Westernacher Utilities Case Study:
OCC - Operation Control Cockpit
Utilities
The Customer
As a medium-sized German power generator, Mark-E supplies about 6.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year to over 230,000 retail
and business customers, 1,800 industry customers, and several energy retailers. Mark-E possesses power plants with an installed generating
capacity of over 1,000 megawatts. In 2005 overall sales totaled about €617m.
The Task
Mark-E formed a cooperation with another power generator for a
joint investment in a new 800 MW gas-steam power plant. Within
this cooperation Mark-E has the responsibility for plant operation.
A plant operation contract between the cooperation partners also
stipulates commercial rules for accounting and billing of the plant
operation costs.
As a consequence, Mark-E needed an efficient software application
that integrates the technical and commercial information management of the plant operation process.
The new application had to provide a user-friendly yet comprehensive interface to ensure consistent use by frontline personnel with
technically oriented operations backgrounds. The functionality of
the application had to reflect the plant operation process with its
defined roles representing specific responsibilities and authorizations. The technical solution had to be seamlessly integrated into
the existing SAP ERP system landscape.
© Westernacher Consulting AG. All Rights Reserved. | www.westernacher.com
The Solution:
OCC - Operation Control Cockpit
Westernacher has developed the
Operation Control Cockpit (OCC) as a
SAP/JAVA Web-Application that can be
adjusted specifically for the implementation of individual plant management
processes.
Westernacher Utilities Case Study:
OCC - Operation Control Cockpit
OCC Highlights
The Operation Control Cockpit (OCC) is a SAP/JAVA Web-Application that can be adjusted specifically for the implementation of
your plant management process:
••
The daily plant management business is represented in a
transparent order management.
••
The OCC, with its standardized interface architecture, meets
the requirement for a seamless integration of the new application into the existing SAP ERP environment
••
The technical structure of a power plant (incorporating the
KKS-System) serves as the master of the order management
explorer structure.
••
Processing of OCC orders is represented in a roleandstatusbased register control.
••
Actual costs and purchase commitments can be evaluated
in detail to monitor cost allocation within the plant and control budgets for projects and/or technical departments.
The daily plant management process is represented in OCC
by a transparent list of orders. Various order types can be
differentiated, e.g. trouble shooting, maintenance and special projects related to plant revisions and investments.
Order type specific processing and related responsibilities
of various departments are captured and taken into account. The function of plant management is given a clear
structure according to technical and/or organizational
requirements.
For Mark-E the technical structure of their power plants
(partially based on the KKS system) served as the model for
the explorer-navigation orientation in OCC’s order management process. Based on a reorganization that included the
implementation of an internal client and contractor relationship between the departments for plant operation and
plant services, Mark-E developed an overall model for the
plant management process.
Since the OCC web front-end incorporates the internal
organization structure and process-specific technical language all of which is familiar to operations personnel, the
system is intuitive to use. OCC obviates the need to use the
complex SAP standard user interface. This increases user acceptance and thus ensures the quality of the collected data.
The modular design of the OCC control logic facilitates flexible adjustments to changes within the business processes.
With respect to state regulations and/or cooperation
contracts for plant management, the OCC supplies detailed,
structured and traceable invoicing data.
With its integrated functionality the Operation Control
Cockpit is the core application for Mark-E´s daily business
of plant management. Approximately 150 employees on
three different sites rely on OCC to help organize plant
maintenance. So far 10 small- and medium-sized power generation plants with an overall installed capacity of 1,000
MW are incorporated in the OCC. The additional 800 MW
gas-steam power plant that triggered the OCC development
project has been in operation since mid-2007.
Westernacher Utilities Case Study:
OCC - Operation Control Cockpit
SAP Backend
•• To represent the complex technical structures of a power
plant in a hierarchical Explorer-like structure, the OCC
Backend uses the functionality of the SAP Project System
(PS).
•• The integrated link to the SAP modules MM and FI enables
the user to dispose order related resources within the OCC
web front-end.
•• Further processing of listed evaluation results (ongoing
selection/filtering, drill-down, etc.) is supported by SAP
List Viewer functionality.
•• Actual costs and purchase commitments can be
evaluated in detail to monitor cost allocation. Evaluation
results can also be used as reference for expenditure
based invoicing via the SAP SD module.
•• For internal management accounting and reporting purposes, the Operation Control Cockpit also provides required
connection to the SAP CO module.
•• Through transaction links to SAP standard reports, the
OCC provides comfortable evaluation functionalities for
plant operation costs.
Westernacher & Partner Consulting Limited
3rd Floor | 14 Hanover St. | Hanover Square | London W1S 1YH | United Kingdom
Phone: +44 870 383 0272 | Fax: +44 870 383 6272
Westernacher Business Management Consulting AG
Im Schuhmachergewann 6 | 69123 Heidelberg | Germany
Phone: +49 6221 187 62- 0 | Fax: +49 6221 187 62 - 11
E-Mail: info@westernacher.com | www.westernacher.com
© Westernacher Consulting AG. All Rights Reserved.
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acher.co
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