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Asset integrity management: The key to operational excellence
What is asset integrity? The importance of effective asset integrity management becomes critical as the industry infrastructure matures. How can you start to preserve asset integrity and what are the potential impacts on operations and, ultimately, business productivity?
The nature of our industry recognises the potential human, environmental and financial consequences that can result from failing to maintain the integrity of vessels, tanks, pipelines and other assets. The importance of effective asset integrity management increases as the industry infrastructure continues to age.
“Asset integrity management refers to the management systems, strategies and activities aimed at maintaining plant assets in fit-for-purpose condition for the desired life of those assets. It incorporates aspects of design, operations, maintenance and inspection to maximise the return from assets,” says Maarten Lorenz, Inspection and Reliability Engineer at Shell Global Solutions.
“It’s crucial to remember that asset integrity management is a key element of what we call the ‘steps to operational excellence.’ It’s an equal partner with a number of other steps—such as MERIT reviews, risk management, maintenance efficiency, shutdown management and availability modeling. But it is certainly the first step you should consider, assuming your assets are already designed and in place.”