FMEA development and facilitation for safety and production critical equipment using our proprietary Effio™ software
Project Objective: To develop preventative maintenance tasks for production and safety critical assets using Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA) as a mechanism to identify the assets true criticality and the suitable maintenance required to mitigate known failures
Client: Oil and Gas Operator
Asset: Premium gas fuels plant
Duration: 6 months
Location: North America – Alberta, Canada
Software: Effio™
Why we were contracted
During the migration of maintenance management data to an upgraded Computerised Maintenance Management System (Maximo 7.6), issues in the existing criticality and maintenance allocation were identified.
With a lack of confidence in the current criticality allocation and the associated preventative maintenance measures, and due to the significance of the consequences associated with equipment failure, there was a requirement to conduct a detailed study to reassign criticality rankings and optimise maintenance plans.
Challenges faced by the client
- A flaw in the current criticality assignment process was identified
- With a lack of confidence in the existing criticality allocation, the plant’s safety and production critical equipment was at risk of over or under-maintained, which increased the risk profile for the plant as a whole
- In being at risk of undermaintaining equipment, driven by the wrong criticality allocation, the maintenance management team was unable to assure the safety and availability of the equipment
- With a lack of competence available to conduct this study in-house, it was critical to utilise 3rd party experts to facilitate and guide the business through the study to assure the core principles of FMEA were adhered to
- With an excessive amount of equipment to review, the operator required access to a systematic approach to FMEA to achieve the desired results in the most efficient way possible
What we did
- Utilising the ISO 14224 standard, ABL identified what failure modes, causes, and mechanisms would apply to the equipment within the boundary of this study
- Credible failures identified within the failure mode causes and mechanisms were then identified by equipment type
- The consequence and probability of failure was then analysed and identified
- The criticality allocation was then updated
- A review of existing maintenance tasks was completed to identify areas for optimisation or further development to identify how best to manage unmitigated and mitigated risk
- Optimisation and development of preventative maintenance tasks required to mitigate that failure were then developed
- The preventive maintenance tasks were then handed over to the client to develop PM plans
Project deliverables
Optimised preventative maintenance tasks
A systematic FMEA process for future studies
Updated criticality assignment for each asset, resulting in:
- 95% decrease in high critical equipment and a 1180% increase in medium critical equipment
Upskilled the workforce to execute FMEA in the future
The value we delivered
Understanding of true risk profiles
Accurate criticality allocation provides the business with a better understanding of their risk profiles, enabling the right mitigation measures to be put in place
Assurance of maintenance ROI
Through the development of preventative maintenance tasks developed in line with known failures, probability and consequence, the operator now has assurance that the maintenance effort will have a return on investment (ROI)
Improved competency of workforce
Through a facilitated and guided approach to FMEA, ABL were able to deliver the desired results whilst upskilling key stakeholders form the client’s maintenance and reliability teams, providing them with the tools and knowledge to conduct this exercise in-house going forward
Equipment reliability
Improved equipment reliability and availability were achieved by preventative maintenance tasks being put in place to mitigate known failures
Project delivery and cost efficiencies
Using our maintenance optimisation software, Effio™, the team were able to conduct the FMEA and facilitate workshops in a much more efficient and collaborative environment, which reduced the project timeline and associated costs
Optimised maintenance techniques
By using 3rd party consultants to deliver this study, new proven preventative maintenance techniques were introduced and implemented into the maintenance management regime
About Effio™
ABL’s maintenance optimisation software, Effio™, was used to deliver this project in a controlled, collaborative, efficient and cost-effective manner.
Utilising the tools FMEA facilitation and analysis functionality, the team were able to:
- Visualise and interpret the data better to review the assets’ function, how it fails, its functional failures, consequence of failure and probability of failure with ease
- Update critically allocation in a standardised and systematic fashion
- Provide the client with logins to ensure technical authorities were able to attend workshops, review data and sign off on updates in a fully informed and efficient manner
