Integration of Corrosion Management and Control with Other Pressure Equipment Integrity Management Systems

Previous posts identified the Top 10 Management Systems for Corrosion Control and Management. As was previously mentioned, all 10 of the PEI MS’s (see Figure 1) are highly integrated with each other in order to achieve excellence in pressure equipment integrity management at each site. But perhaps the Corrosion Management and Control MS is the one that needs some of the most integration. So, I will briefly review some of the key integration points between the CM&C MS and the other nine PEI MS. Without doubt management needs to ensure that the appropriate resources (human and budgetary) need to be provided for corrosion control and prevention. The C/M engineer/specialist or other responsible party needs to assure that management is advised annually at the appropriate time what resources will be needed for the next budget cycle for each of the bubbles in figure 1.

The IOW MS and the MOC MS are both closely integrated with the CM&C MS. The corrosion engineer/specialist is central to making sure that the MOC process identifies and assesses changes that are a potential threat to pressure equipment integrity. Very often, it is the corrosion engineer/specialist that is the one who will know if a change might affect pressure equipment integrity, so he/she should be involved in triggering the MOC process. Even when an MOC is triggered, if experienced, knowledgeable corrosion engineers/specialists are not involved in the assessment, asking the right questions, then the MOC process for avoiding breaches of containment could be inadequate, leading to possible breaches of containment.

The C/M engineer/specialist can and should use risk assessment techniques to help determine the best course of action when considering such issues as: when corrosion monitoring devices may be needed, what process monitoring samples or devices may or may not be needed to monitor IOW’s, what corrosion mitigation strategies are warranted, what materials selection strategies are warranted, what coatings/linings may or may not be needed, and multiple other corrosion control decisions. So clearly the CM&C MS is closely integrated with the Risk Assessment and Inspection Planning MS.

As with all the other PEI&R MS, the C/M engineer/ specialist is highly integrated in most of the major aspects of this Life Cycle MS. Materials selection (which also appears in the CM&C MS) is the most obvious integration point, but so too is he/she involved in designing for corrosion control, specifying PMI to make sure the correct alloys are received and installed, specifying equipment preservation practices for idle equipment, assessing materials/corrosion issues associated with repairs and replacements, etc.

As was mentioned previously there are many industry codes and standards that are directly related to the issues associated with corrosion management and control and are a vital source of information and guidance for the C/ M engineer/specialist working in all 10 of the PEI&R MS.

The C/M engineer/specialist would have a major role in Site Procedures and Work Practices MS, in that many of the necessary procedures and work practices will be related to corrosion control issues, welding issues, materials selection, PMI, QA/QC, CUI, chemical treatment, etc. Virtually all of the Corrosion Management and Control Management Systems need to be documented and kept up-to-date for long term sustainability at the site.

The C/M engineer/specialist is highly dependent upon good quality Inspection Records and Data Management in order to efficiently and effectively conduct all the activities in CM&C MS, without which he/she is likely to spend a lot of time “wheel spinning” or researching what has come before.

Last but not least as the saying goes, the C/M engineer/ specialist will be deeply involved in the Continuous Improvement PEI&R MS. Many and various issues that allow for continuous improvement are closely related to the Corrosion Management and Control MS including: incident and near-miss investigation and solution development, leak and failure analysis and reporting, PEI&R root cause analysis, learning from incidents, PEI&R networking (inter/ intra company), company failure memory systems, PEI&R performance measurement metrics, PEI&R audits/reviews and causal learning.

As you can see from the foregoing, the Corrosion Management and Control MS is one of the keys to success in achieving PEI&R excellence and is highly integrated with all 10 of the PEI&R MSs shown in figure 1. I hope you have benefited from this overview.