Intelligent Plant Lifecycle Management
(iPLM) is the process of managing a
generation facility’s data and information
throughout its lifetime – from initial
design through to decommissioning. This
paper will look at results from the application
of this process in other industries
such as shipbuilding, and show how those
results are directly applicable to the
design, construction, operation and maintenance
of complex power generation
facilities, specifically nuclear and clean
coal plants.

In essence, iPLM can unlock substantial
business value by shortening plant development
times, and efficiently finding,
reusing and changing plant data. It also
enables an integrated and transparent
collaborative environment to manage
business processes.

Recent and substantial global focus on
greenhouse gas emissions, coupled with rising and volatile fossil fuel prices, rapid
economic growth in nuclear-friendly Asian
countries, and energy security concerns,
is driving a worldwide resurgence in commercial
nuclear power interest.

The power generation industry is
undergoing a global transformation that
is putting pressure on traditional methods
of operation, and opening the door to substantial
innovation. Due to factors such
as the transition to a carbon-constrained
world, which greatly affects a generation
company’s portfolio mix decisions, the
escalating constraints in the global supply
chain for raw materials and key plant components,
or the fuel price volatility and
security of supply concerns, generation
companies must make substantial investments
in an environment of increasing
uncertainty.

In particular, there is a renewed interest
globally in the development of new
nuclear power plants. Plants continue
to be built in parts of Asia and Central
Europe, while a resurgence of interest
is seen in North America and Europe.
Combined with the developing interest in
building clean coal facilities, the power
generation industry is facing a large
number of very complex development
projects.

A key constraint, however, being felt
worldwide is a severe and increasing
shortage of qualified technical personnel
to design, build and operate new generation
facilities. Additionally, as most of the
world’s existing nuclear fleet reaches the
end of its originally designed life span, relicensing
these nuclear plants to operate
another 10, 20, or even 30 years is taking
place globally.

Sowing Plant Information

iPLM can be thought of as lifecycle
management of information and data
about the plant assets (see Figure 1). It
also includes the use of this information
over the physical plant’s complete lifecycle
to minimize project and operational
risk, and optimize plant performance.

This information includes design
specifications, construction plans, component
and system operating instructions,
real-time and archived operating data,
as well as other information sources and
repositories. Traditionally, it has been difficult to manage all of this structured and
unstructured data in a consistent manner
across the plant lifecycle to create a single
version of the truth.

In addition, a traditional barrier has
existed between the engineering and
construction phases, and the operations
and maintenance phases (see Figure 2).
So even if the technical issues of interconnectivity
and data/information management
are resolved via an iPLM solution, it
is still imperative to change the business
processes associated with these domains
to take full advantage.

Benefits

iPLM combines benefits of a fully integrated
PLM environment with the connection
of an information repository and flow
of operational functions. These functions
include enterprise asset management
(EAM) systems. Specific iPLM benefits are:

  • Ability to accurately assess initial
    requirements before committing to
    capital equipment orders;
  • Efficient balance of owner requirements
    with best practices and regulatory compliance;
  • Performance design work and simulation
    as early as possible to ensure the
    plant can be built within schedule and
    budget;
  • Better project execution with real-time
    information that is updated automatically
    through links to business processes,
    tasks, documents, deliverables
    and other data sources;
  • Design and engineering multi-disciplinary
    components – from structure
    to electrical and fluid systems – to
    ensure the plant is built right the first
    time;
  • Ability to virtually plan how plants and
    structures will be constructed to minimize
    costly rework;
  • Optimization of operations and maintenance
    processes to reduce downtime
    and deliver long-term profits to the
    owners;
  • Ensuring compliance to regulatory and
    safety standards;
  • Maximizing design and knowledge
    reuse from one successful project to
    another;
  • Managing complexity, including sophisticated
    plant systems, and the interdependent
    work of engineering consultants,
    suppliers and the construction
    sites;
  • Visibility of evolving design and changing
    requirements to all stakeholders
    during new or retrofitting projects; and
  • Providing owners and operators a primary repository to all plant information
    and the processes that govern them
    throughout their lifecycle.

Benefits accrue at different times in the
plant lifecycle, and to different stakeholders.
They also depend heavily on the consistent
and dedicated implementation of
basic iPLM solution tenets.

Value Proposition

PLM solutions enable clients to optimize
the creation and management of complex
information assets over a projects’
complete lifecycle. Shipbuilding PLM, in
particular, offers an example similar to the
commercial nuclear energy generation
ecosystem. Defense applications, such as
nuclear destroyer and aircraft carrier platform
developments, are particularly good
examples.

A key aspect of the iPLM value proposition
is the seamless integration of data
and information throughout the design,
build, operate and maintain processes
for industrial plants. The iPLM concept is
well accepted by the commercial nuclear ecosystem. There is an understanding
by engineering companies, utilities and
regulators that information/data transparency,
information lifecycle management
and better communication throughout the
ecosystem is necessary to build timely,
cost effective, safe and publicly accepted
nuclear power plants.

iPLM leverages capabilities in PLM,
EAM and Electronic Content Management
(ECM), combined with data management/
integration, information lifecycle management,
business process transformation
and integration with other nuclear functional
applications through a Service Oriented
Architecture (SOA)-based platform.
iPLM can also provide a foundation on
which to drive high-performance computing
into commercial nuclear operations,
since simulation requires consistent valid,
accessible data sets to be effective.

A hallmark of the iPLM vision is that it
is an integrated solution in which information
related to the nuclear power plant
flows seamlessly across a complete and
lengthy lifecycle. There are a number of
related systems with which an iPLM solution
must integrate. Therefore, adherence
to industry standard interoperability and
data models is necessary for a robust
iPLM solution. An example of an appropriate
data model standard is known as ISO
15926, which has recently been developed
to facilitate data interoperability.

Combining EAM and PLM

Incorporating EAM with PLM is an
example of one of the key integrations
created by an iPLM solution. It provides
several benefits. This includes the basis
for a cradle-to-grave data and work
process repository for all information
applicable to a new nuclear power plant.
A single version of the truth becomes
available early in the project design, and
remains applicable in the construction,
start-up and test, and turnover phases of
the project.

Second, with the advent of single-stem
licensing in many parts of the world (consider
the COLA, or combined Construction
and Operating License Application
in the U.S.), licensing risk is considerably
reduced by consistent maintenance of plant information. Demonstrating that the
plant being started up is the same plant
that was designed and licensed becomes
more straightforward and transparent.

Third, using an EAM system during construction,
and incrementally incorporating
the deep functionality necessary for EAM
in the plant operations, can facilitate and
shorten the plant transfer period from the
designers and constructors to the owners
and operators.

Finally, the time and cost to build a new
plant is significant, and delay in connecting
the plant to the grid for the safe generation
of megawatts can easily cost millions
of dollars. The formidable challenges
of nuclear construction, however, may be
offset by an SOA-based integrated information
system, replacing the traditional
unique and custom designed applications.

To help address these challenges, the
power generation industry ecosystem –
including utilities, engineering companies,
reactor and plant designers, and regulators
– can benefit by looking at methodologies
and results from other industries that
have continued to design, build, operate
and maintain highly complex systems
throughout the last 10 to 20 years.

Here we examine what the shipbuilding
industry has done, results it achieved, and
where it is going.

Experiences In Shipbuilding

The shipbuilding industry has many
similarities to the development of a new
nuclear or clean coal plant. Both are very
complex, long lifecycle assets (35 to 70
years) which require precise and accurate
design, construction, operation and
maintenance to both fulfill their missions
and operate safely over their lifetimes. In
addition, the respective timeframe and
costs of designing and building these
assets (five to 10 years and $5 billion to
$10 billion) create daunting challenges
from a project management and control
point of view.

An example of a successful implementation
of an iPLM-like solution in the shipbuilding
industry is a project completed
for Northrop Grumman’s development of
the next generation of U.S. surface combat
ships, a four-year, $2.9 billion effort.
This was a highly complex, collaborative
project completed by IBM and Dassault
Systemes to design and construct a new
fleet of ships with a keen focus on supporting
efficient production, operation
and maintenance of the platform over its
expected lifecycle.

A key consideration in designing, constructing
and operating modern ships
is increasing complexity of the assets,
including advanced electronics, sensors
and communications. These additional
systems and requirements greatly multiply
the number of simultaneous constraints
that must be managed within the
design, considered during construction
and maintained and managed during
operations. This not only includes more
system complexity, but also adds to the
importance of effective collaboration, as
many different companies and stakeholders
must be involved in the ship’s overall
design and construction.

An iPLM system helps to enforce standardization,
enabling lean manufacturing
processes and enhancing producibility of
various plant modules. For information
technology architecture to continue to be
relevant over the ship’s lifecycle, it is paramount
that it be based on open standards
and adhere to the most modern software
and hardware architectural philosophies.

To provide substantive value, both for
cost and schedule, tools such as real-time
interference checking, advanced visualization,
early-validation and constructability
analysis are key aspects of an iPLM solution
in the ship’s early design cycle. For
instance, early visualization allows feedback
from construction, operations and
maintenance back into the design process
before it’s too late to inexpensively make
changes.

There are also iPLM solution benefits
for the development of future projects.
Knowledge reuse is essential for decreasing
costs and schedules for future units,
and for continuous improvement of
already built units. iPLM provides for
more predictable design and construction
schedules and costs, reducing risk for the
development of new plants.

It is also necessary to consider cultural
change within the ecosystem to reap the
full iPLM solution benefits. iPLM represents
a fundamentally different way of
collaborating and closing the loop between
the various parts of the ship development
and operation lifecycle. As such, people
and processes must change to take advantage
of the tools and capabilities. Without
these changes, much of the benefits of an
iPLM solution could be lost.

Here are some sample cost and schedule
benefits from Navy shipbuilding implementations
of iPLM: reduction of documentation
errors, 15 percent; performance
to schedule increase, 25 percent; labor
cost reduction for engineering analysis,
50 percent; change process cost and time
reduction, 15 percent; and error correction
cost reduction during production, 15
percent.

Conclusions

An iPLM approach to design, construction,
operation and maintenance of a
commercial nuclear power plant – while
requiring reactor designers, engineering
companies, owner/operators, and regulators
to fundamentally change the way
they approach these projects – has been
shown in other industries to have substantial
benefits related to cost, schedule and
long-term operation and maintainability.

By developing and delivering to the customer
two plants: the physical plant and
the “digital plant,” substantial advantages
will accrue both during plant construction
and operation. Financial markets, shareholders,
regulators and the general public
will have more confidence in the development
and operation of these plants
through the predictability, performance to
schedule and cost and transparency that
an iPLM solution can help provide.