Oil and gas | 26 May 2021

The Challenge: Reliability Analysis and Maintenance Gap

The Operator, who has been using Asset Guardian since 2004, was in need of a tool that could take all the event data from Preventive Maintenance and Corrective Work Orders, to build a picture of real world failure rates of their instrumentation and valves. 

Globally this data runs to millions of records, and it had never been analysed before to extract this valuable information, and no solution was in place for this. Asset Guardian was a first.

The Solution

AGSL provided a fully customised AG-RAM (Asset Guardian Reliability Analysis and Maintenance) module within the Asset Guardian platform, specifically to carry out this function. It allows for all relevant data to be bulk loaded, and then calculations are automatically carried out to determine failure rates. AG-RAM takes this data, and analyses it across facilities, regions and globally against device classes to compare actual failure rates with manufacturer data. Differences can be analysed and issues highlighted where maintenance schedules need to be updated. This ensures compliance with safety standards (IEC 61508, IEC 61511) and all local regulatory controls in each region.

The system also interfaces to a database where all future maintenance orders are entered, and Asset Guardian automatically loads all the new work orders, and updates its calculations accordingly.

The client already had Asset Guardian installed for other functions like Software Change Management, Obsolescence Management and Cyber Security Management, so AG-RAM was an extension to their existing system. The solution covers many standard and regulations, but especially the management of Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) covered in IEC 61511 and IEC 61508.

The Result

The solution has significantly helped the client gain insight into this data they never previously had. They are able to confirm that their maintenance schedules and operations are complying with regulations, but also it gives them evidence to the regulator when they want to change a schedule.  This can give considerable savings where some maintenance schedules are very onerous, and can safely be extended.

The biggest issue in getting the system up and running is getting all the historical maintenance data imported.  AGSL have helped in this, using specialist resource with experience in instrumentation and maintenance to review and classify the last 5 years of historical data, exported directly from works maintenance systems like SAP PM and Maximo.

AG-RAM is now being used globally across 10 regions and multiple facilities.  The calculations use data from all regions to give a global view as well as regional and individual facility views. The Asset Guardian AG-RAM solution is unique and there are no others like it on the market and it can applied across industries wherever the reliability of control and instrumentation equipment is of interest.

For more information on the Asset Guardian solution, please get in touch today.