Shell, IBM and Dassault Systemes team up for pilot project

Citation

(1998), "Shell, IBM and Dassault Systemes team up for pilot project", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 27 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.1998.12927aad.002

Shell, IBM and Dassault Systemes team up for pilot project

Shell, IBM and Dassault Systemes team up for pilot project

IBM and Dassault Systemes will work together in a pilot project to develop new processes and methodologies for the engineering of process plants. This project will use the next generation CATIA-CADAM Plant Solutions (CCPlant), with particular emphasis on the improvement of data handling at the conceptual (front-end) design stage.

Shell will use CCPlant to significantly reduce the cost and increase the quality of design, engineering and construction of a plant. This will be achieved through more efficient management of data generated through Shell's expertise in plant operation, maintenance and engineering, health, environmental and safety issues. In addition, improved data handling at the conceptual design phase will lead to better communication of information to Shell's engineering contractors.

For the pilot, a project has been selected at Shell's Pernis, Rotterdam facility, which has a refining capacity of 20 million tons of crude oil per year and a chemical complex producing a wide range of products such as industrial chemicals, plastics, resins, synthetic rubbers and specialities.

The virtual plant environment provided by CCPlant's open database provides users, on request, with multiple logical and physical representations of the plant, including intelligent schematics and 2D as well as 3D representations. This will enhance design decision making by multidisciplinary teams during the early development of a plant. CCPlant will also allow the capture of design know-how, and will allow Shell personnel to develop and implement rules that will be automatically checked and enforced during the entire life-cycle of the plant.

Shell foresees many benefits from this new re-engineered working process for design, including improved design choice optimisation by multidisciplinary teams, and also engineering, construction and life-cycle use of petrochemical plants.

CCPlant was selected as the core tool for the virtual plant environment because of its strategic and technological approaches that make it the best fit for Shell, as a plant owner operator. "This project is a great opportunity to show the process improvements that can be achieved from both CCPlant's component-based approach and its inherent functional and physical data integration of the plant. We are putting into production the first integrated and truly open knowledgeware for the petroleum industry", said Marcelo Lemos, Dassault Systemes' executive and member of the pilot project steering committee.

Added Ton de Blok, Worldwide Manager for CATIA AEC Solutions at IBM ETS, "We are pleased that Shell has shown its confidence in IBM and Dassault Systemes. Shell recognises not only our process-centric and virtual product modelling strategies and technologies, but also our industry expertise and project partnership."

Details from IBM United Kingdom Ltd, South Bank, 76 Upper Ground, London, SE1 9PZ. Tel: 0171 202 3744; Fax: 0171 202 3792/3.