ABB Adaptive Execution™: The solution for our times

Inspired by the new world order ABB Adaptive Execution™ is the ability to adapt to ever-changing conditions along the life cycle of a project.

A new project execution methodology coined by ABB, Adaptive Execution™ means a commitment to responding to the “perfect storm” of challenges and executing with precision anyway.

ABB Adaptive Execution™ means responding with precision, to a year with global disruptions. The Covid-19 crisis with the global pandemic, the drop in oil prices, and the global push for sustainable energy have all impacted business in unprecedented ways. These challenges have forced every company on the planet to develop new ways of working and new ways to serve customers. It means we have been forced to implement innovation faster, adopt technology with precision and be creative in terms of how we solve world energy demand.

ONLINE ADAPTATION

Business is nothing more than a network of conversations put into action. Indeed, the more we communicate the more we can adapt, solve, fix and develop. The Covid-19 crisis forced us to adapt through online communication.

Online communication seems to be a necessary course of correction which undoubtedly will serve us well as we cross the bridge to the new digital world. The silver lining, was the elevation of online competencies and efficiencies that have proven to be the foundation of what will allow us to grow and scale. More efficient meetings, less travel costs, more meeting time, online meeting efficiencies, more team collaboration, and more conversations overall we can now reduce costs and save time in a new online business culture. 

At ABB the opportunity to adapt to a crisis came in the answer of and delivering projects of superior quality by being thought leaders in innovation and harnessing solutions through advanced digital offerings. With the launch of ABB Adaptive Execution™, they developed an optimized end to end solution designed to lower costs and increase value for capital projects through consistent standardized delivery. Believing that small acts of daily creativity are within the grasp of every one of us, creativity harnessed in the right ways in optimizing operations.

ALL THE ANSWERS ARE IN NATURE

It’s been said that all the answers will be found in nature, and ABB seems to have proven that to be correct. Grounded in nature, the five key elements of the new ABB Adaptive Execution™ model, which is associated with animal behaviours. With a 360 view, ABB looked at the design phase, execution phase and operation phase and developed a foundation of execution in five key elements. The 5 keys of ABB Adaptive Execution™ include:

The ABB Adaptive Execution™ model is designed to offer high value engineering centres to bring the best people together to solve the problems and processes needed.

ABB’s president of Energy Industries Brandon Spencer says, “We are a technology company and innovation is in our blood. We are using technology to enable a transformation and have better success on our projects. We’ve developed an infrastructure with the right tools, solutions and systems that allow us to execute. We can compress schedules, do things in parallel, separating hardware from software, virtual 360s of projects so we fabricate things on demand and ship to site without having to travel around the world for different inspections. So there are a lot of elements to reducing schedule working in a virtual environment.”

ABB Adaptive Execution™ integrates expert teams, new technologies, agile processes, shared learnings, and proven methodologies into a single, streamlined project execution experience for all stakeholders involved in major capital investment projects.

Brandon Spencer commented, “ABB Adaptive Execution™ will change the way in which customers, Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractors and vendors interact. We can create better business value for our customers by creating an environment where everyone can do his or her own part with confidence, empowering delivery teams to achieve more, in less time. This is the key to overall project success.”

REDUCING EXPENDITURES

In the energy sector, it is not uncommon for large capital projects to significantly exceed budget and experience extensive delays. ABB Adaptive Execution™ addresses major inefficiencies that result in cost and schedule overruns. It enables greater visibility across all layers of a project, unlocking significant project value improvements across the energy sector. With digitalization and collaboration at its core, Adaptive Execution™ is expected to reduce automation related capital expenditure by up to 40 per cent, compress delivery schedules by up to 30 per cent and start-up hours by up to 40 per cent. 

VISUALIZATION

Using virtualization, Adaptive Executionä removes the need for engineering on site and reduces the physical hardware required for a control and automation system. By decoupling hardware and software, Adaptive Execution™ lowers the time and overall setup costs, cutting the number of engineering hours spent on project installation, commissioning and testing by up to 85 per cent.

TURNING DISRUPTIONS INTO OPPORTUNITY

Peter Terwiesch, President of ABB Industrial Automation said, “2020 has been a year of disruptions across the global energy industry. With falling oil prices, challenges induced by the current lockdowns and the rising demand for sustainable energy investments, companies are looking for new ways to reduce cost, schedule and risk for major projects in this low capex environment. Harnessing advances in digitalization, ABB Adaptive Execution™ responds to this need and enables capital projects to thrive in the new normal.”

Harnessing efficient modular design, combined with standardized, repeatable processes and shared and effective deployment of infrastructure, tools, and resources, ABB Adaptive Execution™ centralizes collaboration across all project stakeholders — from a project’s inception through to its successful completion.

As ABB has so eloquently illustrated, it’s no longer survival of the fittest it’s now survival of the smartest. That’s why ABB Adaptive Execution is now available to the energy market serving customers in unprecedented ways.