FIT Service Specialty: Improving Asset Reliability

To enable the refinery to maximize efficiency and profitability, FIT provides specialized consulting services. Effective reliability strategies and programs, coupled with effective maintenance planning and scheduling typically provide a 5 – 10% increase in plant availability, and a 20 – 50% reduction in maintenance expenses.

FIT provides a site assessment to evaluate your current reliability efforts. Basic reliability and advanced programs are reviewed. Reliability strategic plans are then developed and proposed as a recommended path forward with an estimated ROI.

FIT Consultants examine and analyze all of the dimensions that contribute to plant reliability. We focus our assessment on three key areas including people, processes and technology.

• Review reliability and availability requirements and expectations
• Review commitment to reliability improvement efforts
• The core reliability processes including failure reporting and measurement
• Metrics and performance tracking and review
• Personnel and organizational capability review
• Reliability work process review
• Reliability information systems survey
• Analytical methods
• Compliance
• Risk management

Expectations from the Audit & Business Requirements

FIT consultants interview key management personnel to define expectations from the audit and to understand critical success factors and business drivers. The outcome of these interviews provides guidelines for the remaining work and will likely encompass such items as regulatory compliance, customer satisfaction, product-mix, and throughput.

Our Goal The Assessment Process

A typical initial plant assessment takes less than one week start to finish. Our focus is on the key enablers that define a successful program.

The overall effort is highlighted below. The duration of tasks is an approximation, plant size and current programs will determine a representative timeline.

Specific Focus Areas

Understand your reliability and maintenance goals, strategy, tactics Reliability culture Reliability organization Leadership and commitment around reliability Mechanical integrity program Reliability work processes Failure reporting, PM, PdM, CM, RBI MOC process Reliability in design Reliability metrics

Maintenance and reliability planning and scheduling Decision making, problem solving, incident management, root cause investigation procedures and processes Failure reporting system and documentation Reliability data management Reliability analytical tools Maintenance and reliability reports Reliability skills

From information gathered in the activities outlined above, the consultants:

1. Benchmark existing procedures, systems and models against industry peer practices. This benchmark provides a quantified measure of potential improvements in over twenty areas to insure that management and refinery customers are provided with the information that meets their needs.
2. Estimate the economic value of the proposed changes, based on information supplied by the refinery personnel and that obtained from existing plans. The value comes from increased availability and reduced maintenance costs.
3. Recommend further requirements for the future to maintain the standard of excellence achieved.

Audit results enable either the FIT planning professionals or client professionals to prepare a plan of continuous improvement, with economic benefits clearly defined at each step along the way.