Inspections represent a traditional, consolidated activity in Oil & Gas. During the years, the Industry tried to replace the extensive use of inspections with other activities: quality management systems, manufacturing process auditing, etc., to reduce the impact, sometime considered "extensive" in time and costs. Nevertheless, inspections are still considered not-replaceable to provide the confidence about the quality level. The recent increased pressure on cost-reduction while maintaining/improving the quality, require to develop different methodologies. The tools and techniques available as part of NGI, in author's opinion, help to maintain quality expectations and drive inspections with a significant cost reduction.
This paper describes results gained from experiences with some new techniques available for Vendor Surveillance: Remote Inspections and Data Mining.
Remote Inspections (RI):move from physical presence to remote connection. it can be delivered through various technologies but basically improve the efficiency, reducing downtime and expenses while ensure the most adequate competences according to the specific needs and increase flexibility.
The activity will still be performed via competent/qualified resources who will be remotely connected to site only when required - and consequently, performed in actual hours - allows multiple connections (subject experts, customer representative, etc.) maintaining full contact and communication with vendors on site, and finally provide better deliverable.
RI brings several benefits to projects: minimize H&S risk exposure, reduce inspection downtime and inspection time, minimizing inspection and travel costs for all the parties involved, allow activity recording (if required).
Data Mining (DaMi): re-use projects data, experiences and lessons learnt in structured way. It is a tool, based on specific algorithm, which enable historical data to be gathered and analysed to produce valuable information to engineering and procurement phases, helping project team to take decisions based on real data.
Equipment & Supplier's historical data, are used to assess the manufacturers and contribute to reduce the probability of failure and where is advisable to increase (or reduce) the inspection effort. The data captured, help to discover information about equipment types, vendor locations, findings, criticalities, NC, etc.
Practical examples and results from recent experiences show the advantages from this approach and the potential savings without compromising the effectiveness of the inspection process. Data from thousands of activities have been analysed with DaMi and comparison at the same time and location with traditional inspection and RI have been also performed confirming the validity of the proposed approach.
