Asset Integrity Management

 

 ASSET INTEGRITY INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT  An asset is said to have integrity integrity when when it is operated operated and and maintained maintained so that that the combination of the likelihood of failure and the consequence of failure makes the risk to people, to the environment, and to the company as low as reasonably practical. The integrity of the plant, safety as well as reliability are major concerns to managers and operators within the plant. (Anon., 2012). The implementation of an Asset Integrity Management Plan seeks to accomplish safe, reliable, efficient and silent running operations. This is possible through identifying risks and ensuring they are minimised or eliminated. This is achieved through ensuring competent personnel are available to operate as well as maintain the facilities (Ramrattan, 2016). Owners, operators and stakeholders of any engineering asset should ensure that the asset integrity management (A.I.M.) plan is embedded into the objectives of the organization and is implemented efficiently and effectively for the duration of the asset’s lifecycle. (Aboegla, 2017 ). Implementing and embedding an A.I.M. plan will ensure that risks are better understood while placing focus on reducing the potential for high consequence low probability events. Better management of safety critical equipment would then result in less downtime and an increase in the plant availability. Thus, the company’s returns and effectiveness would increase. Hence, the asset integrity management process is a process of assessment control and monitoring which should include the following key elements (Ramrattan, 2016) : Risk assessment of potential hazards and threats from physical components and operations to personnel, the environment and the asset. Identification of the required mitigation and barriers to lower the resulting risks to “As Low as Reasonably Practicable” (ALARP) level.

Figure 9: Enablers of A.I.M. 1. Control and monitoring The asset integrity management is controlled and monitored to meet the standard of the regulation. For example, the statutory regime applicablerequirements to U.K. offshore oil local and gas processing facilities place a requirement on the operators to maintain the integrity of the facility. Hence, it is essential to have strategies in place to control the integrity. The purpose of these strategies is to give guidance as to what methods should be employed in order to control deterioration impacts throughout the asset’s lifecycle. Furthermore, considering risk-based framework will assist in delivering a healthy integrity management strategy provided that the risk profile are established. Factors to assist the overall performance of this enabler include: Regular reviewing of strategies which include design and fabrication details, inspection, monitoring, maintenance and repair records of any existing modification. Updating the integrity management strategy, which includes the various control activities and their frequencies based on risk assessments.

 

  Defining control and monitoring requirements to mitigate the identified risks. 2. Maintenance management The maintenance management system (MMS) is designed to standardise the organization, scheduling, conducting, recording and analysis of maintenance tasks. It is essential in ensuring safe, successful management of capital assets. Establishing a MMS is important in order for an organization to satisfy financial, operational and regulatory and safety goals. The MMS is designed in such a way that it is integrated into the objectives. Objectives include: Maintaining the condition, functionality and operability of the machinery inventory. Increasing maintenance personnel skills/ work experience Increasing plant/system/equipment reliability and availability. Reducing failure incidence or Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) Reducing downtime after failure or Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) Reducing critical incidents/near miss incidents. On completion of the maintenance work order, the workflow process of closing work orders should be followed as per the specified procedure and by authorized persons. The workflow process should comprise of reviewing, signing off and storing data into software databases. Reference may be drawn to spare parts and materials used to carry out maintenance tasks in order for stock to be up to date. Making note with regards to used spare parts, material or the removed components will aid in collecting accurate data for the process of feedback improvement. Maintenance records and historical reports help in improving the asset integrity management as it provides ability to access the quality of data entry, the level of achievement objectives, trend analysis of condition monitoring, equipment failure mode frequencies and root cause analysis of failures. 3. Management of quality and audit.  Assessing  Assessin g the effectivenes effectiveness s and improving improving engineering engineering assets are based on the management of quality and audit. It is known as a framework in guiding an organization towards improvement performances organizational excellence. Management of quality in and audit should and be designed in such a way that every aspect of asset integrity management is embedded into a process. The results of an asset’s tasks and activities should be continually reviewed, monitored and used to modify existing procedures. Subsequently the loop of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is closed and improvements as well as recommendations are made.