Wood and Cognite: Driving industrial transformation, together

Heavy-asset industries are facing growing pressure to increase output, reduce costs and accelerate delivery at every stage of the asset lifecycle. In current market conditions, improving performance to get the most value from existing assets is crucial to survival — and even more critical to fueling the energy transition.

New advances in technology are making this possible, with the intelligent use of data produced by operational technology (OT) systems central to improving operational performance. Industry 4.0 has the potential to generate $3.7 trillion over the next decade and data plays a critical role in realising this opportunity. How data is operationalised is key in moving from solving specific use cases to data-driven solutions that are integrated with business processes and transform the way we work.

While everyone is talking about digital transformation, use of data, scaling, and time to value, few in the industrial space are truly reaping the benefits.

Barriers to success

Since 2020, Wood and Cognite have worked together to accelerate industrial companies on their digital transformation journey. This partnership builds on the strong disruptive presence Cognite has in the energy sector, particularly in the North Sea. Bringing the power of Wood and Cognite together, we are addressing the energy transition challenges  for major energy companies and  sustainable infrastructure in key regions.We see two significant challenges getting in the way of realising this value:

●       Drowning in data types: The bulk of data collected from industrial operations revolves around process and instrument data and requires subject-matter expertise to make sense of. Time series data, in addition to being highly specific to industry, is fraught with challenges of its own. Data quality issues become hard to check and must be done continuously.

●       Lack of appropriate tools: The lack of appropriate tools and processes is a significant obstacle to using data effectively. As a result, data workers spend up to 80% of their time on collecting, cleaning, and preparing data — not on running the analyses that create value.

A fear of missing data value has led many organisations to prioritize data centralization over data organisation. In turn, this has led to poorly thought-out “data swamps” that only perpetuate the issue of dark and uncontextualized data.

Any company that has adopted machine learning (ML) will attest to this. When you’re developing predictive algorithms, you’ll quickly realise how critical it is to have trusted quality data, and that historical data can’t always be trusted.

Addressing the challenges head-on

The power of partnership between Wood and Cognite brings together the best of both companies to help solve the data challenges in industry. We’re working to ensure that data is available, is trustworthy for solution creation, and that solutions are pushed into operations quickly.

Our joint goal is to use physics-based models and artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly provide advanced analytics that drive more profitable and sustainable industrial operations for all our clients.

The real rewards happen in the field for our clients. Here’s one example:

A joint client, leading oil and gas operator in the Middle East, was struggling with their Integrated Production System model. The model didn’t include a dynamic operating envelope, which meant it only partially captured the upside potential of one well. By integrating dynamic modeling, the new solution allowed for full system optimisation, including real-time optimisation recommendations.

As a result of the integrated model, the operator was able to increase production by up to 0.45%. That translates to an estimated gain of $15-22 million over the next three years.

Through the partnership, we are addressing a familiar challenge in industry when operational and information technology converge, unlocking significant value for clients. By combining end-to-end asset and delivery know-how, with Wood’s process optimisation platforms like Virtuoso®, and ENVision ®, and Cognite’s Cognite Data Fusion (CDF)™ technology, an Industrial DataOps platform- we enable more connected, profitable and sustainable operations.