As one of the largest modern petrochemical enterprises in China, Shanghai Petrochemical maintains its industry leadership and innovation by driving technology to suit its needs. In order to find the best, most cost-effective way to manage assets and maintain its technological innovations, Shanghai Petrochemical implemented the Lifecycle Management (LCM) program from Honeywell Process Solutions , a Phoenix-based process automation vendor. LCM is a proving to be a comprehensive, cost-effective solution to manage and support Shanghai Petrochemical’s existing assets as it undergoes a three-year technology migration and expansion project.

Prior to using the Honeywell LCM solution, Shanghai Petrochemical faced major challenges in managing assets, keeping technology current, avoiding obsolescence and controlling maintenance and support costs. The benefits expected with the new LCM solution include numerous cost savings and performance improvements such as:

- Upgrading all Global User Station (GUS) and Application Processing Platform (APP) stations, resulting in improved performance, reliability and risk avoidance

- Controlling predictable costs for maintaining, upgrading and expanding the systems for the next three years

- Planning work scope to suit plant schedules in a more flexible manner

- Mitigating the risk of obsolescence and enhancing safety of plant operations

- Increasing efficiency and cost savings by having a single contract to cover all upgrades and expansions to avoid complicated contract negotiations.

Located at Jinshanwei, in the Jinshan District of Shanghai, SINOPEC Shanghai Petrochemical Co. Ltd. maintains highly integrated production and operations of petroleum products, petrochemicals, synthetic fibers and plastics. Shanghai Petrochemical has more than 60 production plants, with operations including oil refining, petrochemical processing, and manufacturing of plastics and synthetic fibers. The company has total assets of approximately US $5 billion with a workforce of more than 23,000. This modern, large-scale complex has its own utilities to supply water, electricity, steam and gas, an environmental protection system, ocean and inland waterway, and railroad and road transportation facilities.

Upgrade needed

Shanghai Petrochemical needed to upgrade its eight existing Distributed Control Systems (DCS) to the latest technology. To maintain its leadership as one of the premier petrochemical plants in China, Shanghai Petrochemical was looking for an asset management system that would help it remain current with technological changes while maintaining the investment in its legacy systems.

“We needed a cost-effective solution that looked at our systems throughout their expected lifespan,” said the automation manager at Shanghai Petrochemical. “Prior to using the Honeywell LCM solution, Shanghai Petrochemical had a major challenge to manage these assets, and more importantly, to prevent these systems from becoming obsolete. In doing so, however, we realized that we had to look at the impact that upgrading our technology would have on maintenance and support costs.”

Shanghai Petrochemical turned to Honeywell to help manage such assets as GUS and APP node personal computers, history module, advanced process manager (APM) controllers and PlantScape servers and stations. Because an upgrade could affect the maintenance and support of new hardware and software assets, Shanghai Petrochemical implemented Honeywell’s LCM.

With the LCM implementation, Shanghai Petrochemical can now manage costs to guarantee continuous system operations and ensure that upgrades are completed according to the company’s strategic plans.

Contract services

The LCM services contract scope at Shanghai Petrochemical includes the following:

- Routine service
- Preventive system maintenance in system shutdown period
- Parts management for high-performance process monitor input/output card and field termination assemblies
- Emergency parts priority support
- System training
- 24/7 telephone technical support
- Solution Enhancement Support Program.

“Honeywell’s LCM solution addressed all of our concerns and we are very satisfied with the program,” continued the automation manager. “We plan to continue to realize numerous cost savings and performance improvements, and are so confident with the solution that we will continue to investigate adding other applications into the LCM program.”

Lifecycle Management (LCM) is a multi-year service agreement that provides system support for Honeywell hardware and software until they are upgraded or retired, based on the customer’s site strategy. An LCM agreement establishes a committed automation roadmap, leading to an upgraded system during the term of the contract. An LCM agreement can include a full spectrum of services, including software upgrades, parts management and hardware refresh, all within a flexible service package. LCM allows customers to start down the path to modernization and get there incrementally based on budget, needs and schedule.

Honeywell Process Solutions
http://hpsweb.honeywell.com