Robert Brelsford
Downstream Technology Editor
The business of efficiency is a big one, and it's getting (ironically) bigger. Efficiency and analytics departments are popping up right and left throughout oil and gas operating companies-so much so, in fact, that the word efficiency itself is quickly taking on that rather distasteful sheen previously ascribed by discriminating readers to the word optimization.
And here's another irony: So much time is now finding itself devoted to this business of becoming more efficient and more effectual lean, producing machines that core job duties are quickly being brushed to the side to focus on it.
After hearing countless war stories from industry veterans of the thousand e-mails and meeting requests to detail instructions on what the sender deems the latest and greatest innovations in the business of efficiency, one begins to wonder where the value of the endeavor really lies.
Trimming the fat
One of the greatest opportunities afforded the OGJ editor is access both to people and places rarely extended to other media outlets. OGJ's reputation and reporting philosophy precedes it, which sometimes lands the editor in rather awkward situations.
Take, for example, a conversation this editor had at a recent conference with the manager of a major operating company's refining division:
"We have these meetings where they keep telling me to cut the fat, cut the fat, cut the fat. Cut the fat? As far as I can tell, the fat they're referring to is people doing their jobs that are barely doing them anymore because our efficiency group has them in meetings for half the day learning how to be more productive instead of actually allowing them to be productive."
"That's a tough gig," this editor dumbfoundedly replies.
"A tough gig?" the refining manager exclaims quizzically. "It's an impossible one. You try doing your job with the equivalent of a bunch of busybodies from a proverbially dreaded homeowners' association (HOA) that have no idea what your job even is telling you how to do it!"
"By HOA busybodies, I'm guessing you mean your efficiency guys?" this editor-himself a former law clerk that quite regularly handled HOA matters for clients-asks, trying to mask his laughter and a smile. (Apologies in advance to any readers in charge of their HOAs, but the manager taps the nail on the head. A lot of people with a lot of time on their hands running amuck in positions of self-created but meddlesome power.)
"Morons," the manager replies. "Morons with nothing else to do except trying to persuade me and my team into buying into their feel-good mishegas to help them justify their own jobs! For Pete's sake, it's 2017, and one of them talks about the Internet of Things like it's some new discovery, as if it hasn't been around since 1999! How's that for efficiency!"
Weights, measures
To be clear, efficiency and analytics, prima facie, are two separate creatures. As the endless e-mails flooding this editor's inbox from would-be consultants and startups advertising their services show, however, a dangerous alignment is being drawn. Distinguishing between the two-the fanciful and the legitimate-will be the next wave of focus for all of us.
Whether a refining manager or an editor, we're all for improving the bottom lines of our businesses. With ongoing efforts by corporate human resource departments to trim excess (human) fat across all industry sectors increasingly making everyone's time the real precious commodity, we need to stop and ask ourselves where this time is best invested.
Take, for instance, the soft, digital beep echoing through the room right now. According to the gadget on this editor's wrist, to become the very best human machine he can possibly be, it's time to raise the heartrate.
Here's to hoping it's time well spent.
