In 2012, Gartner Research coined the term “Nexus of Forces” to characterize the “perfect storm” of events related to evolving technologies that are rapidly taking hold in business environments . Gartner surmised that the Nexus of Forces will reshape every business on the planet and revolutionize businesses by disrupting old business models and create new leaders. In particular, the Nexus of Forces is a convergence of Social, Mobile, Cloud and Big Data technologies all of which are transforming businesses.
Nexus of Forces
The founders of Pibline wanted to re-imagine how Pipeline Integrity was performed by incorporating the Nexus of Forces into their core strategy to capitalize on optimizing and enhancing how Pipeline Integrity is performed.
This short article describes how the Pibline solution is bringing the Nexus of Forces to the Pipeline Integrity industry to optimize how Pipeline Operators manage their pipeline assets for efficiencies, reduction in deficiencies and ultimately meet the Industry’s zero leak mandate.
Big Data
The Pipeline industry as a whole is overwhelmed with data. In particular, Inline Inspection (ILI) data presents a big data challenge in and of itself. The Inline tools are typically run over 100’s of kilometers of a pipeline system and this process records thousands of small pipeline defects (metal loss, crack features, corrosion features, etc.). The challenges for Pipeline Operators are several fold:
1. How do they store and manage these data for optimal retrieval and analysis?
2. How can these data sets (year over year ILI runs) be compared and analyzed to determine trending and feature growth?
3. How can Operators combine ILI data with other pipeline data such as field data to truly understand the Pipeline’s condition?
Pibline provides Pipeline Operators with the ability to upload and manage all of their pipeline data in one location and then Operators are able to overlay the multiple data sets to see feature growth, feature trending and best of all Pibline also performs real time analytics on the data to allow for optimized decision making (such as where to spend precious rehabilitation budget).
Big Data – Joint Summary
The image below highlights how our big data analytics engine works. In this example, an Operator is able to easily identify the girth welds (or Pipe sections) that have the greatest number of features identified by using one or more ILI runs. As well, with a simple click of the mouse, a Pipeline Operator is able to re-analyze these data to determine which girth welds have the greatest number of features by volume which indicates potential risk exposure.
Pibline’s Real-time Analytics Engine
Mobile
Working with a business partner, Pibline has pioneered and standardized how field data are collected and analyzed to enhance pipeline rehabilitation decisions. Pibline’s tablet based solution, Pibline Mobile, is designed around how Non-destructive Examination (NDE) technicians perform their job. The information collected with Pibline Mobile is synchronized in near-real time with Pibline Web providing Operators with the most effective ability to make informed rehabilitation decisions.
Mobile – Collector Metal Loss
Social
One of the key questions that all Regulators ask Pipeline Operators is who knew what about any given pipeline asset. As well as, who made key decisions regarding that given pipeline asset. Pibline is using very subtle social techniques to build a decision and traceability log of decisions to satisfy the typical questions a Regulator asks. In particular, Pibline Web and Pibline Mobile both come with Instant Messaging capabilities that are directly tied to an Integrity Dig Program to allow an Operator to easily build the decision log of what was known, when and who made key decisions related to a pipeline asset.
Pibline’s Social Connections
Cloud
The Pibline solution comes in two components: Pibline Web and Pibline Mobile. The Pibline Web applications is an Internet based web site that provides Operators and their partners with the ability to manage and analyze all of the Pipeline data available. In conjunction with this, Pibline has added Project Management capabilities to allow an Operator and their business partners with the ability to streamline the Integrity rehabilitation process through the subtle use of modern technology. Pibline Web has been designed to run on any modern device (computer, tablet and smartphone) to ensure key people have access to the Pipeline data at all times.
Cloud based Integrity equals untapped potential
Summary
In summary, Pibline is offering Pipeline Operators and their business partners the ability to re-imagine how data management occurs in the Pipeline Integrity industry through the use and integration of the Nexus of Forces to ultimately solve critical business problems that will subsequently lead to cost savings, process enhancements and better decision making.