Innovation – Prof Nick Amott
Summary
 Cubic Melons
 LNG (with thanks to Prof Brian Cox)
 Who are Fluor?
 Why Innovation is Important
 Real Examples of Successful
Innovations
 Some Innovations that Didn’t
Work
 Your Role in Innovation
Cubic Watermelons
 Why?
 Developed by farmers in
Japan in 2001
 Response to customer and
supermarket concerns
 Now viewed as a novelty
item due to high price and
inferior taste!
Titan – Saturn's Moon
Photographs from the Cassini probe.
Titan (Saturn Moon)
 What is the white spot?
 Titan is a long way from
the sun with an
atmosphere of
methane not air!
LNG – Liquefied Natural Gas
 LNG - Natural Gas that has
been converted to a Liquid
 Gas is cooled through
expensive liquefaction process
to -162°C @ 0.25 bar
 LNG has much greater energy
density than compressed gas
making it more efficient to
transport
 Expensive production process
and storage equipment main
barriers to widespread
commercial use.
 Prelude 488 m x 74m, more
than 4.5 soccer pitches end to
end - $12.6 billion
LNG on Titan?
 The Innovators friend
 There are 1012 litres of liquid
methane on Titan
 Approx. ¼ of Earth’s reserves
are present in LNG form
 Why don’t we go and recover the
LNG?
 How would we get it to Earth?
 Cost of putting 1 lb of payload
into space is $10,000
 Neil Downie’s 5th law of
Innovation, “Every problem
contains an opportunity” – (but
maybe an opportunity for someone
else – your children's children!)
What is Fluor?
 One of the world’s leading publicly
traded engineering, procurement,
construction, maintenance, and project
management companies
 #124 in the FORTUNE 500 in 2012
 Over 1,000 projects annually, serving
more than 600 clients in 66 different
countries
 Workforce of over 43,000 men and
women executing projects globally
 Offices in over 30 countries on 6
continents
 100 years of experience
Fluor Corporate Headquarters
Dallas, Texas
Comprehensive Services
Program/Project Management
Pre-Design
Design
Construction
 Computer
Modeling
 Front-end
Engineering
 Construction
Management
 Conceptual
Design
 Detailed
Engineering
 Craft Staffing &
Training
 Estimating
 Cost Control
 Feasibility Studies
 Planning &
Scheduling
 Equipment &
Tools Supply
 Permitting
 Project Financing
 Scope Definition
 Siting
 Technology/
License
Evaluation
 Sourcing &
Supply
Start-Up
 Commissioning
 Engineering Support
 Precommissioning
 Systems Checkout
 Initial Production
 Field Mobilization
 Plant Readiness
 Material Control
 Turnover
 Quality Control
 Systems
Integration
 Safety Programs
 Safety Planning
 Contractor
Management
Operations &
Maintenance
Solutions
 Asset Performance
Improvement
 Facility Management
 Plant Operations &
Maintenance
 Small/Sustaining
Capital Projects
 Turnaround, Outages
& Shutdowns
9
Why is Innovation Important to Fluor
 One of Fluor’s guiding principles states that the company is always
looking for:
“Methods to Capture, Share and Apply our
Knowledge to deliver Customer Solutions”
 To be able to fulfil this principle Fluor must be innovative and
provide an environment for innovation to thrive
 Innovation also allows the company to:
• Gain a competitive advantage over our competitors
• Retain, attract, develop and motivate a workforce essential for success
• Ensure quality and fit-for-purpose solutions are delivered to our customers
• Build and sustain a global community for all our stakeholders
• To maximise and increase margins and profitability for the company and
shareholders
 So what does this mean!
 Do it better, faster, cheaper!
Better – Faster - Cheaper
 Innovate the “work process”
 Change the paradigms
 Use the tools
ROI
£/$/€
How do we improve the work process using the
available tools ?
• Objective – Turn a Process concept into a decision
making design and cost estimate better, faster and
cheaper
• Have a Clear Vision of the End Product
• Just Enough and No More (JEAN)
–RTFC
–Don’t Outdo Competitor Deliverables
–Neil Downie’s 4th law, don’t over-deliver
• Completed the FEED on a $120M Ethane Treatment
Project with over 20 major equipment items in less than
one month
Work Process for +/-30%Cost Estimates
Process Simulation
Heat & Mat Balance
Prelim Equipment /
Line Sizing
Critical Equipment
Sizing Checks
QuickPlantSM
Layout Studies
OptimEyesSM
•Piping MTO
•Structural steel MTO
•Plot plan /elevation
Equipment Based
Cost Analysis
IPE
•Process Flow Dgms
•Equipment Data Shts
•Equipment List
•Load List
FrontRunnerSM
Prelim Cost Estimate
•I/O Count
•Concrete MTO
Client Quotes
“You have a significant
competitive advantage over your
competition with this approach”.
Statoil Project Manager
“You’ve done in 4 days what our
other team have been doing for
four months”.
Project Estimator
Real Example – 3rd Generation ModuleSM Design
Evolution of Modular Construction
 1st Generation Modular Execution
Evolution of Modularization in Land Locked
Locations
 2nd Generation Modular Construction Execution
• 1st Generation plus:
• Equipment or PAUs (Preassembled Units)
– Equipment on module
– Modules around equipment
Where next – 3rd Generation modulesSM
 Get more into a module
 Reduce the space occupied by the module and plant by
optimising layout
 Use the developing hardware available to the full extent
 Patent the application to protect intellectual property
Site Envelope Statistics
Traditional
320,000 m2
2nd Generation
200,000 m2
3rd Generation
84,000 m2
Real Example – 3rd Generation ModuleSM Design
 Reduced TIC
• Reduced plot area lowers quantities
• Total labor hours down
• Work done in Shop
• Dramatic decrease in construction management
 Improved Safety and Quality
 Minimized Environmental Footprint
 Operations & Maintenance Needs Maintained
 Neil Downie’s 0th and 2nd law
• Think! (laterally, contradictions, outside the box)
• Surprises = Patents
 This is a success story!
Real Example – Sub-Sea Processing
 Allows production from offshore oil wells without needing
surface production facilities
 Includes
• Oil/Gas/Water Separation
• Multiphase Pumping
• Gas Compression
• Flow Assurance
 Advantages:
• Improves production from existing wells
• Allows production from previously ignored wells due to harsh operating
conditions
 Disadvantages:
• Reliability issues have stopped widespread adoption, however these
are being fixed
 Currently used in North Sea, West Africa and Gulf of Mexico
Some Ideas Do Not Work – The Segway
 Self-balancing electric vehicle
developed in 2001
 Described as the future of
transport and an innovation on
par with PCs and the Internet
 Solution to a non-existent
problem, i.e. towns and cities
designed for cars and
pedestrians and no space for
new types of vehicle
 Did not take into account
regulations – In UK not allowed
on pavements and not allowed
on roads
 Fine as a novel sight seeing
resource in Prague or Berlin!
Some Ideas Do Not Work – Windows Vista
 Launched by Microsoft in 2007 as a
replacement to Windows XP
 Highest market share gained was
19% compared to 75% for XP
 Problems included:
• Only 5% of computers sold could operate
•
•
•
•
all features
File transfer was slower in Vista than
previous operating systems
Most home and business software was
incompatible with Vista
High price outside the USA
Oh! And it messed up our home PC!
Fluor’s experience with software
 Do not change if it currently works
 No matter how much you test, some old and favoured
software will not work on the new system
 Sometimes the momentum of new software will force you to
change your operating system
 Do not try and create your ideal new software from scratch
 Neil Downie’s 1st Law of Innovation – Copy (modify/enhance)
when you can, innovate when you can’t
Some Ideas Do Not Work – Sinclair C5
 Battery assisted tricycle allowing
the C5 to be operated without
using the pedals
 Sold approx. 17,000 units making
the C5 “the best selling electric
vehicle” until 2011
 A number of design flaws:
• Cold weather shortened the battery
life
• Driver exposed to adverse weather
• Could not climb hills as the motor
was not powerful enough and
overheated easily
 Declared unsafe by the Department
of Transport
Your Role in Innovation
 Fresh and New to Situations
 Your first employer will be looking to you – challenge the paradigm
 Able to challenge ideas and conventions before becoming
“Stuck in your (Company) ways”
 Always be positive, use phrases like:
• “It might work because…”
• “Let me add something to your idea”
 Suspend Critical Judgement – The part of you saying …..
“It Won’t Work”
 Consider there may be more than one good way of completing a task
 Allow ideas to develop – Innovation is rarely perfect so add to, shape
and alter ideas
 “The Important Thing is to Never Stop Asking Questions”
Albert Einstein
Aims of the Royal Institution
Be Inspired (courtesy
of Prof Brian Cox)
 Royal charter 1800
 Diffuse knowledge
 Create inventions and
improvements
 Apply Science (Engineering) to
the common purposes of life
 We are Engineers, we are
empowered to be creative and
do good things!
Graduate Recruitment Process
 Farnborough workforce looking to double in size;
 Requirement for suitably qualified staff at all levels;
 www.fluor.com/careers
 Graduate Assessment Day