At their Geleen site in the Netherlands, SABIC houses a large number of tank assets that require thorough and regular inspection. This process has historically been costly and labour intensive – they worked together to improve that.
SABIC’s Digital Journey
Two and half years ago Falcker started speaking with SABIC about their tank maintenance management programme. In particular, they were struggling with their data management. Different teams and systems, the involvement of various contractors and inspection firms often meant that efficiency improvements were needed – across many aspects of the whole tank management process.
Seeking a way to optimise the tank management team, and their processes, SABIC tasked Falcker with using our software solution and drone packages to give them more quality information as well as a better handle on it.
“I feel really confident about the knowledge and experience that Falcker brings. There are drone companies popping up everywhere. But Falcker are experts in this field so they understand our challenges at a technical level and that’s why their solutions are so good.”
John Bruijnooge – site director SABIC Geleen
To become safer, more reliable, more efficient, and more environmentally conscious a growing pressure in the energy industry. All this is paired with increasing regulations around the environment along with sustainability initiatives that combined lead to escalating costs when it comes to on-site asset management.
While the challenges are clear, SABIC is very serious about taking a proactive approach to solving them. In fact, their CEO’s push for digitalisation throughout the business means that teams covering administration, machine health, and robotisation are all being given the thrust to find better ways of working to improve efficiency and safety.
Industry Challenges
The energy industry as a whole isn’t quite at pace with other sectors, such as finance and logistics, when it comes to digitisation. That is in part because of conservative regulators who want to ensure that standards are adhered to at all levels. This is of course completely understandable but it has slowed the development of new methods in the sector.
Beyond just the independent regulators, existing asset inspectors can be hesitant to new practices and technologies. Again, this is largely for the same reason – they want to do a good job the way they know how. They would far rather be on-site, up close and personal with a tank than off-site watching videos or looking at stills. But the truth is, it’s safer to perform remote inspections and with the right technology they can actually provide better quality auditing because the detail is infinitely replayable. As an added bonus, it’s far cheaper to use drone tech than it is to arrange for large teams and safety contractors to attend the site in the first place.
“We are now working with a partner who understands industry standards and other businesses that have different ways of working with us. This is a fantastic level of insight Falcker is able to bring into their solutions. It’s eye-opening and makes us stronger together, and our people love to work with their solutions.”
John Bruijnooge – site director SABIC Geleen
Helping People Be Better
The comprehensive nature of the tools Falcker has built for SABIC actually increases the quality of their inspections. If there is certain deformation or corrosion on a tank it can be spotted and highlighted in a totally traceable way also on hard-to-reach places. These tools greatly enhance what inspectors can see.
The key is that the human factor is never removed from the process. The inspectors have years of experience and are highly knowledgeable – Falcker is just arming them with a better view. It doesn’t remove the person, it just makes the person better. On top of all this, the data is accessible by every team who needs it so Operations, Maintenance, Engineering and EHSS can all get value from all Falcker’s scans and software. That’s adding extra value for the same cost.
All of the goals of efficiency, safety, and compliance are achieved using Falcker’s system, and it is sure the quick wins that it has helped SABIC make will help push further digital development in the future.
“Digitisation needs to add value, contribute, and enable and that is how we know we are making the right choice with Falcker.”
John Bruijnooge – site director SABIC Geleen
For more information visit falcker.com
