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Use case
The Challenge
The Main Air Blower is critical to the coker unit. If it fails, the plant shuts down. Startups are rare and usually follow disruptive events, making it difficult to define what 'normal' looks like. The most recent startup occurred after a hurricane, creating an opportunity to analyze performance.
Without a reference profile, future startups carried uncertainty and operational risk.
- Critical equipment with shutdown risk
- Infrequent startup events
- No defined benchmark for ideal startup
- High operational consequence if performance degrades
The Approach
Engineers leveraged similarity search and historical data comparison to establish a reference startup profile.
- Event selection: The latest startup was used as a reference case
- Similarity search: Historical data across multiple years was scanned for comparable startup patterns
- Comparative overlay: The only comparable startup period was identified and overlaid
- Golden fingerprint creation: The two aligned startup periods were used to define a reference profile for future comparison
Key Insight
The rarity of similar events confirmed stable performance, while the fingerprint created a clear benchmark for future startups.
Results
The Takeaway
By converting rare startup events into a measurable fingerprint, the team established a reusable benchmark, reducing risk during future startups and strengthening reliability management of critical equipment.
The Challenge
The Main Air Blower is critical to the coker unit. If it fails, the plant shuts down. Startups are rare and usually follow disruptive events, making it difficult to define what 'normal' looks like. The most recent startup occurred after a hurricane, creating an opportunity to analyze performance.
Without a reference profile, future startups carried uncertainty and operational risk.
- Critical equipment with shutdown risk
- Infrequent startup events
- No defined benchmark for ideal startup
- High operational consequence if performance degrades
The Approach
Engineers leveraged similarity search and historical data comparison to establish a reference startup profile.
- Event selection: The latest startup was used as a reference case
- Similarity search: Historical data across multiple years was scanned for comparable startup patterns
- Comparative overlay: The only comparable startup period was identified and overlaid
- Golden fingerprint creation: The two aligned startup periods were used to define a reference profile for future comparison
Key Insight
The rarity of similar events confirmed stable performance, while the fingerprint created a clear benchmark for future startups.
Results
The Takeaway
By converting rare startup events into a measurable fingerprint, the team established a reusable benchmark, reducing risk during future startups and strengthening reliability management of critical equipment.
Access now
Share with a co-worker
The Challenge
The Main Air Blower is critical to the coker unit. If it fails, the plant shuts down. Startups are rare and usually follow disruptive events, making it difficult to define what 'normal' looks like. The most recent startup occurred after a hurricane, creating an opportunity to analyze performance.
Without a reference profile, future startups carried uncertainty and operational risk.
- Critical equipment with shutdown risk
- Infrequent startup events
- No defined benchmark for ideal startup
- High operational consequence if performance degrades
The Approach
Engineers leveraged similarity search and historical data comparison to establish a reference startup profile.
- Event selection: The latest startup was used as a reference case
- Similarity search: Historical data across multiple years was scanned for comparable startup patterns
- Comparative overlay: The only comparable startup period was identified and overlaid
- Golden fingerprint creation: The two aligned startup periods were used to define a reference profile for future comparison
Key Insight
The rarity of similar events confirmed stable performance, while the fingerprint created a clear benchmark for future startups.
Results
The Takeaway
By converting rare startup events into a measurable fingerprint, the team established a reusable benchmark, reducing risk during future startups and strengthening reliability management of critical equipment.
Access now
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