One of the greatest challenges that fabrication shops all over the world, and across all industries, are facing, is a lack of skilled workers, especially welders. While demand is constantly increasing, the available pool of workers continues to shrink, as older workers retire, without enough new workers picking up the trade to replace them.
In order to face this challenge, the idea of automation comes easy. Instead of being dependent on a shrinking work force, a one time investment in machines and robots seems highly promising. After all, robots and machines do not get sick or exhausted, they do not ask for higher wages, and they do not quit and start working for a competitor, who offered slightly better conditions.
However, upon further examination, it soon becomes apparent that automating fabrication may not be as easy as it seems, especially when it comes to welding. In particular the welding of complex pipe geometries, which can make up a major portion of welding works in oil and gas projects, offers significant challenges. And in contrast to for example the automotive industry, where entire factories can be devoted to fabricating only one particular model tens of thousands of times, pipe shops for the oil and gas industry have to be flexible and versatile, in order to fabricate tens of thousands of different geometries, many of them unique. The fact that unlike many other industries the oil and gas industry still mostly rejects several modern processes like pipe bending only exacerbates this problem.
Mechanization is still a viable endeavor of course, as long as it is understood that it is not a miracle cure for all of the shop’s problems. Sophisticated multi-axis plasma-cutting machines can be used for complex saddle, mitre or offshore cuts, while mechanized and orbital welding systems, operated by skilled personnel, can significantly reduce both welding time and weld defects.
However, even when all of these challenges have been mastered, when the right machines have been selected and installed, and the operators have been trained, new challenges become apparent. Because even the best machines and systems require a proper support structure before, during, and after the fabrication process. Otherwise they will never be able to realize their full potential and capacities.
Looking at conventional fabrication, most shop managers believe that the bottle-neck in their shop is the welding, but that is because the welding is the final step in the process chain, and it is here that all previous problems and bottle-necks become apparent. For most shops the welders have an arc time of 20 – 25%, meaning that they spend the majority of their working day checking drawings, handling material, or in many cases waiting. Mechanization can alleviate this somewhat, but structural inefficiencies in planning and handling will not be removed by replacing a manual welder with a machine or robot.
Instead it becomes important to look at two key aspects of fabrication: logistics and work preparation. Logistics are important in order to get the material to the machines at the right time, and remove the finished parts after processing so they can get to their next destination in time. Work preparation, on the other hand, is important in order to determine which machine or worker will process which piece of pipe, at which time, in order to maximize efficiency.
It is here that a dedicated planning software, like the RAMP system by 3R solutions becomes important. The RAMP software processes spool data, ideally provided by an application like 3R’s IsoBuilder, which includes all information about pipes, joints, fittings, weld types, etc. It can also interface to warehouse management systems to check on available stock, and with scheduling software to optimize fabrication order.
Based on these data, the software then prepares optimized work packages, which allocate tasks to the various machines and workers in a way that maximizes their available capacities. Screens at each station display the current work order digitally, so the operator / worker does not have to look for the correct drawing, and upon completion the status can be updated in real time, giving full traceability of workshop processes.
The software will ensure that welders only get jobs that they are qualified and certified to perform, and in combination with 3R’s Joint Check application, a comprehensive set of documentation and reports can be generated.
With the right machines and the right software, the next step is a streamlined handling system, to reduce the time and man-power required to get the material to the right place. Having machines that can cut for example 1,000 dia inch in one shift, and machines that can weld 1,000 dia inch in the same amount of time, does not help, if all pipes and fittings have to be transported by crane or trolley, and only 500 dia inch worth of material can be moved. In this case shop managers again often look at the output of the welding machines, and conclude that they need more machines to meet their target numbers, rather than look at the logistics, and realize that they need to make improvements there.
While individual machines may already have some infeed and outfeed systems, it is important to look at the shop as a whole, rather than at individual processes. By connecting the different machines with a system of conveyors and buffer tables, the entire flow of material can be optimized, reducing or even eliminating the need for a lot of crane or forklift operations. As long as a pipe is still straight, it can be moved on conveyors without a problem, which makes it possible to deliver the material directly to the correct stations. In combination with the RAMP software and a sophisticated machine, this can significantly increase your productivity.
In conclusion, it becomes clear that in order to meet the new challenges created by a combination of rising demand and a dwindling work force, automation and mechanization of processes become unavoidable. But simply replacing workers with machines will not help in achieving your goals, if you neglect aspects such as work preparation and logistics. Anybody can put a few machines into a shop and call it automation, but in order to really improve your productivity, you not only need automation, you need full integration of all aspects of the fabrication cycle, which goes beyond the actual shop activities.
3R solutions has more than 40 years of experience in not only setting up automated pipe-shops, but in providing the customized software solutions required to run these shops at full efficiency. They have realized projects all over the world, including for several high profile companies in the oil and gas and offshore industries. Their clients have achieved significant increases in productivity, with some of them managing to reduce the required man-hours for fabrication by 50% or more, while reducing the time required for work preparation, tracking, and documentation by an even wider margin.
