Published on May 7, 2018 – Michael Augustin, Consultant SAP Yard Logistics at Westernacher
Manage different modes of transport, increase safety in handling dangerous goods and monitor your silos and filling stations by connecting to the latest IoT technology – all possible for your Oil and Gas yard with SAP Yard Logistics.
Besides production plant and distribution centres where only trucks and swap bodies are in use, SAP Yard Logistics can also help you with the operation of various transport modes and complex safety requirements. Especially in the Oil and Gas industry where mainly dangerous goods are handled, safety plays an important role and it is necessary to ensure safe operations on the yard. Furthermore, liquids and pressurized goods must be monitored regularly to ensure safety on the yard. Another challenge, which arises particularly with the size of such yards, is loss of visibility and a missing o verview of transportation units which are currently on the yard.
In our scenario, the yard handles trucks, trains and vessels which require different processes on the yard. Due to the difference in each process, various activities are needed, such as the cleaning of trucks or containers varying from the loading or unloading from tanker vessels. Each process can be set up individually in the system to ensure the separation and detailed description of the process in the system. Different activities such as cleaning, pre-loading of equipment or shunting of railcars can be executed separately without influencing other processes and transportation modes.
The Yard Cockpit with its visualisation functionality, helps yard operators obtain full visibility of the current situation on the yard and to track vehicles within it. With this visualisation, you see a detailed display of the area, including all buildings and vehicles. Our scenario covers all modes of transport with a check-in terminal on the bottom left for trucks, rail tracks which are displayed in black, and a water connection with vessels approaching the quay.
In our scenario, crude oil is delivered by vessel to our yard. Therefore, unloading facilities are available to drain the oil from the vessel into tanks, where the oil is then further processed into the yard.
Liquid tanks store petrochemical products which are loaded to tank trucks.
Silos and other storage facilities are directly connected with rail tracks, so railcars can be directly loaded or unloaded without the need for intermediate storage, requiring internal tank trucks.
Furthermore, vehicles can be refuelled on the yard directly, so internal vehicles do not need to leave the yard for refuelling.
SAP Yard Logistics will also help you to move forward in the digital era. By connecting to the Internet of Things, monitoring fill levels and conditions of silos will be automatically reported to SAP Yard Logistics, where the data is analysed and saved. In case of thresholds being exceeded, e.g. a silo is running empty or the temperature reaches a critical level, Yard Operators are informed via the Westernacher IoT Dashboard about exceptions, so necessary actions can be taken before the problem gets critical.
With the standard integration of SAP Yard Logistics to SAP EH&S, data regarding the characteristics of dangerous goods is available in the system, which is necessary for monitoring and the planning process. The system will support you to find the right silos to fill and will warn you if incompatible goods should be loaded together. With the information provided, SAP Yard Logistics will also help you when trucks and containers are stored on your yard.
With respect to the characteristics of each hazardous good, SAP Yard Logistics helps you to store products, loaded trailers and loaded containers correctly to contribute to the safety of your daily operation. In this specific case, a container depot for liquid containers is divided into three areas: the green area can be used for all containers and all goods, whereas the light red and red areas are reserved for goods which are incompatible with other goods. With this layout and the specific information provided from SAP EH&S, the system will help you to not store incompatible containers in a wrong way in the future.
Contact our experts and let us show you the full benefits of SAP Yard Logistics with Westernacher.
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