MB Inspection
Inspection perfection
MB Inspection Ltd is a major provider of integrity engineering, inspection, management and NDT Services including specialist rope access services to the oil and gas, petrochemical, utility and power generation industries.
It has facilities in Falkirk, Aberdeen, Great Yarmouth, Teeside and Warrington with an approximate turnover of £32 million.
MB Inspection is a successful and progressive company committed to investing in its people to achieve the company’s maximum potential. It aims to identify and promote a team of people that will constantly challenge and continually improve its own and its client’s working practices.
The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Motherwell Bridge Ltd, which was formed in 2003 after the restructuring of the original Motherwell Bridge Group – which, during the last century, was responsible for engineering and constructing some of the most prestigious process plants in the world. MB Inspection is a key part of the revitalised and profitable Motherwell Bridge Ltd.
With nearly 20 years of operational experience, MB Inspection has gained a reputation for expertise, quality and safety. The majority of inspections the company carries out are in the form of long-term inspection contracts with several major international companies in the refining, chemical and power industries. The specialist knowledge of the organisation and its high safety and quality standards make it one of the leading UK inspection companies.
In June 2006, MB Inspection opened a specialist rope access and NDT base in Warrington. The site is ideally located close to the Shell Stanlow refinery and petrochemical plant where MB 
Inspection undertakes an expanding range of rope access and NDT activities. It will also play a central role in securing new business for fabric maintenance and NDT works. The new base is managed by Alun Williams and will also have sufficient room for the planned construction of radiographic bays. The new office area provides the ideal space from which to manage
MB Inspection’s growing business and also accommodates the specialist teams for both Rope Access and NDT. The site will also create an extra ten to 20 jobs in the area. MB Inspection is committed to providing its clients with a quality service and, as part of that commitment, is a quality-approved company, registered to ISO 9002 by the British Standards Institute Ltd (BSI), with an Enviromark Bronze Award. The company has also been successfully re-audited by IRATA – the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association, as part of the requirement for full membership of the industry’s governing body for all of its UK locations. An ongoing program of audits, internal reviews and regular meetings allows MB Inspection to continually monitor and improve its quality procedures and performance, in principle and in practice throughout all its operations.
MB Inspection has recently launched technology designed to make corrosion detection faster, more effective and less expensive. The electromagnetic acoustic transducer (Emat) system was created to provide detailed surveys of pipe network integrity even in inaccessible areas. The ultrasonic system uses a specific type of sound wave suited to discovering flaws in solid materials (lamb waves), to provide accurate pipe corrosion information. The system can survey pipes horizontally and vertically and has the potential to scan up to 500 metres of pipe in a day. The EMAT technology is ideally suited to ensure pipe-work meets increasingly stringent Health and Safety Executive guidelines.
The framework of the MB Inspection Health, Safety and Environmental Management System (SMS), has been developed to promote a high degree of awareness and a pro-active and positive culture towards these key issues. All on-site operations are governed by a clearly defined system of pre-job risk assessments and safety analyses. In addition, the team leader assesses all aspects of safety on a continual basis. A process of ongoing audits, assessments, reviews and safety meetings, to ensure the performance further strengthens this and effectiveness of the system is also continually updated and improved.
MB Inspection is an example of a company, which is willing to play its part in raising health and safety standards right across the board, by working hard to improve its own H&S performance. Every year RoSPA invites companies of all sizes, from all sectors of industry and commerce to enter the Occupational Health and Safety Awards Scheme. The awards are presented annually and the company has received the RoSPA Gold Award from 1997 through to 2000 and has been awarded the RoSPA Gold Medal from 2001 to 2005. In order for MB Inspection to achieve this award the company provided evidence of excellent safety management practices and demonstrated a consistently good accident and injury performance.
MB Inspection’s commitment to H&S is supported by the development of its employees. The company provides first class specialist training in areas such as, rigging and lifting, roof top safety, manual handling awareness and emergency first aid. As a founder member of the IRATA, the company has been represented and active in ensuring that equitable levels of competence and training have been established. MB Inspection has qualified IRATA approved trainers as staff members and some are certified to NEBOSH general and diploma standard. The training of all employees is held in its new purpose built facility in Falkirk.
The company has also developed work procedures and training programmes for a variety of organisations. By drawing on its expert knowledge and professional training courses, MB Inspection’s clients can carry out work tasks safely and efficiently, within current guidelines and standards.
Motherwell Bridge Ltd, the parent company of MB Inspection Ltd, has recently undergone a management buy-out backed by JOHCM Private Equity. Company chairman Hugh Hayes and 11 other senior managers have acquired a 26 per cent stake in the group, with the balance bought by funds managed and advised by JOHCM Private Equity, which has had a longstanding relationship with the company since being a shareholder of the old group prior to 2003. Due to this management buy-out, MB Inspection has a promising future ahead. With Motherwell Bridge steadily growing, MB Inspection will also have strong opportunities to expand in the future.
MBInspection
www.mbinspection.co.uk