Oakwell forges paperless, mobile inspection solution for Sasol

Oakwell today announced that it has completed the roll-out of an equipment inspection system for Sasol at the chemical giant`s solvents plant in Secunda. The paperless inspection system for Sasol Solvents now enables proactive management of equipment on the plant, as well as the ability to monitor and adjust ISO inspection cycles according to historic data analyses.

Sasol Solvents is a business division of the Sasol Group of companies. Established in 1950, is a world-leader in the commercial production of liquid fuels and chemicals from coal and crude oil. Sasol manufactures more than 200 fuel and chemical products at its plants in Sasolburg and Secunda in SA as well as at several other plants abroad.

Its products are exported to more than 90 countries around the world. Sasol Solvents approached Oakwell to streamline the division`s current inspection process, and to ensure compliance to statutory requirements.

"Our brief was to do away with vast amounts of unnecessary paperwork, to eliminate the time spent managing paper trails, ensure stricter control of information and to create an archiving system for ISO/NOSA reports that was quick and easy to use," says Lizette van Wyk, Project Manager at Oakwell. "Our response was to go about designing and developing a solution for Sasol Solvents that would meet the division`s vision of implementing a controlled and accurate inspection management system, while leveraging the existing IT investments and working in the harsh industrial environment of the plant."

Oakwell is a leading provider of custom software solutions to the South African market, delivering with Microsoft`s platform products and a pool of excellent Microsoft development skills. Success is achieved through the use of technology best practices, tight project control, and a solid partnership approach to clients.

To answer the brief, Oakwell created the Solvents Barcode Inspection System that interfaces with Sasol Solvent`s service order planning system and equipment register. The inspection schedules are defined within SAP, and then artisans are assigned their tasks. Because the plant is vast in size and artisans need to traverse large distances daily, it was key that a mobile and easy-to-use system was implemented. The solution was found in Symbol`s robust range of handheld barcode scanning devices that were deployed to complete the inspections.

"The biggest technical challenge in designing the system was to ensure readily available data from the ERP system through to the Solvents Inspection System, to the artisans and scanners and back to the ERP system, while keeping tight control of data integrity and accuracy," says Van Wyk. "The plant environment also produced technical challenges regarding the equipment being used, coverage and location of scanner docking stations."

These technology challenges were overcome through the deployment of an end-to-end Microsoft solution. Firstly, a Microsoft SQL Server database was chosen as the central data store for the system. With tight centralised control over the system data, Oakwell then built the required interfaces to SAP. The management and reporting functions were built for a Web browser interface using Visual Basic and Active Server Pages, allowing access from anywhere on the Sasol intranet. Finally a C-based questionnaire application was written for the artisans inspecting equipment using the Symbol handheld scanners.

Sasol has seen remarkable improvement in efficiency of inspections as a result of the system. "On the old paper system an inspection took one employee 40 working hours to complete, whereby with the new paperless system the same task took eight hours to complete, Employees are far more productive," says Piet Dicks, Sasol Project Manager.

Desmond Arendse, business information consultant for Sasol, highlighted the increased accuracy of the system. "Barcode stickers are fix mounted on equipment, an employee has to physically go to the equipment and scan it to enable him to conduct his inspection. Therefore the inspection info is a much better reflection of the state of the equipment on site."