FIP Continues Focus on Quality Improvement
I’m so pleased to be serving on the Freemyer Industrial Pressure, L.P. (FIP) Advisory Board. Having known and been a customer of FIP for many years during my oil and gas career, I have seen the company grow and continuously improve its products. When you visit the FIP website and read the ‘About Us’ section, you will find that we “deliver fit-for-purpose solutions for hydraulic fracturing equipment and well cementing equipment, serving 27 countries. We have decades of experience and expertise, and we know how to help our customer’s operations stay productive and cost-efficient. As your partner, our goal is to boost our customer’s return on investment with everything we do.” Central to this goal is our product quality, and we continue our focus on quality improvement.
My most recent experience as a customer of FIP was on a project before my retirement, over a year ago. My experience with FIP on that project, as well as my recent experience as an Advisory Board member will be the primary area under discussion regarding my observations of positive quality improvement focus at FIP:
FIP Product Design Analysis:
The first step in getting a quality product is to concentrate on the quality of the design analysis. My first meeting with FIP regarding the project was centered on the design of the equipment, and that it would require some detailed engineering analyses including weight distribution, finite element stress analysis, and computational fluid dynamics analysis. This piece of oil well service equipment would be a prototype and a new concept, so FIP was charged with providing quality design analysis. FIP took the initial concept information from us and began the design process. Several meetings were held between our companies where FIP showed us not only the computer solid model design, but also all of the requested analyses. The design details and the results of the analyses were thoroughly discussed and vetted, which convinced us that the product was feasible and centered on quality analysis. Regular design reviews were held with us, the customer, and FIP, which further confirmed to us that design quality was as important to FIP as it was to us.
In-Process Quality:
As an Advisory Board member, I recently made a visit to one of the manufacturing facilities of FIP in order to observe and experience some of the live quality practices. The manufacturing facility was almost at full capacity with numerous pieces of well stimulation equipment and well cementing equipment being built. I witnessed several examples of various types of in-process quality practices taking place. One example of a sound quality process that takes place on a daily basis is what FIP calls Task Analysis, which not only helps keep the projects on schedule, but flushes out any quality issues that might be encountered during the build process so that they quickly get corrected. This provides real-time visibility and data reporting using the personnel on right on the shop floor. Another related example was regarding an error on an engine mount bracket supplied by a third party. On a routine visit to the facility, the FIP design engineer noticed that the mount was about to be welded in place, and realized that it was not within FIP drawing specifications. The engineer quickly requested the welders to hold off while he resolved the issue. The third party was contacted and corrected the parts that they had in process. The part at the facility was easily corrected on site. In discussions with the FIP engineering department, these routine visits to the shops are very beneficial to the FIP’s quality process and in eliminating delays in shop floor operations due to earlier detection of manufacturing defects and faster resolution.
One additional initiative that should contribute to FIP’s in-process quality is investment in the company’s facilities. For the facility mentioned previously that was almost at full capacity, the fabrication and assembly processes were all happening within the same facility. There are plans in place to move the assembly processes to an adjacent building so that fabrication and assembly are not happening on the same cramped floor space. This initiative is currently in the planning stages, and FIP expects to see this positive change happen soon.
Finished Product Inspection and Testing:
During my recent visit to FIP, I also met with some of the employees in FIP Operations to help streamline some inspection and testing procedures. Our time was spent looking over their existing inspection and test procedures for all of the various types of equipment that FIP produces. FIP’s oil well service products vary greatly from customer to customer due to differing requirements between customers. So, much attention was given to creating rationalized inspection and test procedures that were able to cover every important functional aspect of the equipment. By the end of the session, the employees had a comprehensive set of procedures that pertain to frac pumping units, which included a QC Pre-Test procedure and report, the actual QC Test procedure and report, and a QC Defects report. These procedures could then be used as templates for creating similar procedures for the other various types of equipment produced by FIP.
Audits:
As an Advisory Board member, I look forward to routine visits to FIP for auditing purposes. After meeting many of the FIP employees, it was apparent to me that the company has a culture that is committed to constantly improving quality in their products. Audits can help ensure that the quality standard in the company is continually being met. Audits can also be performed by internal teams of employees that are independent of the process being audited to make sure relevant quality standards are being met. - Lon Robison
