Maersk Drilling’s Bold Steps Towards Digitalisation as Innovation Leaders

Maersk Drilling are fast becoming recognised as industry leaders when it comes to innovation. By combining technology, they have developed smarter solutions to transform operations and unlock potential efficiencies within their sector. Their use of initiatives such as the ‘innovation villa,’ encourages employees to be creative and allows invaluable feedback from customers to ensure they are meeting their goals. Digital Architect, Fredrik Tukk, discusses the company’s bold steps towards digitalisation and how it paves the way for a bright future.

1.      Tell me more about ‘smarter drilling for better value,’ by combining technology?

At Maersk Drilling we are taking bold steps to help our customers achieve their goals through what we call Smarter Drilling for Better Value. This means continuing to deliver the operational excellence that we are known for while pairing innovative technologies with new business models to create value for our customers. To enable smarter drilling for better value, we are transforming our business. We are building on our strong values and adopting new ways of working to become more agile and customer-centric. Maersk Drilling has a track-record of consistently strong operational, safety and financial performance. Through Smarter Drilling for Better Value, we are lowering the cost and risk of offshore projects for our customers and shaping the future of offshore drilling.

2.      In what ways are Maersk Drilling using digitalisation to improve efficiencies in the industry?

The inefficiency in the industry, where non-productive time can be as high as 20-25% across all service delivered on a well and it can take over 60 suppliers and 6,000 invoices to drill an offshore well, digital solutions will have a high impact on making us more efficient. We are working with both specific solutions, like Well Simulation Automation and Fuel Efficiency, as well as solutions which are applicable across all industries, like Big Data, Mobility and IoT. We have applied digital technology to a wide spectrum of challenges, both on- and offshore, where we see an opportunity to improve processes.

3.      Can you tell us about the innovation villa project and the benefits of something like this?

The industry value chain landscape is evolving and technology advancement – epitomised by digitalisation – is challenging status quo. Maersk Drilling has recognised a need to become more agile and innovative with a much faster time-to-market of new ideas and initiatives. In August 2017 Maersk Drilling set together a digital innovation team in a start-up setting and relocated outside the HQ in an old villa across the street to build, launch and commercialise minimum viable digital products through accelerated and agile development with early involvement of partners and customers in a digital eco-system. We took an agile approach and are working in a fail fast approach, where ideas that doesn´t fly gets killed and others get customised according to early feedback received from customers and end users. We are also working in close co-operation with several of our customers on specific projects and co-create the best solutions. We also build up a community where we reach out to other communities, academia, start-ups and others to seek co-creation and partnerships on equal terms – without having all the answers or knowing exactly where it should take us.

4.      Are there any other projects or initiatives that you are using to promote innovation?

We have applied the same approach when we developed our new business models where three new models was developed in a matter of days and then presented in a dragons-den setting to some of our customers where they provided instant feedback which was then used to develop the models even further. The agile approach has also proved its value when it comes to speed in innovation and it has now been adapted by a broader audience in Maersk Drilling outside of the Villa.

5.      What product offerings or technology have you experienced recently that excites you and we should look out for?

We are in constant dialogue and trials with front-runners on the development of Artificial Intelligence where we are looking into human behaviour and decision making to see how we can utilise this technology to improve safety and operations. Sharing of data across the industry to make us all more efficient is also an area we are putting resources into, there are still mature days for the industry when it comes to capturing, analysing and utilising the huge amounts of data that we are generating and understanding how it can bring us to the next level

6.      How can companies collaborate when it comes to innovation and developing new technology?

All too often in this industry we have had a view that innovation is all about technology, Maersk Drilling are pursuing two types of innovation in tandem: We’re pursuing technology and commercial innovation. Key steps is sharing of data across the supply chain to make all of us safer and more efficient. Co-creation across the value chain will also have huge impact, design thinking will be in more focus to create the right solutions with highest value. We should also think bigger and don´t hesitate to launch 10X-projects where we think not one but 10 steps ahead that will leap us into the future.

7.      What challenges does the industry face when it comes to digital adoption?

The industry faces both structural challenges where we over long time have build up assets, supply-chains and business models that doesn´t enable change easily, we are still using day-rate models, there are lots of SILO-thinking and the high tech assets in the industry – but data is not utilised to drive the changes.

8.      When looking at the future of oil and gas, what opportunities are there for further adoption of digitalisation and new technology?

There is huge potential for utilising new and ever evolving technologies to increase safety, operations and efficiency. Through Smarter Drilling for Better Value, we are pursuing commercial and technology innovation to lower the cost and risk of offshore projects for our customers and ensure that offshore oil and gas has a competitive position for decades to come. The companies that adopt this approach and dare to try it out will be the winners of tomorrow.