Performance improvement of oil and gas industry via lean concept: A case study from valves requisition

The oil and gas (O&G) industry utilizes engineering contractors (ECs) to perform analysis, evaluations and recommendations. The ambition of ECs is to create value for the O&G operators by minimizing the waste. Inherently, the ECs´ organization operates in project mode. Due to the frequently changing nature of: operators´ requirements; suppliers´ and/or manufacturers capabilities and restrictions; and lack of standardization in documentation as well as work processes (i.e. due to different engineering projects´ demands) the anticipated performance is jeopardized. The aforementioned inhibits the progress of the engineering projects, resulting in delays in delivery and causing significant losses to the operators as well as fines (and loss of goodwill) to the ECs. This manuscript illustrates a case study to demonstrate the possibility of performance improvement in the valves requisition process (VRP) in a contractor organization utilizing the lean concept. The case study deploys the value stream mapping (VSM) approach to investigate the underperforming activities in the VRP using a current state map (CSM). Finally, it proposes a future state map (FSM) with the possible improvements in projects´ performance.