From pen and paper to a Pocket PC solution – what a difference! This offshore company came to us because they knew there was a better alternative to using pen and paper. They wanted to use a portable device in the field to record measurements and quality statistics.
BACKGROUND
This company lays pipes at the bottom of the ocean floor all over the world and is hired by international governments and companies. Ocean pipe laying is a 24 hour operation, 7 days a week, and not for the faint of heart. The company used a custom Pocket PC program developed by IT Impact to expedite the operation, provide electronic documentation to clients the same day and monitor vendor quality.
SITUATION
Pipes are inspected on the beach before being loaded onto a barge and shipped out to sea where the construction barge is located. Before using our solution, the company was recording all data on pen and paper. Once the barge was loaded the Captain had to wait until all the data was entered into an Access database, (around 1.5 hours), printed as a manifest, and sent to the captain before he could cast off. There had to be a better way, and the company found it by turning to IT Impact.
SOLUTION
Using rugged Pocket PC and an MSDE database on a laptop, QA inspectors can now examine pipes and record the inspection results automatically. They now have more time to inspect more aspects of the pipe and provide clients with comprehensive reports on a daily basis. Pipe vendors are now evaluated at least once a year on various projects to determine defects per thousand.
SUMMARY
When you’re out at sea working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you just can’t pick up the phone and ask for tech support. With a modern data collection system, this company has jumped years ahead of the competition and is able to offermore to clients. At the end of the day they can now say, “We discovered the power of our data!”.