Digitizing lifting inspections in the Oil & Gas Industry

What are the common challenges for Oil & Gas companies? How can digitizing increase efficiency and safety?

Thousands of lifting accessories and other potential work equipment items are used every day, there are plenty of rules and regulations in place to ensure the safe use of the equipment and to prevent work accidents. LOLER and PUWER are central regulations in the UK in addition to the Machinery Directive and the local health and safety acts. Different parts of these rules apply to different stakeholders in the lifting ecosystem. From the producer to the supplier, to the employer, and through periodic inspections, complying with these regulations can be very time-consuming and difficult. Especially if it is handled in a manual matter.

Another barrier to digitizing is that all stakeholders have manual input in their own separate systems, which means that everyone duplicates equipment information and documents about the same items, and each company has multiple systems that do not communicate with each other. This can lead to both double registration and deficient overview. When some of these systems are closed for the end-user, the workers, they don’t get access to the right documents and risk doing a task wrong and could cause an accident. There are plenty of examples where this leads to accidents.

Why should you digitize the lifting inspections?
It’s to increase efficiency and avoid duplications or missing registration of data. There’s too much time spent on registration in several systems. As previously mentioned, there are lots of regulations to comply with, so a digital tool can make it easier to comply with those. Avoid work accidents by having detailed information about equipment, readily available for the end-user. Information such as when was the last inspection, and what was the result of that inspection. Is the equipment safe to use? And how should I use it? That’s also by providing the user manual digitally. A safe working environment is what we all strive for, and maintaining a reputation as a safe workplace is key to business growth.

And a point that a lot of us like, is saving money. Inspections are time-consuming, and time is money. Traditionally inspectors spend too much time documenting the inspection, filling out the checklists with pen & paper, going back to the office to register the results, creating the documentation, and distributing the documentation to the client. By going digital, a lot of money can be saved on documenting the inspection part. Read how Bilfinger E&M Nordics went from pen & paper to Onix Inspect.

Case study: Background
The company had been using Onix Work for a while and wanted to increase the efficiency and quality of the annual inspection.
Customer: COSL
Where: The Norwegian Continental Shelf
Product: Onix Work vs Onix Inspection app
Case: Tested on two similar rigs with the same amount of lifting equipment on board and the same inspection company, but the inspectors used different tools to complete the inspections

Case Study: Results