Italian Construction Firm Deploys RFID to Track Offshore Equipment

The tags are also scanned when assets are certified by an inspector as safe for use, and recertified once they leave the drill site and are again inspected. In this way, the company's management knows when each piece of equipment was last certified, and can provide that record for insurance purposes, if necessary.

"Our expectation was to find a technology that would provide our valued employees with a safer job environment," Franzoni states, "and allow them to do their jobs faster and more effectively," but the system is also intended to provide Saipem with greater efficiency and inventory accuracy that he says will help the company "remain a leader in the offshore oil industry."

"We have loaded more than 1,000 items into the NAMASTE program already," Franzoni says, "and are actively tracking that inventory. This RFID solution, using Omni-ID tags, will improve safety and security, and help our valued employees better perform their jobs in a dangerous environment."

And that, he says, "is the best ROI Saipem can have."

In the future, Saipem plans to expand its use of RFID tags to include drilling equipment and the tracking of underwater oil steel pipelines, by installing Omni-ID tags into grout (a concrete material covering the pipe). "Even further down the line," he says, "we would like to see all inventory tagged with RFID as it leaves the manufacturer, such as drilling pipes, gas bottles, anchors, hydraulic hammers, etc."