Three Major Components of a Successful Asset Integrity Management Program

The main objective of asset management initiatives is to ensure that assets perform their required functions throughout their life-time. Asset integrity management (AIM) has the same objective but with an emphasis on health, safety, and environment.  AIM helps ensure that the appropriate people, systems, processes, and resources are in place, in use, and will perform when required. When assets are managed and maintained properly, not only it helps drive their sustainable performance, but also lowers inspection, maintenance and repair costs while improving plant reliability and operational safety.

Asset Integrity Management (AIM)

As we want the asset to perform its intended function throughout its lifecycle, it is beneficial to pay attention to AIM from the beginning of asset’s lifecycle. In its lifetime, an asset goes through various stages, starting from concept and then moving onto construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance and then decommissioning. Looking at this lifecycle, we can see where we need to focus in terms of integrity.

Design Integrity

The first major component of a successful integrity management program is design integrity. A solid design integrity focus will help provide a strong foundation for the AIM program. Assuring design integrity starts at the concept stage of any project.  Here, owner/operators should pay close attention to various integrity aspects. During this phase, we want to confirm that the concept will not lead to any kind of intolerable risk. Owner/operators need to assure that the design complies with all technical and process safety standards.  Details about the operation and maintenance routines must be defined and all safety critical elements also need to be identified at this phase.

Technical Integrity

At the construction and commissioning stage owner/operators need to ensure technical integrity. Quality management should not be left only to the construction contractor.  Owner/operators should participate actively and make sure audits and reviews are carried out properly and equipment is manufactured and installed as per code and standards. To ensure successful transition, operation staff should be actively involved in the startup process.

Operational Integrity

The third component, and considered to be the most important by many, is  operational integrity. Most assets spend most of their lifetime in the third phase, which consists of operations, maintenance, and decommissioning stages. This phase is most important to many owner/operators since an asset may remain in operate and maintain stage for decades. Here, we need to ensure operational integrity. After startup, operational integrity should be ensured by managing assets within operating limits. The operations team should implement integrity management strategies properly.  These include reliability-centered maintenance (RCM); risk-based inspection (RBI); reliability analytics; reliability, availability & maintainability (RAM) modeling; non-destructive testing (NDT); and finite element analysis. Integrity strategies should be reviewed and updated at regular intervals and maintenance and inspection activities adjusted accordingly. Preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance tasks should be carried out routinely.  Team should pay attention to proper reporting to make sure assets are performing as per required performance standard.

Recommendations

The major drive behind AIM initiatives is to ensure assets and infra-structure perform efficiently and safely.  AIM procedures and programs, when properly planned from the beginning and at every stage of asset’s lifecycle, can not only help owner/operators ensure safety but also help reduce both capital and operational expenditures and maximize returns on investment (ROI) and assets (ROA). 

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