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Dr. Steven W. Ciaraldi Velosi Asset Integrity Ltd, May 2012, www.oilandgasfundamentals.com
strategy to ensure you arent set to repeat them? In this article, Velosis Stephen Ciaraldi, a 30 year BP veteran, will walk you through the top 10 reasons why integrity management implementations fail and give you some valuable advice to ensure your integrity programme to avoid the same fate.
dont achieve the results expected of them is an important starting point. Problems arent confined to one particular area of an integrity implementation and can just as easily emerge in either the process, the people of the plant components which make up an integrated integrity management programme. Focus too narrowly on one area, and you can be sure problems will emerge elsewhere. The key to implementation is the effective working together of these three components, and ensuring that checks and balances exist at every stage to help you.
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Reason three: not addressing the competition between productivity and integrity
Companies failing to properly budget for and book production deferrals are also key reasons an implementation can fall down. It has been known for individuals to go on site and say its not my job to maximise production its my job to assure integrity of facilities and to implement the asset integrity requirements which naturally brings them into conflict with those whose job it is to maximise production. In practice, an enormous amount of resistance is often faced by integrity specialists from people whose primary goal is to maximise production and who are going to get less money in their bonus because you are asking to do work on their facility. Having that production loss booked in advance and everyone agreeing is a really important obstacle to overcome. Proactive companies incentive their staff on operational safety as well as asset productivity.
where things are going well, it is very easy for a dangerous level of complacency to creep in. People dont worry and people start to accept risks that shouldnt be accepted. Its a continuous process and needs constant vigilance. Never forget that.
than done and is actually among the most common reasons integrity rollouts fail. So how do we go about building a robust integrity culture? First, people need to know what asset integrity is. Training is required in the fundamentals of the subject and how they apply to the business they are operating in. Contractors should be included in this training too. Leaders must push the integrity agenda. If leaders push, people will follow. Finally, you need to encourage honesty. If staff are afraid to report a hydrocarbon leak and fear it may affect their performance rank or pay, then you have a problem.
Reason five: failing to realise that asset integrity management never actually ends
We all know that asset integrity is a cradle to grave process, right? Of course we do, and yet in too many cases, asset integrity advisors can approach a project with a mind-set of having been brought into an operation to carry out some integrity work, and once that work has been done and that asset integrity advisor has been allocated elsewhere, a perception remains that that job will then be finished and go away. It really doesnt work that way. Asset integrity requires constant monitoring and constant vigilance even when especially when responsibility shifts from one team to another. Related to this, in cases
Reason nine: not effectively balancing the experience levels of site staff
In every operating scenario you can imagine, you would expect new people to be part of the operating unit, but too many new faces or raw recruits working on the same project at any one time runs the risk of integrity failure it is important to make sure there is a balance. Added to this, effective management of contractors is key as well. Too many people focus only on their own staff and dont focus enough attention on the other parties involved in operating their asset. The final manpower lesson to bear in mind is that once the programme is agreed and the funding is approved, the time to get the team together is typically longer than you ever imagine. Good engineers may not be integrity experts and dedicated integrity teams take a long time to assemble and get in place bear this in mind and start early to avoid repeating this common mistake.
assessment of a particular issue is key to carry out on a regular basis ideally with the input of an external party who can view the problem you are so absorbed in with an independent eye. An annual integrity review can help you see trends that you wouldnt see if you just looked at the metrics day by day. Dr. Stephen W. Ciaraldi is a Senior Integrity Management Specialist with Velosi Asset Integrity, and is a 30-year BP veteran with integrity experience on five continents. Stephen leads an online course on the Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Implementation, more details of which can be found at: www.oilandgasfundamentals.com/courses/assetintegrity.