The oil and gas industry is heavily reliant on physical assets. Businesses own or lease various equipment such as drill through equipment, tubulars, mud systems and derricks to name a few.
Business success depends on good asset management and inspection software which includes making sure the equipment is in good operating condition and the inspection data is accurate.
A key part of asset management is routine inspections. Routine asset inspections will help you catch defects and potential hazards before they become problems and ensure that everything runs smoothly. The beauty of it is that they are not a one-for-all solution. There are custom inspection forms that can be used to suit your needs.
These inspections play an important role in keeping your Total Cost of Ownership down by moving the focus to preventive maintenance rather than reactive maintenance.
This in turn helps to reduce the Non-Productive Time (NPT), as maintenance is scheduled rather than having it forced onto the schedule.
Many organisations ignore the importance of preventive maintenance and risk management. Ensuring you inspect equipment regularly and take preventive measures on either your property inspections or onsite inspections will save you many unnecessary costs.
Read more 8 Best Practices for Documenting NIOSH Compliant Rig Inspections
But not all inspection management systems are equal. Asset managers know that spreadsheet-based systems for inspection and managing the operating condition of your assets can take a huge amount of time and effort.
Your inspections not having the up-to-date version of the inspection process, can lead to incomplete and inconsistent inspection methods, especially when inspections are performed by third party inspection services.
Important and actionable data may be never collected or left to gather dust in some remote office in-tray.
Manually recording observation notes and then transcribing the information into a spreadsheet or database, is both massively time consuming and inefficient, you are doing the data input twice. And that is assuming that the inspector is not relying on their memory for notes.
Once onto the notepad and then into the spreadsheet or database - this method leaves the door wide-open to human error and omissions.
Inspection software for asset management provides many benefits over the traditionally used spreadsheet-based methods – the number one benefit? It streamlines all the tasks related to scheduling, checking, inspecting, recording and tracking documents.
Inspection software allows you to continuously improve the asset inspection process, which in turn improves rig safety and puts the actionable data in front of the right people, at the right time.
Read How to create an Oil and Gas Walkthrough Inspection Checklist
Here are 3 benefits of using inspection software for asset management.
Improve Safety and Compliance
Asset inspections play an important role in overall rig safety. Without these routine inspections, critical systems may fail, which can cause several safety issues for both your rig workers and the environment.
- Using inspection software can assure compliance with industry standards, such as those of the American Petroleum Institute, your company policies and procedures.
- Inspection software means all routine inspections are conducted the same way every time, this can help in catching defects and problems before they become liabilities.
- Inspections and tests are monitored in real time, which can alert you to any changes in your assets, which will allow you to take preventative action at the right time.
- Being cloud based eliminates the number of versions across the organisation and logs every inspection performed on the asset. This will help with safety compliance during any audits or renewal of asset insurance.
Developing predictable and consistent inspection processes and standards, will help you prioritize safety without becoming a disruption to daily operations.
Save time, work more efficiently, and speed up inspections with the right onsite and equipment inspection software
- You and your QA engineers have limited time and resources. This is where inspection software really becomes a game changer.
- Mobile devices will run inspection software, removing the need to hand paperwork off to someone else and it means that your inspector will never have to manually input from a paper into spreadsheet. Using inspection software will mean that your inspections and data are synced in real time to the cloud.
- Immediate preventative action can be taken. With instructions embedded on the inspection screen, urgent preventative action can be taken immediately if necessary.
- Alerts, defects and issues are automatically sent to the parties responsible along with reviews and approvals. And these can be performed remotely and in real time.
- Communication is improved. This leads to saved hours (and in some cases days) as there is no longer any need for protracted back and forth on email to add further details e.g. pictures, as everything required is requested up front.
- Respect your time. Inspection software has the capability to create whole project plans with required inspections. This will make it clear which asset, at what time and by whom it needs to be inspected. No more repeated questions of what or where the next inspection is.
Stay on top of your inspections by eliminating unnecessary steps and automating your key tasks.
Better Asset Inspections equals Lower Costs
Correctly used inspection software for asset management will lead to lower costs and in turn, less downtime.
- Avoid leasing worn or defective equipment and the cost of refurbishing the equipment when it is returned. And because serial numbers are tracked, you can prevent suppliers from resubmitting previously rejected tools and equipment.
- The ability to create and monitor inspection plans and track the results in real time means that unlike spreadsheet-based systems, there is no risk of unintentionally missing an inspection of an asset. Missing inspections can put the entire rig at a higher risk of failure due to missing a potential problem. This in turn leads to unscheduled downtime as it always cheaper to fix problems as soon as they are diagnosed.
- With a single platform for communication of issues, this real time visibility of open issues means that again problems can be dealt with promptly and efficiently by the entire team until issues are resolved and approved.
- Most software-based inspection systems will have problem solving analytics, this will help with spotting trends and identify high priority problem areas.
- Implementing an inspection software system, will make it easy to prioritise routine inspections by streamlining the whole process, which makes better use of your operator’s time.
The accuracy of your asset inspections at your site and the time it takes to manage the process depends a great deal on the tools you have at your disposal.
To save time and maintain accurate records, avoid manual and legacy methods such as physical files and spreadsheets. An automated process reduces the risk of human error, improves coordination between departments, and integrates asset inspections with other company systems.
It is unlike any other cloud-based asset inspection software on the market. With FTQ360, you can easily turn your routine onsite, property or building inspections into a continuous exercise that ensures you are always in control of your assets and fully understand your operational competencies at any time.
- Easy to operate with a gentle learning curve.
- FTQ360 inspection software allows you to create custom reports and it works with Android or iOS mobile devices.
- It comes with an all-in-one screen to handle inspections, photos and report issues.
- Date/time and GPS location stamps.
- Add as many high-definition images of assets as necessary.
- Immediate documentation of asset deficiencies.
- Cloud-based visibility eliminates varying asset inventory versions.
- Automated alerts and communication workflows for resolving issues encountered.
- Dashboards and reports for asset monitoring and keeping stakeholders informed.
For more information on how FTQ360 can help streamline asset management, book a free demo today.
