Bazan is Israel’s biggest oil refinery. It also rates as one of the first refineries worldwide to successfully implement advanced AI solutions to support its maintenance and reliability teams. In recognition of this drive for innovation, Augury raised a toast to those behind this Machine Health success story.
Beginning with a pilot program in 2021, Bazan Group installed Augury sensors on nearly 100 machines. Within six months, they saw a fourfold ROI just in terms of savings on repairs. If one factored in the much larger savings related to avoided downtime, the numbers would be even more impressive.
This sort of success is not just a testament to Augury’s technology. After all: it takes two to tango. And for that reason, Augury wanted to honor Bazan’s maintenance and reliability teams with trophies and a toast.
Better Together: Celebrating Champions
It was Itzik Gabay, Augury’s Enterprise Customer Success Manager for Israel, who came up with the idea of handing out a trophy to key players at Bazan. While brainstorming on how he could reward his most excellent customers, his eyes fell on his tennis trophies displayed behind his desk.
“I consider the tennis court my psychologist. It’s where I can clear my head. I love the sport because you depend on yourself. If I lose, it’s because of me. And if I win, the credit is mine. And when you avoid machine downtime, the credit should go to those who are working on the frontlines dealing with the situation: the maintenance and reliability teams. They are not only helping their company be better and smarter, but an entire industry.”
The Secrets Of Bazan’s Success…
1) Going beyond the call of duty
“There are a lot of reasons why I think they’re champions,” says Itzik. “For example, they take our notifications and alerts seriously – and implement the recommendations immediately. Within months, they reached the state where all the machines are either green or light green, which means everything is okay. That’s an incredible achievement. But they are also providing their own input: observations, repairs, IOT issues. This information helps us make our algorithms smarter.”
“They are dedicated and innovative users: hands-on and proactive,” adds Augury’s Director of Advanced Innovation, Amir Bahalul. “They help us improve our service level and quality. For us at the CTO office, the input from the Bazan team about their additional needs, helps us decide which technologies we should further expand and develop. And in some cases, we even test it together with them in the field.”
2) Company-wide support
Bazan began their drive for innovation in 2018 with the launch of BNNovation, an initiative to help “promote technology ecosystems” – with Augury included – in the fields of energy, renewable energy, and industry. “And while they only started fairly recently, they’ve really come a long way,” says Amir. “The leaders of the maintenance and reliability teams are certainly very innovative and are backed by the awareness and willingness by those working on the floor. But they’re also actively backed on the corporate level by not only the head of innovation but also the business units managers and even the CEO.”
3) Rising above risk
“Oil refineries are risky places,” observes Amir. “So, they need to be conservative by necessity. You need approvals for everything, and it takes time to move. So naturally, pushing through change is challenging. But they have the passion and dedication to come up with creative solutions and still find ways to innovate.
4) In for the long haul: onward and upward
With the successful pilot complete and further expansion in place, the cooperation is only set to grow. “Bazan’s wins are now setting the technological standards of the oil and gas industry,” notes Amir. “And as our collaboration continues to naturally expand and we continue to learn and develop, we will be able to play this forward to the rest of the industrial world.”
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