Integration of CAD/BIM with SAP for a Midstream Gas Processing Plant
Project Summary A leading oil and gas company was tasked with developing a new gas processing plant. The engineering team relied heavily on off-the-shelf AutoCAD Plant 3D solu...
Project Summary
A leading oil and gas company was tasked with developing a new gas processing plant. The engineering team relied heavily on off-the-shelf AutoCAD Plant 3D solutions for design, while the operations and procurement teams used SAP S/4HANA for asset and material management. Disjointed systems led to inefficiencies, duplicated data, and costly delays. To address this, the InStandart team implemented a CAD-SAP integration solution that ensured seamless data flow between engineering and enterprise systems.
Business Challenges
The project faced several critical challenges:
- Data Silos: Engineering data (equipment specs, P&IDs, BoMs) resided in CAD/BIM tools, while procurement and maintenance data were managed in SAP.
- Manual Entry & Errors: Engineering Bill of Materials (EBoM) had to be re-entered into SAP manually, leading to error rates of 15% and lost time.
- Lack of Real-Time Visibility: Project managers lacked visibility into material availability and procurement status during design and construction phases.
- Delayed Handover: Asset handover from engineering to operations was delayed by 6+ weeks due to formatting and compliance issues.
Solution
Our company developed and implemented a custom CAD/BIM–SAP integration platform that included:
- Bi-directional Data Sync: Automatic extraction and synchronization of BoMs, equipment IDs, and asset metadata between AutoCAD Plant 3D and SAP S/4HANA.
- Mapping Engine: A rules-based mapping engine to convert CAD elements into SAP-compliant material master data and equipment records.
- Automated Validation: Built-in checks ensured that data met SAP formatting, naming, and categorization standards before transfer.
- Live Dashboards: Real-time tracking of design progress, procurement status, and asset readiness across both systems.
Results
The integration delivered measurable improvements:
| Metric | Before Integration | After Integration |
| BoM Data Entry Time | ~4 hours per package | < 15 minutes |
| Manual Data Errors | ~15% | < 2% |
| Engineering–Procurement Handover | 6+ weeks | 1 week |
| Asset Registration in SAP | ~10 days/project | Same-day registration |
| Total Engineering Hours Saved | N/A | ~1,200 hours/year |
Additional benefits:
- Improved collaboration between engineering and operations.
- Reduced procurement delays by 25% due to faster material planning.
- Seamless digital handover at commissioning phase.
- Enhanced traceability for audits and compliance.
