Knowledge Management Strategies for Mitigating the Big Crew - Wipro

Knowledge Management Strategies for mitigating the Big Crew Change in E&P
Successfully finding and producing oil requires a team of highly trained and experienced engineers. In most oil companies the
average age of an engineer is 48; 50% will be retiring within 10 years. Unfortunately, there are no replacements for these
retirees and companies will experience decreased production levels, reduced profitability and an increase in accident rates.
While new college graduates will fill some of the gaps, there are neither enough of these personnel nor do they have the
necessary skills. Wipro believes the best way to address this issue is with knowledge communities that keep retirees available as
consultants and with professional networking technologies that improve collaboration.
Executive Summary
The Oil and Gas Industry will be facing an enormous challenge over the next decade, when nearly 50% of its workforce will be
eligible for retirement. When these employees leave they will be taking their experience and institutional knowledge with them.
Exploration and Production (E&P) will be particularly hard hit because of its reliance on world class engineering talent. The most
successful engineers are those who have 20 years of experience or more. Finding and producing oil is a combination of instinct
and science. While the science can be taught in universities, instincts come from experience. To make matters worse, there are
few mid-career engineers in the pipeline to replace the seasoned veterans. Depressed oil prices in the 1980s and 1990s
significantly decreased the number of engineers entering the industry. While the number of new engineers is increasing, there
will not be enough of them to replace those who are leaving. Even if quantities were sufficient, their lack of experience would
make them largely ineffective.
The impact on the industry will be enormous. As the world economy grows, demand for fossil fuels increases. At the same time,
the world’s “easy” oil has already been found. The remaining oil is located is small, engineering-intensive fields, in depleted oil
fields requiring enhanced recovery, and in deep water. Getting at these hydrocarbons will require the most talented engineers
with decades of experience. These are the same people who are leaving the industry.
The demographics of the labor market have also changed. While there is a large deficit of engineering talent in North America
and the Middle East, there is a surplus of talent in China and India. If oil and gas companies are going to remain competitive,
they are going to have to find a way to tap into this labor pool.
Wipro, in conjunction with Microsoft and Rice University, has studied this challenge extensively and believes that a combination
of new business processes and supporting technologies can partially mitigate the impact of the “Big Crew Change”. Wipro’s
solution is to develop knowledge communities that include on-duty, off-duty, Center of Excellence alumni association
consultants and partners/vendors. New collaborative and communications technologies will allow this group to function in a
virtual environment. One of the key innovations for this solution is the knowledge market where off-duty and retired employees
can work as consultants to solve problems and support projects.
Wipro’s solution is based on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 platform and includes Microsoft’s Unified
Communications Product suite. The technical solution will support the knowledge communities with intranet and extranet
portals and real-time communications. The system will integrate into existing knowledge management, asset management,
condition-based maintenance, SCADA1 monitoring, troubleshooting and ERP2 systems. Professional networking technologies
will link assets to processes to people. Powerful search engines will allow the user community to quickly locate information and
more importantly, the people who have the information. Mobile communications devices based on Smartphones will make it
possible for off-duty and retired employees to be on-call without interfering with their personal time.
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