Development of an integrated inspection and maintenance strategy

Abstract

Today there are three commonly used methods in the management of the integrity of a process plant: Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM), Risk Based Inspection (RBI) and criticality analysis for maintenance purposes described in NORSOK Z‐008. All three methodologies work on the same underlying philosophy by combining probability of failure and consequence of failure with the intention to classify the equipment with regards to maintenance or inspection activities. This thesis explores the possibilities of combining these existing maintenance and inspection methods into one unified approach. The thesis makes a comparison study between key elements of the three methods. These key elements are: grouping and classification of equipment, the use of acceptance criteria, consequence of failure assessment, probability of failure assessment, risk evaluation and updating and evergreening of existing plans. The result of the comparison study shows that the similarities between the methods were many, both in configurations of the strategies and in how the results are used to govern further actions. The differences found were, in many cases, due to the fact that these methods deal with different equipment; some discrimination between equipment types may also need to be done in a unified approach. So, in light of the results, we can assume that a unified approach towards maintenance and inspection is feasible without losing vital aspects of any of the methods.