Better standardization of parts and equipment used for consistency across the organization

Company context

Pipeline Engineering Services Limited is a specialized engineering and fabrication services company catering to the upstream oil and gas sector, helping in the design, fabrication, and maintenance of oil and gas pipelines. The company has engineers working on projects in remote and geographically diverse locations. The company provides turnkey solutions, which includes the sourcing and procurement of the material, to deliver fully completed assets, which it then services and maintains.

The problem

The teams engaged in the construction and building of Pipeline Engineering's projects and pipeline systems are different from the ones providing maintenance and repair.

When the parts and items used across projects varied substantially, it created issues in terms of availability of supplies as well as familiarity of the systems and equipment needed to service the systems.

The material requirements for projects are already extensive and complex, and sourcing and procuring these materials became time consuming and challenging, especially when there was high degree of variation in the materials, tools, and equipment being purchased.

Moreover, short-notice requirements for urgent repairs created issues for Pipeline Engineering anytime items and materials were not in stock. The overall supply chain of these items was not always reliable for ensuring delivery on timely basis to remote sites.

The solution

Pipeline Engineering required a mechanism to standardize the materials, equipment, and tools that its teams would use everywhere.

Proqura's catalog management tools enabled Pipeline Engineering to create a comprehensive catalog of commonly used types of material, equipment, tools and other supplies. The company established standardized items that its teams would be able to browse when determining their project requirements.

By limiting the choice of supplies to those approved for use in the company's item catalog, Pipeline Engineering was able to minimize maverick spend and ad-hoc requests for supplies outside of this pool.

Using purchase requisitions, teams could submit requests for the items they required—these would either be provided from stock or ordered against framework agreements made with suppliers.

Impact acheived

• Improved management of supply chain: Pipeline Engineering was able to better manage its supply chain through greater visibility on what types of material and equipment would be consistently in use.
• Reduced inventory holding: The company benefited from greater visibility on overall demand and consumption patterns and could appropriately plan its orders, minimizing the need to maintain excess inventory
• Reduced costs of procurement and materials: The reduction in the number of stock-keeping units (SKUs) enabled Pipeline Engineering to reduce the time and cost it incurred in managing its procurement, and greater level of bulk procurement from suppliers helped reduce the overall purchase cost.