Category: Digital Twin

Facility Configuration Management

10/30/2020

During the last eight articles we have covered different aspects of facility information management in a real-world project. In this article I will focus on a facility’s configuration management.
If you would like to read previous chapters first before we take a deeper dive into facility configuration management, you can find them all here: Archive

In my view there are two important parts to facility configuration management. One is the management of changes, traceability and control of the individual information structures we’ve talked about in previous chapters, so, how is the information in the Functional Breakdown Structure, Location Breakdown Structure, product designs (EBOM) and installed asset information managed when changes needs to be made.

As an example, a system design for a water-cooling system in the Functional Breakdown Structure will most likely undergo several design changes during its lifetime, even after it has been taken into operation. Such design changes will lead to work performed on the already installed assets in the facility. Either in the form of re-calibration of existing assets, replacement of assets or even new installations and subsequent commissioning of those installations.

This leads us nicely to the second part of facility configuration management, because as the Functional Breakdown Structure (the facility design) evolves during the lifetime of a facility, we need to be able to identify at least the following:

What the facility’s design requirements originally were (As-Designed)
What we installed in the facility to fulfill the design requirements (assets) including operational configuration information (As-Built)
What has been done to the installed assets after commissioning of the facility (As-Maintained or As-Operated)

This all means that it is not enough to have control of all changes. A possibility must also exist to be able to say what the exact initially agreed design requirements were, what the As-Built was like (combination of design requirement and physically installed asset information to see that what was installed is in accordance with the design requirements) AND how the assets have evolved as a result of operations and maintenance work since initial commissioning (As-Maintained or As-Operated).
Having control of this is extremely important, both to be in compliance with regulatory requirements if an accident were to occur or in the event of an audit, but also for analysis and tracking of the facility’s well being and effective maintenance.

The figure below is loosely borrowed from an excellent publication from IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on configuration management in nuclear plants ( IAEA-TECDOC-1335)

Figure 1: Image used in infographic is courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

Although the publication is old (from 2003), it explains very well what information needs to be controlled (even if it was document centric back then). I have translated it to what it will mean from a structured data management perspective. In essence: Design requirements must conform to what we say is there, and what we say is there includes the information stored in a functional breakdown structure, location breakdown structure, associated product data and all data regarding the installed asset including operational configuration information and maintenance information.

But hang on, that is only the right-hand part of the picture!
Exactly, because we also need to be able to prove that what we say is there conforms to what is actually there physically on site in the facility, and that what is physically there on site conforms to the design requirements.

This means that work processes must be in place from the facility owner side to assure that:

Design data, installed assets and all associated information conform all of the time
All changes are authorized
Conformance can be verified

How can this be achieved?
If facility data is structured and connected like in the previous article series of “PLM tales from a true mega-project” and Plant Information Management (see Archive), configuration management becomes a lot easier, but is still by all means not trivial.

Figure 2: Important structured information for Configuration Management

As the facility design (Functional Breakdown Structure) evolves over time, it must be possible to make “snapshots” or rather baselines of each individual system design within the functional breakdown structure when they reach sufficient maturity (released from design perspective to manufacturing). These “snapshots”, when performed on each and every system in the facility will gradually populate a complete As-Designed baseline of the full facility design.

The exact same mechanism must be in place to create an As-Built, but here the installed asset information also needs to be included as well as any “red-line drawings” or deviation from the As-Designed information. Such deviations, if managed correctly, has already introduced changes in the functional breakdown structure via a change order which renders it different compared to the As-Designed baseline.

The new incremental baselines of designed systems including design changes made during installation together with actually installed asset information, calibration, certificates and traceability of performed work altogether forms the As-Built baseline.
When such capabilities are in place, we are able to say exactly what the As-Designed looked like and what the As-Built was like, and it allows for comparison between the two in order to determine what the differences were, why they occurred and who authorized them.
With such capabilities one could also create other forms of baselines if needed, like As-Installed, As-Commissioned etc.

The As-Maintained or As-Operated would not really be a baseline, but rather the current state of the connected information structures at any given time during operations. However, it must be possible to compare the current state of the connected information with both the As-Built and the As-Designed baselines. It would also be advisable to perform baselines or snapshots of systems at intervals to be able to say something about how the facility has evolved, and especially prior to any large modifications to the facility.

Bjorn Fidjeland

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PLM Tales from a true mega project Ch. 8 – Digital Twin

6/29/2020

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Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

So why this strong focus on structured and connected data? Throughout the different chapters we’ve looked into the details of how the European Spallation Source have defined data structures needed throughout the lifecycle of the facility, and how interoperability between connected objects across those data structures is achieved by utilizing governed and shared master data.

If you would like to read previous chapters first before we take a deeper dive, you can find them all here: Archive

The figure below shows an overview of where ESS have put their focus in terms of structured data.

Figure 1

But why? What is the overall objective?

The main objective is to support the evolution from project to a sustainable facility enabling world leading science for more than 40 years, and to establish the foundation needed for cost-efficient operation and maintenance. High up-time and tough reliability requirements together with tight budgets fosters a need to re-use and utilize data from all stakeholders in the project across the full facility lifecycle.

Figure 2.

By structuring and connecting data in the way described in this article series, ESS obtains traceability and control of all the facility data, which is vital from a regulatory perspective as we saw in chapter 1, but will also be crucial to obtain effective operations and maintenance.

But where does the digital twin fit into all of this?

In my view, the digital twin is in fact all the things we’ve been looking into in this article series, and the fact that the data is all linked together, navigable and comparable. This means that if I’m in operations I can interrogate any function (tag) in the facility for its physical location, to what system it is a part of, the design of that particular system, the asset that is implementing the function in the facility and all its data (the actual physical product in the facility), the full maintenance history of that asset and when it is next scheduled for maintenance, what part the asset was sourced from including its design data, the manufacturer of the part and so forth.

Another example would be going to a part and see all the functions (tags) in the overall facility where this part is used to fulfill a function from facility design perspective, or how many physical assets there are in the facility and in the warehouse sourced from this part.

A third example would be to interrogate a physical asset to see if there are similar ones as spare parts in the warehouse, how long the asset has served at that particular functional location, whether there are any abnormal readings from any of its sensors, when it’s scheduled for maintenance or if it has served at any other functional locations during its lifetime.

It is not strictly necessary that the digital twin has a glossy three-dimensional representation. At least I sometimes get the feeling that some companies tend to focus a lot on this aspect. And that’s exactly what it is, only one aspect of the digital twin. Most of the other aspects are covered in this article series, and yes there are other aspects as well depending on what kind of company you are, and what needs you have.

The common denominator however is that data must be linked, navigable and comparable.

Figure 3. The kind of information a digital twin can consist of

Figure 3 shows what kind of data the digital twin can consist of, provided that the data is structured and connected. A three-dimensional representation is in itself of limited value, but if connected to underlying data structures it would be a tremendously good information carrier, allowing an end user to quickly orientate herself or himself in vast amounts of information. However, it is not a pre-requisite.

I once, with another client, came across an absolutely fantastic 3D model of a facility to be used for operations. It was portrayed as a digital twin, but the associated data (design together with actual installed and commissioned assets) where all PDFs. My question was: If all the data is in PDFs and not as data objects and real attribute values, how can it be utilized by computer systems for predictive maintenance? For instance, how can data harvested from sensors in the field via the integrated control and safety system be compared to design criteria’s, and historical asset data to determine whether the readings are good or bad?

It could not.

To their defense, there were initiatives in place to look into other aspects and to start structuring data, but they focused on the 3D first.

In my view, the problem with such an approach is that it gives a false sense of being done when the 3D representation is in place. Basically, this would only represent the location aspect we discussed in chapter 3, only just in three dimensional space. You might argue that it could also include spatial integration discussed in chapter 5, but I would respond that a lot more structured data and consolidation of such data is needed to achieve this.

The thing is…. In order to achieve what is described in this article series, most companies would have to change the way they are currently thinking and working across their different departments, which brings us to the fact that real business transformation would also be required. The latter is most of the time a much larger and more time-consuming obstacle than the technical ones because it involves a cultural change.

If you would like to read even more about my thoughts around the Digital Twin, please read:

Digital Twin – What needs to be under the hood?

It is my hope that this article series can serve as inspiration for other companies as well as software vendors. I also want to express my gratitude to the European Spallation Source and to Peter Rådahl, Head of Engineering and Integration department in particular for allowing me to share this with you.

Bjorn Fidjeland

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PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 6 – Asset Management

12/15/2019

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Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

In this chapter we’re going to take a look at how physically installed assets are treated from an information management perspective, how assets are related to their specifying tag information, physical location and work performed on the assets themselves from arrival on site to installation and commissioning.
If you would like to read previous chapters first before we take a deeper dive, you can find them all here: Archive

Figure 1.

As physical assets arrive at ESS they are registered in the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system through a goods receival process, and work orders are then required to install the asset to fulfill the tag requirements stated in the Functional Breakdown structure during design and engineering.

Figure 2. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

Figure 2 is from the Enterprise Asset Management system and shows a subset of installed assets. Note that the tags they fulfil are called Positions. Information regarding tag/position, location etc. comes from the plant PLM system via integration whereas the asset information is registered in the EAM system and managed there. All asset documentation is then fed back to the plant PLM system for consolidation across all information structures.

Figure 3. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The EAM system governs work performed on assets in the facility from preparation and rigging to installation work orders, commissioning and maintenance work orders. Figure 3 shows a chart of different types of work orders executed over a short period of time.

The information from the plant PLM system entered during design and engineering is now put to good use as it provides all information about what function the asset is supposed to fulfil in the facility, how it should be calibrated and where it is to be installed. All this information is accessible directly from the EAM system for the people performing the work.

Figure 4. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

Figure 4 shows detailed information about the asset. Through the Position/Tag and Location, all information and documentation from engineering is available. Furthermore, we can see that the asset is installed and that commissioning has been performed.

All documentation including needed certification regarding the Asset, together with design documentation is available through one screen for maintenance personnel. To make access and input of relevant information easier for persons working in the field, a simple user interface for rugged hand held devices has been put in place as an overlay to the EAM system.

Figure 5. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

So with this, the “information circle” is complete with structured data all the way from design and engineering through installation, commissioning, operations and maintenance.

Figure 6. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

Using this principle has allowed the European Spallation Source to move from document centric handovers between lifecycle phases to data centric transitions where the handover is in terms of responsibility for the data needed.

But hold on a second. This all explains the different data structures needed throughout the plant lifecycle. However, it does not explain how data on the different entities across the structures can be interpreted and compared to gain meaning and insight. So, how to achieve interoperability of data across disciplines and software tools?

That will be the topic of my next article in this series.

It is my hope that this article can serve as inspiration for other companies as well as software vendors. I also want to express my gratitude to the European Spallation Source and to Peter Rådahl, Head of Engineering and Integration department in particular for allowing me to share this with you.

Bjorn Fidjeland

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PLM tales from a true megaproject ch. 5 - Spatial Integration

9/20/2019

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Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration Team

In the past chapters I’ve talked an awful lot about structured data and information structures, and yes, in my view this is very important as it is the very essence to obtain effective Plant Lifecycle Management, however in this chapter let’s take breather from the data structures and have a look at how ESS manages the aspect of space management (which is also a structure….. Of course I almost hear you say, but it looks a lot shinier, and by the way, yes it is connected to the tag structure (FBS) and the other information structures).

At ESS there is a team headed by Fabien Rey, responsible for Spatial Integration which includes an all discipline 3D master-model called the EPL (ESS Plant Layout) of the entire facility.

So, what is this Spatial Integration?

It is defined as configuration management of the space available. This means that everything that is designed and that will go into the facility and will occupy space, must have received an initial space claim which is then refined throughout the engineering process. This is true for all disciplines from conventional building, machine systems, product engineering, plant & process to electrical.

Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration Team

When examining the EPL from afar, it looks pretty much like what you would expect from any architectural model, but when focusing on the machine aspects in the facility it gets more interesting, however as ESS is a huge facility, so, still not much detail

Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration Team

Let’s zoom in on the tiny little area at the bottom right corner, which is where the proton beam starts its journey towards the target to create spallation of neutrons.

Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration Team

Here we get a taste for the enormous level of detail we are talking about.
The person to the right is to get a feel for the scale. This picture only shows the first few meters of the 650-meter-long accelerator.
The image is from the Virtual Reality room at ESS. The VR room is used for several different purposes, but among them, multi-discipline reviews for everything from design to installation and commissioning activities.

Let's look the other way

Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration Team

The next picture is taken, not from the VR room, but still the same EPL.
This time from a different software with a slightly different purpose. What is unique in my experience is that it is the same model, under configuration control, loaded into different environments for different purposes.

Image courtesy of Piero Valente, Group Leader Plant & Process at European Spallation Source ERIC

So how does ESS control all of this from a process point of view?

If you look at the picture below, you’ll see the actual engineering process (high level) together with the evolution of a space claim and refinement of design space, or rather the space allocation.

Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration

BUT WAIT!

Why does the process continue from as-designed into as-built and as-scanned??

Well, I never said that the EPL was purely design space configuration management. ESS has taken it a huge step forward to also incorporate, not only as built models, but rather As-Scanned models as well, which means there is a huge infrastructure in place to secure detailed 3D scans that can be imported into the EPL and put as an “overlay” to the design model like in the picture of the models below.

Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration Team

In such a model, inaccuracies between design model and actually installed becomes painfully apparent. I choose this image because I wanted to commend the extreme accuracy of this piping section, however there are numerous examples where errors have been caught which would have posed problems for other installation disciplines afterwards. Early correction of such mistakes is vital to avoid cascading effects for installation, and therefore scans are performed regularly and compared with the design model.

Below you can see an example of an As-Scanned Colored 3D Point Cloud only…. Remember the pipe from the previous picture….

Image courtesy of ESS Spatial Integration Team

As we have now visually seen design requirements compared to actually installed, from a spatial integration perspective, I will show the same for tag requirements and installed physical assets in the next chapter. I know I promised this in the last chapter, but I could not resist showing it from a spatial integration perspective first.

It is my hope that this article can serve as inspiration for other companies as well as software vendors. I also want to express my gratitude to the European Spallation Source and to Peter Rådahl, Head of Engineering and Integration department in particular for allowing me to share this with you.

Bjorn Fidjeland

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PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 4

6/20/2019

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Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

In chapter four we will enter familiar and traditional PLM territory as we will take a closer look at product designs and EBOM’s (Engineering Bill Of Materials). European Spallation Source face the complexities of pure Engineer To Order (ETO) which means that they will only manufacture one of the designed products in the facility, as well as product designs that will be manufactured in series.
It is important to note that some of the products going into the facility was not even invented at the time the decision was made to build the European Spallation Source.

If you would like to read the previous chapters first before we take a deeper dive, you can find them here:
PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 1
PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 2 – Functional Breakdown Structure
PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 3 – Location Breakdown Structure

If you’d like to familiarize yourself more with the concepts of the different structures, please visit:
Plant Information Management - Information Structures

Figure 1.

As the management of product designs and their data is the home turf of any PLM system (Product Lifecycle Management), this area of the plant PLM platform has been left as much out of the box as possible, but I’ll go through some examples all the same.
The EBOM consists of Parts ordered in a hierarchical structure usually largely defined by mechanical product engineering and their design model. The structure is in itself multidiscipline, meaning that it contains mechanical parts, electrical parts and sometimes parts representing other things like drops of glue, software etc.
Based on an EBOM, one or many products can be manufactured. In other words, it is generic in nature.

Figure 2. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The image above is from the plant PLM system and shows a simple EBOM which we can see is released. So what does released mean? Well It means that it is ready seen from the product engineering aspect. Such a released product design can be selected to fulfill one or many functional locations (tags) in the overall facility, as we discussed in chapter 1.
A part is specified by a specification, so it has specifying documentation connected in the form of a 3D model, a drawing or a document

Figure 3. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

In our example in figure 3 there is a 3D model associated, which is specifying the mechanical aspects of the part (note: I have masked owner and released date).
In order to release a part and ultimately an EBOM consisting of parts, a few PLM principles must be observed. Specifying information must always be released prior to the release of the part. So bottom up.
The same is true for the EBOM. Child parts must be released before the parent part can be released. (this is the opposite of the release of the functional structure, but we’ll discuss that in a later chapter)

To govern the release process, a Change Order is used (in PLM also referred to as ECO or Engineering Change Order). In many serial manufacturing companies, it is common to have a process prior to deciding if a change should be implemented. This is because they want to make very sure that they understand all possible impacts a design change might have before they manufacture millions of their products based on the new design.
Such a process, in PLM often referred to as ECR or Engineering Change Request, is omitted at ESS, however the same analysis is performed early on in the change order process.
The release process is one of the areas where ESS have deviated from the out of the box solution in order to streamline as much as possible for their needs.
Let’s have a look at the process with another example.

Figure 4. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

Figure 4 shows an EBOM structure used for training at ESS (It is not an ESS design, but merely an example I’ve created in their plant PLM system). Please observe that the EBOM of this plug valve contains a few parts, is three levels deep and is currently in a lifecycle state called In Work (there are more lifecycle states than showed in the images of this article). All Parts and specifications have individual lifecycle states.

Figure 5. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The image above is seen from the Change Order governing the move of both parts and specifications through their lifecycle states. We can see at the top left of the image that the CO (Change Order) is in “In Work” state. I’ve chosen to let one CO be responsible for the release of the full EBOM and all associated specifications, but I could have split the responsibility across multiple CO’s if I’d wanted to.
In figure 5 we can also see that all parts and their specifications are in state Approved. This means that the responsible engineering discipline feels that they are ready and have done their part of the work

Figure 6. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The last stretch of the release process is to move all the parts and their specifications from the Approved state to the Released state.
A workflow with electronic signatures is responsible for doing this. The workflow above states that Bjorn Fidjeland… (Yes, me) is responsible for reviewing the entire EBOM and all specifications. In a real live process, the members of a CDR (Critical Design Review) are listed as reviewers, and one or more final approvers assumes responsibility for the release. At ESS the CDR is a multi-discipline review with both internal and external stakeholders.
Normally it is not allowed to have the same person as both reviewer and approver, but since I’ve got admin rights to this environment, and did not want to show the names of ESS reviewers and approvers, the example is as it is.

When the last person in the workflow sequence has approved, all specifications and parts governed by the Change Order are automatically promoted from Approved state to Released state, and the Change Order itself is marked complete. The system itself takes care of the bottom up release rules of the EBOM.

Figure 7. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

Figure 7 shows the fully released EBOM, including all specifications governed by this one Change Order.

The next chapter will be about how ESS manages information about their physical assets, how physically installed assets are linked to the facility’s tag requirements in the Functional Breakdown Structure, where they are located in the Location Breakdown Structure and from what product design they originate from.

It is my hope that this article can serve as inspiration for other companies as well as software vendors.
I also want to express my gratitude to the European Spallation Source and to Peter Rådahl, Head of Engineering and Integration department in particular for allowing me to share this with you.

Bjorn Fidjeland

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PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 3

5/23/2019

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Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

In this chapter we are going to take a look at how the location breakdown structure is implemented at the European Spallation Source.
The location structure is a decomposition of physical locations of areas into buildings, levels, rooms, cells and sub-cells. The Location Breakdown Structure contains a consolidated view of all data from a physical location perspective.

This chapter is built up much the same way as the previous one about the functional breakdown structure, due to their similar look and feel, even though they describe different aspects of the facility.

If you would like to read previous chapters first before we take a deeper dive, you can find it here:
PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 1
PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 2 – Functional Breakdown Structure
If you’d like to familiarize yourself more with the concepts of the different structures, please visit:
Plant Information Management - Information Structures

Figure 1.

When examining the location breakdown structure, you’ll notice that is looks like it also has a form of tag.
This is entirely correct, the standard used at ESS, EN/ISO 81346, was among other things selected for its ability to name multiple aspects, where the functional aspect is indicated with a equal sign, and the location aspect is indicated with a plus sign.

Figure 2. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The image above is from the plant PLM system and shows a small part of the location breakdown structure at ESS.
Let’s go through what we see in the image, and use the TS2 Area (Test Stand 2) row 15 – +ESS.G02.100.1001.102 as an example.

Figure 3. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The first column shows the location name of the individual location object.
The second column with the little green icon gives you the option to zoom in on the location if further details are needed, for instance attribute values of the location such as owner of the location, status, specifications, reference documents, history etc.

The third column shows a paperclip if there are specifying documentation associated with the location. In figure 4 we can see that the Tunnel has 308 documents associated whereas 271 of them are considered specifying documentation to the location and 7 are requirement specifications (the green check mark means that it has the lifecycle state released). We can also see that 37 documents are regarded as reference documents. This means that they are describing the location, but are not regarded as specifying to the location.

Figure 4. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The Tag column shows the full location tag , and the description column indicates a description of the location.
The type column indicates the type of area. At ESS this can be area, building, level (where 100 is floor level), room, cell and sub cells.
The FBS (Functional Breakdown Structure) column in figure 3 allows you to see at what functional locations, so Tags, the physical location actually contains. The functional locations are displayed in the split view as shown in figure 5.

Figure 5. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

We can clearly see that the TS2 Area currently contains 258 functional tags (master tags), and all information regarding each functional tag is directly available in this view.

The IS column in figure 3 refers to the actually installed assets in the plant that is used to implement the functional object requirements that are located in the physical location of TS2 Area (an asset is a physical thing that typically has a serial number). See figure 6.

Figure 6. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The released part column in figure 3 gives an overview of what released product designs (Engineering Bill Of Materials) or standard parts that can fulfill the functional object requirements physically located in the TS2 Area (there might be several options prior to procurement, however the installed asset will only have an association to one part as it was manufactured based on that particular product design).

The last column in figure 3, called Change Order displays a link to the Change Order responsible for releasing the physical location together with all specifying documentation.

So, from one view in the plant PLM system, the European Spallation Source is able to access all related data to all physical locations in their location breakdown structure from engineering and design through installation, commissioning, operations, maintenance and ultimately decommissioning.

The next chapter will be about how ESS manages product design (Engineering Bill Of Materials), both from an Engineer To Order perspective and a serial manufacturing perspective.

It is my hope that this article can serve as inspiration for other companies as well as software vendors. I also want to express my gratitude to the European Spallation Source and to Peter Rådahl, Head of Engineering and Integration department in particular for allowing me to share this with you.

Bjorn Fidjeland

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PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 2

4/12/2019

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Image courtesy of Fabien Rey, Group Leader Machine Engineering Service Group at European Spallation Source ERIC

In this chapter we are going to take a look at how the functional breakdown structure is implemented at the European Spallation Source. The functional structure is a functional decomposition of systems and subsystems all the way down to individual functions, or as ESS calls them, components. The Functional Breakdown Structure contains a consolidated view of data from all plant engineering disciplines including electrical, plant & process and mechanical.
If you would like to read chapter one first before we take a deeper dive, you can find it here:
PLM tales from a true megaproject Ch. 1

If you’d like to familiarize yourself more with the concepts of the different structures, please visit:
Plant Information Management - Information Structures and
Plant Engineering meets Product Engineering in capital projects

Figure 1.

The first thing you’ll notice is the tagging. It was decided to use the standard EN/ISO 81346 as a common master tag at the European Spallation Source. The equal sign means that it is the functional aspect, however anybody familiar with the standard will notice something a bit odd. The first 2 levels are not quite according to standard. It was decided that the first level was to be ESS, and the second levels ACC (Accelerator), TS (Target Station), NSS (Neutron Scattering Systems) and INFR (Infrastructure). Anything below the first and second level is according to the guidelines of the standard.

Figure 2. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The image above is from the plant PLM system and shows the functional breakdown structure of the Test Stand 2 piping system as an example. At the time of writing, the functional breakdown structure contains about 50.000 tags, but is expected to grow to well over 1 million tags.
Let’s go through what we see in the image, and use the first row – W02 (the Test Stand 2 piping system) as an example in the beginning.

Figure 3. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The first column shows the tag name of the individual functional object (W02). The second column with the little green icon gives you the option to zoom in on the object if further details are needed, for instance all the attribute values of the object coming from object type or class (European Spallation Source uses ISO 15926-4 as a basis for their master reference data).
The third column shows a paperclip if there are specifying documentation associated with the tag. In figure 4 we can see that the Test Stand 2 piping system has one released P&ID (the green check mark means that it has the lifecycle state released), and that there are 15 other reference documents associated.

Figure 4. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The Tag column shows the full functional master tag, and the description column indicates a description of the functional object.
The classification column shows what kind of functional object it is. This refers to the master reference data class that is used to describe the properties or attributes this specific tag has got. In order to explain better we need to take a step back.

I mentioned that the European Spallation Source opted to use ISO 15926-4 as a basis for their master reference data. This means that there is a vast library of classes that defines what attributes, let’s say a Temperature Sensor should have, and also what letter codes (defined based on EN 81346) it should have. So, when a functional object is first created, it only has basic attributes that are shared across all functional objects, however when the system is told that it is a Temperature Sensor, it gets all the attributes defined for the class Temperature Sensor in addition to it’s tag which is computed by the parent object’s tag, the letter code and the number of other Temperature Sensors at this level in the functional breakdown structure plus one.

Figure 5. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The image above shows some of the attributes for the selected Temperature Sensor tag, but without operational data.

The LBS (Location Breakdown Structure) column in figure 3 allows you to see at what physical location the functional object is located.
If the functional object is a pipe or cable that spans multiple locations, then several physical locations are displayed in the split view as shown in figure 6.

Figure 6. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The IS column in figure 3 refers to the actually installed asset in the plant that implements the functional object requirements (physical item with serial number). See figure 7.

Figure 7. Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

The released part column in figure 2 gives an overview of what released product designs (Engineering Bill Of Materials) or standard parts that can fulfill the functional object requirements (there might be several options prior to procurement, however the installed asset will only have an association to one part as it was manufactured based on that particular product design).

So from one view in the plant PLM system, the European Spallation Source is able to access all related data to all functional objects in their functional breakdown structure from design and engineering through installation, commissioning, operations, maintenance and ultimately decommissioning.
The next chapter will be about the Location Breakdown Structure.

It is my hope that this article can serve as inspiration for other companies as well as software vendors. I also want to express my gratitude to the European Spallation Source and to Peter Rådahl, Head of Engineering and Integration department in particular for allowing me to share this with you.

Bjorn Fidjeland

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PLM tales from a true mega-project Ch. 1

3/27/2019

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Image courtesy of European Spallation Source ERIC

I’ve been asked on several occasions if I can share some more details from any of the projects I’ve been involved with. Especially the ones addressing plant lifecycle management and the use of structured data.
Naturally, most commercial companies who face fierce competition every day are reluctant to do so, as it is deemed highly important for their competitiveness. Or as one client put it “This is truly our backbone, while our master-data is our lifeblood”

However, there is one very special company I’ve been fortunate to be involved with for several years now who has agreed to share some of their details.
It is the European Spallation Source ERIC or ESS for short. An organization tasked with executing a true mega-project, to design, build and operate the world’s brightest neutron source for scientific use.

So what is the European Spallation Source?
In short it is a 750 meters long and 250 meters wide facility that houses a huge linear proton accelerator or LINAC. The accelerator is responsible for accelerating protons produced by an Ion Source up to 96% of the speed of light. The protons are then collided into the target which is a 2.6 m-diameter stainless steel disk containing bricks of a neutron-rich heavy metal called Tungsten. This is where Spallation occurs, where neutrons are flung out from the target wheel. These neutrons are the main product of the European Spallation Source, and they are guided through neutron guides to the instruments that allow researchers to do their research. It is anticipated that 22 instruments will be installed in total.
For more information, check out europeanspallationsource.se

Image courtesy of Fabien Rey, Group Leader Machine Engineering Service Group at European Spallation Source ERIC

What kind of research will be conducted?
Some examples are: chemistry of materials, magnetic & electronic phenomena, life science & soft condensed matter, engineering materials, geosciences, archeology & heritage conservation, fast neutron applications and particle physics

Well, back to the real question at hand. What have they done with respect to plant lifecycle management and technical information management?
If you want to freshen up on my views with respect to needed information structures, you may do so here:
Plant Information Management - Information Structures
Archive of articles

What ESS has put in place is truly remarkable. By extending a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system to also manage:

Functional Breakdown Structure (Tags)
Location Breakdown Structure (Physical Locations)
Engineering Bill of Material (EBOM for product designs, traditionally the home turf of a PLM system)
Management of all installed assets or physically installed items (the front end for asset management and warehouse management is an Enterprise Asset Management system, whereas assets installed in the facility are also created and consolidated in the PLM system together with relationships to their corresponding Tag, Location, Part and their common reference data class with attributes)

Reference data: A class library of common reference data used across Functional Breakdown Structure, Engineering Bill of Material and Assets. Each class has attributes defined deemed important to ESS.

In addition to the actual data structures, each object in any structure is governed by revision control and change management, not only of the objects themselves but also their associated specifications in the form of 3D design models, drawings, certificates and reports etc.

Why has the European Spallation Source done this when they are only building one such facility?
The main reason is to support the European Spallation Source evolution from project to a sustainable facility enabling world-leading science for ≥40 years, and to establish the foundation needed for future cost-efficient operation and maintenance.

A second reason is the fact that the facility in some areas is producing radiation in the form of radioactivity. This means that parts of the facility fall under the regulatory requirements of the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority which in turn means rigorous control of all technical information as well as configuration management of such information.

In the coming articles I will address each information structure, as well as the topics of digital twin, master reference data, change management and revision control with live examples from the European Spallation Source.

In this regard I would like to offer a special thanks to Peter Rådahl, Head of Engineering and Integration department at the European Spallation Source whom I’ve had the privilege to serve as an advisor for several years now. Peter Raadahl had a clear vision from the start on how to best serve the European Spallation Source with respect to managing technical information, formed a strategy for how to get there and stuck to the strategy through many an obstacle.

Bjorn Fidjeland

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