This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 6, 2021 - September 12, 2021

Malaysian-based explosion-protection (Ex) specialist firm EXS Synergy Sdn Bhd continues to gain ground, even amid the pandemic.

It recently secured a long-term contract with PTT Public Co Ltd, Thailand’s national oil company. PTT is embarking on a digitalisation journey, and EXS Synergy’s software system is now being used to manage all of PTT’s Ex equipment and systems in its offshore assets. 

Essentially, EXS Synergy’s software is a digital Ex management tool. Ex is required for the maintenance of equipment, especially in hazardous locations such as the facilities in the oil and gas (O&G) industry. It is not limited to O&G, though. 

EXS Synergy managing director Fairuz Yahaya and his team are at an exciting point in their journey. “PTT has about 200 platforms. What’s great is that the whole process, from deployment of the software to training, was done entirely online. The beauty of developing software is that it can be deployed remotely,” says Fairuz.

Besides PTT, the Ex company also has clients in Malaysia using its software. 

Before creating its own digital tool, the team was in the process of digitising its project records and coming up with standard procedures. Fairuz explains: “We realised that just digitising would not be enough. We decided to digitalise the whole process and we [eventually] did everything, including the development of the software as well as business analysis in-house.”

“The software is designed for operators. So, it’s suitable for personnel doing the inspections and maintenance,” Fairuz continues.

In a manual inspection, offshore personnel would often do paper-intensive recording and inspecting processes. “There are thousands upon thousands of pieces of equipment on a single platform, each with its own long reporting templates. Imagine taking pictures of each equipment, writing down your findings on pages of paper, and logging in the data and compiling it on Excel or Word to generate each report.”

Now, using the software developed by EXS Synergy, inspectors can choose standardised findings and recommendations using a drop-down list, Fairuz says, which also helps reduce human error that may come with using checklists on physical paper.

“Work that used to take two months can now be done in about a month. We used to inspect 15 pieces of equipment a day, and now we do 30. Instead of a digital camera, laptop and suitcases filled with paper, all we need now is a tablet.” The increase in productivity also results in less time offshore, he adds. This leads to less exposure to safety risks, as well as a reduction in costs for asset owners and operators. 

“The software uses a client dashboard that shows a bird’s eye view of the inspection progress, the status of equipment defects, as well as real-time tracking of how many pieces of equipment have been inspected. It’s also able to give an analysis of defects and allows asset owners to pinpoint their most problematic areas.”

The whole timeline to create the software took about two years, including brainstorming. 

“Developing a software from scratch involves not just coding but also what comes before coding. We needed to design the system in a way that fit our vision, including understanding all the technicalities in our particular discipline.” This refers to business analysis, he explains, which the team did on its own, as team members are Ex subject matter experts. 

Fairuz does not necessarily call himself an IT person, though. “The coding aspect, on the other hand, exposed us to the IT side of things, something we had never done before. My background is primarily in chemical engineering and so is that of my project manager Siti Norani Samjuri, with a focus on materials engineering. Our other co-founders have backgrounds in electrical engineering and the supply chain.”

Initially, the team attempted to work with external developers, as it had hired two companies to outsource software development. 

“We spent some money here but, unfortunately, we did not have much to show for it. We engaged with two IT companies for about four months and, during this period, realised that the software we had envisioned could not be designed by parties who did not understand what we wanted.

“There was a lot of miscommunication, so we decided to hire our first [in-house] deve­loper,” Fairuz says. 

The team also collaborated with two bachelor’s degree students from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, who did their final-year project with EXS Synergy. “We decided to hire one of them right after he graduated, as he had done quite well with us. My team gave me a very positive impression about the benefits of working with young people as well as believing in the talent that is available in our own backyard,” he adds.

Now, the digital division of the Ex firm has five people — developers, systems testers as well as interface designers.

Fairuz says: “We also did something new that had never been done before, which is to use risk-based inspection (RBI) methodology. With RBI, instead of doing scheduled inspections every three or five years, you can look into the risk profile of the equipment. 

“With this, we can decide or advise end-users as to when the next period of inspection should be, according to its risk profile in real-time, providing that the offshore facility has a decent internet connection.” 

The team also built upon the standard guideline for RBI for electrical equipment, following Energy Institute guidelines, Fairuz adds. EI is a global network of professionals in the energy industry. 

This also reduces costs, as some pieces of equipment would be safe to use beyond their usual maintenance timeframe.

“Before this, clients would have to wait at least two months for inspection reports. We know of cases where clients have had to wait eight months for reports from their service providers. The longer you wait, the longer the payment process will be, and it’s a lose-lose situation for all,” he says.

“We would like to secure more clients in Malaysia, and penetrate other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam and Myanmar. Countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council — consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — are also near-term targets. Ex is regulated in the Middle East, so it will be easier to penetrate the market,” Fairuz adds.

“A challenge we have right now is owning local assets in each of those markets, considering the global pandemic.”

Even though the current focus of the software is Ex, there is still a lot of room to expand the software’s capability and use cases. “Ex is a subset of the electrical instrument discipline. The natural expansion for us is to cover the remainder of the large discipline, including obsolescence and operability of electrical equipment. After this, other disciplines can be done too. We want the software to be able to handle asset integrity, which is a huge area,” Fairuz says.

Other use cases for Ex include industries such as renewables and latex manufacturing, as both involve electrical equipment and machinery. 

To expand upon its software for multi-discipline engineering, EXS Synergy is also looking at possible collaborations with local engineering companies that have an interest in digitalisation or even in developing their own software, says Siti.

Considering the depth and breadth of EXS Synergy’s plans, it needs more funds and is open to investment.

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