Technological advancement challenges are rippling through the oil and gas industry, and those ripples are making their way to the manufacturers that build the tools used to make components of that equipment.
As customers add more automation, the manufacturers who build those components have to follow suit, said Brad Mutchler, business development leader, oil and gas, with Ceratizit USA, a high-technology engineering group specializing in cutting tools and hard material solutions.
Speaking with the Reporter-Telegram by telephone, Mutchler attributed some of that drive toward automation to the skills gap.
“The skills gap is an issue we’re all confronting,” he said. “There’s still uncertainty in the overall manufacturing economy, whether it’s medical, oil and gas or aerospace.”
Whether the components being manufactured go into equipment used above or below ground, he said the processes customers use in their work require highly skilled personnel. People are needed to run those automated machines and need to be upskilled or reskilled, he pointed out
The tools he and his competitors produce are increasingly highly technical tools designed to increase efficiency and productivity. Mutchler said those tools can help his machine shop customers compete with the machine shop next door by helping those shops create more competitive high-tech tools while also addressing the skills gap.
“It’s incumbent upon us to have that as part of our warranty,” he stated. “If you are using our tools, I’ll show your people how to use them and even troubleshoot them.”
Some customers even ask his company to tour their plants and observe their manufacturing processes to see what tools the company can offer that would improve those processes.
Ceratizit just unveiled its new WTX-HFDS solid carbide drill utilizing innovative pyramid geometry for aggressive and precise drilling performance – primarily on steel – while ensuring process security.
Mutchler said his customers build components for equipment sold by “people who sell rate per hour penetration of rocks. If they get more penetration per hour, they get to complete the well faster. The salesman can go out to the rig and say, ‘Use our rock bit and I can give you more feet per hour of penetration.’ There’s no difference than me offering our cutting tool. We want to sell it because we also know the customer gets a benefit.”
His customers want to be able to provide machine parts faster and more competitively while maintaining quality, he explained. Frac pumps, for example, are an extraordinary piece of equipment that the manufacturer wants to produce in less time because those pumps have a limited lifespan before they have to be pulled out of production and serviced.
“If our customer can’t manufacture frac pumps quickly and can’t keep up with demand, he’s not producing,” Mutchler said. “Those in the oil and gas company want better parts, better quality, and faster. They want more quantity without sacrificing quality.”
Just as drivers buy increasingly technology complex new cars for better mileage and safety, he said his tools are purchased by manufacturers who want tolls that will let them produce more complex components faster and more economically without sacrificing quality.
The key, Mutchler said, is listening to customer requirements.
“Whether it’s Boeing producing 787s or Schlumberger wanting to drill 10,000 feet into the ground, we have to listen to each customer and understand what they need.”
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September 18, 2021 at 07:40PM
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Drive for efficiency, automation impacts machine shops - Midland Reporter-Telegram
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