Oil & Gas Predictive Maintenance and Reliability Centered Maintenance of Plant

A major challenge facing maintenance people today is not only to learn what maintenance techniques exist, but to determine which ones are worthwhile to the organization. If we make the right choices, it’s possible to improve asset performance and, at the same time, reduce the cost of maintenance. If we make the wrong choices, new problems are created while existing problems only get worse.
 

 Maintenance has too often been the focus of cost-cutting without regard to the impact on availability. Money saved on the maintenance budget appears directly on the bottom line. The money lost in production through equipment downtime does not appear; however, it may be many times greater than the direct maintenance cost saved.  
 

Reliability is defined as the probability that an item will perform a required function without failure under stated conditions for a specific period of time. A statement of reliability has four key components: probability, function, stated conditions & specific period of time. 
 

Reliability analysis takes the long-term view and develops cost-effective ways to reduce life cycle cost. The life cycle cost includes the cost to purchase, operate, and maintain during its useful lifetime. 
 

The goal of RCM 
 

Reliability and predictive maintenance strategies use analytical processes to determine appropriate failure management strategies to ensure safe and cost-effective operations of a physical asset in a specific operating environment. 
 

Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) can be defined as an approach that employs reactive, preventive, predictive, and proactive maintenance practices and strategies in an integrated manner to increase the probability that a machine or asset will function in the required manner over its design life cycle with minimum maintenance.  The goal of RCM is to preserve equipment function with the required reliability and availability at the lowest cost.  RCM requires that maintenance decisions be based on maintenance requirements supported by sound technical and economic justification.  

• Prepare a maintenance program using the guidelines & procedures, and be able to discuss the important key points in developing the maintenance program 
• Recognize the need for modification control and carry out maintenance implementation strategies 
• Apply and gain an in-depth knowledge of Total Plant Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), including its history, terminology, objectives, and critical success factors 
• Recognize reliability and availability, and determine the use of reliability information for maintenance 
• Enumerate the various maintenance tasks and emphasize the analytical decision logic
• Demonstrate reliability engineering audits and assessments, and be able to identify the other tools used in RCM, such as Failure Analysis and HAZOP studies 
• List the support elements of RCM and use a system approach in work planning, scheduling, and work control
• Cost-effectively utilizes predictive maintenance and condition-based strategy.