LEARNINGS FROM IMPLEMENTING A MANAGEMENT SYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (RD): A CASE STUDY ON IMPLEMENTING STRUCTURED PROCESSES

摘要

Enbridge Pipelines believes that a strong research and development (R&D) program is critical to ensure leading-edge safety and operational practices. As such, the Pipeline Integrity Department has launched an initiative to clearly identify, develop, and manage processes and practices to improve the transfer of knowledge from its R&D program to key operational challenges. The Integrity Solutions group within the Pipeline Integrity Department supports the R&D program from idea generation to operationalization (including knowledge integration) into existing programs. This approach begins with scanning the horizon to enable future opportunity areas and challenges to be captured through facilitation of "blue sky sessions". Technology roadmaps are developed for each major threat category and used to prioritize R&D projects. Project execution is managed from project proposal to close-out through a stage-gate style process that allows the department to plan, organize, and execute projects that directly link to integrity-related threats. The final stage is operationalization, where R&D knowledge is transferred into pipeline operation practices and project execution lessons learned are captured and addressed. Through execution of the overall process supporting multi-year initiatives, Pipeline Integrity has gained experience and insight into specific strategies and tactics that are effective in overcoming the barriers presented in a well-managed R&D Program. This insight will be shared as a summary of a successful and practical management system approach to R&D initiatives. This paper describes the Management System approach: 1. Requirements: expectations and requirements for managing R&D. 2. Design: developing the system. 3. Implementation: deployment of the system. 4. Performance: data collection and reporting. 5. Continuous Improvement: analysis of results and lessons learned, including next steps.