Transformational Technology Development Key Principles from a User's Perspective

The following principles were used in the development of new technologies and project delivery methodologies for the ExxonMobil "It Just Happens" Initiative. This initiative was initiated to dramatically streamline the overall delivery processes and more importantly, mitigate the historical problems associated with delivering automation and electrical systems for major capital projects. The idea was that the processes would be greatly simplified and automated so that all the necessary steps would "just happen" with reduced human involvement. This approach accelerated the development of the transformational technologies and the associated delivery methodologies and resulted in industry solutions that solved all of the historical problems with automation and electrical project deliveries.

• User Describes the Problems and Needs and not Solutions - User's role is to define the problems and needs in detail and not to prescribe solutions. The role of the suppliers is to listen and understand the problems and needs and develop/commercialize the necessary technologies and associated processes and procedures to address each issue. The user should focus on what they do best, and the suppliers should focus on what they do best. Each participant should stay in their lane. This approach would allow the suppliers to develop solutions that they could sell to all their clients.

• IP Should be Owned by the Suppliers - IP discussions always create impediments to initiating technology developments. If a user is following these technology development principles, the technology is developed by the suppliers and therefore, the IP should be owned by the suppliers.

• Open to All Suppliers - The initiative should be open to all suppliers who have the necessary capabilities and who are willing to invest the time and resources. The same information on the problems and needs should be shared equally with all the suppliers. They should also be offered an equal amount of time with the user and the same exposure to the user's organization. Each supplier must decide what time and resources they will allocate to the initiative. This principle is to create competition between the suppliers and accelerate the development of the technologies and services. 

• Industry Solutions Only - It is a requirement that all new technologies and services developed have to be products and services that could be offered and would be sold to and purchased by all the supplier's clients. The intent was that the solutions be industry solutions and never one user only solutions. The user should be willing to accept changes to the solutions that would make them more commercially acceptable to all other clients. The user should also offer to promote the products and services to each of the supplier's clients through speeches and interactions with the clients. Presentations should be given at the user's conferences for all of the suppliers. This is a requirement so that the suppliers could benefit from the collective input from the industry and to grow the sales volume to incentivize the suppliers to accelerate the development of the products and services, to sustain and continuously improve the products and services and to lower the cost of the products and services. It should be understood that the benefits of industry solutions far outweigh the possible strategic advantages to a single user for the single user only solutions. The strategic advantage results from fully adopting and consistently utilizing the technologies and services across the user's company network and not from the technology itself.

• New Technologies Must Have Execution Processes and Procedures - It should be stated that developing new technologies is not enough. Every new technology has to have corresponding execution processes and procedures to ensure the technologies will be used to their full benefit. New technologies without the corresponding processes and procedures should be considered incomplete solutions and should not be accepted.

• Technologies Developed - The ExxonMobil "It Just Happens" Initiative resulted in the development of universal IO and smart junction boxes which eliminated 66% of the components in a traditional control system architecture. It also resulted in the development of automatic commissioning of instrument loops with a few clicks and virtual FATs which dramatically reduced the time and resources for commissioning and FATs and eliminated the need for a full staging of the complete systems. It also resulted in standard control system and safety system components that could be ordered with a part number and eliminated the uniquely engineered IO cabinets and field junction boxes and the very detailed procurement specifications. The universal IO also greatly simplified the accommodation of IO changes that occurs on every project. 

• Project Execution Delivery Methodologies - For the "It Just Happens" Initiative, each of the suppliers developed the following project execution delivery methodologies to streamline the delivery of automation systems for major projects.

ABB - Adaptive Execution

Emerson - Project Certainty

Honeywell - LEAP (Lean Execution for Automation Projects)

Schneider - FLEX (Flexible Lean Execution)

Yokogawa - APEX (Agile Project Execution)