Onsite testing of flange mechanics & consulting engineers for flange connections,and management training according EN1591-4 & ASME PCC-1-2013

Integrated solutions for the process and energy industry.
Click on the list below to read about our approach and work methods.

What we do


Onsite testing of flange mechanics & consulting engineers for flange connections.

Integrated solutions for the process and energy industry.
Click on the list below to read about our approach and work methods.

The quality level of competences, skills and knowledge of mechanics and engineers, related to the making of a proper functioning flange connection regularly leaves something to be desired.

Often it’s been noticed by TA managers that the quality of the work can be improved related to leaks during start-ups and commissioning in turn-arounds and maintenance.

It’s BFS believe that instead of managing the effect of bad quality it’s more efficient to solve the cause of this.

People are often inclined to control the job in parts by keeping an extensive administration where executing parties must declare that a certain part has been carried out by them and falls under their responsibility. BFS likes to call this ”the cover your ass method”.

What people mainly do not understand, is that, acting this way, they are busy with trying to keep everything under control by controlling everything. (no trust)
But this doesn’t work, because you need a steady high quality basis to rely on.
Otherwise quality checks are getting a mean to achieve a higher quality level instead of a goal to achieve high quality.

This high quality basis means that you need to take away the cause of the poor quality of the work.

The cause of poor quality of the work is directly related to the quality of the skills, competences and the knowledge of the mechanics and the engineers involved.

The question that we now have to ask ourselves is:

What can we do, to be sure that we can start with a high quality basis of skills, competences and knowledge for making proper flange connections?

At first we have then, to determine what’s causing this problem according to flange connections?

CAUSE 1
  • Knowledge of asset-owner management and engineers
  • Knowledge of service providers management and engineers

A lack of knowledge means that one is not aware of anything going wrong because you simply do not know. So knowledge and indirectly awareness  of your organization, regarding this topic, is highly important and recommendable.

SOLUTION

Train your staff by specialists in this area of expertise and make one aware of everything that can go wrong, while executing all the jobs during an event, related to flange connections.
If your staff understands the importance of this topic and they are aware of this, one have created commitment in an organization to take further actions.

CAUSE 2
  • Quality level of personnel delivered to ones site for an event
  • Asset-owners requirements do not meet up with service providers work procedures

It’s clear that, while having a business agreement to deliver personnel to an asset-owner- event, for making flange connections, both parties have not the intention to receive or to deliver bad quality.
But also quality has a price and it’s important to make clear what ones expectations are to each other.
Balance between price and quality.

But while an asset-owner organization is the paying party ,it’s BFS believe that they have the right to check if delivered quality is meeting up with the expectations one has made clear to each other.
The result of checking the quality of delivered personnel and acting on the outcome means that all parties involved have to take in account how to keep the other party satisfied.

SOLUTION

Incoming quality control by competence testing of flange mechanics who are delivered to one’s site.

BFS makes this possible by testing each mechanic onsite on their theoretical knowledge and their practical skills.
Second thing is that if one is checking the quality onsite, at the same time one is in the possibility to communicate directly to the workers what the asset-owners expectations and requirements are related to the job.

The quality level of competences, skills and knowledge of mechanics and engineers, related to the making of a proper functioning flange connection regularly leaves something to be desired.

Often it’s been noticed by TA managers that the quality of the work can be improved related to leaks during start-ups and commissioning in turn-arounds and maintenance.

It’s BFS believe that instead of managing the effect of bad quality it’s more efficient to solve the cause of this.

People are often inclined to control the job in parts by keeping an extensive administration where executing parties must declare that a certain part has been carried out by them and falls under their responsibility. BFS likes to call this ”the cover your ass method”.

What people mainly do not understand, is that, acting this way, they are busy with trying to keep everything under control by controlling everything. (no trust)
But this doesn’t work, because you need a steady high quality basis to rely on.
Otherwise quality checks are getting a mean to achieve a higher quality level instead of a goal to achieve high quality.

This high quality basis means that you need to take away the cause of the poor quality of the work.

The cause of poor quality of the work is directly related to the quality of the skills, competences and the knowledge of the mechanics and the engineers involved.

The question that we now have to ask ourselves is:

What can we do, to be sure that we can start with a high quality basis of skills, competences and knowledge for making proper flange connections?

At first we have then, to determine what’s causing this problem according to flange connections?

CAUSE 1
  • Knowledge of asset-owner management and engineers
  • Knowledge of service providers management and engineers

A lack of knowledge means that one is not aware of anything going wrong because you simply do not know. So knowledge and indirectly awareness  of your organization, regarding this topic, is highly important and recommendable.

SOLUTION

Train your staff by specialists in this area of expertise and make one aware of everything that can go wrong, while executing all the jobs during an event, related to flange connections.
If your staff understands the importance of this topic and they are aware of this, one have created commitment in an organization to take further actions.

CAUSE 2
  • Quality level of personnel delivered to ones site for an event
  • Asset-owners requirements do not meet up with service providers work procedures

It’s clear that, while having a business agreement to deliver personnel to an asset-owner- event, for making flange connections, both parties have not the intention to receive or to deliver bad quality.
But also quality has a price and it’s important to make clear what ones expectations are to each other.
Balance between price and quality.

But while an asset-owner organization is the paying party ,it’s BFS believe that they have the right to check if delivered quality is meeting up with the expectations one has made clear to each other.
The result of checking the quality of delivered personnel and acting on the outcome means that all parties involved have to take in account how to keep the other party satisfied.

SOLUTION

Incoming quality control by competence testing of flange mechanics who are delivered to one’s site.

BFS makes this possible by testing each mechanic onsite on their theoretical knowledge and their practical skills.
Second thing is that if one is checking the quality onsite, at the same time one is in the possibility to communicate directly to the workers what the asset-owners expectations and requirements are related to the job.

What BFS does for your firm with making a bolting plan is, taking work and responsibility out of one hands, to improve quality and schedule regarding a bolting scope of flanged connections in piping and/or equipment in industrial (petro)chemical installations.

It’s often been noticed that a (maintenance)team has very important work to do, but mainly with a primarily focus on the project they’re working on, but not especially a primarily focus on how to make that particular flange connection as leak-tight as possible. It’s only seen as a necessary part of the project, but not giving special attention for this subject. Also a lack of knowledge how to do this properly can be the cause of this lack in focus.

“If you simply don’t know there is, then there isn’t anything to worry about”

A bolting plan is, a plan how to work and what to do on a particular bolting scope. The scope can vary between 1 flanged connection or a complete system or even a complete installation in your Turn-Around event.

For example we made a bolting plan for a customer, this customer, a large manufacturer of pressurized equipment for the process industry, had often problems during hydro testing their equipment. In many occasions leakage occurred and they did not had an idea how to solve things.
Imagine, a hydro pressure test going wrong, means often a delay of 2 weeks especially with flanged connections of large diameters. Client not happy, NOBO appointment delayed, stress in the organization, and a big loss of money.

Good bye Profit.

This customer now is working in every occasion, along the bolting plan BFS made for them, and following the procedures out of that bolting plan in a particular order as mentioned in the plan. Doing this, every uncertainty in this process is checked and excluded. By doing this they achieve 2 things now: One is that almost 99% of their hydro pressure tests are now successful since, and if it isn’t successful, they know what causes the problem.

In TA events BFS sees that everybody is focused on their jobs which has to be completed by the end of the TA event. As an example, a job is like: Inspecting a heat exchanger tubes bundle and tube sheet: The main focus is to complete that inspection successful in a very short time schedule. By having this primarily focus to complete this job, by dismantling, inspect, if necessary repair, and installing the equipment back into the installation in a certain given amount of time, the job is carried out successful when it’s back in the installation and reconnected in the system.
As can be noticed out of above process, there is no primary focus on, for example, tightening the tube sheet flange. People of the maintenance team don’t have time to micro manage this and they leave it to the service provider responsibility to handle this. This creates a shared responsibility, and our experience with this shared responsibility is that it means that no one is taking the responsibility because everyone is thinking it’s someone else his responsibility and as a result nothing is happening.
By doing it this way, one is taking a very big risk, because the job is only successful when the equipment is functioning during operation.

“It’s like closing a deal and signing the contract together with your customer and having a party to celebrate this result. But this deal is only successful when the money, you intended to earn, is on your bank account, not anytime sooner”

IMAGINE:

Imagine this heat-exchanger, weighing 5 tons, is on the fourth floor, 20 meters above the ground completely surrounded in a narrow steel construction and the only way to inspect it, is to disassemble the equipment and bring it down to the ground for executing the inspection. When the job is finished, the equipment is back on the fourth floor, 20 meters above the ground, and completely installed, even maybe the insulation is brought back in position.
When during restarting of the plant this, for example tube sheet flange is leaking, one has a very big challenge and it will cost one a lot of time to solve this issue.

IMAGINE THE STRESS IN YOUR ORGANISATION! 

In a bolting plan we take also in consideration these showstoppers. And a showstopper we consider as important as critical flange connections and bad acting flange connections, because they can influence you’re schedule massively.

So if we locate all critical flange connections and showstoppers it helps you to take essential precautionary measurements to prevent problems from happening. And this necessarily precautionary measurements are in your bolting plan.

“Don’t ever under-estimate making flange connections, it’s a very serious profession and should be carried out by professionals who know how to do things properly, to prevent you for problems happening during restart and operation”

The quality level of competences, skills and knowledge of mechanics and engineers, related to the making of a proper functioning flange connection regularly leaves something to be desired.

Often it’s been noticed by TA managers that the quality of the work can be improved related to leaks during start-ups and commissioning in turn-arounds and maintenance.

It’s BFS believe that instead of managing the effect of bad quality it’s more efficient to solve the cause of this.

People are often inclined to control the job in parts by keeping an extensive administration where executing parties must declare that a certain part has been carried out by them and falls under their responsibility. BFS likes to call this ”the cover your ass method”.

What people mainly do not understand, is that, acting this way, they are busy with trying to keep everything under control by controlling everything. (no trust)
But this doesn’t work, because you need a steady high quality basis to rely on.
Otherwise quality checks are getting a mean to achieve a higher quality level instead of a goal to achieve high quality.

This high quality basis means that you need to take away the cause of the poor quality of the work.

The cause of poor quality of the work is directly related to the quality of the skills, competences and the knowledge of the mechanics and the engineers involved.

The question that we now have to ask ourselves is:

What can we do, to be sure that we can start with a high quality basis of skills, competences and knowledge for making proper flange connections?

At first we have then, to determine what’s causing this problem according to flange connections?

CAUSE 1
  • Knowledge of asset-owner management and engineers
  • Knowledge of service providers management and engineers

A lack of knowledge means that one is not aware of anything going wrong because you simply do not know. So knowledge and indirectly awareness  of your organization, regarding this topic, is highly important and recommendable.

SOLUTION

Train your staff by specialists in this area of expertise and make one aware of everything that can go wrong, while executing all the jobs during an event, related to flange connections.
If your staff understands the importance of this topic and they are aware of this, one have created commitment in an organization to take further actions.

CAUSE 2
  • Quality level of personnel delivered to ones site for an event
  • Asset-owners requirements do not meet up with service providers work procedures

It’s clear that, while having a business agreement to deliver personnel to an asset-owner- event, for making flange connections, both parties have not the intention to receive or to deliver bad quality.
But also quality has a price and it’s important to make clear what ones expectations are to each other.
Balance between price and quality.

But while an asset-owner organization is the paying party ,it’s BFS believe that they have the right to check if delivered quality is meeting up with the expectations one has made clear to each other.
The result of checking the quality of delivered personnel and acting on the outcome means that all parties involved have to take in account how to keep the other party satisfied.

SOLUTION

Incoming quality control by competence testing of flange mechanics who are delivered to one’s site.

BFS makes this possible by testing each mechanic onsite on their theoretical knowledge and their practical skills.
Second thing is that if one is checking the quality onsite, at the same time one is in the possibility to communicate directly to the workers what the asset-owners expectations and requirements are related to the job.

Why we do it


Your ROI

Your ROI

Minimise downtime and waste while maximising throughput and efficiency.

Our planet

Our planet

Make a substantial contribution to the reduction of emission in the chemical industry.

Public image

Public image

By following international standards our integrated solution brings your public image to a new level.

Why we do it


Your ROI

Your ROI

Minimise downtime and waste while maximising throughput and efficiency.

Our planet

Our planet

Make a substantial contribution to the reduction of emission in the chemical industry.

Public image

Public image

By following international standards our integrated solution brings your public image to a new level.