Quality and Customer Peace of Mind

“Quality” is always a priority for industrial companies like ours; however, too often it can become an abstraction. That’s why we are quite proud of a video that Digital Solutions developed early this year. It puts in clear, simple language what quality means for us: peace of mind for our customers that their equipment and processes will work when and where required. What is not as simple is the extensive work that goes into giving our customers this peace of mind – particularly in the new world shaped by COVID-19.

As we mark this year’s World Quality Day, with its theme of “creating customer value,” I’d like to take this opportunity to share two important ways that Baker Hughes Digital Solutions delivers quality to our customers:

• We anticipate market needs by innovating and upgrading our equipment, software, services and processes.
• We collaborate with customers to find new solutions to address their emerging challenges.

Sometimes the solution is an exciting new piece of technology; other times it’s about upgrading existing software or developing a whole new process. Always, our approach is to be close to our customers, their operations and their industry, so that we can create, innovate and tailor reliable and lasting solutions that deliver value. Let me share a few examples to illustrate how we create customer value:

Hardware Innovation

Waygate Technologies, our leading industrial inspection business, understands that manufacturers, especially those with new product introductions, need to be able to quickly and accurately inspect production-line products. It is essential to understanding performance, optimizing production processes, improving production control, and ensuring they can safely and consistently turn out high-quality parts and products. One recent answer is the new Phoenix Speed|scan HD, a fully automated high-speed inline Computed Tomography (CT) system. It supports large sample size inspections for up to 100% of production volume, helping manufacturers reach zero defect targets.

Process Improvements

Maintenance and Support (M&S) services agreements represent key value drivers for Bently Nevada’s System 1 customers. This is why the M&S team used a recent LEAN action workout to deliver a number of enhancements. Outcomes included matching customer information to licensing for seamless installation and support, creating a single customer portal to reduce customer time to access tech support, automating M&S order processing for a seamless customer experience, and establishing a Customer Value Realization Organization to ensure alignment to the customers’ value equation.

Customer Collaboration

Recognizing the inspection needs of the power generation industry, Waygate Technologies developed an industry-first automated blade tip clearance (BTC) 3D measurement for gas turbine inspections. This was enabled through a software upgrade to the “OS 3.5” operating system for the Mentor Visual iQ video borescope. The upgrade allows customers to determine minimum, maximum and average clearance measurements from tip to shroud.

Designing Flexibility

With travel constrained by COVID-19, the factory acceptance testing (FAT) of 109 field monitoring units (FMUs) for a Chilean pulp and paper company had to be handled remotely. The FMU assembly site in Brazil designed and prepared a live broadcast remote FAT. Using four video cameras capturing different angles, as well as the Bently Nevada Machinery Signal Simulator and System 1 software platform, the customer could not only see and hear the equipment being inspected but also review the data being generated from the FMU units. This is just one example of more than 80 remote FATs that Bently Nevada has completed globally to keep customer projects on schedule.

Customized Digital Upgrade

An Argentina-based gas pipeline company, Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS), wanted to modernize the mechanical, pneumatic and relay logic controls on two of its 52-year-old gas turbines and associated gas compressors. Nexus Controls partnered with TGS to deliver a solution that would both replicate the full functionality of the old mechanical system and leverage the digital control algorithms of the new Nexus OnCore? Control System to provide the customer with a leaner and more reliable control system.

Supporting Sustainability

Operators around the globe recognize that by better managing flare operations, they can support the global energy transition. The flare.IQ technology from Panametrics, our flow measuring and analyzing business, helps customers optimize flare operations through remote flare asset management. Through its advanced sensors and analytics, the technology helps customers reduce methane emissions, ensure high-efficiency flare combustion, and reduce steam usage in flare systems. For example, data from refinery customers in three US states found that flare.IQ improved their combustion efficiency by 15-20%.

Meeting Customer Needs

A major US utility in Florida wanted to improve the reliability of a critical sensor component that it uses for flame monitoring inside power generating equipment. Our Reuter-Stokes measurement and sensing business listened to the utility’s needs and developed an enhancement to the design of its Flame Tracker Dry 325 sensor to deliver the improved reliability needed in harsh environments.

A different customer faced an equally unique challenge. They required a weld solution that would deliver improved weld reliability. The Reuter-Stokes team took up the challenge and successfully designed a new weld process for the customer that achieved even tighter weld tolerances.

 Custodians of Customer Value

Before closing, I want to express my gratitude to our Digital Solutions Quality team. Every day, they work with our businesses at the intersection of quality and customer value, in areas such as ensuring compliance with customer and regulatory requirements, facilitating front-line issue resolution with customers, driving reductions in the cost of quality, and maintaining a strong quality management system and reporting process.

The work this team performs is central to our commitment as Baker Hughes to take energy forward – making it safer, cleaner, and more efficient for people and the planet.

Creating Value is a Creative Process

The innovations, customizations and new processes mentioned above are just a few of the ways we create, or build on, customer value as part of our commitment to quality. The important point to make here is that creating value can look very different for different customers, depending on the industry and, most importantly, each customer’s challenge. Like so much in business, beginning the journey by understanding the unique customer needs is at the heart of delivering quality and peace of mind.