Chemical Industry Service Provider Award

About the award

This award is to recognise the contribution of Service Providers make to the success of the UK chemical industry. The award will recognise innovation and outstanding delivery of services for example, engineering, IT, legal, training to the chemical or pharmaceutical sectors.

Judges were impressed with Axiom’s growth and presence in the chemicals sector, especially the focus on process safety and their innovative Asset Management Tool. This coupled with Axiom’s commitment to the next generation of engineers through apprenticeships, working with local Further Education colleges and sponsorship of STEM activities make Axiom worthy winners.

AXIOM has established itself as a leading provider of Asset Integrity Management Services to the UK’s high-hazard and COMAH regulated sites. This includes some of the largest Chemical and Pharmaceutical producers in the UK and many of the diverse small to mid-size companies across UK Industrial clusters of the North East, North West, Humber and Scotland. AXIOM has achieved this via its four complementary, integrated engineering disciplines in: -

• UKAS-accredited Inspection & Non-Destructive Testing
• Materials
• Mechanical
• Process Safety Consultancy and Process Safety Engineering

Listening to, and understanding the challenges faced by owners and operators seeking pandemic solutions within the Chemical sector led AXIOM to review its offerings and invest in the growth of a new service. The introduction of Process Safety Consultancy and Process Safety Engineering Services enabled AXIOM to collaborate with clients to identify the gap between their safety goals and the operational reality.

Studies by the ECITB also suggest that almost 20% of the existing engineering workforce will retire by 2026 leaving a gap in knowledge and experience in high hazard operation. AXIOM has been at the forefront to provide support clients across the Chemical industry with sharing of their knowledge, training and upskilling of current workforce to maintain the smooth running of plant operations.

AXIOM also recognised that, whilst many other firms in the sector offer such services, AXIOM’s ability to integrate Process Safety with its existing disciplines including its digital asset life cycle tool stood to offer a unique value proposition to operators. Adoption of technological solutions is highlighted as a key driver to aid improvements with AXIOM’s digital asset lifecycle tool, the Asset Management Database (AMD), developed by the company to drive safety improvement efforts.

With significant financial investment, AXIOM recruited and invested in specialists with extensive leadership experience on upper tier COMAH sites in the speciality chemicals and petrochemical industry in process safety, development, design and project management roles. This enabled AXIOM to spearhead this capability to demonstrate technical expertise to support clients in the delivery of effective and compliant Asset Management programmes.

Key clients embraced this opportunity to review their operational practices via design verification to ensure responsible operation of their assets against the appropriate indicators and best practices. Pressure relief calculations have also been undertaken for clients to deliver assurance that existing calculations, provision of valves are suitable, all hazardous scenarios are captured supported by the relevant numerical evidence. Clients recognise that this ongoing service has provided additional safeguards and an improved approach to their asset integrity management programme resulting in improved safety and sustainability of their operations.

AXIOM’s commitment to their clients does not end there with continual support offered to build a strong Process Safety culture to mitigate risk and implement of effective controls. This is undertaken through regular dialogue to encourage ongoing monitoring of performance and adjustment of processes. With further training support to educate encourage and develop skill within the Chemical industry, AXIOM has demonstrated its determination to bridge the skills gap by leading by example to ensure that robust safety practices are embedded for future generations to come.