Petrochem/Utilities Industry Trends

Risk-Based Inspection Paves the Way for Risk Reduction and Cost Savings

Issue Table of Contents

Risk-Based Inspection Paves the Way for Risk Reduction and Cost Savings Fitness for Service: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It A Lesson in Equipment Safety: Q&A with Greg Alvarado RBI & FFS Standards and Related Publications

In the past, the job of performing mechanical inspections and worrying about the integrity of plant and processing equipment was left to inspection specialists or engineers. Inspections were often performed arbitrarily on equipment at predetermined intervals. But rising competitive and regulatory pressures have brought new focus to equipment inspections. As the infrastructure of plants has continued to age, and the squeeze continues on profit margins, many companies don't have the resources to replace equipment indiscriminately, and are looking to new inspection techniques as strategic investments in containing operating costs.

"Companies need every bit of technology they can get to make intelligent decisions about when to repair and when to replace equipment. They can't afford to do it carte blanche," says Greg Alvarado, business development manager with The Equity Engineering Group, Inc., and publisher and chief editor of "Inspectioneering Journal". Competitive pressures and thinning profit margins, says Greg, are forcing petrochemical companies to get the most mileage out of their equipment.

One step companies can take towards capping operating costs is to reduce the risks associated with equipment failure. But since each piece of equipment in a plant is used differently, the level of risk for each one can differ significantly. Without tools in place to measure this risk systematically and consistently, companies end up inspecting equipment based on time guidelines. Doing so, however, is not enough to ensure plant operational efficiencies and safety. So what's the answer? Risk-based inspection.

Risk-based inspection (RBI) allows companies to design inspection and maintenance plans for pressurized equipment that minimize the risk of equipment failure. By linking risk with optimized inspection techniques for each piece of equipment in a plant, companies can create inspection plans that reduce the chance of equipment failure and plant downtime.

Before RBI, the consequence of the failure of a piece of equipment — such as leakage, plant shutdown, or PR disaster — and the probability of such a failure occurring were calculated by two different people sitting in two different offices. While each of these is an important issue, it is the relationship between the two that is vital.

"There are some things that can fail and there are almost no consequences," explains Greg. "But there are other things that fail that have a tremendous impact." Knowing which is which means understanding both the consequences and probability of failure for each piece of equipment in a plant; this is risk, and it lies at the heart of the RBI philosophy.

With RBI, engineers can now combine consequence and probability to calculate risk levels. In doing so, companies can understand the relative risks associated with each piece of equipment, determine appropriate inspection techniques for each, and optimize inspection scheduling. Companies no longer need to inspect all the equipment all the time; instead, they can develop inspection plans based on the characteristics of the particular piece of equipment, its workload, and its risk levels. By determining the risk levels of each piece of equipment, companies know what risks they can live with and what risks they must mitigate. Inspections become an exercise in risk/cost efficiencies.

To guide companies in the development of their own risk-based inspection programs, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has issued Recommended Practice 580 (RP 580), Risk-based Inspection. Developed by a committee of industry consultants and experienced members of owner/user petrochemical companies, RP 580 is designed to help companies better understand the risk-based inspection methodology, what practices are essential in implementing an effective RBI program, and how they can identify, assess, and manage their own unique risks.