Wakayama Petroleum Refining Co. Ltd. possesses a VDU (vacuum distillation unit), a furfural solvent extraction unit, a solvent dewaxing unit, a lubricant Hydrodesulfurization unit and a lubricant isodewaxed unit.
The problem
Wakayama Petroleum Refining Co. Ltd. (WPR), established in 1949, is an affiliate of ENEOS, Japan's largest oil company producing lubricating oils, solvents and additives.
The management of WPR’s operations involves close collaboration between many teams on the plant, including safety, maintenance, management, planning, real-time control and personnel.
WPR needed a comprehensive operations management system for information sharing, automating routine tasks and reports and ensuring procedures were consistently followed.
WPR required an enterprise-level tool for recording and following up on near-misses to help reduce the risk and consequences of accidents.
WPR needed to manage the retirement of experienced operators. They needed to find ways to adapt to a smaller operations team and to ensure that vital knowledge about the plant and its procedures was retained and transferred.
There was a need to improve the efficiency and reliability of work instruction management, reporting and shift handover and collecting inspection round data using a mobile device. Complications related to the high-pressure gas certification also needed to be addressed.
How Tempo Operations Management solved the problem
Tempo Operations Logbook (formerly j5 Operations Logbook), Tempo Shift Handover (formerly j5 Shift Handover), Tempo Work Instructions (formerly j5 Work Instructions), Tempo Operator Rounds and Routine Duties (formerly j5 Operator Rounds and Routine Duties), Tempo Incident Management (formerly j5 Incident Management) and Tempo Standing Orders (formerly j5 Standing Orders) are all implemented at WPR.
Tempo Shift Handover produces reports for operators, supervisors and managers with relevant data, events and instructions for each unit and area of the refinery. It ensures a consistent, visible and accountable process.
Tempo Work Instructions enables planners to schedule ad hoc and recurring tasks for the operations team members. Tasks are marked as complete and summarized in the Tempo Shift Handover reports.
Tempo Operator Rounds and Routine Duties facilitates the recording of plant data from the field. Tempo Operator Rounds and Routine Duties are designed in Tempo Operations Management, uploaded to a mobile device, completed by the field operators and then synchronized with Tempo Operations Management so that round information is readily available for analysis and reports. Anomalies are automatically highlighted.
Tempo Standing Orders allows for the controlled dissemination of important communications within the plant.
Tempo Operations Management operates in a unified user interface powered by a single central server. They can be accessed from any web browser that is connected to the plant’s network. Users can select between Japanese and English.
Benefits of Tempo Operations Management
Tempo Operations Management makes important shift, inspection round, personnel, safety, maintenance and process information visible to users across the refinery. This fosters greater understanding, coordination, knowledge transfer and communication between teams and improved decision-making.
Role-based workflows with Tempo Shift Handover, Tempo Incident Management and Tempo Work Instructions improve efficiency, safety and follow-through. Providing a consistent, intuitive user interface for multiple Tempo Operations Management applications.
Tempo Operations Management is easy to adapt as the needs of the refinery change over time. It is also easy to add new Tempo Operations Management applications, custom or packaged. The simplicity, comprehensiveness and unity of the solution architecture makes Tempo Operations Management cost-effective to maintain and reliable. Tempo Operations Management supports WPR in meeting its regulatory and compliance
“Tempo Operations Management delivered a professional consulting service that gave us a clear understanding of our current situation and goals. We selected Tempo Operations Mangement as the de facto global standard for achieving competitiveness in operations management. We rely on Tempo Operations Management for logbook, handover, work instructions, standing orders, near misses and mobile inspection rounds. We would like to extend our use of Tempo Operations Management to other applications in the future,” Nobuyuki Takahashi, Executive Director and Kainan Plant Manager, Wakayama Petroleum Refining Co.