Digital Insider - Issue 1

digital ISSUE 1

INSIDER

OPINION

PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST FROM A STRONGER POSITION THAN EVER

FIGHTING THE DARKSIDE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

When the air gap is no longer a safe place

DIGITAL TRAINING How do you keep a workforce digitally up to date?

CONTENTS

Contents

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OPINION Putting customers first, from a stronger position than ever CYBERSECURITY Fighting the darkside of digital transformation OPINION Five ways Worley will enhance our digital future DIGITAL TRAINING How do you keep a workforce digitally up to date?

FUTURE WORKFORCE Planning a workforce of the future INTERVIEW 5 minutes with CAROL™ inventor, Chris Jansen

W

e’ve all heard it: Digitization is the future. Digital is reshaping the way we do business.

Disrupt or be disrupted.

Our inboxes are full of emails, reports and white papers on how the latest technologies are set to change the way we do business.

But what does this mean for energy and resource companies? And how will disruptive technologies including digitization, advanced analytics, intelligent process automation and artificial intelligence come together to shape our industry and the communities we live in? What’s more, how do we make sure these technologies enable rather than disable?

We found ourselves asking these questions more and more, and knew we didn’t have all the answers. Realizing this, we spoke to more than 500 people across multiple industries and geographies – from the world’s largest companies to small start-ups; the CEO to the front-line worker. And we discovered the following things: The pathways to success are unclear We all recognize that the way we do business and develop projects is going to change. However, everyone is doing it differently and there’s lots of false starts.

This is leading to a crisis of confidence in leadership as people are being asked to sign off on investment cases with sometimes unclear or difficult-to-quantify benefits.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Who leads regulatory risk?

As we move more into the digital realm, industry and government are starting to look at each other to lead the regulatory environment around technology. Investors are seeing and pricing in that risk gap.

Universities are losing relevance When it comes to developing future talent for the digital age. Industry is still yet to respond to this skill gap, and so there’s a disconnect forming. There’s also little doubt that the workforce of the future [page 18] will change the competitive landscape.

Cyber protection is a growing concern As we look to automate more and more of our operations, there’s an immediate and growing concern emerging around cyber protection [page 06] of the physical asset, whereby steps taken to prevent hackers from taking over a plant’s operational technology.

Operators are starting to prioritize their cybersecurity strategy to ensure they’re adequately protected ahead of implementing their automation strategy.

The challenge of course, is how to move from macro-level activities to activities that impact day-to-day operations.

So what does this mean for us? It means we’re looking at how to build change into our organizations; change in behavior, operating mindset, operating systems and business processes at both the facility and enterprise level.

It’s up to us to decide how technology shapes us.

BRADLEY ANDREWS President, Digital

Culture will be a competitive advantage Technology is only a minor part of a company’s digital future. More important is the organization's ability to build culture, alter behavior and integrate it with harmonized systems and processes.

IT’S UP TO US TO DECIDE HOW TECHNOLOGY SHAPES US.

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OPINION

O

ne question I’ve been asked a lot since the news broke that WorleyParsons was buying Jacobs ECR in October 2018, is ‘What does it mean for our customers?’.

On a top level, it means that our customers will now be working with the number one service provider in hydrocarbons and chemicals. We will also be a market leader in mining, minerals and metals, and continue to be a key player in the New Energy Transition.

How we’re continuing to put our customers first, from a stronger position than ever Geeta Thakorlal, President of INTECSEA explains why the WorleyParsons and Jacobs ECR merger is good news for everyone – especially our customers

However, it is more than just being number one or the market leader.

This merger is about the complementary fit that these two companies have – particularly in hydrocarbons. Where heritage WorleyParsons is strong in upstream onshore and offshore hydrocarbons, heritage Jacobs ECR is all about downstream.

Together, we also have a real understanding of the industry’s direction. What we were doing previously independently of each other, we can now develop jointly. We can work with our customers to drive industry thinking.

And, now we are one company, we will work together to make sure we really understand market drivers, industry trends, our customers’ needs and work with them as we always have done to provide solutions. Except this time, we have more ideas, more solutions, more expertise than ever before. And, as a result, more value.

Creating a complementary fit in the Gulf of Mexico What is also interesting is heritage Jacobs ECR and heritage WorleyParsons had already been working side by side as separate companies, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico where heritage Jacobs ECR’s specialist offerings include floating topsides and construction and heritage WorleyParsons’ include subsea and hook-up and commissioning. Now we will be bringing the novel thinking of the two companies to provide a full solution to our customers for offshore deep water developments.

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OPINION

This merger creates and provides our customers with even more value.

The increased value of two companies coming together who separately had very strong industry positions. A company that can provide them with a single focused delivery mechanism in both greenfields and brownfields environments across the Gulf of Mexico.

Hopes for the future When I think about the future of this company, I’m excited about the opportunities we now have, to be involved at the top table – to drive discussions with our customers and lead.

The breadth and scale of expertise this merger means we are noticeable across the globe.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how I would sum up this new chapter in our history and what I hope we’ll achieve in the future. For me, it’s three things: We should provide leadership in industry, challenge the status quo and drive change. If we do all of that, who knows what amazing things we can achieve.

WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THIS COMPANY, I’M EXCITED ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITIES WE NOW HAVE.

In April 2019, WorleyParsons and Jacobs’ Energy, Chemicals and Resources division, two global leaders in engineering, technical and professional services, came together under a new brand, Worley. Our customers now have access to a wide network of highly capable people around the globe to help them meet the world’s changing energy, chemicals and resources needs.

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CYBERSECURITY

Fighting the

darkside of digital transformation In a world where most people view cybersecurity as the two-step verification on Facebook, we find out how operators can protect their plants and discover why knowing there’s a hacker in your system is, in fact, not the worst-case scenario WORDS BY MOLLY HAYNES

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CYBERSECURITY

P

icture the scene. It’s the middle of winter in Ukraine with temperatures barely reaching above freezing and the power goes out. Not only does it go out but no one knows what is going on.

That’s what happened to 230,000 people in December 2015 when a cyberattack took place on the Ukraine power grid. Hackers successfully compromised the systems of three energy distribution companies and switched off 30 substations. At the same time, they destroyed or disabled IT infrastructure components and files stored on servers. All while launching a denial-ofservice attack on call centres to keep up-todate information from consumers during the blackout.

This is not a movie plot. It was a reality.

Hackers had carried out the first known successful cyberattack on a power grid.

Rather than going just for the traditional information technology (IT) targets, hackers had been able to take over operational technology (OT).

“One of the most terrifying things about this hack was that it didn’t start on the day that the power went down,” says Laith Amin, Senior Vice President at Worley Digital. “It started long before that in the form of spear-phishing emails that contained the BlackEnergy malware.

You see, successful cyberattacks are the ones when you don’t know the hackers are there until it’s too late.”

Comforting stuff, especially since that it’s not simply the cost of these cyberattacks that need to be considered.

The potential risk to human life with OT hacking is massive. Infrastructure, power plants, hospitals – all these rely on OT as well as IT.

Why the air gap is no longer a safe space Traditionally, companies have focused on the ‘air gap’ when it comes to keeping their plant safe from a cyberattack. This air gap assumes that a company’s IT is in no way connected to its OT. But as technology becomes more sophisticated this is no longer the case, or even desirable. Laptops, iPads and mobile phones are now being utilized more than ever in plant environments but often with the focus still being on the fact that the air gap will protect. It won’t.

What’s more, continuing to maintain the air gap offers no value to customers.

“Everything we know at Worley Digital says that the real value comes from connecting your operating technology to your information technology,” says Amin. “Digital asset transformation itself means connecting your IT infrastructure to your plant OT. You can get a lot of value and productivity benefits by doing that, as you can control things like predictive maintenance, preventative maintenance, and condition monitoring remotely using your IT.”

LAPTOPS, IPADS AND MOBILE PHONES ARE NOW BEING UTILIZED MORE THAN EVER IN PLANT ENVIRONMENTS BUT OFTEN WITH THE FOCUS STILL BEING ON THE FACT THAT THE AIR GAP WILL PROTECT. IT WON’T. worley.com

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CYBERSECURITY

In with the new but not out with the old So where IT has firewalls, virus protections and regular patches made by Microsoft, Apple and other technology companies to help safeguard it, what’s in place for operational technology?

“In the US, there’s National Electrical Reliability (NERC), which has standards that guide asset owners on how they can reduce their vulnerability in terms of cybersecurity.

There’s also the UL Standard for Software Cybersecurity for Network-Connectable Products (UL 2900), which was published in 2017 and created after evaluating the complexities and challenges associated with cyber risk,” explains Amin. “But that’s all very new.”

However, while technology vendors may now be releasing OT equipment that does keep plants secure, this doesn’t remove the question of existing OT and whether it’s protected. “Buying the latest secure technology for one aspect of your plant is pointless if you’ve still got aging technology elsewhere. Or your operators don’t understand the importance of software updates, closed ports and other risks.

Outdated equipment, either through lack of updates or age is a weak spot that hackers will find,” Amin points out.

Simplifying the concept “When you apply it to everyday life it makes perfect sense,” explains Amin. “You might have heard of the Black Hat hack of the 2014 Jeep Cherokee where – in a controlled demonstration to expose the weakness –

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hackers took control of a car from a remote location? They could change everything from the radio music to the effectiveness of the accelerator and blasting the car with air conditioning.

Hackers had discovered that a vulnerability in the car’s built-in Wi-Fi service enabled anyone who knew the IP address of the car to access the car’s functionality.”

Amin pauses to let the reality of this news sink in before continuing. “Even more interestingly, while Fiat Chrysler issued a patch, owners had to go into the dealership to have their cars updated by engineers or update it via a USB themselves.

Once again placing the responsibility on the least informed party and leaving potentially thousands of cars exposed to hackers.”

Changing cybersecurity culture It’s a cultural change, too. The operator’s workforce has got to be behind the changes.

Employees have got to play their part in updating the software, be aware of the risks of creating vulnerabilities, and looking for anomalies in the system.

Again, it helps to translate this into everyday scenarios, explains Amin. “You update your phone software. You know you should have complicated passwords that you don’t share. You have firewalls. You don’t open attachments from people you don’t know.

And one step further than that. If someone was peering through your neighbour’s window, you’d probably investigate, or if someone was opening a car with a crowbar, it might get your attention. If something looks odd in your data, it probably needs checking out.”

CYBERSECURITY “It’s about getting your workforce to apply that level of thinking to their office technology, and hammering home the message both within Worley and to our customers that cybersecurity is everybody’s problem and that anyone can become an expert in safeguarding their company’s assets,” he adds.

Creating cybersecurity customer solutions “At Worley, we talk about customers’ digital transformation journeys a lot, but that doesn’t mean we’re neglecting our own,” says Shawn Kenyon, Director of Digital Integration, Worley Digital. “Digital is part of our daily narrative.

It’s a part of everybody’s daily work life and every single one of our people needs to play their part.”

Amin agrees. “If we can do this, then things like cybersecurity will automatically be considered during all our customer-facing conversations,” he says. “It will no longer become a retrospective addition to our customers’ assets but a built-in concept at bid stage. We also speak to our customers about it in a way they can understand. We remove the technical jargon and make it relatable to their business.”

Three steps to cybersecurity success Amin breaks down his advice into three easy steps for operators to understand.

The first is making them aware that there is an international cybersecurity standard to be able to test and verify conformity to that standard for all your control systems. “If it doesn’t meet the standard, you don’t install it,” says Amin bluntly. “Or that’s your weak point for the hackers.”

The second? “Don’t assume a successful attack is when you’re going to know about it, when your plants been shut down, or something’s been tripped. That’s not a successful attack, that’s a failed attack.

A successful attack means they’re in your plant environment now and they’ve got control but you don’t know it yet.

The only way to detect this is to monitor everything. Look for little changes, anything unusual and collect the data for analysis so you can detect any anomalies early on.”

And finally? “Make sure every single piece of equipment you have is 100 per cent covered and kept that way. Build into your business culture the importance of updates, of not leaving vulnerable ports open, of the fact that there is no longer an air gap between IT and OT. Use the UL2900 as a design standard for security and act to maintain conformity permanently during the operating phase of your asset.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing What things could have been done differently from the minute technology started entering the OT realm and the air gap between IT and OT started to close? “That’s a very good question and a whole conversation for another article,” smiles Kenyon.

And he’s right.

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Did you know...?

A flange is also the c ollective noun for a group of baboons*

We only sell flange facers on Requis not baboons

*

We're even funnier on LinkedIn 10 worley.com

OPINION OPINION

FIVE WAYS WORLEY WILL ENHANCE

OUR DIGITAL FUTURE

GEOGRAPHY

The Digital team is critical to Worley's ability to serve customers and lead a digital transformation. The combination of domain expertise and technology integration will allow us to provide KNOWLEDGE solutions to our customers that The value of cross-industry expertise and sharing produce tangible results. People of knowledge is paramount to the combination of are the core of our business, our teams and will allow us to combine emerging leveraged by technology. technologies across industries. Together we have more than 50 years' experience and can offer our customers expertise in everything from software design to asset management.

In addition to our ability to share our knowledge across industries, we now have access to every corner of the world. And, as our customers become more global, our coverage to support each and INTEGRATION every one of Worley and heritage Jacobs ECR had different strategies them as they in the digitalization space. Worley focused on products grow puts us in and heritage Jacobs ECR focused on services and custom a key position. solutions. Now, we can combine these to provide a complete portfolio that can address any need.

TECHNOLOGY

PEOPLE

Clayton Bartlett, Digital Strategist at Worley, shares his thoughts on the synergies created through the WorleyParsons and Jacobs ECR merger

Worley's combination of proprietary products that are industry specific, such as CAROL™ and Fugitive Emissions, plus the ability to build custom solution services allows us to provide even more value to our customers across the energy, chemicals and resources sectors. worley.com 11

DIGITAL TRAINING

DIGITALLY HOW DO YOU KEEP A WORKFORCE

UP TO DATE?

From the latest buzzwords in digital to the newest programs and apps that make our working lives easier, we asked five experts how to keep employees engaged in the digital developments of the workplace WORDS BY MOLLY HAYNES

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DIGITAL TRAINING

IT’S IMPORTANT TO ARTICULATE CLEARLY THE PURPOSE OF EACH TECHNOLOGY AND HOW IT DIFFERENTIATES FROM THE OTHERS TO AVOID ANY CONFUSION.

“If you want to encourage engagement and productivity in new digital technology, you’ve got to demonstrate the benefits to people. If you are rolling out multiple tools – such as Office 365 and everything it comes with – it’s important to articulate clearly the purpose of each one and how it differentiates from the others to avoid any confusion. I find pilot groups are useful because they allow the company to trial a tool and see how people respond to it, and at the same time, you’re also creating case studies to show other employees the benefits.

Demonstrate the clear benefits

“I also think you’ve got to create ‘Champions of Change’ at every level. While leaders set the direction and inspire people to get behind it, they can’t change company culture alone. Companies need to involve employees from the very beginning so they can feel ownership of the change rather than it being something that’s done to them.”

HELEN DEVERELL, INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT AND FOUNDER OF HELENDEVERELLCOMMUNICATIONS.COM

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DIGITAL TRAINING

“I began working in e-learning in 2002 when it was literally just a PDF online. I’ve seen the likes of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn go from being unknown entities to an integral part of how people do business. Back when YouTube first arrived on the scene, people didn’t see a need for it and many of the executives I worked with thought it would never take off. But this was partly because their devices weren’t set up for it – you had to download a piece of software over dial-up internet, which often took three hours and would crash their computer.

Stay technology ready

“These days, we take for granted that YouTube just works – it’s embedded into our lives. And sure, the middle bit of any digital learning process is messy, but it’s also where the magic happens* as people start to realize the potential of that technology.”

*ORIGINAL QUOTE BRENÉ BROWN

MEREDITH COLLINS, LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT EXPERT

SURE, THE MIDDLE BIT OF ANY DIGITAL LEARNING PROCESS IS MESSY, BUT IT’S ALSO WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS AS PEOPLE START TO REALIZE THE POTENTIAL OF THAT TECHNOLOGY. worley.com 15

DIGITAL TRAINING

“The Worley Academy provides global learning and development resources to our people and one of our most successful programs is the 20-week Leadership Engagement and Performance (LEaP) program for front line and mid-level leaders. This leadership development program also gives us the opportunity to introduce topics that are of interest to our customers.

Provide digital leadership training THE DIGITAL WORLD HAS CREATED THIS GRANDIOSE LANGUAGE AROUND WHAT DIGITAL IS AND THIS CAN BE A BIG BARRIER FOR PEOPLE.

“We are also looking forward to the next generation of Worley people. As part of a new initiative to refresh our graduate program, we will be exploring approaches to graduate resourcing and development both internally and externally and how to be successful with these efforts in an ever increasing digital world.”

RICK HANSEN, DIRECTOR WORLEY ACADEMY, HOUSTON

Confidence is key “Building a digital culture is all about trying to increase people’s interest levels around digital and boost their confidence in talking about, describing and participating in conversations about emerging technology, and how we might solve problems in different ways.

“However, one of the problems is that the digital world has created this grandiose language around what digital is and this can be a big barrier for people actually wanting to get involved or feeling that they’ve got a role in it. Our aim is to break down those barriers around language and simplify it, so that everyone feels able to get involved. Digital has to be a participation sport.”

JOHN PILLAY, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR, WORLEY

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DIGITAL TRAINING

“It’s not uncommon to see change resistance when it comes to introducing new technologies into companies.

While none of these new technologies is particularly difficult to use, without any guidance, encouragement or benefit-led training, there is very little motivation for anyone to make the leap from doing things the same way they’ve always done it.

Overcome change resistance

“What’s more, while we might see a technology as useful, not everyone will have that same positive experience so if you’re going to make a move to something such as cloud storage, you have to make that change systematic and exhaustive and set up an environment where we have a mechanism to understand what people’s concerns or fears are about the technology and develop ways to overcome those.”

LAITH AMIN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL

“WITHOUT ANY GUIDANCE, ENCOURAGEMENT OR BENEFIT-LED TRAINING, THERE IS VERY LITTLE MOTIVATION FOR ANYONE TO MAKE THE LEAP FROM DOING THINGS THE SAME WAY THEY’VE ALWAYS DONE IT.”

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FUTURE WORKFORCE

workforc future Planning a of the

T

hink back 20 years to 1999. Much of what we rely on today quite simply wasn’t around. Smartphones and tablets hadn’t been launched and Wi-Fi barely existed. We were still looking at the encyclopedia for world facts and the only people who saw what you ate for lunch that day were the people sitting across the table from you.

The world is changing faster than ever. How will the workforce of the future keep pace?

WORDS BY HAYLEY SUTTON

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Now consider the workforce. Many of the jobs we see today weren’t even considered.

From social media managers and mobile app developers to data scientists and drone pilots, technology has changed things. A lot.

We now have 3D printers that can print metal parts faster than ever, online industrial marketplaces that are connecting businesses across the globe, and robots that can significantly reduce risk to human life.

FUTURE WORKFORCE

ce

According to a recent study by Worley, there are three pathways to consider.

The first envisages an organic evolution of the organization, with low investment and adoption in technology only when it is tried and tested. “Scenario one assumes that we will continue as we are with only limited adoption of technology, and not much in terms of innovation,” explains Sharmila Jugessur, Operational Optimization Director at Advisian. “In scenario two we start pushing the boundaries, and there’s a mixed portfolio of technology and digital solutions within the organization.”

But with constant advances in technology and a world that is changing faster than ever before, what does the future look like for people as new and emerging technologies shake up our workforce? And how can we as an industry prepare for the pace of change in an increasingly automated and evolving world?

And scenario three? “Well that’s the other extreme,” explains Jugessur. “This scenario sees a major change driven by high investment in innovation and becoming early adopters of technological advances.”

Three likely scenarios impacting our workforce

“Irrespective of which scenario you work in, the attitude that people go to university, get a job and they’ve got the skills to last them for the rest of their career must change,” says Jugessur. “Given how fast technology is evolving and changing the way we work, it’s now about life-long learning. You have to keep learning, adapting to change and reinventing yourself.”

While process artificial intelligence, automation and robotics have the highest potential benefits for the energy and resources industry over the next five to 10 years, John Pillay, Digital Transformation Director at Worley says, it is likely that there will be different speeds of adoption and maturity of these technologies.

“One thing that tends to happen when you have these discussions about what the future will look like, is that it can sound like it will be evenly spread – that won’t be the case,” says Pillay. “There will be those at the most progressive edge, interacting with technology and working in the ways futurologists talk about. But there will also be different of levels of maturity and adoption of technology, and different takes on it as well.”

While there’s no right and wrong about which scenario companies sit in, there’s one key theme underpinning all scenarios.

THERE WILL BE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ADOPTION AND MATURITY OF TECHNOLOGY, AND DIFFERENT TAKES ON IT AS WELL.

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FUTURE WORKFORCE As such, it is likely that the engineering and project delivery workforce will shift with new roles and responsibilities emerging.

This is not surprising. According to the World Economic Forum Future Jobs Report 2018, approximately 54 per cent of people will require significant reskilling and upskilling by 2022 because of technology advancements.

Whatever we learn today will most likely be redundant in five years’ time.

So how do we prepare?

“The first step is to embrace that there is change,” says Martin Hickson, Resourcing Manager for Worley in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “The next step would be to learn more about new technologies and see what will be relevant to you and your career.

While we can’t be sure what the next five to 10 years will look like, if you’re engaged in the process you’ll be able pinpoint where and how technology can add value to your career and what skills you’ll need in future.”

John Pillay agrees. “I’d encourage everyone to get engaged with new and emerging technologies and trends and start to develop their skills and knowledge in the areas that they’re passionate about.

“It’s a reasonable bet that data and technology will play a massive part in the role of an engineer and that artificial intelligence and automation will become core to the engineering value proposition. But it is also reasonable to expect that we’ll require more ‘human skills’ such as requirements gathering, communicating ideas and critical thinking as we begin to do less repetitive and routine tasks.”

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“I think there’s going to be a bigger preference for data scientists, coders and programmers as there will be more of a need for technology to be developed, managed and maintained,” explains Nuria Ruiperez, Global Innovation Manager at Worley. “But I also think there will be more of a need for people with creative and human-interaction skills such as change managers, project leaders and organizational psychologists as our workforce becomes more automated, agile and remote.”

“But you can’t just say to an engineer ‘go and learn creativity’,” adds Hickson. “Our organizations and institutions need to adopt new systems and processes to foster a creative learning environment and enable innovation.”

Learning, but not as we know it Education will be critical to upskilling our current workforce and preparing the next generation of engineers. But a recent study

by Worley revealed that universities are starting to lose relevance when it comes to developing our industry’s future talent.

OUR ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS WILL NEED TO ADOPT NEW SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES TO FOSTER A CREATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND ENABLE INNOVATION.

FUTURE WORKFORCE

“DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS ESSENTIALLY ABOUT BECOMING COMFORTABLE WITH CHANGE.” “They’re teaching solutions to yesterday’s problems,” says Ruiperez. “We need a skilled workforce where we see innovation across the board. To enable this, we need to change the way we educate our workforce to encourage more creative thinking and innovation, but also a curriculum that can keep up with the pace of change of technology and the skills required.”

Organizations and some education institutions are starting to realize this. And it’s likely we’ll see more industry scholarships, industry-led short courses, online learning and organizational digital training. What’s more, it is likely there will be less reliance on university degrees as our focus shifts to developing and hiring people with the right skills and experience.

“More and more, engineers will need a grasp of the digital environment and how to align this with a digitally-enabled operation,” says Ebert. “They’ll need to be able to determine how value is created from the identification, capture and analysis of data, and how to deal with real problems such as cybersecurity and cyber protection.”

As a result, Ebert sees the lines between technical and commercial engineering blurring, and that engineers will become multi-disciplined and not just put into a technical speciality box.

“The future is going to be a very exciting time to be an engineer,” he adds.

“What is new today will be old tomorrow,” says Paul Ebert, Global Technology Manager, New Energy at Worley. “But skills learnt in developing, delivering and operating technical solutions in the future will be really important and there’s no substitute for experience.”

When innovation is just what we do

An exciting future for engineers

“Our willingness to adapt and change will be critical to how well prepared we are for the future,” says Pillay. “It might be disruptive and challenging for many, but it is already clear that change and innovation need to become part of what we do to be successful in the future.

Thankfully many of the skills required for the future workforce are already essential to be a successful engineer today. But their roles are likely to change.

There’s no doubt that the world is changing.

And given the pace of change and the need to scale quickly, we must become adaptable.

“Digital transformation is essentially about becoming comfortable with change.”

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INTERVIEW

5 minutes with…

Chris Jansen

We caught up with the Worley inventor who created CAROL™ – a catalyst removal robot How did you become an inventor?

I started my career as a process engineer and was fascinated by the challenges of catalyst removal. People spend around 10,000 hours unloading catalyst per year and in 2016, there were 12 fatalities in one incident, so the potential to reduce risk to life was massive. You’re effectively putting people in enclosed spaces with an atmosphere that cannot support life. I knew there had to be a better way of doing this.

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Joining heritage WorleyParsons in 2014, I was fortunate enough to attend a ‘lunch and learn’ on the company's innovation process and it was after this that I decided to put forward my idea for safer catalyst unloading, which fitted very well with the company’s incredibly high health and safety standards. After presenting my case to the Worley Innovation Council, I received $10,000 seed funding to develop the idea.

What exactly have you invented?

I should point out I didn’t do this alone. After four years of hard work and collaboration with industry experts, including Mecfor who are specialists in custom-built, remote and robotic equipment, we have created CAROL (Catalyst Removal Amphirol) – a robot that removes hazardous material from vessels in refineries to avoid having to send a person inside a dangerous environment.

INTERVIEW

What was the invention process like?

We had weekly meetings where we discussed and workshopped the various ideas that could be used to unload catalyst remotely.

Amazingly, that first conceptual drawing is remarkably like the finished product we have today. However, in order to see this design come into fruition, we had to request more funding. It was incredibly nerve-racking but my belief in the product never wavered and I was able to secure what we needed.

How did the first prototype perform?

For the first trial we use corn as catalyst, but the robot was too heavy and sunk straight away. However, it still provided enough proof of concept for us to push forward with Prototype 2.0. This time we built the robot with aluminium instead of steel and we used 3D printing to develop the screws out of plastic, and shipped it to a test vessel in Chicago where we successfully unloaded the catalyst. It was an amazing moment to realise we’d created something that not only worked but was revolutionary as well.

Next came demonstration after demonstration to Chevron, BP, Reliance and Phillips 66 where we took their feedback on board and continued to develop and improve CAROL. Additional funding from the Worley Innovation Council allowed me to work on the project full time. Just as that was secured, I got a phone call out of the blue from a turnaround manager at an LNG Plant in Australia who had seen a flyer for CAROL and wanted to test the robot in the company’s dehydration vessels.

We had our first customer.

What was it like demonstrating CAROL to potential customers?

We’ve done 16 demonstrations for potential customers now and conducted three live in-plant pilots. The process never gets any less nerve-racking. However, each time, CAROL has proved that it can remove catalyst successfully without the need for someone in the vessel.

What’s the future for CAROL? CAROL doesn’t just have a market in the oil and gas industry. We’ve got potential interest from the chemicals industry too, and from all over the world. The next adventure is the commercialization phase for which our planning is in full swing. For me personally, I’d love for there to be 100 CAROLs in five years’ time, all successfully unloading catalyst and adsorbents.

What’s next for you as an inventor?

I’d like there to be CARL to keep CAROL company who would be there to reload the fresh catalyst afterwards. CAROL and CARL, Worley’s first catalyst robots.

Find out more at worley.com/carol

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advisian.com

AROUND

THINKING

TURN YOUR Thinking this was the end?

Well it’s just the beginning...