Ex failures start with small oversights
An offshore asset may have thousands of Ex equipment distributed across many different risk areas. Can I trust that we actually have control?
As a supervisor or technical manager you are responsible for finding non-conformities and addressing them before they become an incident. But that is hard to do. And missing the mark may cause major incidents or even shutdowns of operation for weeks or months.
Previously, Excel documents kept track of what was done and what was not. Who hasn’t once worked in the Ex_Register_Master_V7.xlsx and ground through the data. Those days have mostly passed, and today the process is replaced with digital systems: Your ERP/CMMS or specific inspection tools are used to plan, execute and document Ex inspections.
Compliance isn’t an event
Don`t chase compliance like it’s just a badge needed to operate. Sure, having some overview of your status on ignition source control gets your asset operating. But then what? It’s a continuous task that never stops, never pauses. Especially offshore, where the harsh elements, whether its heat, cold or moisture, make operating and keeping an industrial asset like drilling rigs, platforms and marine vessels tough. Compliance is only valuable when demonstrated daily, not just the odd week when the audit happens.
We have seen this so many times. Assets claim to have control over their daily routines but end up needing costly inspection campaigns to get the real truth.
Inspections you can trust
Whether it is your crew’s daily tasks or a hired service contractor performing a campaign, trust in the inspection results is key. Who did what when, and with detailed descriptions, photos and whereabouts of the finding. Inspection is not only a compliance task, but also a data capture mission, where information must be collected simply, quickly and accurately.
What we have learned over a decade of helping asset owners and inspectors is that good instructions beforehand are not sufficient to make sure inspection execution is performed correctly. Equipment gets missed, tasks forgotten and photos never taken. Stating in one data field that “Ex inspection performed OK” is simply just not enough.
The inspector is the electrical and Ex expert. That should be their focus – on the trade, on the physical task of checking the equipment integrity. They should not be concerned about what checklist to use on what equipment, or where this equipment is, whether it has already been inspected by someone else etc. This is where oversights happen.
Inspectio is created to address all these issues and give inspectors, supervisors and technical managers knowledge of exactly what is inspected, what remains outstanding and where attention is needed. This is done using our 5-step workflow:
Find, verify, match, document and follow progress in real time from anywhere.
Your new reality
Does Excel or a cumbersome ERP system give you the visibility and confidence you need to manage Ex integrity? If not, it’s time to consider an alternative. The problem isn’t whether your inspection data is digital. It’s whether you can trust it. We believe inspection data should be trusted, accessible and actionable, not hidden away in spreadsheets and systems nobody visits before it’s too late.