Poster presentation at 2015 APPEA conference in Melbourne, Australia on using digital technologies to create a modern, adaptive operational resilience framework

1. Digital horizons:
Technology-enabled management of major incident risks
Velrada is an award winning Australian transformational consulting firm, specialising in consulting services, enterprise solutions and digital intelligence. We pride ourselves on being an organisation where clients come to derive
immense value from system, organisational, and process change. Our team has extensive experience in a range of IM/IS/ICT initiatives; from intelligent operations, knowledge management, business intelligence and employee
engagement, through to ICT organisation design, infrastructure optimisation and business continuity management. We are currently engaged by some of the region’s largest companies to deliver true business-led, technology-
enabled transformation and measurably improved operational efficiency.
1300 835 723 info@velrada.comwww.velrada.com
The ability to maintain – or rapidly recover –
critical assets and services in the event of sudden
disruptions requires a complex mix of business
continuity, disaster recovery and emergency
response planning.
Frequently, only the most critical equipment and
control systems are architected for resilience. Yet,
in many cases, the inability to replace or recover
key support personnel, physical assets or support
systems can be equally disruptive.
Maturing digital technologies, as well as the
emergence of more flexible, adaptive planning
frameworks, play an increasing role in significantly
improving organisational ability to respond to
threats; either through maintaining production
operations or reducing the amount of time
required to recover them safely and securely.
The need for a modern,
adaptive approach.
Technologies are particularly relevant in the field of asset, equipment and fleet management, allowing this
information to be displayed and analysed in its spatial context, such as in optimising maintenance scheduling and
execution.
This is particularly important in organisations that may have geographically dispersed operations, with differing levels
of knowledge and competency in particular regions, or poor integration across their planning and management and/or
technical and operational functions.
The provision of proactive, self-service asset monitoring and maintenance results in:
1. Substantially increasing labour and asset utilisation
2. Reducing equipment purchases and inventory
3. Optimising logistics and supply chain
Proactive, ‘self-service’ asset monitoring
and maintenance
Improved ability to rapidly assess the nature
and understand the impact of business
continuity events.
Empowered teams who are confident in their
ability to respond to unexpected scenarios.
Critical assets and services that can
continue to operate under duress, or be
recovered in a controlled, systematic way.
A culture of readiness and resilience within
the organisation, allowing it to self-correct
and continuously improve its ability to
respond to threats over time.
Organisational benefits
A range of factors need to be in place in order to deliver resilient integrated operations systems and processes:
Strategy for operational resilience
Framework & Management Tools
Proactively identify, monitor and mitigate risks and
dependencies between people, processes and systems.
Performance Metrics
Identify key performance
indicators and sustainability
measurement techniques,
and refine these over time.
Multi-speed IT/OT
Delivery Capability
Deliver flexible solutions and
iterative enhancements in parallel
with major systems upgrades and
replacement cycles.
Flexible IT/OT Governance
Necessary for maintaining the integrity
of safety critical systems as they traverse
converged networks and hardware.
Organisational Appetite
Understand the organisational appetite for
– and practicality of – remote monitoring
and control of upstream assets.
One of the most common drivers for ‘digital field’ and ‘smart operations’ approaches is the need to understand the
operational status of assets in real time so as to maximise throughput, as well as manage asset safety, resilience and
performance.
It is now more possible than ever before to aggregate and analyse complex information sets due to the increased
convergence of IT/OT infrastructure and hardware, and the availability of more cost efficient and superior compute and
storage resources.
Operational decisions can be made faster and more efficiently, allowing for feedback to be monitored in real time, thereby improving
an organisation’s ability to maintain continuity during normal operations and respond more effectively to threats.
Effective, real time monitoring and control systems
Identify the key services and
assets that support production
operations, then evaluate the
maximum tolerance levels for
interruptions (to services) and
unavailability (of assets).
1.
Plan suitable strategies that
ensure these services and
assets can be maintained,
recovered or replaced within
a timeframe that minimises
disruption to production
operations.
2.
Test these strategies
periodically to ensure the
workforce remains familiar
with these procedures and is
capable of executing them,
and to validate that they
remain fit-for-purpose.
3.
Monitor performance to
verify that the measures
that have been put in place
are proving effective and
identify any improvements
that could be made to the
planning framework.
4.
Developing a responsive planning framework
Geospatial systems and tools can be used to support safety, security and performance of production operations by:
• Overlaying people, asset and cost information from asset maintenance systems, to analyse them in their
spatial context, and provide real time dashboards and visualisations of plant operations.
• Integrating with business intelligence platforms to create powerful spatial data analytics capabilities.
• Capturing information from remote systems to forecast potential threats in seismic conditions, emissions levels or weather patterns.
• Using GPS and RFID data to identify individuals and vehicles in an emergency for determining the safest extraction route.
Enhanced location intelligence