16.06.2017

It’s still possible

ClampOn has numerous examples where the cost impact of these requirements has been three times the value of the actual equipment supplied; and that is just at our end, as the supplier. One can only imagine the total amount of time and money that disappears down the drain by the time the product reaches its end user. It is therefore a breath of fresh air when one of our most valued customers chose to sidestep this in the example below:

A contract was awarded to ClampOn for topside sand monitoring equipment to a UK operator for installation in the North Sea. The operator didn’t buy directly from ClampOn but through a middleman, which is common. Due to the middleman’s substantial engineering and documentation requirements, there was a 14 week lead time, even though manufacturing the equipment would take less than two weeks.

A few days after the contract was awarded, the operator called us directly asking if it would be possible to get the equipment offshore as fast as humanly possible as they needed to get it installed during a field shut-down. The answer from our side was of course ‘yes’, but we could not supply the required documentation in that time, and the middleman would have to approve the release of the material prior to having approved drawings.

Solution:
We basically needed to bypass the middleman. As the experienced operator in this case knew our products very well, and possessed in house expertise, they decided to do just that. 10 days later the equipment was delivered on site, and a few days later it was installed and commissioned offshore by ClampOn’s field engineer and engineers from the operator. All this less than 4 weeks from placing the order, and 10 weeks ahead of the original delivery date.

Lesson learnt:
Time and money saved, without compromising quality.