How to Develop a Proactive Risk-Based Integrity Management Framework for Plant Assets

Summary

Improvement in the occupational health and safety performance of an asset does not guarantee major incident prevention [Ref 1]. A recent analysis of major industry losses in fact showed an increase in property loss over the last few years. In an effort to eliminate these property losses in the O & G industry, an Integrity Management Framework (“IMF” or “the Framework”) should be established to proactively prevent asset-integrity related problems and enable assets to fulfill their required functions effectively and efficiently throughout their life cycle, without compromising safety or the environment.

IMF should be a proactive and risk-based management system combining effective work processes, competency and role mapping, continuous performance measurement [both leading and lagging key performance indicators (KPIs)], and technology development & utilization into a holistic and integrated approach. Indeed, plant integrity covers mechanical integrity, functional integrity, and operational integrity.

The Framework should contain 4 core work processes, including: How to Manage Operations, How to Manage Degradation, How to Inspect Assets, and How to Maintain Assets, throughout the plant lifecycle (i.e., design, procurement & construction, operation & maintenance, and decommission).

Two core technology steps will advance the development of Integrity Management. These are:

1. Increasing the extent of Proactive Integrity Management. The intention of this is to anticipate Integrity Management problems by collection and analysis of relevant data, which will give sufficient advance warning of impending problems and enable preventive action to be implemented.