Irrespective of whether you work in the oil & gas, food processing, utilities or waste management industry, the challenges and growing pressures for plant owners and operators are common.

Increasing profitability and production efficiency in all of them is a common theme and solutions are needed to support strategic goals. Ultimately these industries combine facilities with hundreds or even thousands of on-site assets that are combined to process materials to deliver product output.

A number of key challenges exist for these industries including aging facilities and infrastructure. Having solutions that extend the life of assets through proper maintenance scheduling can help to drive improved profits through the increasing use and adaptability of these assets. On the other hand, emerging economies and increasing populations are placing unprecedented demand for new plant and new infrastructure, so much so, that in certain areas of the world, utilities like electricity are turned off in various parts of extensively occupied areas, as insufficient infrastructure is available to deliver enough electricity to provide 24/7 capacity.

As with most industries Plant industries are also under increasing pressure to reduce cost and increase productivity, with Tata Steel announcing 900 job cuts – even the largest manufacturing companies in the UK are looking to cut costs. With the government having to step in to help, these companies need to find other ways to help leverage the pressures without having to say goodbye to staff.

Outside of process improvements, many designers and plant operators are trying to use new technology, innovation and tools to improve the design and build process during plant construction or in the change management process. 3D Design packages that provide utilities for visualisation and clash detection are very productive tools. Point cloud technology is also being used for helping document aging facilities where as-built documentation is not available or inaccurate.