible cost through best practices and advanced techniques including Condition Based Maintenance and Reliability Centred maintenance.  
• Real Time Finance providing global visibility to all key performance indicators and the financial impact of operational decisions  
• Production Optimization improves yield, minimizes quality giveaway and fuel blend reworks, and reduces inventory and maintenance costs
• Energy Management prevents most unplanned outages, reduces internal energy consumption, and delays overhauls
• Process and Functional Safety Management provides safety control and on-line SIL assessments, with leading safety indicators

All of these solutions are enabled by the global industry experience embodied in our Global Consulting organization. This world class team works with our clients to identify the issues and opportunities and develop the strategy, action plan and ROI for the necessary solution components.   

IPS has a comprehensive product and service portfolio along with the industry experience and consulting skills to identify a client’s automation needs, design the most appropriate and cost-effective solutions to meet these needs and develop the economic justification for the project.  Our knowledge, program management skills, and experience allow us to assume full responsibility for refinery automation projects.