Why is asset integrity management important? The 5 major benefits
Asset integrity management (AIM) is the term that describes the practice of visualising and managing assets to ensure they’re performing their required functions, safely, effectively and efficiently throughout their lifetime and potentially for an extended lifetime if the right data has been collected.
What makes asset integrity management so important is its ability to protect and extend the operational life expectancy of an asset increasing the return on capital investment, while also helping to reduce costs, increase safety and enhance performance. It encompasses so many important engineering and data management disciplines that all work towards common goals, from operations maintenance and inspection, to inventory, procurement, risk management, training and so much more.
In this blog post, Peter Adam, ABL Group Managing Director for AIM, shares his insights and knowledge into why asset integrity management is so important and the five key benefits that if effective it can bring to an organisation…
The top benefits of asset integrity management
1. Fewer equipment failures
“Over time, equipment becomes degraded, damaged, or obsolete, and if not looked after properly, this could cause a high chance of breakdowns and failures which could have significant consequences.
“Failure to implement a solid asset integrity management strategy can lead to multiple challenges and risks, not only financially for the organisation, for example, if the asset has an extended backlog, but also impacts on the safety of staff, the environment, and reputation.
“One of the main benefits of asset integrity management is that it provides teams and individuals with vital information that can be used to make more informed and strategic decisions, helping to detect early warning signs of equipment or component failure, and ultimately enabling the team to confidently implement work that prevents future issues.
You mitigate this through your repair and spares strategy, ISO 14224 based equipment strategies and safety performance standard driven assurance tasks, a solid maintenance plan which is complied to and driven by equipment condition, if the diagnostics are available, and optimised planning and scheduling. Underpinning this is a spares management process which links the inventory to the physical equipment on the plant.
2. Greater asset reliability
“The ageing of assets is a natural process, however it is important to ensure that the rate at which an asset is ageing does not entirely impact its integrity or reliability, and the safety barriers which reduce deterioration are in place and functional.
“Reliability can be measured in a number of different ways including MTBPL, MPL, MTBF, MTTF, PFD and the reliability index which states that assets should operate for as long as possible without losses and when losses do occur, they should be fixed as quickly as possible.
“By focusing on asset integrity management strategies such as asset performance diagnostics, maintenance optimisation and risk management, you are investing in greater asset reliability which helps to capitalise upon the investment made in your physical assets by expanding output. In addition, increased asset reliability can help to decrease costs and expand asset life spans without compromising the safety of people or the environment.
“In our latest blog post, one of our Principal Consultant’s for Maintenance and Reliability Engineering, Brain Smith touches upon the importance of maintenance and reliability, highlighting key factors such as regulatory compliance, third-party requirements and licensing.”
3. Reduces unplanned downtime
“Planned downtime is a term frequently used throughout the energy industry to describe the task in which engineers and technicians spend allocated time upgrading and replacing parts of equipment. If this is time that requires intervention on the equipment taking it out of services this may also result in production downtime if there is not sufficient redundancy
“Unlike planned downtime, unplanned downtime occurs when an asset unexpectedly fails or breaks down, making it more difficult to continue operations as emergency repairs are often needed. In the majority of cases, the cost of breakdowns is not factored into budgets and can lead to immediate attention from staff, proving costly in terms of repairs and labour whilst under pressure to get back into production.”
“According to research, 82% of companies experience unplanned downtime at least once every three years, which shows the scale of those commonly affected. By maintaining the integrity of equipment, machinery or assets, you are ensuring that your assets are operational throughout their intended life cycle which means fewer unexpected replacements and less costly repairs.”
4. Stronger business performance
“In asset-intensive industries, it’s critical that equipment is carefully monitored and maintained through every stage of its lifecycle, from the design phase all the way through to decommissioning.
“When carrying out any sort of maintenance or performance review, assets should be thoroughly checked for any signs of fatigue, weakness or corrosion as this has the ability to halt or delay operations, leading to unwanted downtime, and consequential damage to assets.”
“Assets that are being proactively maintained and monitored will perform in the Upper Quartile; those that are being neglected are generally Lower Quartile and reactive in nature, as there is a greater opportunity to identify potential issues early and take relevant actions such as replacing or fixing assets.”
5. Increased efficiencies and decreased costs
“Throughout the energy sector, there has been a growing trend for businesses to focus on finding ways in which they can improve the efficiency of their assets, with fewer resources available, generating pressure for companies not to fall behind the curve.
“A well-prepared and implemented asset integrity management strategy can help to bring greater efficiencies – from giving organisations access to a larger volume of real-time asset data and documentation, to implementing processes and strategies that can help to plan and schedule asset integrity tasks as effectively as possible. All of this leads to one outstanding benefit of reduced costs, improved operational efficiency and more transparent change management.
“We previously outlined the biggest cost and time saving initiatives for both maintenance and materials – which give you deeper insights into how to get started in these areas.”
At Add Energy, we have a passionate team dedicated to Asset Integrity Management that can support your business by offering invaluable advice and helping to implement a range of fully optimised asset management strategies including: