Upstream, midstream, and downstream Oil & Gas facilities are complex ecosystems. Thousands of equipment must be operated and maintained continuously and reliably for smooth functioning. Even a minor mismanagement or oversight can lead to downtime or safety incidents. To ensure the coordinated and seamless operation of such enormous equipment, Oil & Gas companies must carry out many data-dependent equipment-related activities, the required spares, how maintenance schedules, and much more. All this data is organized as 'masters' in the organization's database. An item master is one such master that contains detailed information about various materials, equipment, spare parts, and supplies used in the industry. Without maintaining an item master, inventory management, procurement, maintenance, and operations become inefficient and, to a certain extent, impossible. 

In this article, we will look closer at item masters - from how they are built to how they should be updated. Let's begin by understanding the definition of an item master.

What is an Item Master? 

Equipment in any facility, such as compressors, pumps, vessels, and pipes, are often called 'assets.' Each asset consists of multiple assemblies, which are, in turn, individual spare parts. A comprehensive item master or material catalog contains detailed information about each spare part. This information includes the name or identification number of the spare part, along with a wide range of associated details, commonly known as 'attributes.' The specific details captured may vary based on the company's ERP/CMMS system and typically include fields such as:

 - Item name 

 - Short and Long Description (for procurement)

 - Part Number or code

 - Manufacturer Details

 - Specifications and Technical data

 - Unit of Measure (e.g., meters, liters, kilograms)

 - Stock-keeping unit (SKU) information

 - Cost and pricing details

 - Lead time for procurement

 - Safety and regulatory information

As mentioned, some typical fields are used; however, the actual fields depend upon adopting client-specific templates or cataloging standards. 

The Cataloging Process for a Greenfield Facility

Even though an item master is an essential data master, it often contains discrepancies such as duplicates, incomplete data, outdated data, and wrong data. Before we explore how to eliminate these discrepancies, it is essential to understand how item masters are built in the first place. 

When an Oil & gas company plans to start a new train or plant, they engage an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) contractor to conceptualize, engineer, and build the facility. Drawings will be created based on the production requirements and the type of equipment needed. Once the drawings are finalized, the Materials or Procurement team will begin identifying equipment, assemblies, and spares from all the documents and cataloging them to create the item master. The item master is then used to release purchase orders or create an inventory strategy.

There are two scenarios in this process: 

1. Complete cataloging of all the items: In this scenario, every item is cataloged, which is recommended and ideal. The process of creating an item master should go hand in hand with the process of constructing the facility. Due to revisions and changes in drawings, companies often cannot catalog all the spares or items in time, which leads to the second scenario. 
2. Cataloging only manufacturer-recommended spares: To save time and resources, only manufacturer-recommended spares for each equipment are cataloged. Since this is not a comprehensive approach to building item masters, it leads to a high volume of daily cataloging requests after the plant's commissioning. It can lead to procurement delays and downtime. 

Once the facility is commissioned, if all, the volume of daily cataloging requests will be much lower than that in the second scenario. 

The Cataloging Process for a Brownfield Facility 

In an already operational facility, the cataloging work primarily revolves around the following tasks: 

1. Correcting wrong entries: During item creation, if any item is wrongly numbered, named, or described, it will be discovered during the operations. When such an item is discovered, a request will be raised, and the item will be re-cataloged to reflect the correct information. 
2. Data enrichment: In order to complete the project on time, ERP contractors and plant authorities often choose to capture only essential data fields for the items. However, this data may not be sufficient for the project's procurement stage. In such situations, data enrichment will be required and involves physically visiting the facility, taking pictures of the nameplates, and then reaching out to manufacturers for additional information.
3. Adding missing items: If, during the initial phase of building the item master, only manufacturer-recommended spares are cataloged, there will be daily cataloging requests that need to be addressed. 

Challenges while creating the Item Master

Incomplete data: To build a comprehensive item master and capture all the essential fields for each item, the data team will need access to a large number of documents, such as the manual data records book (MDR), P&ID diagrams, datasheets, priced spare parts list (PSPL), and SPIR data provided by the EPC contractor or OEM. Often, the data received is partial, leading to incomplete item masters. 

Revisions: Once the materials team receives the mentioned documents, they create the item master. Some drawings may be revised based on input from the engineering team or subject matter experts. This could lead to duplicate items being cataloged or cataloged earlier but not present in the revised drawings, resulting in redundancy. These changes could compromise the integrity of the item master as it is being assembled.

Duplicates: Duplicate entries are one of the most common issues with item masters. If the cataloging tool does not have a mechanism to identify and prevent duplicates, it becomes impossible to stop them from appearing. Duplicates affect the inventory value in the ERP system and can result in over-procurement of the same items.

Errors while entering the data: Data entry errors will likely occur if the cataloging tool does not have validation mechanisms. Catalogers continuously create new items, which makes this task prone to typos, copying and pasting errors, and more. These errors can disrupt daily activities and are difficult to identify and fix later.

Maintaining data quality: Catalogers rely on extensive input data, which may only sometimes be complete or accurate. If the quality of the input data decreases, it will be reflected in the quality of the item master.

Monitoring the progress: An item master creation project may involve a large team of data analysts working on multiple drawing files. Some of their tasks will include creating new items, while others will enrich existing item masters. Tracking the progress of cataloging work, especially in data enrichment projects, can be challenging. 

Project management: Cataloging is a continuous process that involves multiple parties, including the client, EPC contractor, and cataloging team. Some projects may have unique workflows and responsibility matrices and require project management capabilities such as delegation, reporting, estimation, and forecasting.

How MCAMS Helps

Hofintech's MCAMS has over 40 specialized features that address the abovementioned issues. Developed from more than 40 years of expertise and cataloging more than 10 million items, MCAMS offers a range of highly appreciated features, as explained below. 

Auto-Data Parsing from Source Descriptions: When creating an item master, the fields to capture depend on the type of item. For instance, the details captured for a flat gasket will differ from those captured for a round gasket. Getting the item category right is crucial to getting the next steps of the cataloging process right. 

The materials team depends on the source description for this information. Source descriptions are received from the client and are often incomplete. In MCAMS, even if source descriptions are incomplete, using the auto data parsing feature, additional details can be populated using the Noun and Noun Modifier. This saves a significant amount of time per item.  

Designate Optional and Mandatory Fields: Various fields must be captured depending on the item type (noun and noun modifier). There are two aspects to this. Not capturing enough data can disrupt operations, while capturing excessive information can slow down the cataloging process. In MCAMS, you can designate which fields are optional and mandatory to balance speed and data completeness.

KPIs for Data Enrichment: As we discussed earlier, tracking the progress of data enrichment projects is critical and challenging. In MCAMS, detailed KPIs for data enrichment can be outlined and tracked meticulously. 

Validations: Data entry errors can lead to misleading item masters or reduce their usefulness. In MCAMS, we have implemented validations for multiple data fields. These validations will identify empty fields, entries that are longer or shorter than allowed, incorrect formats for specific fields, and more. This feature significantly improves the quality of output by flagging common typing errors.

Industry Standards: The cataloging process has evolved and requires using various standards and best practices. MCAMS has standardized master templates for inputting and uploading data. It offers the flexibility to build item descriptions that follow UNSPSC, NATO, and MESC formats, to name a few. 

Summary 

Item Masters play a crucial role in the materials management and procurement processes of Oil & Gas plants. Therefore, it is essential to ensure their accuracy. MCAMS offers assistance to Oil & Gas companies in quickly building accurate and reliable item masters.

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