outlook J.R. Quiles Oil & Gas: The Half-Full Perspective I


n any situation, you can look at the glass being half empty or half full. How you perceive the situation at the time and your course of action as a result of it determines future outcome.


Heavy Industry/ Oil & Gas Program Manager FANUC America Hoff man Estates, IL


putting a hold on funded projects involving capital equip- ment purchases in 2015. Machine tool purchases which tend to come with signifi cant price tags are being put on hold. Companies that still have billion-dollar backlogs are delaying purchases of production equipment. Looking at these hard facts on paper, it may initially appear that the glass looks half empty, but in reality, the glass is half full as it is the perfect time during the slowdown to analyze manufacturing processes to maximize productivity in preparation for the oil & gas market recovery. When business is booming, there isn’t time to analyze manufactur- ing processes and make adjustments. In order to fulfi ll demand, machines are in continuous opera- tion and taking them out


When the pumps start


producing again there will be less time to take steps to improve productivity than there is now.


Recently, some of the large players in the oil & gas indus- try have announced signifi cant layoffs. Thousands of people are now out of work. People who are closer to the well head as opposed to those who are mid-stream in the processes are the fi rst to feel the effects. Additionally, recent company acquisitions mean redundancy of products and manufactur- ing capabilities which also leads to layoffs. Eventually, this should fi nd its way down to the shop fl oor. This has been generally attributed to the price of oil, which had fallen below $46 per barrel in early 2015. Some industry experts are pre- dicting that the prices will bottom out at $40 while others pre- dict it will be lower. Some predictions are that the downturn is short-lived while others predict it will last through 2015. What this means for manufacturing is companies are


of production for testing purposes is not an option. However, during a slowdown is the ideal time to review and test pro- cesses that require manpower, time and other resources that are not available when business is booming. So, right now consider testing, evaluating and adding productivity solutions such as adaptive control to reduce cycle time in the roughing process, automating rethreading or thread repair as well as data management and load/unload automation. This is also a good time to consider retrofi ts of existing machine tools instead of purchasing brand-new machines.


Reduce Roughing Cycle Time Reducing cycle time in the roughing process is one operation to review and test. Adaptive control solutions allow improvement in both machine cycle time and tool life. In fact,


35 — Energy Manufacturing 2015


Images courtesy FANUC America


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224