SAIPEM SpA, founded in 1957 and based near Milan, has for decades been a global leader in the engineering and construction of small to the world’s biggest offshore plants. These include fixed and mobile platforms, distributed control systems for hydrocarbon extraction from under the seabed, the world's longest underwater pipelines, and robots for mining deep-sea deposits. With the innovative ability of around 30,000 employees, SAIPEM assists its customers in accordance with its motto "Empowering Evolution": from process and construction engineering to logistics planning, from procurement to plant construction, from maintenance, revamping and operation to decommissioning.
Great versatility, one system
For this enormous versatility, E&C Offshore Engineering Department was looking for a data-centric engineering system that combined various disciplines in a common environment and digitally represented all assets as "smart objects" (SMO). The goal was to ensure better data consistency and quality. “AUCOTEC has fully met our requirements with the cooperation platform Engineering Base (EB), all relevant data is edited in a cross-disciplinary manner on the same basis. This saves time, avoids errors and has a significant impact on processes” said Alberto Paniale, Electrical Discipline Lead at New Energies BU of SAIPEM’s Offshore Division.
More than engineering
© SAIPEM SpAHowever, SAIPEM's FEED, Process and Electrical Engineering and I&C departments not only benefit from EB's consistency, as the platform can do more than engineering. EB also serves as the source and management system for SAIPEM's engineering catalogue, following data model specifications defined anyway in EB. “The direct data import from the material management system makes us extremely flexible. We can use EB for all projects without compromising its application or stability,” Cartocci Stefano, Business Application Manager in IT Dpt., praised before adding: “Customizing was characterized by maximum flexibility, from an application perspective and from AUCOTEC's Consulting team.”
State of the art in user-friendliness
Starting from the first test on a real project with EB, SAIPEM engineers particularly appreciated its convenient data and diagram management functions in addition to its Excel-like use and easy creation of complicated graphics such as P&IDs. SMO management, from creation via the definition of classification level and associations to other SMOs up to generation of BOMs, has greatly facilitated materials management. “All of this, including the cooperative environment that EB creates, significantly simplifies our engineering,” emphasized Francesco Spaccavento Project Manager for the functional implementation of the project. Furthermore, EB's user interface is so flexible that it can be easily adapted to SAIPEM standards. “It couldn't be more user-friendly,” concluded the whole Saipem Team.
