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MANAGING LINEAR ASSETS

Managing Linear Assets has always been a challenge;
find out how customers leverage SAP to meet industry requirements.

Venkatesh Pulijala,
EAM Consultant - Oil & Gas,
Wipro Technologies

Table of contents
02

Executive Summary

03

SAP Linear Asset Management

03

Conceptual Design & Architecture

06

Business Benefits with SAP Solution

06

Conclusion

07

About the Author

07

About Wipros Energy, Natural resources and Utilities (ENU) SBU

07

About Wipro Technologies

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Asset intensive industries like Oil & Gas, Railways and Utilities are struggling to manage their infrastructure or production networks which are
complex and difficult to maintain. Their business needs a unique solution to manage their network of assets. Currently these businesses rely largely
on different standalone, loosely integrated systems and manual processes (e.g. GIS, spreadsheets, LAM applications) to access linear asset
information and store/ access historical information. This makes their processes time consuming to analyze, track, identify work location, collate cost
information, and schedule and track work status.

These

organizations

need

to

optimize

reliability,

availability,

and data. This paper highlights an SAP solution to fulfill the demand

maintainability, and safety of their networks and infrastructure. Most

from business to have a well-integrated system which is cost effective,

asset management softwares have been designed around discrete

which can aggregate linear and non-linear asset data, help in quick

assets and fail to address these demands. Hence there is a need for a

decision making, avoid data redundancy and duplication, and provide a

comprehensive, integrated solution that facilitates and connects linear

single source of information to all stakeholders.

asset management activities with the full gamut of enterprise processes

02

SAP Linear Asset Management

Conceptual Design & Architecture

SAP Linear Asset Management - This functionality within the SAP

Plant Maintenance (PM) module which is specially designed to meet the
business requirements to manage linear asset and maintain them. The
need to represent and model assets which extend for several kilometers
with changing characteristics and conditions requires network modeling
and maintenance tools to provide specific capabilities to support and
manage these complex assets. The solution provides an integrated
solution which can improve the operations, safety, decision making and
reduce cost.

Non-Linear Assets A non-linear asset occupies a defined space and

Deploying an integrated enterprise asset and maintenance management

solution for maintaining linear assets can significantly improve an
organizations operation and achieve increased safety, improved access to
decision tools, enhanced regulatory compliance, and reduced in costs.
These companies can now combine both performance and safety, across
the network infrastructure with all key stakeholders involved. Natively
integrating within the existing SAP Plant Maintenance module; SAP Linear
Asset Management connects and coordinates the asset management
processes across the organization. SAP LAM can do all of the following:
Configure linear assets as Linear Reference Patterns
Improve safety, compliance and risk management
Integrate with SAP GEO.e (GEOgraphical Enablement) and
Mobility for enhanced real-time information & operations
Change linear asset conditions / characteristics can be
incorporated at ease.
Automate asset maintenance & operations
Evaluate operational status more accurately with
real-time information
Reduce operation and maintenance costs
Improve decision making and resource management
Integrate maintenance and financial management

can be tracked by its location or modeled as part of a parent child

hierarchy. They can be installed, maintained replaced as a whole. E.g.
Physical Assets like Facilities or Mobile equipments like fleet or
component based like ships.
Linear Assets - Linear assets have linear properties and often connect
with each other by their relationship with the linear infrastructure itself.
They can be preserved and restored in place, and in segments.
E.g. Department of transportation managing roads or Railways managing
rail tracks and signaling, or the Oil & Gas industry managing pipeline or
Utility industry managing transmission towers.
Linear Asset Management deals with an asset whose length plays a critical
role in the maintenance of the asset. They are a special type of asset
which has an associated length dimension; this dimension is represented
by means of start points and end points. Linear assets are subject to
dynamic segmentation and multiple characteristic combinations can be
defined with any portion of an existing linear feature independently of
where it begins or ends.

Linear Reference Pattern and markers enable modeling using both linear
and non-linear assets in one network. SAP Linear Asset Management thus
enables to connect business processes throughout the organization.
SAP Linear Asset Management enables to standardize and connect
business processes throughout the organization. Business can model
complex assets both linear and discrete in single SAP landscape.
This enables business to adopt changes to the network faster, helping
ensure data integrity across multiple asset types.

03

The example below shows how we can achieve dynamic segmentation of pipelines. Markers & characteristics
can be maintained along the length of the network:

Pipeline Crude Oil-PLCO

300 Km Length (18 / 24 / 36)
Oil Rig

Refinery

Sections
PLCO-S01

PLCO-S02

PLCO-S03

100 km (18)

100 km (24)

100 km (36)

Valve-1

Valve-2

Valve-3

Valve-4

Sub-Sections
PLCO-S01-01 PLCO-S01-02

PLCO-S02-01

Pumping Station - 1

PLCO-S02-02

PLCO-S03-01

PLCO-S03-02

Pumping Station - 2

Linear Reference Pattern (MARKERS)

MK01

MK06

MK11

MK21

MK31

A High Level Architecture Solution can be represented as below:

Mobility (SAP
Syclo SMART
Work Manager
& Inventory
Manager)

SAP R/3 ECC6.0

& EhP6
(LAM enabled)

GEO.e AM

SAP
xMII

ENTERPRISE
BUS

SAP Document
Management
System

OSIsoft PI
(SCADA, Plant
data, Device
integration)

Linear Asset Management along with mobility and GIS solutions forms a highly effective solution
to manage the operational challenges.
04

SAP Geographical Enablement (GEO.e) for Asset

Management SAP GEO.e as a Geographic Information System (GIS)
integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing,
and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. GEO.e
allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in
many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of
maps, globes, reports, and charts. It helps to answer questions and solve
problems by looking at your data in a way that is quickly understood and
easily shared. Some of its key benefits are:
Cost Savings and Increased Efficiency - Optimize maintenance
Optimize fleet movement, reduced fuel usage and labour time
Better Decision Making Help making better decisions about
location of work which is critical
Improved Communication between different teams, field
professionals, departments and public
Better Record Keeping Maintaining change of assets within
geographic bounds
Better Geographic Management Actions based on geography of
the work location
GEO.e for Asset Management provides option to create or view
maintenance information from the maps directly from the handheld
devices. This makes the application much more user friendly

assets with ease. Syclos SMART Work manager application helps in

accessing asset locations, historical information, workflow and
approvals, and can also be tailor made to receive all the information
required by the field technicians as well as stakeholders. It also helps in
improved regulatory compliance and employee safety, reducing
potential fines and liabilities.
Inventory status while on the field, order requirements and approvals
can be managed using the SMART inventory manager application thus
saving time, paperless work and reduce cost of operations.
Mobile Work Permit Management for managing equipment
lockout-tagout when an asset needs to be repaired and has to be
isolated can also be managed via mobile devices on the field thus
enabling enhanced safety features.
OSIsoft PI with xMII OSIsoft integrated with SAP xMII to provide
real-time information to SAP and to the field technicians on the status
and condition of the network thus further enhancing compliance, safety
and cost.
Though this doesnt relate to LAM directly, but can provide additional
information if required on the GIS maps like status of the valves or
breakers, supply or flow information etc.

Mobility (SAP Syclo) Syclo provides readymade solutions which can

be implemented and integrated with SAP for managing linear & non-linear

SAP Document Management System (DMS) SAP DMS can

provide access to all compliance related, operation instruction
documents as and when required by the stakeholder or field technicians.

The illustration below shows high level steps on how the work order will flow using different systems showcasing
preventive maintenance cycle followed by corrective maintenance for a pipelines maintained as linear assets:

LINEAR ASSET
Linear Asset, Linear
Reference Pattern,
Funcitional Locations
& Markers

Create
Maintenance
Plan

SAP
DMS

Complete Work &

close work order

Plan &
Perform
Maintenance

Maintenance
Plan

Work Order
for defects
Identified

Scheduling

OSIsoft
PI

Confirm & Complete

Order, View Multi
level list report

Order
Update

Work Order/
Notification

Order
Release

GEO.eAM
Location map
& Route planning

Perform
Inspection
& Preventive
Maintenence

xMII

Complete
Inspection

SAP SYCLO
Create
Notifications
for defects
identified

05

Business Benefits with

SAP Solution

Conclusion

Maximizing Return On Investment - Manage continuous assets

SAP Linear Asset Management along with close integration with GEO.e,

with dynamic segmentation within the existing Enterprise ERP

Mobility, OSIsoft PI and xMII provides a good solution to businesses to

Graphical representation and improved worker efficiency - Identify

manage asset performance, improved compliance, reduced operational

exact maintenance locations (where to work) by linear attributes

cost and improved equipment and worker safety by increasing the

like start/end point, length and offsets. Optimized solution with

reliability of the network.

GIS integration
Reduced Downtime and improved efficiency Implementing an
effective maintenance strategy for inspection and maintenance can
reduce downtime thus increasing efficiency

Inherently, this will result is boosting revenues with greater asset

availability and can increase the return on valuable assets.

Optimize Maintenance and spare part planning By providing

day-to-day big picture of the linear assets and spare part
information via GEO.e AM maps and mobility information
Improved decision making and fleet management - Improve
decision making and resource management and minimizing impact
on assets by connecting to Enterprise data Anytime & Anywhere
Improved safety - Access to real time information about various
conditions via OSI soft PI & xMII improve safety and enable faster
decision making
Better Emergency handling - Manage emergency responses and
incidents with full follow up

06

About the Author

Venkatesh Pulijala has more than 14 years of industry experience with seven years in SAP consulting and specializing in Enterprise Asset
Management and Project Management. At present, he is part of Wipros Oil & Gas CoE team and responsible for developing new technology
solution in SAP EAM space.
Venkatesh has led teams and played various roles for clients located in different geographies like USA, Canada, Australia and Switzerland and across
verticals like Utilities, Oil & Gas, Pharma and Mining.

About Wipros Energy, Natural resources and Utilities (ENU) SBU:

Wipros Energy, Natural resource and Utilities (ENU) Strategic Business Unit (SBU) has, over the last decade, established itself as a trusted partner to
clients across the globe to address their business challenges using its deep industry domain competency and technology expertise. It has over 6600
dedicated consultants serving businesses in the oil & gas, metals, mining, agriculture products, water, natural gas and electricity industries. Having a
strong relationship with over 40 customers spread across Americas, Europe, India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the ENU
SBU has been continuously investing in building competencies to help them do business better. Recently, Wipro has acquired SAICs Global Oil and
Gas business unit, reinforcing its focus on this industry.

About Wipro Technologies

Wipro Technologies, the global IT business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing company,
that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Wipro Technologies delivers winning business outcomes through its deep industry
experience and a 360 view of Business through Technology helping clients create successful and adaptive businesses. A company recognized
globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, a practitioners approach to delivering innovation and an organization wide commitment to
sustainability. Wipro Technologies has 140,000 employees and clients across 54 countries.

For information visit www.wipro.com or mail [email protected]

07

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