NDT Crew Dispatch and Technician Scheduling in the UK and Europe

Assign qualified technicians and crews to jobs by method, level and availability. Request a demo. Affordable. Accessible. Fully customizable. Quote on request.

Scheduling NDT crews across the UK and Europe

An NDT company working in the UK and Europe schedules across very different kinds of work. Offshore, crews run fixed rotations on North Sea installations and are at the mercy of helicopters and weather. Onshore, refineries, chemical parks and power stations pack their turnarounds into short spring and autumn windows. Fabrication shops building pressure equipment under the Pressure Equipment Directive need suitably approved personnel at specific inspection points. And across all of it sit third-party certification schemes, working time rules, cross-border paperwork and data protection law.

Most companies still hold the plan in a spreadsheet and a coordinator's memory. That works until a helicopter is cancelled for three days of fog and the whole next fortnight shifts, or until a technician's PCN certificate is found to have lapsed during a client audit.

Team Assignments, part of Atlantis NDT ERP, gives you one scheduling record for every job: site and GPS coordinates, mobilisation and demobilisation dates, the crew and the equipment serial numbers. Jobs move through planned, dispatched, in field, submitted and closed. A technician availability calendar records assigned, leave, training, sick and unavailable time and blocks overlaps. Technicians and equipment serials cannot be double-booked, and the app warns when assigned equipment is out of calibration. Each technician shows status, current assignment, utilisation percentage and next available date, in calendar, kanban and list views.

North Sea rotations out of Aberdeen

Offshore inspection on the UK Continental Shelf is organised around rotations such as two weeks on and three off, or three and three, with crews flying from Aberdeen, Sumburgh or Norwich, and in the Norwegian, Dutch and Danish sectors from hubs such as Stavanger, Bergen, Den Helder and Esbjerg. Every technician needs current offshore survival and emergency training, typically OPITO BOSIET or its FOET refresher, and a valid offshore medical before they can go on the manifest. Bed space is limited, so the operator often decides how many people you can send. Recording offshore training and medical expiry per technician, and checking them at dispatch, is typically configured during implementation; the employee NDT profile already holds medical fitness expiry.

In Team Assignments, each trip is an assignment with a mobilisation date on the flight day and a demobilisation date on the planned return. Installations can be pinned with GPS coordinates, which helps when an assignment covers a normally unattended installation visited from a nearby host. Rotational rest periods can be recorded as unavailable so they do not look like spare capacity.

The real value shows when weather intervenes. When fog or wind holds flights and a crew's return slips by three days, you move the demobilisation date. If that now overlaps the next job for any of those technicians, the overlap is blocked, and the coordinator sees exactly which later assignment has to be re-crewed. On a spreadsheet, that clash usually surfaces when the second client calls to ask where the crew is.

Equipment goes offshore for the whole trip. Once booked by serial number it cannot be booked elsewhere, and the calibration warning helps you avoid sending a gauge whose calibration lapses mid-trip, when replacing it means another helicopter seat.

Onshore turnarounds in Europe's industrial clusters

Onshore, the busiest NDT work follows turnaround calendars at refineries and chemical sites: the Rotterdam and Antwerp port clusters, German chemical parks along the Rhine, Teesside and the Humber in the UK, and sites around the Mediterranean. Operators plan major shutdowns years ahead but confirm scopes late, and many cluster them in spring and autumn to avoid winter weather and summer holiday staffing gaps. For contractors, that means peaks where every Level 2 in the region is in demand and cross-border crews are common.

When a Dutch contractor takes Belgian or German work, or a UK company sends crews to the continent, planning gets harder: travel days, accommodation, different site inductions and the paperwork of posting workers abroad. Mobilisation and demobilisation dates on each assignment keep travel inside the booking, and the next available date on each technician tells your sales team when a named person can start a new job.

The kanban view is where operations managers watch the season: planned jobs still waiting for crews, jobs dispatched, crews in field, and submitted jobs waiting for report review before they can be closed and invoiced. When a client asks for four more technicians at short notice, the calendar shows who is actually free, rather than who you think is free.

EN ISO 9712, PCN and PED personnel requirements

In Europe, NDT personnel are usually certified under EN ISO 9712 by an independent certification body. In the UK the best known is PCN, administered by BINDT; across the continent national schemes operate in most countries. Certification belongs to the individual, is valid for a fixed period, needs renewal and later recertification, and requires a regular near vision check. Some clients, particularly US-owned operators, also accept or ask for ASNT-based employer certification, and welding inspection staff may hold CSWIP.

The Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EU adds a specific requirement: for permanent joints on pressure equipment in categories III and IV, NDT personnel must be approved by a third-party organisation recognised by a Member State. So the right certificate is not a nice-to-have on PED work. It decides whether the inspection counts.

Atlantis NDT does not provide ISO 9712, PCN or CSWIP training or certification. The ERP records them. The Certificates app holds each technician's scheme, level, method, sector, certifying body and dates, calculates status as active, expiring soon, expired or revoked, and creates warnings 90 days before a cert or vision test expires, with configurable daily email alerts. Timesheets warn if a technician's cert is not valid. Coordinators use it alongside Team Assignments to confirm the right person is going to the right job; building a direct cert check into the assignment itself is available as part of the customization scope agreed with you.

Standards on the job sheet

The job itself is framed by European standards: EN ISO 17640 for ultrasonic testing of welds, EN ISO 17636 for radiographic testing of welds, EN ISO 17638 and EN ISO 23278 for magnetic particle testing and its acceptance levels, EN ISO 3452 for penetrant testing and EN ISO 17637 for visual testing, plus product standards and client specifications. Acceptance levels differ from job to job, and a technician qualified in one sector may not be what the client needs in another.

The Project app records methods, codes, scope and acceptance criteria for each NDT job, and tasks carry procedure and WPS references. Team Assignments then carries who goes and with what. Keeping both linked means the crew sent to a PED vessel job is picked while looking at the codes and sector on that job, not from memory.

Working time, posted workers and cross-border crews

European working time rules shape what a feasible schedule looks like. The EU Working Time Directive sets a 48-hour average weekly limit and minimum daily and weekly rest; in the UK, the Working Time Regulations apply the same principles, with an individual opt-out possible. Offshore work has its own arrangements. Turnarounds with long shifts need to be planned so crews get their rest and are not rolled straight from one shutdown into the next.

Team Assignments helps by making each technician's run of work visible. The calendar shows back-to-back assignments at a glance, and utilisation highlights the people being run hardest. Hours booked in Timesheets, with work types for inspection, travel, standby and setup, give you the record to check against. Automatic working time checks are not built in; if you need them, they can be configured during implementation.

Cross-border work brings its own admin: posted worker notifications in the host country and A1 certificates for social security within the EU, and since Brexit, visas or permits for some UK and EU movements. Recording these as part of a job's paperwork can be set up alongside the Project app's safety induction and work permit fields, and the time needed to arrange them can be held on the calendar as unavailable.

Radiography under IRR17 and national regulators

Site radiography in Great Britain falls under the Ionising Radiation Regulations 2017, enforced by the HSE, which require the employer to hold the appropriate consent for industrial radiography, appoint a Radiation Protection Adviser and Radiation Protection Supervisors, and monitor classified workers. Across the EU, the Basic Safety Standards Directive 2013/59/Euratom is implemented by national regulators. Sources travel by road under ADR. Radiography is often done at night or at weekends to keep plant areas clear.

For scheduling, every RT assignment needs qualified people, a specific exposure container, survey meters and a suitable vehicle. Team Assignments books them together and blocks the container or meters from being on two jobs at once. It warns if a survey meter or other assigned equipment is out of calibration, based on the records in the Asset Management app.

The employee NDT profile records radiation safety training and badge number. The Fleet app flags vehicles that can carry radioactive sources, with their transport licence number and expiry. Night shifts can be planned as separate assignments so the calendar shows exactly who is on nights and needs rest before the next day shift.

GDPR and technician personal data

A scheduling system holds personal data: names, contact details, certifications, medical fitness dates, radiation badge numbers and, in the availability calendar, entries such as sick leave. Under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR, health-related information is special category data and needs extra care. You, as the employer, are the data controller.

Team Assignments and the wider ERP give you controls to work with. Access rights are set by role during implementation, so a technician sees their own jobs, a supervisor sees their crew, and only the people who need it can see why someone is unavailable. Many companies choose to record sickness simply as sick in the scheduling calendar, with no medical detail, keeping any fuller records in HR. Certificates and vision test files can be restricted to QA and HR roles.

Where the system is hosted, how long records are kept and who can export them are decisions we agree with you during implementation. The ERP does not make you GDPR compliant on its own; it gives you a controlled place for the data instead of spreadsheets forwarded around by email, which is where most leaks begin.

Who uses it day to day

Offshore coordinators in Aberdeen or Stavanger live in the calendar view, building crews and moving dates when the weather bites. Onshore operations managers use the kanban board to watch turnaround jobs move from planned to closed. Level 3s and QA managers work from the Certificates app to confirm who is qualified for each sector and method. Sales teams check next available dates before promising a start. Owners watch utilisation to decide whether to hire, subcontract or push sales for a quiet method. Technicians see their own assignments, and access rights mean each person sees what their role needs and nothing more.

How it connects: reports, digital twins and skills

Once work is submitted, the NDT Reports app takes over, with method-specific reports and an offline field app that pulls the jobs and equipment assigned to each technician and works without signal, which is useful offshore and deep inside a plant. Hours flow from Timesheets into Invoicing, with VAT configured for your countries during implementation, and expenses and per diems go through Expenses.

For owners who want inspection data in context, Digital Twin Reporting Software, our companion product, places inspection results on a 3D model of the asset. It works alongside the ERP as a separate product.

For trainees building hands-on skill, Practical NDT offers immersive 3D practice in UT, PAUT, RT, MT, PT, VT, ET and TOFD scenarios on virtual welds, pipes, vessels and castings, opened from the eLearning portal. It is practice, not certification, and it fits well into the gaps between rotations.

Setting it up for UK and European operations

Atlantis NDT deploys and configures the ERP for you. A typical setup loads technicians with their ISO 9712, PCN and other certificates, loads equipment by serial with calibration dates, defines offshore rotation patterns, connects Time Off so leave and public holidays in each country affect availability, sets role-based access with GDPR in mind, and agrees any extra checks, such as offshore training and medical tracking. Coordinators are trained on their own live jobs.

It is fully customizable, and pricing is quote on request, kept affordable for small and mid-sized inspection companies. Book a Team Assignments demo to see your own rotation in it.

Frequently asked questions

Can it cope when a helicopter delay pushes a crew's return?

Yes. Move the demobilisation date and any overlap with later assignments for that crew is blocked, so the coordinator sees immediately which jobs need re-crewing.

Does it record PCN and EN ISO 9712 certificates?

Yes, in the Certificates app, with 90-day expiry warnings and daily email alerts. Atlantis NDT does not provide PCN or ISO 9712 training or certification; the ERP records certificates your technicians hold.

Can it enforce Working Time rules?

Not automatically out of the box. The calendar and utilisation make long runs of work visible, and Timesheets record hours. Automated working time checks can be configured during implementation.

How does it handle GDPR?

Access rights are set by role, sensitive entries such as sickness can be kept minimal, and hosting and retention are agreed with you. The ERP supports your compliance; it does not replace it.

Will it flag equipment going offshore out of calibration?

Yes. It warns when assigned equipment is out of calibration, based on the calibration records in Asset Management.

What does it cost?

Quote on request, depending on users, apps and customization. Affordable, accessible and fully customizable.

See your next rotation in it

Tell us how many technicians you run, which sectors and which countries, and we will set up a demo around a realistic fortnight of offshore and onshore work. Request a quote or book a walkthrough.

Team Assignments by region

• Team Assignments global overview
• Team Assignments in United States
• Team Assignments in Canada
• Team Assignments in Middle East
• Team Assignments in India

Works with

• Project: Inspection projects, tasks and milestones from award to final report.
• Timesheets: Technician hours per job, feeding payroll and client invoicing.
• Asset Management: NDT equipment by serial number: issue and return, reservations, calibration and maintenance history.
• Maintenance: Preventive and corrective maintenance requests for instruments, vehicles and site equipment.
• Fleet: Vehicles, drivers and service records for field crews.
• Calendar: Shared schedules for jobs, audits and client meetings.
• To-do: Personal and team task lists linked to jobs and records.

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