OneSubsea

Joining us to explore the company’s achievements is Luidi Maia, Global Well Access Operations Director at OneSubsea. To begin, Luidi highlights the lessons he has learnt from his career journey thus far, and how he’s applied his technical and supply chain knowledge to his current position.

“I started my career as a field engineer within Schlumberger (SLB), which provided me with a practical knowledge of the technology that I’ve used throughout my career in the deepwater energy industry,” says Luidi. “From there, I began getting more and more involved in supply chain and procurement – first from a customer perspective, and then from a supply chain management perspective.

“This journey has allowed me to develop a systematic approach to business model innovations and procurement. In particular, my role as an Inventory Manager for the Middle East and Asia at SLB involved managing around 16 countries to optimise inventory, replace and find alternatives and reduce the overall cost of ownership for the business.

“In this role, I would promote inventory sharing and collaboration across business units to improve inventory utilisation and I developed forward-looking methods to define which inventory type and quantity should be stocked into the distribution centre in Dubai. From there, I would look for ways to optimise sourcing strategies for that inventory.

“We implemented a supply and demand planning group in Dubai, to look centrally into common material demands across the Middle East and Asia regions, and developed proactive methods to share and optimise inventory across those regions based on forecasted activity. This group brought so much cost efficiency to the way the company was operating in those regions that SLB decided to implement that same approach in the US, Europe and Latin America.

“Not long after this, I became the regional manager for OneSubsea, leading teams within North and South America. I used the same principle of supply chain optimisation – a centralisation of resources and collaboration across business units to improve the whole region.

“I created a pool of subject matter experts in the US which would support operations in other business units and allow us to reduce our footprint where our activity wouldn’t justify a permanent support structure. We centralised our assets and redistributed them based on forecasted demand using the same supply chain principle we developed in Dubai for inventory management and it allowed us to reduce our CAPEX expenditure by 80% yoy.

“You can`t afford to continuously invest in new assets every time – engineers love to create new solutions but if you build a new system or new solution every time, you’ll not be competitive and will be out of business in no time. So we decided to focus our innovation efforts into a modular small group of assets that can address 80 to 90% of our customers’ needs.”

Luidi explains how having these assets in place makes the process of innovation more straightforward within the company – providing it with the scope to utilise emerging technologies effectively and efficiently.

“We just deployed our new technology that we developed in partnership with Envirex Group – the Submersible Wireless Installer for Tubing (SWIFT),” says Luidi. “This technology operates the hanger and installs it along with the completion of the well, removing the need for a lot of heavyweight umbilical and surface control technology. It simplifies land and lock operations substantially and reduces overall rig time.

“However, the process of developing new technologies such as SWIFT can take a lot of time due to the stringent standards that a subsea developer is required to comply with, during the design and qualification process.

“So we focus a lot on standardised building blocks when it comes to technology development – these can then be pre-engineered, upgraded and gradually deployed across our applications. Then, when we’re looking at innovating, all of the components we’re implementing are already pre-qualified and can be quickly integrated into a system.

“If you want to innovate in this industry, you need to look at the right time horizon, because it can take time to qualify certain materials. Some of the latest innovations we’re doing right now are enabling electrification. For instance, we’ve built an all-electric subsea system, with standardised building blocks, designed to reduce the carbon footprint and make the whole subsea installation more agile.”

According to Luidi, a robust supply chain and agile procurement procedures are crucial to these innovations.

“The one constant between customers is that they want scale, and they want faster delivery,” explains Luidi. “So we need to accelerate delivery and lower risk while staying affordable for the customer, which means we have to consolidate demand to reach that level of efficiency.”

In order to satisfy these customers, OneSubsea has prioritised building robust partner relationships to promote efficiency and agility across the supply chain.

“We have a lot of conversations with our partners on what is and isn’t feasible, and what our vision is as to where new technologies should be deployed” shares Luidi. “There are several ways we can use a new technology, and we go to our partners for input on what the best approach is.

“This creates an intimacy with the customer and with the suppliers. We’re lucky to be able to walk up to those suppliers, discuss ideas and come up with more effective ways to deliver what the industry needs.

“For example, machining can become extremely complicated depending on how you design your tools. So we sit down with our suppliers and say: ‘How can I design this product in a way which is more efficient for you to manufacture? How can I change my internal process to drive efficiency to the way you run your business? How can I help you remove your bottle necks?’

“By asking the right questions, we can shrink our supply chain cycle and make our processes more agile, benefitting both us and our partners. And as we develop faster response times, everyone we work with is able to become more efficient.

“For us, a priority is maintaining steady engagement between engineering, manufacturing and supply chain. This helps us shape solutions that are faster and more streamlined, allowing us to create an ecosystem where these three areas of OneSubsea which typically interface with the final manufacturing supplier, work in symbiosis with our vendors, reducing costs and responding faster to our customers’ needs.”

Looking ahead, Luidi’s goals for the future of OneSubsea Well Access group are based on nurturing partnerships and collaboration to stay on the cutting edge of subsea Well Access technology production.

“The future of OneSubsea lies in effective collaboration,” summarises Luidi. “We have to stay close to our customers in order to understand their evolving needs for the future in order to stay relevant for the long term, and maintain a robust and sustainable supply chain.”

Learn more about OneSubsea here.

ADDED VALUE

Endurance and Discipline

“I have a very competitive background,” says Luidi. “I was a semi-professional swimmer in Brazil and played handball competitively, and that discipline early on really helped shape the way I approach life. Even though I work 10-12 hours a day, I prioritise finding time to work out at least three times a week. I like to relate my job back to endurance sports. It’s all about consistency and hitting targets over and over again, which requires that level of discipline.”

Historical evolution

“I like to learn and grow by reading,” says Luidi. “I’m particularly into reading about history at the moment. For example, I’m currently reading about the US Constitution. The book examines the country’s journey from a colony to a superpower, and the relations it built over time. There’s so much knowledge that you can retain from one generation to the next.

“I find it interesting to explore history and better understand what other generations did, and see how we’re repeating patterns in a different way. It’s the cycle of evolution – from Vikings to the democratic societies we’ve built today. It makes me think about how humans will continue to evolve, and what’s coming next.”

Connect with Luidi on LinkedIn.