Frequently Asked Questions
Reliability & Maintenance
An international study that helps you identify your greatest opportunities for improvement in RAM performance compared to others in the industry. The study uses propriety data to uncover performance gaps and make informed business decisions.
After completing the RAM Study and receiving your results, you will understand what you are doing well and what operational gaps require attention and present your biggest opportunities to improve. The best performers routinely participate in the study to understand if their strategies are effective.
The study delivers invaluable information detailing the performance of upstream, refining, petrochemicals, utilities, and other industrial segments. The RAM Study includes performance information on RAM for routine, turnaround, equipment performance, and organizational staffing. These data are included in the results files provided to the client.
Participating in the RAM Study allows you to compare your performance to your process family peer group as well as your industry segment. This comparison identifies gaps with peers.
Client performance gaps are monetized for both maintenance and production losses. This monetization allows the client to know the value of gap closure efforts. Gaps are segmented into specific categories allowing the client to focus on the most value added efforts.
More than 75% of participants are repeat clients. Repeat participation helps validate adjustments made in the past, adjust to industry movements and understand the impact of market shifting events in different geographies. Top performers continue to raise the bar by focusing on the most value-added opportunities demonstrated in the results of the study.
Absolutely. The RAM Study complements other Solomon studies by digging deeper into many areas, including cultural behaviors to determine reactive versus proactive characteristics and whether a company focuses on reliability or cost cutting.
Solomon looks at the underlying behaviors which generate consistent high reliability performance. Some of these topics include proactive versus reactive work, projects with life cycle cost analysis, resolution of “bad actor” lists, and root cause analysis performed along with work execution practices for routine and turnaround maintenance plus many more.
Power Generation
The Solomon Power Study provides a proven, data-driven methodology, combined with experienced power industry professionals, to assess KPI gaps and underlying causes for identification, quantification, and realistic gap closure improvement opportunities.
Optimization implies a complete, comprehensive foundation of monitored and analyzed data to achieve asset performance goals by managing inputs (such as financial and human resources), and adjusting plans for evolving circumstances, to optimize the production or outputs of the assets (commercial execution) efficiently. The data analyses consider risk, resource utilization, and integrated programs that connect strategic and tactical activities which support getting the most from your assets.
Each year, participants contribute technical, financial, personnel, reliability, and availability data to Solomon for comparative analysis to industry peers. Through participant provided data, Solomon updates evolving trends. The data represents how power generation asset owners tactically respond to ongoing evolution in the electric market demands, competitive forces, and policy and regulatory decisions. Solomon converts this confidential participant data into peer groups for comparison and performance gaps calculations.
Standard power industry technical indicators and cost indicators are the first level of comparison data used. Using the standard indicators is helpful, but some of those indicators can introduce distortions from ‘economies of scale’, or ‘economies of utilization’ among other reasons. Solomon has gone beyond standard industry performance metrics and developed its own proprietary indicators that give a broader perspective and more accurate performance comparisons, allowing for quantified, focused performance improvements. Finally, the patented Solomon normalization methods and performance indicators quantify important cost-drivers (technology levels, age, etc.) in operations and maintenance spending, efficiency-drivers, and human resource utilization drivers, to manage cogeneration asset comparisons.
Power Cogeneration
The Power Cogeneration Study is a complete and thorough data-driven analysis of cogeneration power assets, including relative performance of Cogen peers, which support risk management, asset management, and asset optimization processes and activities.
Optimization implies a complete, comprehensive foundation of monitored and analyzed data to achieve asset performance goals by managing inputs (such as financial and human resources), and adjusting plans for evolving circumstances, to optimize the production or outputs of the assets (commercial execution) efficiently. The data analyses consider risk, resource utilization, and integrated programs that connect strategic and tactical activities which support getting the most from your assets.
Each year, participants contribute technical, financial, personnel, reliability, and availability data to Solomon for comparative analysis to industry peers. Through participant provided data, Solomon updates evolving trends. The data represents how power generation asset owners tactically respond to ongoing evolution in the electric market demands, competitive forces, and policy and regulatory decisions. Solomon converts this confidential participant data into peer groups for comparison and performance gaps calculations.
Standard power industry technical indicators and cost indicators are the first level of comparison data used. Using the standard indicators is helpful, but some of those indicators can introduce distortions from ‘economies of scale’, or ‘economies of utilization’ among other reasons. Solomon has gone beyond standard industry performance metrics and developed its own proprietary indicators that give a broader perspective and more accurate performance comparisons, allowing for quantified, focused performance improvements. Finally, the patented Solomon normalization methods and performance indicators quantify important cost-drivers (technology levels, age, etc.) in operations and maintenance spending, efficiency-drivers, and human resource utilization drivers, to manage cogeneration asset comparisons.
Gas Processing & Fractionation
A: The NGPF Study uses Solomon’s proprietary CPA methodology to provide a comprehensive assessment of your assets' competitive position through multiple perspectives and helps creates a data-driven roadmap to continuous improvement.
A: The NGPF Study results supply data-driven insight to help guide your optimization plans, eliminate shortfalls, close performance gaps with peers, and prioritize next steps to sustainable performance excellence.
A: The study considers key operational variables to normalize the differences in terms of size and complexity.
A: Multiple types of peer groups are used in the performance rankings. Study participants use them to compare their plant characteristics, resource requirements, and performance with a subset of similar plants.
A: The study includes assets from National Oil Companies, Integrated Oil Companies, Independents, Join Ventures, etc.
A: The typical NGPF Study takes about six months to complete.
A: Yes, the study process can be accelerated to get results in less than 6 months.
A: The following success factors maximize the value of benchmarking: stakeholders’ commitment, data quality, findings relevance, and opportunities prioritization.
Onshore Production Operations
A: The Onshore Study uses Solomon’s proprietary CPA benchmarking methodology to compare the operational performance of onshore operators around the world. The study’s goal is to help operators optimize and improve their onshore operations, enhance production efficiency, and combat the impact of volatile oil prices on operating margins.
A: The study scope includes the operations of wells from subsurface to wellhead equipment, surface gathering and processing facilities/equipment, in-field flowlines/pipelines, and the field general administration that directly supports the above operations.
A: The onshore benchmarking reviews are an “asset-to-asset” comparison considering the complexity associated to each asset.
A: As the cost accounting systems for E&P companies worldwide differ significantly, Solomon has developed a standardized set of cost categories that are used in every benchmarking study. This important step levels the comparison of operating expenses for each asset.
A: Solomon’s key approach for cost normalization is to define relations between cost drivers related to each cost category. Solomon normalization models are developed for each cost category and each peer group. The normalized assessment works to pinpoint performance gaps between the asset and peer group leaders and discovers potential cost optimization opportunities in every major category.
A: The study includes assets from National Oil Companies, Integrated Oil Companies, Independents, and Joint Ventures.
A: The typical Onshore Study takes about six months to complete.
A: Field Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, Asset Management
A: The success factors that the Onshore Study uses to maximize benchmarking value are as follows: Stakeholders Commitment, Data Quality, Findings Relevance, and Opportunities Prioritization.
Olefin Plant Performance
The Olefin Study is a comparative performance analysis that uses proprietary data to provide participants with a comprehensive assessment of competitiveness for each of their plants, including economic gaps for all key performance areas against industry peers. This benchmarking analysis uncovers key areas of underperformance, enabling root-cause analysis to identify appropriate quick and direct solutions to optimize/reduce costs and maximize performance.
Yes, if a plant only closes 10% of the identified gaps from study results, the payout is over 200 times the study fees. Most plants see even greater performance improvement.
Yes, typically 70–80% of the industry capacity participate in the Olefin Study each year. In our 2021 study, 145 plants participated in the study for a total of 73% of the industry capacity worldwide.
Solomon’s Olefin Study can include, on an optional basis, Carbon Insights and greenhouse gases (GHG) Gap Report. The offering is a plant-specific analysis of carbon emission performance, quantifying the impact of more than 10 differentiating factors that drive comparative carbon performance for olefin plants.
The study analyzes production cost, net cash margin, return on investment, capacity utilization, energy expense, maintenance cost, personnel cost, other operating expense, operational availability, maintenance cost efficiency, annualized turnaround downtime, annualized turnaround cost, reliability & maintenance effectiveness, energy intensity, carbon footprint, environmental emissions, and other performance metrics against peers to identify gaps.
Olefin Study results can be leveraged in many ways to improve performance. You can use results to assess competitive strengths and weaknesses, identify actionable performance gaps, establish performance improvement targets, formulate improvement plans and programs, prioritize improvement activities, justify capital investments and staffing plans, measure progress of improvement activities, and demonstrate performance to joint venture partners.
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