The Web That Connects and Improves All FEMI Programs

Executive Summary

This article is about how total quality management (TQM) connects and improves our FEMI programs to help us keep each program functioning well to provide process safety and business success. All fixed equipment mechanical integrity (FEMI) programs are interconnected and dependent upon the TQM process to continue to improve and be the best each can be to help avoid loss of containment (LOC) incidents and lost profit opportunities (LPO). Without the value of the TQM process to continue to maintain and improve the viability of each of our FEMI programs, they can (and do) unknowingly deteriorate until some significant negative FEMI event happens. Applying TQM proactively for each of our FEMI programs can help to avoid such negative events by regularly reviewing/auditing the functioning of FEMI programs, investigating near-miss and minor FEMI events, and then identifying and implementing corrective actions before another more serious FEMI event occurs.

Introduction

In the last Reynolds Wrap Up, I wrote about how the TQM process embodies the FEMI QA/QC program into a culture of continuous improvement to ensure that all aspects of our QA/QC programs are the best they can be at detecting as well as preventing quality defects from causing loss of containment (LOC) and lost profit opportunities (LPO) [1]. In this article, I expand the application of the TQM process to show how that same process can provide the continuous improvement function for all other FEMI programs. Figure 1 shows an image of how our FEMI programs are interconnected as if these programs were all nodes in a spider web. In this image, the spider shown at the center of its web close to the central FEMI node represents the TQM process. The TQM spider routinely goes out to each FEMI program (shown as the 24 nodes in this spider web) and uses the TQM continuous improvement process to make sure that each FEMI program continues to function as well as it needs to in order to prevent potentially serious FEMI failures and their consequences (LOC and LPO).

In the next section, I will briefly indicate what each of the 24 FEMI nodes (i.e., individual FEMI programs) in the spider web represent relative to the totality of our FEMI process (i.e., the center of the web). Then, in the following section, I will explain what the TQM spider does to monitor and improve the functioning of each of these 24 FEMI programs. Note that the eight nodes (separate FEMI programs) in the inner circumference of the FEMI web in Figure 1 contain those FEMI programs that are more central to the FEMI process for different kinds of equipment. While in general, the 16 nodes in the outer two circumferences of the web are those that are more supportive FEMI programs that improve the functioning of those in the inner circumference of the web. Why have I chosen this spider web illustration of the total FEMI program? To show how all our individual FEMI programs are in some way interconnected and closely related to all others in order to lead to success of the overall FEMI program represented at the center of the web. What does that “success” look like? Answer: No significant LOC or LPO incidents due to the potential of inadequate attention to FEMI issues amongst all the other demands that management faces.