How it works Examples / Oil Refineries Examples / Facilities Management Examples / Subsea Infrastructure
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THE PHYSICAL INDEX

The bridge between
the digital world
and physical reality.

Billions of square feet of buildings, factories, and infrastructure. Seen by humans. Invisible to machines.

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How it works
plenex index / connected
$ plenex.query(site="refinery-uk-01")
"Which pressure vessels in sector 4B show geometric change greater than 1.5mm since the last scan cycle?"
3 results · 0.8s · confidence 97.4% · index delta Nov→Dec
PV-4B-031
Pressure vessel, east process train
X: 142.3 / Y: 88.7 / Z: 4.2m · delta: +2.1mm casing expansion
FLAGGED, inspection required
PV-4B-019
Pressure vessel, west header
X: 98.1 / Y: 71.4 / Z: 3.8m · delta: +1.7mm base displacement
FLAGGED, inspection required
Evidence report generated · timestamped · exportable under PSSR 2000
FMCG MANUFACTURING
OIL & GAS REFINERIES
SUBSEA INFRASTRUCTURE
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
HIGHER-RISK BUILDINGS
WAREHOUSING & LOGISTICS
OFFSHORE WIND
DATA CENTRES
CONSTRUCTION HSE
POWER & UTILITIES
FMCG MANUFACTURING
OIL & GAS REFINERIES
SUBSEA INFRASTRUCTURE
WHY PLENEX EXISTS
The physical world has never been queryable. We are changing that.

Billions of square feet of buildings, factories, and infrastructure exist as dark data. Seen by humans, invisible to machines. Every system your organisation runs operates on records of what should be there, not on what is actually there.

Plenex converts physical space into structured intelligence: searchable, queryable, and connected to the systems that run the world. The moment something changes physically, every system that needs to know, knows.

The physical world is the last unindexed domain. We are building the index.

HOW IT WORKS

One capture visit.
Unlimited questions.

01

Capture

Any 3D capture input: LiDAR, photogrammetry, or structured light. Handheld device, drone, or professional surveying equipment. Any environment including ATEX zones, confined spaces, and subsea.

LIDAR
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
GAUSSIAN SPLATTING
02

Process

Proprietary pipeline cleans, registers, and semantically labels messy real-world data. Occlusions, multi-vintage captures, inconsistent lighting. No clean input required.

SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION
POINT CLOUD REGISTRATION
03

Index

A structured spatial object graph. Every physical entity gets persistent identity, precise coordinates, and state. Change detection is automatic after every capture cycle. The index knows what has moved, degraded, or disappeared.

SPATIAL OBJECT GRAPH
PERSISTENT IDENTITY
CHANGE DETECTION
04

Query

Natural language API. Any person, application, or autonomous system interrogates physical reality as simply as querying a database. Answers come back with coordinates, object IDs, change deltas, and automatically generated regulatory evidence. Today queried by engineers. Tomorrow queried by the systems they build.

NATURAL LANGUAGE API
EVIDENCE GENERATION
AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM READY
EXAMPLE QUERIES

The questions that
started it all.

Safety & compliance
Asset integrity
CAPEX & upgrades
Portfolio-wide
Manufacturing
Show me all fire extinguishers across my portfolio and flag any that are missing or out of position
Are all emergency exits on level 2 of the Manchester warehouse unobstructed right now
Give me a compliance evidence report for site B7 as of last Thursday, exportable under PSSR 2000
Which sites have open non-conformances that have not been closed in the last 30 days
Are all safety guards fitted and in position on the CNC machines in bay 6
Which pressure vessels in sector 4B show geometric change greater than 1.5mm since the last inspection cycle
Show me every valve assembly that has moved from its registered position
Flag all assets showing corrosion indicators not present in the November capture
What has physically changed on the east process train since our last TAR
Which assets on the upcoming inspection schedule show no geometric change and can be deprioritised
What is the verified current state of every asset in scope for the Q3 upgrade programme across all EU sites
Will the new production line fit in hall 4 and what clearances will we have based on the current index
Which assets on the upgrade scope list have already been modified outside the approved change log
Show me every deviation between the commissioned state at handover and current physical reality on site 7
What is the minimum reconfiguration needed in bay 3 to accommodate the new equipment footprint
Across all 34 sites, which ones have safety equipment not in its designated position
Which of my buildings have had the most physical changes in the last quarter
Show me the physical state of all insured premises as of the policy renewal date
Which sites have assets that have not been physically verified in over 12 months
Compare our asset register against current index data across all buildings and surface every discrepancy
Across all 24 EU sites, which production line assets deviate from the global standard configuration
Which sites completed during the upgrade programme show physical deviations from the approved design
Show me every site where safety guarding does not match the current global HSE policy specification
Which contractor-completed installations across the portfolio have not been verified against the as-built specification
Give me a physical compliance report for the Veghel site as of the handover date, exportable for insurance
THE NEXT FRONTIER

When robots enter
your facilities, they need
to know what is actually there.

Autonomous systems operate on assumptions about the physical world. The position of a conveyor. The clearance around a machine. The location of a safety zone. If those assumptions are wrong, the robot fails or causes a safety event. Plenex is the ground truth layer that makes deploying autonomous systems into real-world industrial environments safe, verifiable, and continuously auditable.

01

Deployment verification

Before a robot goes live, verify that the physical environment matches the configuration it was trained on. Any deviation from expected geometry is surfaced instantly, before it becomes a safety event.

02

Continuous environment monitoring

Physical environments change. Equipment is moved. Temporary structures appear. Plenex detects every physical change and flags deviations from the baseline the robot was deployed into, automatically.

03

Multi-site standardisation

Rolling out the same robotic system across 24 sites only works if you know each site's physical reality matches your standard configuration. Plenex tells you where each site deviates before deployment, not after.

04

Audit and liability evidence

When an autonomous system is involved in an incident, the first question is whether the environment matched the safety specification. Plenex produces timestamped physical ground truth evidence automatically at every capture cycle.

When you deploy robots into a production line, they operate on assumptions about the physical world. Plenex is where those assumptions get verified.

WHERE WE WORK

Built for the environments
where the stakes are highest.

01

Oil & Gas Refineries

TAR planning, pressure vessel integrity, PSSR/COMAH compliance evidence. Average saving £2.5m per large site annually.

02

Subsea Infrastructure

Replace unnecessary ROV deployments with surface queries. Change detection across every survey pass without manual footage review.

03

Facilities Management

Fire safety verification, asset register reconciliation, racking compliance across any portfolio size from a single interface.

04

Higher-Risk Buildings

Building Safety Act 2022 golden thread requirements for HRBs. Timestamped spatial records as independent compliance evidence.

05

FMCG & Manufacturing

Global policy enforcement, CAPEX insurance, upgrade programme verification. One query across every site replaces the audit visit.

06

Offshore Wind & Power

Infrastructure integrity across geographically distributed assets. Query-based inspection planning before any mobilisation.

EARLY ACCESS

Working with
first design partners now.

We are onboarding a small number of industrial operators as design partners across oil and gas, manufacturing, and facilities management. If the Reality Gap is a problem in your organisation, we want to talk.

You are on the list.

WE WILL BE IN TOUCH.

For oil refineries and downstream facilities

Your refinery, fully
indexed. Fully queryable.

Plenex turns 3D scans of your physical plant into a structured spatial index, so your engineers can interrogate the real state of your facility in plain language, without leaving the office. Reduce inspection cost, compress TAR planning, and produce FCA-grade compliance evidence automatically.

£2.5m
Average annual saving
per large refinery site
25–30%
TAR pre-planning time
reduction
15–20%
Scaffold spend
reduction per TAR
825
Large refineries globally
none yet queryable
The problem

The data exists. The intelligence layer doesn't.

Refineries already invest heavily in 3D capture: LiDAR surveys, drone flythroughs, laser scanning. The data is rich and accurate. But it sits in files and visualisation tools that can only be viewed, not interrogated. No one can ask it a question. Plenex is the intelligence layer that makes that data answerable.

01

Scans you can walk through but not query

Your LiDAR captures and drone flythroughs are visually accurate. But they are dark data, rich in information that nobody can extract without manually reviewing footage or point cloud files. An engineer still has to physically go to site to answer a specific question about a specific asset.

02

No persistent object identity across scan cycles

Each new scan is a fresh capture with no connection to the last. There is no system that tracks individual assets across time, detects geometric change automatically, or tells you what is different between this month's scan and last quarter's. Change detection is a manual, expensive process.

03

TAR planning still relies on interpretation, not answers

Pre-TAR teams review scan data and drawings to build scope. But reviewing is not querying. You cannot ask your scan data "which assets on this scope list require scaffold access and where exactly are they." That question still requires a scout visit to answer with confidence.

04

Compliance evidence requires manual compilation

You have the scan data to evidence compliance. But turning that data into a timestamped, asset-level regulatory submission under PSSR or API 510 requires engineers to manually extract, compile, and format information that the spatial index could generate automatically in seconds.

How it works

From physical plant to queryable spatial index in four steps.

01

Capture

Any 3D capture input: handheld LiDAR, drone photogrammetry, or fixed scanner. Works in ATEX zones, confined spaces, and RF-restricted areas where drones cannot go.

LiDAR / Photogrammetry / Gaussian Splatting
02

Process

Proprietary pipeline cleans, registers, and semantically labels messy industrial scan data. Occlusions, multi-vintage captures, inconsistent lighting, partially obscured assets. No clean input required.

Semantic segmentation / Point cloud registration
03

Index

Builds a persistent spatial object graph. Every asset has a stable identity, verified coordinates, inspection history, and geometric state. Change detection is automatic across scan cycles.

Spatial object graph / Persistent identity
04

Query

Natural language interface and API. Engineers ask questions in plain language and receive spatially-grounded answers with coordinates, asset IDs, change deltas, and automatically generated evidence reports.

Natural language API / Evidence generation
Cost model

The financial case for a large UK refinery.

Based on a typical large UK North Sea platform or onshore refinery with standard inspection contractor arrangements. Savings are conservative estimates derived from industry benchmarking.

Cost line Annual baseline (est.) Saving category Annual saving (est.) Reduction
Inspection contractor fees £4,000,000 Targeted inspection, only visit flagged assets £800,000 20–25%
Scaffolding and access £6,000,000 Precise access planning from spatial index £1,000,000 15–20%
TAR pre-planning (amortised) £1,500,000 Eliminate scout visits, compress planning cycle £375,000 25–30%
Compliance audit preparation £800,000 Automated evidence generation and reporting £240,000 30–35%
IDMS and drawing management £300,000 Spatial index as ground truth, eliminates reconciliation £120,000 ~40%
Total addressable baseline £12,600,000 Total annual saving, large refinery £2,535,000 ~20%
8–16x
Return on investment at £150–300k annual contract value
Well within enterprise software norms
5x
ROI even at premium £500k contract value
Justified on scaffold saving alone
<6mo
Typical payback period from first TAR planning cycle
Value realised before year end
Queries your engineers will run

Questions that currently require a site visit. Answered instantly.

Asset integrity and change detection

Know what has changed before you send anyone on site.

Geometric change detection across scan cycles identifies assets that have degraded, moved, or deviated from baseline, giving inspection teams a prioritised target list rather than a fixed schedule.

£800k
Annual saving from targeted vs scheduled inspection
Example queries
Which pressure vessels in sector 4B show geometric change greater than 1.5mm since the last scan cycle
Show me every valve assembly that has moved from its registered position
Flag all assets showing corrosion indicators not present in the November scan
What has physically changed on the east process train since our last TAR
Which assets on the upcoming inspection schedule show no geometric change and can be deprioritised
TAR planning and mobilisation

Plan your next turnaround from a verified spatial baseline.

Eliminate scout visits, compress the pre-planning cycle, and mobilise scaffold only where the spatial index confirms access is required.

Example queries
Show me the exact coordinates and access requirements for every asset on the TAR scope list
How much scaffold will we need for the Q3 TAR based on current plant geometry
Which TAR scope items are accessible without scaffold based on current layout
£1.375m
Combined TAR planning and scaffold saving per event
Compliance and regulatory evidence

Generate audit-ready evidence automatically.

Timestamped spatial records of every asset at every scan cycle, exportable as regulatory evidence under PSSR, API 510/570/580, and COMAH with no manual compilation required.

Example queries
Generate a PSSR compliance evidence report for all statutory vessels as of last inspection date
Show me every asset that was out of its designated position during the COMAH audit window
Which assets have no verified inspection record in the last 12 months
£240k
Annual saving from automated compliance evidence generation
Regulatory alignment

Built for the regulatory environment your plant operates in.

Plenex produces independent, timestamped spatial records that satisfy the evidence requirements of the primary UK and international inspection standards governing pressure systems, piping, and above-ground storage.

The evidence generated is not a report someone has compiled, it is an independent spatial record of the physical state of each asset at each point in time. That distinction matters when regulators or insurers challenge your documentation.

Sample evidence output Verified spatial record
Asset ID PV-4B-031
Asset type Pressure vessel
Coordinates X: 142.3 / Y: 88.7 / Z: 4.2m
Scan date 14 Dec 2024, 09:32 UTC
Geometric delta vs baseline +2.1mm casing expansion
Compliance status Flagged, inspection required
Evidence confidence 98.3%
PSSR 2000
Pressure Systems Safety Regulations Requires written schemes of examination and evidence that examinations were carried out. Plenex provides independent timestamped records of asset condition at each scan cycle.
API 510
Pressure Vessel Inspection Code Risk-based inspection requires documented baseline condition and evidence of change over time. Plenex geometric change detection provides this automatically across every scan cycle.
API 570
Piping Inspection Code Requires documented inspection intervals and evidence of compliance. Plenex spatial index tracks every pipe segment with persistent identity and change history.
API 580
Risk-Based Inspection RBI programmes require accurate current condition data to assess risk. Plenex provides the verified physical baseline that makes RBI assessments reliable rather than assumed.
COMAH
Control of Major Accident Hazards Major hazard sites must demonstrate that safety-critical equipment is maintained and in the correct position. Plenex provides continuous independent verification of this at portfolio scale.
TAR planning

The turnaround planning problem, solved.

A major turnaround on a large refinery costs £50–150m to execute. A significant portion of that cost is attributable to planning imprecision, scout visits that exist to verify what drawings should already show, scaffold provisioned for zones rather than specific assets, and pre-mobilisation decisions made from information that is months out of date.

Without Plenex
Pre-planning period 6–9 months
Scout visits required Multiple per scope item
Scaffold basis Zone allocation from drawings
Asset location data P&IDs, months out of date
Scope surprises on day one Common, costly to resolve
Pre-planning cost (amortised) £1.5m
With Plenex
Pre-planning period 4–6 months
Scout visits required Minimal, spatial index replaces
Scaffold basis Asset-level from spatial index
Asset location data Verified, current scan cycle
Scope surprises on day one Rare, flagged in planning
Pre-planning cost (amortised) £1.125m, saving £375k
£375k
TAR pre-planning saving per event
£1.0m
Scaffold cost reduction per TAR
2–3mo
Planning cycle compression
£1.375m
Combined saving per turnaround event
Get in touch

Request a technical
briefing.

We are working with a small number of refinery and downstream facilities partners as design partners. If you would like to understand how Plenex would integrate with your existing inspection and maintenance workflows, we would like to hear from you.

Plenex Ltd, London plenex.com

Leave your details and we will be in touch within one business day to arrange a technical walkthrough tailored to your site and workflows.

Request a briefing

For facilities and property managers

Your facilities, finally
telling the truth.

Asset registers go out of date the moment they are printed. Floor layouts change weekly. Fire safety equipment moves. Plenex indexes every physical space from 3D scans so you can query the real state of your facilities at any moment, across every site, from your desk.

1:many
One scan visit answers
unlimited questions
Minutes
To verify compliance
across all sites
Zero
Existing tools that make
facilities queryable
The problem

Your records say one thing.
Your buildings say another.

Every facilities team operates with a growing gap between what the asset register says and what is physically there. That gap costs money, creates liability, and has no good solution today.

01

The asset register is already wrong

Equipment moves. New items arrive and never get logged. Old items are removed and never get deleted. The gap between what the system says is there and what is physically there widens every week. Nobody trusts the register because everyone knows it is out of date.

02

Racking and floor layouts change constantly

In warehouses and large facilities, floor layouts are reconfigured regularly. Racking gets moved, aisles change width, stock spills into walkways. The approved layout on file is rarely the actual layout on the floor, which creates both operational and compliance problems simultaneously.

03

Fire safety compliance cannot be verified remotely

Fire extinguishers get moved. Emergency exits get blocked. Evacuation routes change when layouts change. Across a portfolio of ten or twenty sites, verifying that fire safety measures are in place requires someone to visit every one of them. Most teams do not have that capacity and hope for the best.

What you can ask

Questions your team asks every week.
Now answered instantly.

Asset register and inventory
Compare our asset register against the current scan of building 6 and show me every discrepancy
Which assets are physically present in the south wing that are not in our CMMS
Where is the portable generator that should be in bay 4
Show me every piece of equipment that has moved from its registered position this month
Fire safety and compliance
Show me all fire extinguishers across every site and flag any that are missing or out of position
Are all emergency exits on level 2 of the Manchester site unobstructed right now
Which sites have had changes to their floor layout that affect the approved fire escape routes
Generate a fire safety compliance evidence report for site B7 as of last Thursday
Racking and floor layout
Which racking bays have been moved or reconfigured since the last approved layout was filed
Are all aisles in the warehouse meeting the 1.2 metre minimum clearance requirement
Flag any racking that is leaning, damaged, or showing structural deformation
What has changed on the warehouse floor since the last insurance survey
Portfolio-wide questions
Across all 22 sites, which ones have safety equipment not in its designated position
Which of my buildings have had physical changes since the last underwriting survey
Show me the sites with the largest gap between their asset register and physical reality
Which facilities have not had a verified physical audit in the last 12 months
The value case

One scan. Every question answered.

The economics of Plenex for facilities management are simple. A single scan visit answers every question anyone will need to ask about a site until the next scan. Instead of sending someone to site every time a question arises, you scan regularly and query infinitely.

One visit
Replaces multiple separate inspection visits per question
Instant
Compliance verification across your entire portfolio
Automatic
Evidence reports generated for every query with timestamp and confidence score
Continuous
Change detection flags differences between scans before they become problems
Get in touch

Request a technical
briefing.

We are working with a small number of facilities and property management partners as design partners. If you would like to understand how Plenex integrates with your existing workflows, we would like to hear from you.

Plenex Ltd, London  •  plenex.com

Leave your details and we will be in touch within one business day.

Request a briefing

For subsea infrastructure operators

Subsea inspection without
sending someone down.

Every diver deployment and ROV mission to answer a question about the physical state of subsea infrastructure costs tens of thousands and carries real human risk. Plenex builds a queryable spatial index from subsea capture data so your teams can answer asset integrity questions from the surface, instantly.

$40bn+
Global offshore IRM
spend annually
Days
Saved per inspection
campaign
Zero
Current tools that make
subsea data queryable
The problem

The data exists. Answering a question still costs a dive.

Subsea operators invest heavily in ROV surveys, acoustic imaging, and inspection campaigns. That data is captured, reviewed once, filed, and then queried again only by sending someone back down. Plenex is the intelligence layer that makes every past and future capture permanently answerable.

01

Every inspection question costs a deployment

A single ROV deployment to verify the condition of a specific asset or answer a specific question about a pipeline section can cost £20,000 to £100,000 when vessel time, crew, and operational overhead are included. Most of those deployments could be replaced by a query against a spatial index built from data already captured.

02

Survey data has no persistent object identity

Each ROV survey pass is a fresh capture with no structured connection to the last. There is no system that tracks individual subsea assets across time, detects geometric change automatically, or tells you what has shifted, corroded, or moved between survey campaigns. Change detection requires a manual comparison of footage by an experienced engineer.

03

Compliance evidence requires manual compilation

Regulatory submissions under OPEP, PFEER, and DNV standards require documented evidence that specific assets were inspected and compliant at specific points in time. Compiling that evidence from ROV footage, inspection reports, and sign-off documentation takes weeks of engineering time before every submission.

What you can ask

Questions that currently require a deployment.
Answered from the surface.

Reducing diver and ROV deployment

Answer the question before you plan the dive.

Every unnecessary ROV deployment is recoverable cost. Plenex lets your engineers query the spatial index first, understand exactly what they need to verify and where, and only deploy when physical access is genuinely required.

Which pipeline sections in field block 14 show geometric change greater than tolerance since the last survey pass
Show me the exact coordinates and current state of every riser clamp flagged in the last inspection report
Has the seabed topology around wellhead cluster C changed since the November survey
Which assets on the upcoming inspection schedule show no geometric change and can be deprioritised
What is the current cathodic protection reading distribution across the eastern export pipeline
Asset integrity management
Show me every subsea asset that has moved from its registered position since installation
Which flexible risers show external deformation not present in the previous survey
Flag all subsea structures showing biofouling accumulation beyond the acceptable threshold
What is the geometric delta on the Christmas tree at well 7B since commissioning
Regulatory compliance evidence
Generate a PFEER compliance evidence report for all safety-critical subsea assets as of last survey date
Which assets have no verified inspection record in the current regulatory window
Show me every asset whose inspection interval is overdue based on the current DNV risk classification
Produce a timestamped spatial record of pipeline field 6 for submission to the NSTA
The value case

Fewer deployments. Better decisions. Stronger evidence.

20-40%
Reduction in unnecessary ROV deployments through pre-query before mobilisation
Automatic
Change detection across every scan cycle with no manual comparison of footage
Days to minutes
Compliance evidence compilation time for regulatory submissions
Get in touch

Request a technical
briefing.

We are working with a small number of subsea and offshore operators as design partners. If you would like to understand how Plenex integrates with your existing inspection and survey workflows, we would like to hear from you.

Plenex Ltd, London  •  plenex.com

Leave your details and we will be in touch within one business day.

Request a briefing