Trinity Technologies Corporation

Insight Article: When is Information an Asset?

By Joe Morray

For a number of years, I have had the pleasure of observing the successes and challenges in applying information to the capital projects and operations world on the last page of each Insight magazine (unless you are mystery book reader, whereby you read from the back forward). I frequently refer to creating the Information Asset™ (yes, the lawyers urge me to include that little tm), and the importance that we attach to recognizing the value of project or plant information. But the question frequently comes up, when is information an asset? The good people at Intergraph have given me the chance, in this issue, to develop this a bit further. So here goes . . .

The concept of the “Information Asset” came about many years ago as a way to reinforce the message that information being created through our systems contains considerable value, which needs to be managed just like the corresponding physical assets which it describes. This is both an opportunity and a challenge. As designers, technologists, process engineers, etc, we need to describe the information that we create not just as “data” (no more than we would describe a physical asset as concrete, steel, etc), but as a complete system that can support design, maintenance, retrofitting, etc., and thus representing huge business value. We need to go from the “cost line” to the “investment line”. Like a physical asset, it needs to be maintained, improved, and further extended as new business requirements are identified. It must be thought of as “living.” This will reinforce the need to create work practices to keep it current, so as to assure the safety and viability of two other assets: the physical and the human.

Our challenge is to clearly demonstrate that a return on investment related to the plant or project Information Asset is being achieved. Data becomes an asset only when it is clearly tied to business activities that sustain the business. To support this, we must define and implement day-to-day metrics associated with the system/data usage that allows trending, relative performance, and concrete results to be measured. Note that such measurements should start BEFORE the system is operational.

So how do we ensure that information is creating value in a plant environment? From our experiences, here are some value creation “litmus tests”:

• The information must be broadly accessible, in a form that is fit-for-purpose to the activity. One of the fundamental rules of data value is that it goes up as the information is re-used. Our challenge is to identify where the information that is being created can be multi-purposed.
• Business processes “flow through” the information. If it is difficult to access the information as we do work, it will quickly be forgotten or bypassed. We need to have the information available at the “train station as the train comes rumbling through”. The right Information must flow to the right processes at the right time.
• The job of a designer, process engineer, and the like is to predict performance of a physical asset (operate safely, maintain easily, etc). We do this through a language of “Pictures and Lists.” As information is used to simulate a wider range of parameters (cost, maintainability, safety, etc), the value of the information goes up considerably. The incorporation of rules within design systems will enhance this ability to simulate performance.
• The information is used for a broad number of work processes. Each individual workflow may not be complex, but the collection of numerous processes yields the maximum value. Address the processes that we do every day, not the unique (and usually complex) single instances.