Valve Components Limited

Well ahead

Formed in 1987, Valve Components Limited (VCL) is a Scottish company that provides turnkey production services to the oil, gas and petrochemical industries including equipment engineering, prototype testing and project management.

It is part of the privately owned Glenalmond Group, which includes pipe technology companies IODS Oiltool, IODS Pipeclad and IODS Pipe Fabrications. Though based at Glasgow’s Kelvin Industrial Estate, VCL is currently expanding its market into emerging international regions such as Asia Pacific and Brazil.

Well known for the surface and subsea wellhead equipment it manufactures, there is very little that the company is unable to produce for its clients. Some of its better known items include ranges of actuators, valves, gates and seats, riser and drilling equipment.

VCL goes into further detail about the company’s activities: “VCL provides turnkey production services, including assembly and testing, and API 17D and 6A PR2 prototype testing to the main oil and gas original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Aker, GE, FMC, Cameron and Dril Quip Inc. We opened a subsidiary in Port Klang, Malaysia, in 2007 and this month have opened an office in Rio de Janeiro as part of a staged approach to the creation of a production facility in this area.”

The company’s Malaysian facilities are equipped with two state-of-the-art welding units with independently qualified weld procedures and heat treatment capability, giving customers the opportunity for on site weld cladding and heat treatment services. VCL also provides on site surface coating capabilities, with a variety of materials and techniques available including copper plating, xylan coating, manganese phosphate, electroless nickel plating and subsea painting supplied through its partner company – Armourcote Malaysia ( part of Surface Technology UK )

VCL delivers high quality equipment and prototype-testing using experienced hydraulic test engineers and state-of-the-art testing equipment. The East Kilbride, Glasgow facility houses a Class 10,000 clean room, clean build areas, hydrostatic test and flushing equipment and gas testing capabilities. Verification and extreme temperature tests of between -73 and 177 degrees Celsius are available to customers wanting to put new developments through rigorous analysis.

Alongside manufacturing and testing, the company also has a number of customer-focused initiatives designed to increase the value of its services. The company operates this under the concept of ‘Value Engineering’ whereby costs are reduced through close working relationships with clients, engineering support, having dedicated supply chain management team, and using lean methods of manufacturing to achieve a zero per cent waste rate. Together, these ensure VCL’s customers receive the best possible service and product for the lowest price at a quick rate of delivery.

It is important to the company that it delivers the best possible customer service and to achieve this it has dedicated project management teams staffed by experts in the field. Each team provides contract management, QA support, procurement services and administrative support, ensuring a single point of contact for customers for all aspects of the project to achieve ultimate success.

VCL talks further about the company’s approach to customer relations: “Our relationships are key to the company’s long-term business strategy, and we have various long term agreements in place with several key OEMs. We are continually striving to improve these relationships to develop long term security for both VCL and our customers”.

VCL already serves a diverse number of international regions including Houston, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, and Malaysia however the two main regions of interest to the company at the moment are Brazil and the Asia Pacific. For example, the company has put aside a considerable investment sum for its South American operations to cover the development of a production facility, to be completed by 2011. Furthermore, with Malaysia being a low cost region for both employees and resources, the company looks forward to business in this region increasing greatly.

To assure clients of its manufacturing, production and management quality, the company has undertaken a number of industry standard accreditations to supplement its own in-house quality systems. These include ISO 9001 supported by the Q-Pulse ISO 9100 record management software, ISO 14001 for environmental quality and OHSAS 18001 for employee health and safety. Perhaps most importantly, however, is the company’s use of the Six Sigma business management programmes in which it has one black belt and four green belts.

Concluding, VCL considers the future with confidence: “It all falls around our current positioning as a market leader in the supply of surface and subsea well head equipment. However we need to consolidate this, help develop other business within other key oil and gas sectors, and continually look for opportunities for growth in areas such as renewables where the development opportunities will be increasing in the future.”

Valve Components Limited
Services: Manufacture, assembly & test of surface and subsea wellhead equipment, including API 17D and 6A prototype testing