Pre-Engineered Standardized Turbomachinery Solutions: A Strategic Approach to Lean Project Management

Effective project management plays a crucial role to the success of organizations via resilient execution of activities, in terms of performance and efficiency. Due to the recent market dynamics and its associated uncertainties, affecting several segments in the oil and gas (O&G) industry, utilization of innovative contracting schemes such as Front End Engineering Design (FEED) competition, and value engineered products are becoming of great importance to achieve the project's goals optimally. This paper discusses the competitiveness and strategic benefits of employing the vendor's pre-engineered and standardized turbomachinery equipment/solutions, to meet the required functionality while maintaining the highest levels of quality and safety. Several project management concepts and tools were employed, such as SWOT analysis, to discuss the benefits of supplying vendor's pre-engineered high value and long-lead turbomachinery equipment within projects, as a cost-effective solution, in place of customized products. A Requirements-to-Implementation Mapping (RIM) exercise was also carried out to benchmark the pre-engineered solutions with the industry practices while considering the packaging requirements from well-known international and national oil companies. This paper also presents success stories of implementing pre-engineered solutions that strongly contributed in improving the management of projects from engineering to operational phase. This study works in line with the recent O&G operators’ initiatives in promoting agile approach to mitigate the forces that are impacting the industry and in turn the economy, such as COVID-19 pandemic. The study analysis, employing semi-quantitative approach, revealed that the pre-engineered solution brings to customers an improved value proposition in terms of cost, delivery, quality, safety, and aftermarket support, which contributes greatly in minimizing gold plating to achieve leaner projects. Standardized equipment is also found to be effective in minimizing the risks associated with changes and therefore improving the control on project constraints as well as simplifying the purchasing management of strategic equipment. In this respect, the use of standardization and pre-engineered activities could lead to a reduction of lead time up to 30%. The reliability of the standardized equipment will also be increased due to the proven frozen designs which have been repeatedly manufactured, tested, and supplied and therefore ensures successful and seamless project close-out. The proposed approach of mixing pre-engineered commodities to customized and configurable features based on site conditions provides the proper flexibility required by O&G industry while, simultaneously, maximizing the benefits of standardization. The strategic benefits of pre-engineered turbomachinery packages in the context of project management and supply chain process is not well recognized. This study explains these benefits to increase the customer's confidence level in utilizing this approach and benefit from its values, especially during the changing dynamics of the O&G industry.

Development of Near Gold-Colored TixZr1-xN Nano Thin Films by Arc Ion Plating

A gold plating technique with wet chemical solution is widely used to make different metallic colors for various industrial applications. However, it results in environmental pollution due to the generation of contaminated water, and it is also an expensive process. As an alternative approach, it is often desirable to use the Physical Vapor Deposition coating method that does not generate such pollution, and to use cheaper material to imitate gold colors. In this letter, target materials consisting of Ti–Zr alloy are employed to realize tens of nanometers thickness metallic thin film that can produce a metallic color that is close to that of natural gold. TiZrN thin films with a thickness ranging (2,000 to 4,000) nm are formed on a substrate using Arc Ion Plating. The results showed that the thin films exhibited an adhesion force of 50 N or more and a hardness of 1,500 Hv or more under a −100 V bias condition, and various gold colors could be realized by changing the ratio of Ti and Zr element of the alloy target.

Electroless deposition of Ni–P/Au coating on Cu substrate with improved corrosion resistance from Au(iii)–DMH based cyanide-free plating bath using hypophosphite as a reducing agent

In the Au(iii)–DMH based cyanide-free electroless gold plating bath, the added hypophosphite inhibited the black pad and improved the corrosion resistance of the Cu/Ni–P/Au coating.