Articles by the Angelina Group

Success Story: Focusing Crews Overcomes New Technology Jitters

by Scott Ratchinsky

When new technology is introduced into a field of operations that has seen little change for decades, there are great expectations for success. Such was the case when a drilling contractor introduced its newly designed drilling rigs into operations. Benefits such as cheaper, faster and smoother drilling along with more efficient rig moves were touted as sure-fire ways to improve the bottom line for the operating oil company.

Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that the rapid introduction of new technology into the field can be fraught with start up bugs and bites. A Key Success Measure (KSM) for rig performance (measured as days between rig release dates) was well below industry standard while recordable incidents were significantly higher as the crews attempted to learn the new technology.

"The Angelina Group's people first approach to managing the Continuous Improvement process was a significant contributing factor in this remarkable turnaround."

The Angelina Group was invited to help the operator and the contractor identify problem areas and determine corrective measures. The learning leadership approach taken was labelled 'Continuous Improvement through Lessons Learned.' Over a period of 9 months, Angelina consultants worked closely with drilling crews, rig move crews and management teams. The Angelina team had collected over 500 lessons and managed them towards realization. By applying a learning approach to all aspects of daily operations, we identified a number of lessons learned which were treated as opportunities for improvement, both of a technical and operational nature.

The Angelina consultants implemented both the process for identifying the lessons learned, and the follow up steps to find and implement appropriate remedial action. Very positive results with crew attitude and focus were observed over the course of a number of months. Rig performance improved dramatically, and reportable incidents dropped significantly.

Success in today's oil field must always be measured in terms of improvements of efficiency, learning and safety. By the end of the project, performance as measured in days from rig release was improved + 48% consistently beating the engineering plan. Recordable incidents dropped from a TRIR of 6.0 in six months to ZERO in the following 6 months.

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Articles by the Angelina Group

Success Story: Focusing Crews Overcomes New Technology Jitters

by Scott Ratchinsky