Top 5 Ways Production Foremen Cut the Chaos with JOYN

No one will argue when we say that the Production Foreman’s job is chaotic. Their responsibilities are vast and numerous and fraught with data and field issues that affect oil production downtime.

Every day for the Production Foreman is different based on the high priority issues from the previous day. S/he reports on production issues and root causes from the previous day. Maintenance and unplanned work are scheduled and communicated to the Field Operators or Lease Operators. Completed work is reported and the day’s production calculated. All of this while at the same time responding to production alarms (a necessary distraction) and chasing downfield status metrics. And it starts all over again the next day.

It’s simply a huge expectation that the Foreman will have control over production with insights into all field issues, while at the same time being able to develop and execute a plan to resolve oil production downtime and explain all of this to the higher-ups. The job is the definition of chaos.

So, the question remains: How can the production Foreman cut through the chaos?

Thankfully we’ve just kicked off a new webinar series that addresses this question for not only the Foreman but other members of the team as well. In the first webinar of the series, we invited Production Superintendent Toby Holland from Empire Petroleum, and Production Superintendent Bobby Boyd from Forge Energy to comment on the challenges they faced before implementing the JOYN system, and their experiences during and after the system go-live.

Through this live discussion we’ve assembled the Top 5 Ways Production Foremen Cut the Chaos with JOYN:

1. Fight Fewer Fires

   Production Foremen are so busy fighting everyday fires that they struggle to report on production and stay ahead of the day-to-day challenges while assigning the work that will have the biggest impact. Assigning the wrong work leads to production issues. Using JOYN, all data sources are connected, creating a single pane of glass through which the Production Foreman can see everything in one place, and process it in minutes.

Bobby Boyd, Production Foreman for Forge Energy explains:

“We had acquired a property and it was a pretty sizeable property, predominantly gas-led. It had a large and rather complex gas network… and the legacy system that we had been using for the past several years was a little too rigid in how we could configure our allocations. So we ran into issues where we couldn’t account properly for produced gas, cells gas, and lease use, and we were having to do it outside of our production system which resulted in a lot of errors, and a lot of time spent trying to put together as accurate as possible information that we needed… we came to the realization that we needed to start shopping around for something different… and JOYN had the best value for the dollar.”

2. Create Easy Field Communications

   Communicating with the field relies on calls, emails, and text messages to deliver the work to each individual Lease Operator. The process is so time consuming that it shrinks the field maintenance window, potentially affecting production. JOYN provides the intelligence to recommend the right work, order, and route, streamlining the process of work prioritization. Boom! No more phone calls, texts, and emails to coordinate. This reduces the field operator’s workload to re-enter data by 2-3 hours per day, translating to 10-15 hours a week that Field Operators can put back into productivity in the field.

According to Mr. Holland from Empire Petroleum:

“It has saved a lot of time. Our area is over 40 square miles, we have over 700 plus wells, and we have only 6 guys on at a time to do [the work]. With that being said, they’ve got more time to work on stuff because they’re entering data as they go, instead of trying to get through the day, get back to the office, open their computer up, enter their production, and in the end, go back to the field to work on issues. They can work on the issues as they go. When they get back to the office, they’re done…and they’re a lot happier.”

3. Standardize metrics collection

   Readings and metrics are generally collected on non-standard paper “grease sheets” and status updates are captured differently by each Field Operator. Data is collected at different levels of detail, making it hard to see trends across the field team and wells. This can consume up to 3 hours a day in the field, and another several hours to re-enter the data online at the end of the day. What a waste of time. Using JOYN’s mobile app, data capture is standardized and implemented consistently across all Field Operators. The Production Foreman gains hours back in the day without having to re-enter the data.

4. Achieve executive clarity

   The lack of standards in the field makes it very difficult to provide answers to operations and executives and slows Field Operators, which compounds the production targets day-over-day. The delay in data from the field slows the creation of the Daily Production Report (DPR), which the Production Foreman creates manually to update executives. Forget all of that. JOYN easily integrates data from SCADA systems, revenue management, and reporting solutions.

5. Get measurable returns

   Streamlined processes enable the Production Foreman to manage twice the number of Field Operators reducing the production overhead cost. As field operations improve over time it’s possible to improve the cash flow by upwards of $50M, as one of JOYN’s Oil & Gas customers in Midland has done.

To learn more about how to streamline, synchronize and save by enabling your Production Foremen with JOYN Oil & Gas Production solution, watch the recorded webinar today.