Are you an oil and gas services provider/manager looking to move from paper and excel to software for your inspection process?
Oil and gas inspections are a vital component of safety and quality and inspection management. There are many benefits that software will provide for your oil and gas inspections over paper or spreadsheets, but perhaps the most glaring are improved safety and the reduction of operational flaws by eliminating human error in site inspections.
Human error is the cause of most catastrophic oil and gas accidents that have led to the loss of life, massive financial losses and reputational damage. Unsafe acts that lead to accidents are caused by skill-based human error, decision errors, perceptual errors, routine violations, exceptional violations and outright acts of sabotage. For that reason, using a solution that not only will improve operational efficiency but also ensure compliance is a must
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Oil and gas inspection software eliminates or mitigates these preconditions. . Having a good inspection management software will allow you to set automated alerts and provide actionable insights while adhering to regulatory compliance whether the focus are just gas inspections, oil inspections or the two.
This article will help you understand what makes for good oil and gas inspection software and provides tips on how to pick a suitable solution for your company.
What Makes Oil and Gas Inspection Software Good?
Modern inspection apps are designed with numerous checks to ensure quality, accuracy, and compliance with regulations. In addition, they remove the fickle human element by automating processes from start to finish and will often result in reduced costs. This saves time, energy, and money while ensuring consistency. Some of the essential features of a good oil and gas inspection software include:
- Oil and gas inspection software comes with a suite of checklists that are tailored to your specific sector. Those inspection checklists will provide relevant inspection data.
- Oil and gas inspection software helps you set up any number of location-based projects for easy management
- Oil and gas inspection apps function as automated digital record keepers, storing historical records in user-friendly formats
- Oil and gas inspection apps come with tools to help you track and manage your projects from start to finish, including audit trails for monitoring compliance with regulations
Read How Inspection Apps Improve Oil & Gas Equipment Reporting
Below are five tips to help you choose oil and gas inspection software:
1. Simplify Complex Technical Inspections
Oil and gas inspection software should help you improve your efficiency on your scheduled inspections not hinder it. In addition, oil and gas software should ensure that nothing is overlooked or missed during any quality control process.
This means that the application must keep up with technical demands but make your job faster and easier. This calls for a user-friendly data collection, detail verification, easy-to-read inspection reports with proof-positive compliance documentation. In the end, the application must be capable of the full range of technical inspections so that a single platform can serve the needs of all inspectors.
2. Oil Gas Inspection Software Should Offer Customizable Templates
Oil and gas inspection software can vary greatly in terms of what’s on offer. Some Oil Gas Inspection applications come with hundreds of pre-defined templates to choose from, while others only have a few. Therefore, oil and gas inspectors should look for oil and gas inspection software that offers customizable templates. This way, the software is adaptable to your techniques and changing needs and allows you to get started as soon as possible.
Oil gas inspection software should allow you to create new checklists or edit existing checklists to match your methodology, as well as any custom specifications unique to your inspection or project-specific needs.
Additionally, any serious oil and gas inspection software checklists should include the complete library of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) rig checklists to ensure safety compliance for rigs.
3. Mobile-Friendly and Cloud-Based
In today's Oil and gas industry, inspection software must have off-line mobile capabilities. The application should allow an inspector to collect data, verify checks, capture images in the field, annotate, and upload test reports regardless of the internet connection or speed. And when a connection is available, the information is automatically transmitted to cloud servers.
It is vital to oil and gas managers that they have easy access to inspection records from anywhere at any time. Oil and gas cloud-based software gives managers access to their inspection records from any device with an internet connection.
Oil and gas inspection software should also allow users to export checklists and reports for easy sharing with colleagues.
4. Security and Compliance
Oil and gas software must meet the minimum security and compliance standards established in the industry. The application must include data encryption, password protection, SSO, and two-factor authentication, and a high level of user access control. Oil and gas inspection software must also offer the ability to backup and archive records in your project repositories.
5. Help You Achieve First-Time Quality
Another significant advantage of oil and gas inspection software is the ability to help you achieve first-time quality standards. The inspection results will help you mitigate expensive mistakes down the line. First-time quality standards are very important to every oil and gas company. Safety is one of the most important aspects of the oil and gas industry. But it can be challenging to maintain a high occupational safety standard while also adhering to strict safety and quality standards.
It should help oil and gas inspectors manage inspection projects from beginning to end, including inspection audits and reports.
The inspection software should help reduce costs and meet deadlines without sacrificing quality. More importantly, inspections should be consistent and the process predictable.
About FTQ360 Oil and Gas Inspection Software
FTQ360 oil and gas inspection software fits the bill perfectly. The software checks off all the items that oil and gas managers should look for:
- The software is compatible with all operating systems and mobile platforms. It is mobile-friendly and cloud-based. Additionally, it is securely accessible via mobile app or web app on any device.
- FTQ360 makes the management of large amounts of data easy and accessible. It also comes with validation checks for completeness and clarity that helps ensure First Time Quality.
- The inspection software also helps simplify the inspection process by offering a library of pre-defined checklist templates that are easily customizable to fit any oil and gas inspection that you need to perform (including 35 pre-loaded NIOSH rig audit checklists).
- Moreover, it is easy to use and simple for even the most novice inspector to learn.
Find out more about how FTQ360's Oil and Gas Inspection packages and Software can help you move away from outdated inspection methods and make your business more efficient. Start your free trial today.
