3 Main Benefits of Asset Integrity and Risk-Based Inspections
Companies in asset-intensive industries are challenged by the need to manage inspections, stay on top of maintenance, and control risk. Power plants, oil rigs, pipelines, or refineries, to name a few, must be managed to ensure that they are performing their functions correctly, safely, and efficiently.
Completing inspections regularly while keeping track of the performance and maintenance of large amount of assets can be very challenging. In certain industrial sectors like oil and gas or petrochemical, an asset malfunction could deprive the community of vital resources and cause harm to frontline workers. A major equipment failure — or even a leak — could release hazardous chemicals into the air or water, causing long-lasting environmental damage and health risks to the community.
Asset Integrity Management (AIM) and Risk-Based Inspection Systems empower companies to optimize performance, reduce expenses, and decrease risk.
1) Enhanced Performance
For oil and gas assets to perform optimally, they must be tracked throughout their entire lifecycle. AIM allows companies to assess the integrity of equipment from design and implementation through to decommissioning. An asset can be checked for conditions — such as corrosion, erosion, cracks, or fatigue — that compromise its integrity.
AIM centralizes asset maintenance, performance, and location information so the status of a piece of equipment is known. The company can conduct preventative maintenance to ensure equipment is always performing at its best. Performance can be tracked to determine if a piece of equipment needs to be repaired or replaced.
Want to learn more about Asset Integrity? Watch our on-demand webinar!
2) Increased Efficiency
A properly designed and deployed AIM solution empowers frontline workers and control room operators with immediate access to any asset information and documents, such as inspection and maintenance logs, datasheets, or manuals.
It also provides a seamless integration with any ERP/EAM/CCMS system. Armed with real-time and comprehensive information, operators can make more informed decisions.
More efficient processes and increased performance add up to cost efficiency. Preventative maintenance reduces the cost of repairs by identifying problems early, before they snowball and require more extensive work or replacement.
Proactive maintenance also avoids costly unplanned downtime. Reducing downtime is crucial for oil and gas companies now that prices have been lowered by decreased travel during the pandemic.
3) Reduced Risk
CBT’s solution for the Oil and Gas industry integrates the AIM framework with a complete Risk Based Inspection (RBI) system. With a proper RBI program in place, our Customers can perform an immediate evaluation of the probability and severity of risk in a plant, both at present and in the future; they can create effective and efficient inspection plans focusing on the assets at higher risk, thus enormously improving safety while reducing costs.
A mature AIM – RBI solution is key to comply to industrial regulatory requirements on safety.
The Many Uses of AIM
AIM has many use cases for the oil and gas industry, as well as many other asset-intensive industries. By leveraging AIM programs, companies can control inspections and quality, respond to emergencies, conduct preventative maintenance, and perform risk analyses.
At CBT, we include Asset Integrity Management as part of our IIoT practice. Our solution provides expedited access to asset maintenance and performance information, with seamless integration with Digital Twins for an augmented reality experience.
Take a deep dive into the business benefits of asset integrity management. Watch our on-demand webinar “Asset Integrity: Enhance Performance While Minimizing Cost & Reducing Risk” – developed in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Antea.