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DESIGN POWER APPLICATION PROFILE: BAYER AG
Conceptual Plant Modeling Yields Time And Cost Savings For Complex `Engineer-To-Order' Design Work Summary Bayer is an international, research-based group with major businesses in life sciences, polymers and specialty chemicals. Employing 121,000 people worldwide, the group has operations in nearly all countries of the globe and a portfolio of about 10,000 products. To maintain its competitive position in the global marketplace, Bayer invests several hundred million DM (Deutsch Marks) per year into the design and construction of new chemical process plants. Selection and deployment of the advanced software tools used to optimize the design of these plants is a responsibility of Bayer's Center for Technical Engineering in Leverkusen, Germany and the Corporate Engineering Department in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Bayer was an early adopter of three-dimensional (3D) plant design tools, and has used Intergraph's Plant Design SystemT (PDS) software since 1987. While this Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software is well suited for creating detailed plant models, Bayer engineers and managers at the Center for Technical Engineering learned through experience that there were inherent inefficiencies in using a CAD tool for concept models and studies. These inefficiencies often resulted in costly change orders and rework. In 1997 Bayer implemented a front-end plant design solution which allows the engineering group to create model studies in the early project phase, eliminating a significant number of changes and rework. Now, using a suite of software tools called PlantWiseT, the engineering team can quickly optimize plant concepts. The application, from a Cupertino, Calif. based company called Design Power, Inc., supports an `engineer-to-order' work process. After designs are fully evaluated and costed, detailed modeling and working drawings can then be efficiently created in PDS. Bayer first used PlantWise, which was previously called PlantBuilder/AutoRouter, in a DM65 million (approximately U.S. $36 million) chemical plant project, which had already been designed using traditional CAD tools. The company created a 3D model of the plant with PlantWise, which immediately identified unacceptable interferences in the original design. Bayer saved approximately 4-10 percent of project costs and about 2-4 months in construction time by using PlantWise to quickly make changes to the equipment, structural steel and overall plant layout before the project proceeded, and established the value of using the new tool. Front-End Design Challenges Bayer's experience with 3D CAD tools for front-end plant design identified a number of limitations. Individual modules designed for the creation of detailed drawings force engineers and designers to evolve designs independently, without collaboration between disciplines. This sets the stage for laborious interference checking. CAD tools used for detail design often require information that is not available at the front-end of a project, such as part catalogs, pressure drops and key values. Detail design also must be completed on a strict schedule determined by parameters such as site preparation, equipment delivery and erection schedules. Ideally, effective concept models should be available to provide a basis for the generation of detailed engineering data as needed. A Knowledge-Based System PlantWise is a knowledge-based design execution system developed specifically for front-end plant design. It imports P&ID and equipment data and automatically creates 3D plant models based on design rules and best practices. Bayer has used the system since 1997 on a variety of new plant projects, creating conceptual models that optimize resources and provide a basis for detailed design. PlantWise is used to model concrete and steel structures, place equipment, and route piping in conceptual designs, and produce visualizations of these designs. With built-in interference checking, it automatically evaluates the feasibility of possible layouts. The customizable system creates a 3D model, material take-offs (MTOs), piping cost estimates, and generates plan view drawings. It enables engineers to rapidly evaluate the cost of multiple piping and plant layout alternatives early in the conceptual phase of the design process. This significantly shortens project schedules and increases the accuracy of cost estimates. A Collaborative Tool Because PlantWise links to MicroStationr applications, it allows both technical and non-technical staff to visualize alternative plant layouts. At Bayer, a variety of plant personnel such as project managers, operators and production managers, review proposed layouts using 3D models generated by PlantWise to evaluate the impact of design ideas on cost and usability. Quantifying Results Following an evaluation of PlantWise, Bayer determined that on an average, the software cut the effort-hours to create a 3D plant model in half, and on some projects much more. They also concluded that the ability to quickly reconfigure the model based on changes to parameters, such as the process, equipment or other physical requirements, provides significantly higher savings. This is a result of, not just faster design schedules but ultimately, better more optimized designs and more efficient production. When the company first introduced PlantWise into the design work process, a new Methyl-Chloride plant to be built in Leverkusen had already been modeled in 3D. It had taken approximately 90 effort-days to create this model, which included steel structures and 80 pieces of equipment, but no pipelines. The 3D model was recreated in PlantWise in just seven effort-days, and the steel structure, which had already been sent to the fabricator, was defined as fixed. Using the new tool, the model was evaluated for space utilization, operability, maintenance and safety. The plant designers used PlantWise to automatically route the first 150 major process pipelines of the plant's 1,100 pipelines and discovered unresolvable interferences in a variety of plant areas that indicated that the original concept could not be built as designed. Modifications to the plant concept resulted in changes to equipment, installation and even the steel structure. Without the new tool, Bayer engineers would not have discovered these problems until much later in the detail design process, or during construction, requiring costly rework and project delays. "The primary advantage of using PlantWise is the ease with which we can create and review new plant concepts in 3D," said Thilo J. Werners, Senior Project Manager of the Center for Technical Engineering at Bayer AG. "The software allows managers to review and discuss design ideas and to implement alternative solutions on the fly. For the Methyl-Chloride plant, we considered numerous variations including piping and cable tray routing, operations concepts, erection and dismantling access for every piece of equipment, piping studies, instrumentation and control loops, penetrations and passages. PlantWise enabled the team to quickly develop and implement alternative solutions." Available As Packaged Application
Design Power commercially markets the software applications used at Bayer AG.
The complete software suite for front-end plant design consists of three
modules: TM PlantWise, AutoRouter, PlantBuilder and PlantDrafter are trademarks of Design Power, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |