Reynolds Wrap Up: Does Your Operating Site Benefit from the Practice of Shared Stewardship of Assets?

Introduction to Shared Stewardship of Assets (SSA)

When we really want to achieve excellence in fixed equipment mechanical integrity (FEMI), one of the most important aspects of FEMI management is to extend “stewardship” of assets beyond the work boundaries of those of us specifically charged with inspecting and protecting fixed equipment. Clearly, those of us in the FEMI discipline have “stewardship” of FEMI, which simply means that we are recognized by all as being charged with the careful and responsible management of FEMI. But we cannot do it alone. That means we must convince other important stakeholders on the operating site, like management, operations, maintenance, process technical, and engineering, that they also have a very important role and specific duties to help protect and improve FEMI. Without that extension of FEMI “stewardship” to other operating site functions, it is difficult to avoid otherwise avoidable FEMI leaks, failures, and process safety events that often lead to the release of hazardous/flammable oil/petrochemicals.

Figure 1 depicts the potential improvement in FEMI that can be achieved when all involved stakeholders are exercising their role in maintaining and improving FEMI (i.e., shared stewardship of assets [SSA]), and in our case, specifically fixed equipment assets.