No-code apps for equipment manufacturers in the oil and gas sector
There has been a lot of talk around Microsoft PowerApps lately, and rightly so. Their ease of use and speed at which non-coders can create an app for their business is revolutionary. Gone are the days of needing costly, specialist developers to create an app that automates a business process.
PowerApps can be used for any industry to simplify and automate almost any task. For those in the oil and gas industry, such as oil field equipment manufacturers, PowerApps are being used to rapidly solve business problems like inventory tracking, resource capacity, and field service challenges through the creation of low-code or no-code applications – and created in a matter of hours rather than months.
Many oil field equipment manufacturers face difficulties in getting real-time, realistic overviews of their available materials. Or agents in the field do not have access to live business information. With simple click and drag functionality, oil and gas equipment manufacturers are solving business challenges like:
- Inventory tracking – to provide the capability to review, adjust and monitor materials
- Production resource capacity – view a list of resources, search and filter to select a specific resource and view its total, reserved and remaining capacity information
- Field service – give intuitive interaction with stock at the point of loading and or consumption, access to a knowledge base, Bing Maps and a work order task flow for guidance
If we look at each of these apps in turn, we will see how they can automate your business processes.
Inventory tracking
An inventory tracker app provides you with the capabilities to review, adjust, and monitor your materials.
Challenges faced
Many equipment manufacturers face difficulties in getting a real-time, realistic overview of their available materials. This can lead to challenges such as buying more material than is required, or not having an accurate view of stock levels.
Solution
An inventory tracking app, using PowerApps, enables your employees to digitise the actual inventory of materials easily. The app will create a single source of materials data, which can then be utilised by the users of the app. Within the app, users can search for the appropriate materials, and verify and update the inventory level. All of this feeds back into the data source, allowing for analysis and better management of the inventory.
Production resource capacity
Challenges faced
Many equipment manufacturers do not have a real-time view of resource utilisation or what resources are available at any given time.
Solution
A production resource capacity app that uses Dynamics AX 2012 R3 or Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations resource capacity data and presents it on a mobile or tablet machine. Equipment manufacturers can view a list of resources, search and filter them to select a specific resource and view its total, reserved and remaining capacity information. Equipment manufacturers gain insight into where the resource is reserved, and graphs are also provided to present daily and weekly resource capacity information. With this app, production managers and planners can easily access the capacity load information on their mobile or tablet devices without logging into Dynamics.
Field service
Challenges faced
Many equipment manufacturers cannot provide their agents in the field access to business information on a live and interactive basis. Those that do are working from static data or pen and paper, both of which have limited value in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
Solution
A field service app provides intuitive interaction with the stock at the point of loading and or consumption, access to a knowledge base, Maps, and a work order task flow for guidance. Safety and compliance are standardised through an efficient check routine, while a scheduled, more comprehensive unit check can be used to capture photographs and images.
PowerApps is great for creating apps for problems or processes where there is no budget, need or resource for a traditional application development project. However, when combined with complementary platforms like Microsoft Flow, Power BI and Dynamics AX or Dynamics 365, there is massive potential to take the performance of your equipment manufacturing business to the next level.
Read our PowerApps guide for more information or contact us.