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Leveraging Industry Knowledge to Optimize Asset Integrity Management Program

October 17, 2018

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At ARC Advisory Group’s recent Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida, asset performance management (APM) was among the key topics discussed. One of the sessions focused on asset integrity management (AIM) and discussed some of the key features of a successful AIM program.  One of the speakers, William Closser from Idaho National Labs(INL) shared with the audience their experience using advanced software tools that leverage industry knowledge and help them expedite certain tasks and therefore, optimize their AIM program.

Standards Here to Help with Your Asset Integrity Management (AIM) Initiatives

William Closser, Reliability and Asset Management Leader at INL, started his presentation by talking about two of the most prominent asset management standards in the industry: ISO 55000 and PAS 55. Both standards are intended to help organizations manage their physical assets better. While ISO 55000 offers a general overview and guidelines, PAS 55 goes into more specific details, yet leaves some room for owner/operators to implement their own strategies. PAS 55 breaks down strategies in different levels: corporate, portfolio, systems, and individual assets. It also considers various lifecycle stages of assets. Mr. Closser noted that while assets spend most of their lifetime in the utilize-and-maintain stage, users usually spend most of their money in the create-and-acquire stage.

PAS                                              PAS 55 Asset Management System
                                  Source: Presentation at 2018 ARC Industry Forum

Criticality Analysis and FMEA 

Owner/operators can use criticality analysis and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) tools to manage their plants assets better based on the associated risks.  This involves ranking assets based on their relative criticality and then planning maintenance activities accordingly. The least critical assets pose minimum risk and in many cases, can be simply run to failure.  For the most critical assets, however, a detailed FMEA should be performed. 

FMEA is a bottom-up, inductive analytical method for identifying all possible failures for an asset or process and identifying the consequences of those failures.  Mr. Closser highlighted that since FMEAs are extremely de-tailed and extensive, they can take a long time to complete. He provided an example from one of his projects a few years ago for a pipe manufacturer, where he was involved in performing FMEA for pipe testers. He shared that it took them two-and-a-half months to finish the project and they recorded over 3,000 failure modes and effects.

Software Tools Can Help

Within an industry and – in some cases – across industries, plants have many common assets and processes and hence many common failure modes and effects.  An FMEA performed for one asset in a plant could of-ten provide a good starting point for a similar asset in a different plant. Therefore, the industry can save significant time and resources by leveraging existing knowledge on FMEAs. Various asset management software solutions now incorporate a library of FMEAs to help owner/operators expedite their FMEA projects.

At INL, Mr. Closser is also leveraging advanced software tools to avoid having to perform FMEAs from scratch. He shared that, at INL, they use a software program called Preventance APM by Asset Performance Technologies (now acquired by Uptake) that combines optimization and analytics capability with APT’s Asset Strategy Library (ASL) content.  ASL is a comprehensive library of FMEAs and associated failure-preventing methods for around 800 types of common industrial assets. According to Mr. Closser, ASL has helped INL save numerous hours in FMEA projects. He added that the Preventance software also allows users to group similar assets together, which further helps simplify FMEA process.  Furthermore, the tool can help analyze preventive maintenance plans based on asset type, its criticality, and operating parameters.

Recommendations

For an effective AIM program, owner/operators should start with a comprehensive plan and develop a clear strategy for the project. Various advanced solutions are available that can help organizations with their asset management and asset integrity management initiatives; however, they should clearly identify and scope out their problem first and then try to find a solution to address that specific problem.

To learn more, readers should review the PowerPoint presentations and videos of this as well as the of many other asset management sessions held at this year’s ARC Industry Forum in Orlando.

More information on asset integrity management can be found at https://www.arcweb.com/blog/what-asset-integrity-management-aim

“Reprinted with permission, original blog was posted here”. You may also visit here for more such insights on the digital transformation of industry.

 About ARC Advisory Group (www.arcweb.com): Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group is a Boston based leading technology research and advisory firm for industry and infrastructure.

For further information or to provide feedback on this article, please contact lkanickaraj@arcweb.com

 About the Author:

Inderpreet Shoker

Inderpreets focus areas include field systems (flow, pressure, temperature, gas detection, emission monitoring).  She is also a part of the Asset Performance Management (APM) team focusing on plant level asset management technologies and services.


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