Europoort Kringen: We want to be the number one partner in efficiency and sustainability

The number one partner in efficiency and sustainability. That is what Bilfinger wants to be for the process industry. And that for the entire life cycle of industrial installations. With this message, the industrial services provider is now emphatically positioning itself in the market. It brought together its services for this purpose in nine global product centers. In one, all asset management and maintenance activities are gathered.

"For the process industry, we have been a well-known player worldwide for over 140 years," indicates global product manager maintenance Oksana Roman. "Our portfolio covers the entire life cycle of industrial plants; from feasibility studies at the beginning of projects to asset decommissioning. We offer consulting, engineering and digital applications, as well as plant maintenance, turnarounds and plant expansions, among other services. Our clients can therefore turn to one company for a wide range of services. Our ambition is to be number one in improving efficiency and sustainability for the entire lifetime of their plants."

"To serve customers even better, we restructured our organization," Roman continues. "To do this, we have bundled our activities into nine global product centers. These work closely together around the world and use standardized methods and processes. That way, customers can count on exactly the same service and quality at all their locations."

Global product center Maintenance

Bilfinger's activities in the Netherlands focus on the global product centers Engineering and Maintenance. This is what the Bilfinger Tebodin business unit based in The Hague and Schiedam, among other places, is engaged in. "With these centers, we offer efficiency and sustainability solutions for the process industry," says Bilfinger Tebodin's Director of Consultancy for Northwest Europe Peter Coort. "Among other things, we do that with new technologies, such as hydrogen and CO2 capture. We also have programs with which we can optimize existing plants. Examples include our net zero approach, master plans for CO2 reduction and asset management roadmaps. The latter is one of the services that falls under the global product center Maintenance. This houses all facets related to asset management and maintenance. In this article, we want to focus mainly on that."

Challenges and trends

"The companies we focus on with asset management and maintenance are facing different challenges," explains Oksana Roman. "Of these, decarbonization, sustainability, digitalization and aging assets are the main ones. In addition, we observe a number of trends in the market. In recent years, for example, the view of maintenance has changed enormously. From a 'compulsory number', it is increasingly seen as an opportunity to increase the output of an installation and reduce costs - by preventing shutdowns as much as possible and running more efficiently, among other things. In that context, people are increasingly opting for predictive maintenance rather than reactive maintenance."

"Furthermore, assets today are older on average," Roman continued. "Moreover, the maintenance lifecycle, which was previously at 20 to 30 years, has changed to one for an indefinite period of time with some customers. As a result, the emphasis has shifted more to continuous operational cost (OPEX) improvement, maintenance optimization and modification projects. Also, an increasing number of clients are considering incorporating asset management and maintenance strategies as early as the design phase."

Solutions and tools

"Asset management has become one of the focal points in corporate strategies because of those trends," said Peter Coort. "Many companies are currently busy implementing strategic programs in that area. For them, we have several solutions and tools available. I briefly discuss four of them: Bilfinger Asset Strategy (BAS) is the first. In it, we take stock of how asset management has been implemented at a company. By looking for the deltas between the desired and current situation, we give direction to a strategic asset management plan and bring clients structurally to a higher level."

"The second is the Asset Management by Design (AMbD) program," Coort continues. "With the goal of increasing efficiency, we include AMbD in all designs. It can also be used with existing plants that are not performing as expected. Our experience shows that we can get to the bottom of almost any process plant in such a way that the right measures come into the picture that increase output and yields, at, ultimately, lower costs."

Innovative and effective

The third solution is Bilfinger Maintenance Analysis (BMA). Coort: "That is a toolkit that allows us to indicate the improvement potential of industrial plants and specific equipment at the operational level. The toolkit does that based on data from 400 industrial analyses and covers 21 maintenance aspects.

Number four is Bilfinger Maintenance Solution (BMS). That offers customized turnkey solutions for increasing plant reliability and optimizing maintenance costs. With these, it is possible to save 20 to 30 percent in costs over five years and increase productivity, under certain conditions, by 10 percent."

Roman: "With these innovative and effective solutions, we can support customers throughout the life of an industrial asset. That brings us closer to our goal of being, also in maintenance and asset management, the number one partner in efficiency and sustainability."

Click here to read the original article in Dutch on Europoort Kringen.