Orbital Welding Services Limited

Orbital Welding Services Limited (OWS) provides an extensive array of services, encompassing the highest standards of pipe and steelwork. Their services ensure high-quality welds with accuracy and efficiency, catering to sectors that require strict adherence to safety and quality standards.

 

Challenge

OWS wanted to create a Quality Control dashboard to present company data in a visual overview, enabling team members and management to swiftly access real-time information for effective management and informed decision-making. The teams sought to investigate the best ways to digitise manual processes, fostering greater transparency and enhancing productivity across various business functions.

 

Solution

OWS approached the VEC (Virtual Engineering Centre), who showcased a range of demonstrations and conducted a workshop session to identify where OWS could best be supported.

Inspired by a recent successful collaboration between the VEC and Webber Engineering (NW) Ltd, the management team wanted to create a visual tool for accessing reports, data, and job progress.

The VEC specialists and digital engineers collaborated closely with OWS to achieve a comprehensive oversight of the business, identifying key areas that could benefit from digitisation and determining the best way to transfer this information to an in-house visualisation tool; ‘OWS Glance,’ which provides users with detailed information on project progress.

The OWS Glance tool divides projects into several drawings, each containing multiple welds, allowing for tracking of daily welder outputs, aggregating this data into weekly welding reports.

This client-facing application showcases the abilities of OWS to meet targets, demonstrating and highlighting to clients their strengths, which, in turn, fosters greater confidence, leading to future collaborations and projects.

 

Impact

The digital tool serves as an internal tool that allows for information to be uploaded digitally, ensuring easy access to essential details such as dates, locations, drawings, additional notes, and product codes. This results in organised and accurate data and information capture through multiple business functions.

The dashboard automatically updates in real-time with administrative information, including project leads, project prices, and certificates, whilst tracking job progress throughout the company. The primary advantage is the transition from paper-based weld reports to a digital format, reducing manual spreadsheet work, which can be time-consuming and prone to human error.

The existing document format has also been integrated into the system, allowing users to autonomously add data and information to their branded reports for ease.

OWS’s new facility, located within the old Vauxhall factory in the Wirral, features three separate rooms dedicated to welding, fabrication, and material manipulation, along with an additional room for testing, identifying defects, and quickly addressing them. This innovative digital tool will enable the management teams to monitor all activities across the site, creating a comprehensive view of company operations.

 

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