Reducing the Cost of Unplanned Downtime in Utilities

Just like other businesses, the utilities industry is facing the operational impact of unplanned downtime.

In fact, according to Aberdeen, “The Rising Cost of Downtime”, unplanned downtime, across all businesses, can cost companies as much $260,000 per hour. In addition, many document management tools that utilities use for their engineering documents cannot manage CAD-related files, so these utilities are forced to purchase several different tools to manage their various types of engineering data.

Without a single source of truth for all their engineering documents and drawings, utilities inevitably end up working with out-of-date engineering documentation. This outdated information can cause massive delays and rework for utilities.

With a single source of truth, utilities can share information with all internal stakeholders and external contractors. Accruent’s engineering information management solution, Meridian, allows internal engineering, operations, and maintenance teams to communicate seamlessly because these groups do not have to overcome departmental data silos and communication breakdowns.

Ready to learn more about reducing the cost of unplanned downtime? Contact us today.

Engineering managers can be confident they are working on the most up-to-date drawings and documents. They can track their revisions in the system, and they can view a set audit trail of changes. Accurate engineering information data can be made available to external contractors during the project phase. After the project is completed, the Operations & Maintenance team can gain easy access to technical documents for planning routine activities and ensure that preventive maintenance is safer, more accurate and faster.

During a project, utilities are performing numerous changes at any one time. When these changes overlap, there are common interdependencies. For example, there may be a change when the same documents such as piping and instrumentation diagrams, general arrangements, process guidelines, etc. must be changed as part of two or more separate initiatives.

Our solution offers concurrent engineering functionality.

Meridian allows utilities to:

• Track all documents associated with a project.
• Ensure projects run in parallel, without error.
• Gain real-time visibility.
• Monitor revisions from different projects and ongoing maintenance.

When a parallel project releases updated documents, project members associated with the same documents and drawings are notified automatically, avoiding unnecessary delays and shortening project turnarounds.

Meridian, our engineering information management software, offers a full CAD-platform independent solution for engineering drawing management where utilities can store, manage, render, and visualize both 2D and 3D content easily from major CAD systems. Utilities can keep their master data up-to-date while coordinating their change processes in isolated work areas with workflows, ensuring data validation, and providing a full audit trail for regulatory compliance. Users can also manage Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, scanned images, and hybrid files, allowing our solution to serve as the ultimate repository for consolidating all legacy and project-related engineering information.

It is extremely important for utilities to have 24/7 access to accurate engineering drawings and documentation. Our solution provides robust document search capabilities for utilities to manage the increasing number of digital documents with ease by finding relevant documents quickly. This ease-of-use allows utilities to achieve substantial time savings, increased employee production, and faster project completion timelines.

Asset documentation is significant for utilities not just in terms of the cost to reproduce, but in the value of supporting and demonstrating regulatory compliance and reducing the risk to safety and efficiency. These documents provide a wealth of knowledge and experience that is key to the delivery of your projects and the smooth running of your facility.

Meridian helps utilities make the most of valuable engineering data by locating these documents in a secure centralized repository. Our engineering information management solution provides well-established and proven managed change processes that help ensure your data is accurate and up-to-date. Every change is versioned and audited, offering confidence and control to demonstrate compliance with global and local utilities-specific regulations.

The mission of many companies in the utilities industry is to provide a safe, reliable, environmentally friendly utility service to its customers at the most economical price. This mission can prove to be extremely challenging with the rapid influx of engineering data coming their way at any one time. This challenge becomes even more difficult when utilities are undergoing multiple projects at one time and must make real-time critical decisions that can affect their margins drastically.

Meridian can help your utility to achieve its mission, contact us to find out how.