An interview with Melody (Gaojing) Cao, product manager for OptiSite solutions

Could you walk us through your career and what led you to the development of OptiSite™ solutions and your current role?

My career has always been driven by a passion for solving complex challenges and seeing projects through from concept to reality. Starting as a design engineer in petrochemical and chemical plants, I moved into construction and operations to implement my designs, deepening my drive to make a practical impact. I’ve worked across China, the Middle East, and Australia, always seeking ways to improve the industry.

In Kuwait, I worked on pipelines, while in Australia I collaborated with Woodside on both offshore and onshore assets. Joining SLB, I started linking operations with subsurface teams, bringing new fields into production efficiently. This experience across the value chain solidified my commitment to continuous improvement.

My interest in digital was sparked during a project in Yanbei, China, where I saw how advanced control systems generated massive amounts of data, but extracting value was slow; just the kind of complex challenge I love to solve. I saw the answer lay in digital solutions and connected with experts in that, motivated by the potential to use this technology to make operations more effective and impactful.
 

When did this digital journey begin?

That was in 2018. We achieved first gas at Yanbei that year, the digital solution had come through, and I was hooked. In 2019, after moving to London, I had more opportunities to connect with digital professionals. I started by developing a solution to predict compressor failures, using data analytics. We published a paper on this at ADIPEC in 2021. This journey into digital, combined with my operational background, led to conversations with about developing a more comprehensive digital solution for asset performance.
 

Which then led you to the OptiSite solutions?

Yes, exactly. When I became Product Manager for asset performance, the OptiSite solutions were in their infancy, they weren’t even called ‘OptiSite’ yet. But we knew what we wanted to achieve, the goal was to address four major industry challenges:

1. Integrating data to solve customer data challenges.
2. Complimentary to traditional DCS/SCADA systems, which lack predictive capabilities, to prevent unexpected equipment failures.
3. Addressing the issue of aging assets, as the industry is reluctant to build new ones.
4. Helping customers maintain performance, meet production goals, and comply with stricter emissions regulations.

The mandate for the suite of solutions that became known as OptiSite solutions was to solve each of these problems, focusing on practical outcomes like increasing production, reducing risk, and lowering operational expenses.
 

Could you describe what the OptiSite solutions are and what they do?

OptiSite solutions are designed to address process optimization, equipment failure, and integrity issues, and to integrate third-party or customer workflows. They are a suite of open applications, and they are modular; you don’t need to deploy all of them. This is important because it’s like building with Lego bricks—you can start small and add features as needed—customers enhance their existing system instead of replacing it; OptiSite solutions help them maximize value from what they already have.
 

Was OptiSite solutions built from SLB’s existing equipment and pipeline simulation tools?

OptiSite solutions are new, but they build on SLB’s existing strengths. As the question suggests, SLB already offers strong reservoir and pipeline simulation products: Olga™ dynamic multiphase flow simulator, Pipesim™ steady-state multiphase flow simulator, Symmetry™ process simulation software, as well as operational software. However, we didn’t have a way to integrate the components of these for production and facilities management. That’s where OptiSite solutions comes in, we have leveraged SLB’s expertise and resources to create something unique. In asset health and reliability, we predict failures, provide root cause analysis, estimate remaining useful life, and support pipeline integrity and leak prediction. The solutions offer 24/7 insights so customers can take proactive actions.
 

It’s rare that everything goes to plan on a project of this size, what challenges did you face during the development of OptiSite solutions?

The biggest challenge was mindset. Technical teams often want to develop the most advanced solutions solving the most complex issue , but in reality, field operations need practical, cost-effective tools to solve fundamental problems—a quick way to address customer pain points. So, when I joined, I noticed an opportunity to use technology to solve specific customer challenges. It took a little bit of persuasion, but I was eventually able to get the team onside and we shifted our approach—solving customer needs with practical solutions became our rule, it was how we judged any new idea; does it make a clear and positive difference to the customer in a cost-effective way? Yes, it goes in. No, we drop it. This ensured solutions that carry the name ‘OptiSite’ are built to create immediate value and long-term ROI for customers. We ended up with solutions to the four key challenges I outlined earlier: Data integration, event prediction, potential root cause analysis, and asset optimization.
 

What has been the response from customers?

Positive, we’ve already deployed OptiSite solutions to several customers, including a partnership with major Houston-based operator, a major NOC in MENA, an independent offshore operator, and an on-shore operator in South America. We’ve also recently announced a digital alliance with SBM. Their plans are to use OptiSite solutions as a software development platform to develop workflows and solutions across all their Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO). Other collaboration and alliance opportunities based around OptiSite solutions are also on the horizon.
 

What are the most compelling points of feedback from the customers using OptiSite solutions?

Customers appreciate having everything in one place, with insights tailored to different roles, from executives to engineers. We’re delivering what we said we would—maintenance and performance insights ahead of time. We’ve predicted events before they occurred, allowing proactive action, customers are very pleased to have that ability.

Scalability is also a key differentiator. Customers praise our sleek, user-friendly interface and the ability to integrate diverse solutions into a single platform. OptiSite solutions are agnostic to simulators and can integrate various solutions and workflows, so this saves customers a lot of time and money—much less effort is involved in creating the solution they need. Generative AI is also focal point, it’s being used on operational use cases, such as reliability agents and production assistants that monitor equipment, generate reports, and automate work orders. In general, it’s all about speed and need—customers love that the system is highly configurable, scalable, and delivers results much faster than competitors—often within 10 weeks, compared to 18 months elsewhere.
 

How do you deploy it so fast?

By democratizing the deployment process and developing tools that don’t require specialized skills, we empower customers to configure and deploy solutions themselves. Our goal is to make deployment as simple as using Word or Office—powerful, yet accessible to everyone.
 

Can you explain what digital twins are and how they optimize operations?

Generally, digital twins include simulation models, equipment twins (monitoring components like compressors), and pipeline twins (tracking integrity and operations). The user sees numbers, charts, and simulation comparisons, enabling “what if” analyses and scenario planning. But the term ‘digital twin’ means different things to different people. For a process engineer, it might be a simulation model; for a mechanical engineer, it’s a virtual representation of equipment; for a reservoir engineer, it’s a reservoir simulation. We’ve used OptiSite solutions to clarify what digital twin means for each customer. Then we help them distill what problem they want to solve and propose the fit-for-purpose solution to help them to achieve their business goals.
 

What does the future hold for digital production technologies? What might an engineer’s day look like in 2030?

When I was a child, we had to harvest wheat by hand. During the harvest season, we only had about one to two weeks to complete everything, that meant just two to three days on each plot. We would hand-cut all the wheat, bundle it together, and only use a machine to separate the seeds. After that, we spread the seeds out in a large yard to dry, and finally packed them into bags manually.

Nowadays, it’s completely different—one person with a modern machine can harvest acres and acres of wheat automatically and send it straight to bags or even directly to the manufacturer for sale. Just as farming has transformed over time from hard manual labor to automation, production operations will become more streamlined and efficient, allowing people to focus on higher-value activities. Rather than spending time gathering and analyzing data, engineers will start their day with prioritized insights and recommendations. Tela™ agentic-AI assistant will run simulations, optimize parameters, and automate routine tasks. I would say that by 2030, predictive maintenance will lead to vast increases in reliability, and operational efficiency; unexpected shutdowns will be very rare, possibly a thing of the past. Safety will be much improved, far fewer people will be working in dangerous environments and for those that do, the danger will be minimal. This will free up the production engineer’s time for thinking—there’s will be a role of innovation and strategic planning. The value to customers will be consistent high-level operations, maximized revenue, reduced costs, and enhanced safety.

I can imagine that people's lives will be very different. For me, I'm proud to be part of the journey and to contribute toward meaningful change.