and time. They must design highly-special-
ized technical plants to meet individual re-
quirements faster than ever before. Today, a
great deal of time can only be saved by im-
plementing parallel operational processes in
plant engineering. In order to benefit from
such savings, collaboration spanning trades
and companies is essential. This calls for cor-
responding tools, such as the object-oriented
COMOS software, which offers just such a
software solution, thanks to its uniform data
platform. The software enables interoperabil-
ity using the open system architecture and as
a uniform software solution, now ensures
optimum bidirectional data exchange be-
tween different applications and disciplines.
In terms of the future, the software will con-
tinue to be improved, developing in line with
ISO 15926 and utilizing the latest interface
technologies. Especially in terms of the
handover from plant engineer to owner op-
erator, there is still large scope for improve-
ment.
COMOS Plant Manager: What challenges do
owner operators face, both now and in the
future?
Dirk Wegg: Financial pressures on operators
will continue to rise. In order to make sav-
ings, the widest range of measures for opti-
mization will be adopted. Such measures
range from having fewer staff on the extrac-
tion site and extend to putting risk-based
maintenance strategies in place as part of the
maintenance operations. At the same time,
operators must continuously adapt and im-
prove their plant documentation in line with
new regulations and provisions. Efficient data
management is absolutely essential for all
these measures and requirements, for it is
only when the right data is available at the
right time and place that risk can be further
controlled and costs thereby minimized.
COMOS Plant Manager: What requirements
arise from this for plant management?
Dirk Wegg: Basically, fewer employees must
be able to manage increased plant complexity
easily and quickly. Due to the huge quantity of
data gathered and the corresponding need to
prepare this data, which serves as a basis for
economical and technical decisions, imple-
menting optimum plant management is essen-
tial. However, this requires high-performance
engineering tools throughout all phases of the
plant lifecycle – ranging from engineering to
handover and plant operation.
COMOS Plant Manager: What are the conse-
quences for plant engineering?
Dirk Wegg: EPC (Engineering Procurement &
Construction) companies are now placed un-
der significant pressure in terms of quality
“only when the right data is available at the right time and place that risk can be further controlled and costs thereby minimized.” »
13 COMOS Plant Manager | 3/2012
Interview with Dirk Wegg about trends in the oil & gas industry