How to create ‘new gold’ from operating nearshore spoolbases

Selmers has been taking care of the development, engineering, manufacturing, installation and optimization of spoolbases for the handling of pipes for many years. This has already resulted in many optimisations and customer-specific solutions. We have translated a large part of these improvements and pieces of custom work into standard modular spoolbase equipment and process lines. But what about production data from spoolbases?

The new gold is not easy to come by 

Data is often called the new gold these days. As data-driven process and equipment engineers, we couldn’t agree more. In order to obtain that pure gold, however, you must first collect and structure relevant raw data. In this respect, spoolbases still have a long way to go. During their journey through the plant and on their way to their sinking location, pipes go through quite a lot. They are coupled and welded together to form strings that are sometimes several kilometers long, blown clean, rolled up and transported by a pipe-laying vessel to their final destination.

Improved efficiency, track & trace and maintenance 

During that journey, the pipes stop at several stations for all those operations. As with all processes, measuring everything that happens to the pipes provides insights for improvement. This ranges from the positions of the tubes and the number of handling and transport moments to waiting and processing times at the various processing stations and the registration and application of production and batch data. By using the context-enriched data from our SPMS system for further analyses, Operational Excellence is enhanced even more. At the same time it offers tracking & tracing possibilities.

 Job-ready system 

At the end of each phase in the production line the pipe is moved to the next station by means of a ‘job-ready system’ (pressing a red button). To ensure a smooth production and handling process we also stay in close touch with customers during start-up and production, with both on-site and remote support. Apart from these operational processes, we always ask customers in advance why they have chosen certain processes. And whether they are open to alternative processes or other configurations.

Is your production company or spoolbase factory looking for innovative engineering solutions and/or ways to improve Operational Excellence using our SPMS? Just call your sales contact or send an email to sales@selmers.com.