Spiral Suite

unified supply chain managementSpiral Suite is the only hydrocarbon supply chain management toolset designed from the ground up as a unified, multi-user solution. All activities, spanning feedstock data management, trading, plant and network optimisation, scheduling and process unit monitoring, are supported within a single application, with a single user interface, and a single source of data with version and data management control. Spiral Suite fully supports legacy work processes across large and small enterprises, but also introduces entirely new workflows that eliminate manual tasks and create instant cross-boundary collaboration. The result is a solution that better explores opportunities, reduces operational risk and delineates the gap between planned, scheduled and actual results.

Built on modern software architecture, Spiral Suite can be deployed as Software as a Service, or as virtual, desktop or Web applications, with full access to private or public cloud environments. The speed at which deployment can take place, combined with exceptional ease-of-use, means that many legacy point solutions can be replaced quickly and simply with one application, thereby lowering the overall cost of ownership: inadequate, poorly-maintained integration bridges are removed, as is the need for application experts and extensive training courses. The single, highly-intuitive application offers unprecedented transparency, robust data management and consistent calculation methodologies to all users, giving them the ability to safely contribute to each other’s work and participate in making profitable, risk-adjusted supply chain decisions within weeks of licensing.

The Analytics within Spiral Suite automate common work processes, applying statistical analysis, user-configurable heuristics and powerful visualisation tools to give new insights into the solution landscape. Using 64-bit, multithreaded technology maximises the utilisation of multi-core processors and cloud environments, allowing users to rapidly and interactively explore the outcome of running thousands of scenarios in seconds, and results are shared in an operational and business language that everyone can understand. Throughout Spiral Suite, user-configurable alerts and decision support tools increase the richness and velocity of communication across the enterprise, enabling planners, schedulers, traders, process engineers and operations staff to identify opportunities and risks immediately, so that they can rapidly come to an optimal decision that benefits the business as a whole.

planningSpiral Suite fully supports both long and short term planning activities, and the revolutionary unified supply chain environment allows users to consider the implications their decisions will have on the business as a whole. Traders and planners can see future scheduling constraints, and schedulers can assess their decisions against commercial impact and operational feasibility. With additional insights provided by Spiral Suite’s powerful Analytics, users from across the business can work together to make strategic decisions on capital investment studies, market studies, long term product and supply contracts and annual operating plans. Tactical planning activities also benefit strongly from the unified environment, as planners have access to scheduling and inventory information, improving their weekly and monthly plans, operational targeting, feedstock ranking, performance management and model tuning.

Spiral Suite is an easy-to-use solution to single-plant, multi-plant, multi-period and multi-plant, multi-period planning. The ease-of-use stems from the drag-and-drop flowsheet that automates the equation-building process during plant modelling, eliminating the need for application experts and planners knowledgeable in matrix mathematics. The model is built once and then used across the organisation for simulation, full non-linear optimisation and event-based scheduling, ensuring consistency and visibility. Users can construct

and compare alternative scenar-ios within Spiral Suite, allowing them to evaluate many different options for running the plant. Fast optimisation, combined with user-configurable visualisations and reporting, allows the impact of uncertainties and data changes to be evaluated and understood in real-time.

Reconciliation and backcasting allows businesses to understand how and why deviations to plans have occurred, enabling increased planning efficiency and making it easier to generate feasible and robust schedules that shrink the gap between planned and actual operations.

process model tuning and managementReliable and robust planning requires properly tuned process unit models, the generation of which can be an onerous task without the right tools. Spiral Suite includes tools for monitoring, building and maintaining process models, using results from rigorous simulations or actual plant operations, or a combination of the two. A rich graphical environment allows users to plot a variety of information to monitor unit performance and visually compare the input data with the process models used in planning and scheduling. Users can regress data to generate updated process models, and all data is kept safe and secure using long-term storage and labelling.

schedulingSpiral Suite comprises a unique combination of functionality and visualisation, tailored to support end-to-end scheduling workflows. From crude receipt management and feed blend optimisation, process unit simula-tion and mode management, through to multi-blend product optimisation and shipment, Spiral Suite offers carefully designed custom workflows to meet the scheduler’s needs. All activities are embedded within the common case management and multi-user framework of Spiral Suite, enabling flexible collaboration and ensuring an ideal enterprise solu-tion.

The efficient and adaptive simulation engine used throughout Spiral Suite allows real-time interactions with the schedule. As changes are made, clear notifications alert the user, ensuring rapid identification and resolution of any issues. Across the application, powerful visualisations such as tabular and Gantt views, configurable inventory, quality and composition charts, and flowsheets, present the best ways to approach each work process.

Tasks traditionally performed outside a scheduling tool have been integrated within standard workflows. The rule engine, and the ability to construct rule-sets, captures common scheduling strategies, freeing schedulers to focus on value-added tasks, supported by risk-exploration analytics. Direct integration of external plant data and sophisticated reconciliation options can be used to update schedules to more closely reflect reality. The same powerful optimisation engine used throughout Spiral Suite is used to manage multi-blend feed and product blend calculations: through user-choice of objective function and other constraints, blend campaigns can be optimised to meet inventory, lifting and feed requirements.

network optimisationThe unified environment of Spiral Suite means that, for the first time, full plant models can be optimised simultaneously within a supply and distribution network, enabling business intelligence to be used consistently along the supply chain. As part of overall network optimisation, site operations can be adjusted within the complete business context, ensuring optimal use of assets, efficient product supply and detailed inventory management.

Users can analyse, optimise and report on complex logistical and manufacturing issues occurring at different points in time across multiple global locations. Planned events, such as unit shutdowns, can be efficiently managed to ensure feasibility and maximum profitability. Unexpected events can be easily incorporated from the schedule, and fast re-optimisation and re-organisation of operations ensures that short-term commitments can still be met.

analyticsSpiral Suite Analytics are automated, integrated workflows that improve the scope of analysis available by providing specialised calculation, data analysis and visualisation. Rather than having to manually create case stacks, or develop proprietary code, the required cases are automatically generated using knowledge of the underlying problem to approach the calculation intelligently. Combined with multi-threading capabilities and industry-leading optimisation, results are delivered in seconds, enabling truly interactive performance, rather than the overnight case stack runs of legacy tools.

The Analytics and their results can be customised and shared instantly across the organisation, ensuring that work processes are both streamlined and standardised. The automatic extraction of key values and application of specialised statistical analysis, combined with effective visualisations, help users draw clear conclusions from the results, without needing to be experts in programming or statistics. Users from across the business can understand the risks and potential rewards, helping them to weigh up all the options and find the best possible decision that incorporates all the information currently available. Where applicable, the Analytics apply information from across Spiral Suite; for example, crude ranking not only provides economic ordering of crude oils, but also takes into account the operational issues associated with running the production blend.

reliable and scalable solutionsWe have a proven track record for delivering solutions which are easy to install, simple to maintain and reliable in use. Our solutions can grow with your company’s needs and have become key components in client business processes, proving stable and reliable over more than 15 years of commercial use.

Spiral Suite uses and extends the CrudeSuite architecture that has been successfully adopted by over 100 companies at more than 300 sites worldwide, ranging from individual consultants and refiners, to oil majors, including global implementations at BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell.

We invest heavily in continuous product development and our high-calibre development team work closely with clients to ensure our solutions continue to support the industry’s requirements and maintain their leading edge technology. Our dedicated team of support specialists provides high quality remote and on-site assistance, and our in-house industry experts provide consultancy services that include implementation support.

© 2014 Spiral Software Limited. All rights reserved.

Spiral Software Limited 101 Science Park

Milton RoadCambridge CB4 0FY, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1223 445000 Fax: +44 (0)1223 445001 email: sales@spiralsoft.com Web: www.spiralsoft.com