Service Provider of Choice
AIE’s services are aimed at assuring the integrity and reliability of our clients’ assets, optimizing process safety and life cycle asset performance. Our approach focuses on the establishment of long-term, proactive management measures that include maintenance, inspection, repair and rehabilitation activities across the asset. We are committed to being an engaged and collaborative service provider of choice where we will focus on cost-effectiveness and value-adding solutions to our clients.
Adding Value at Each Stage in the Life Cycle of an Asset
We consider that the principles of asset integrity management are relevant across the entire life cycle of a given asset. This is because the key factors that may have a significant bearing during the operational phase of an asset can, and indeed should, be incorporated within its design. This will potentially avoid the difficulties and associated costs of having to address problems which may manifest later as a result of the choices that were made during the design phase. However, we recognise that there is a clear balance of risks versus costs, where certain design concepts may be deemed to be grossly disproportionate when considered in terms of the risk reductions that may be realised by a given design option relative to its net cost. The converse is also true, whereby the lowest cost option may constitute the more elevated risk option, which plant operations will then be obligated to live with and manage going forward.
The design of a given facility must necessarily capture all these relevant aspects in order to ensure that the optimal solution, in the context of performance, costs and risks, is selected. For example, if the process conditions for a given pressure system are known to be potentially corrosive, the design process may decide to focus on maximizing the corrosion resistance of the materials of construction. This will significantly increase project costs and potentially introduce new failure modes that may be very difficult to detect using conventional non-destructive examination methods. This is where AIE adds value by working very closely with our clients. We ensure that the costs and risks are balanced and that the on-going risk management measures required during the operational phase of the asset are optimal from a cost and risk perspective.
AIE’s approach serves to ensure the safe and reliable uptime of the plant facilities. This is accomplished through the use of specifically targeted and effective risk-based management measures throughout the asset life cycle.
Early Adoption is the Key
AIE strongly advocates that asset integrity management should be fully integrated into the suite of management measures for a given asset and that its adoption should be at the earliest practicable opportunity. Ideally this should be instigated at the design stage of the asset. However, this may not always be practicable, especially in cases where ageing and lifetime extension of assets is the primary concern.
Our strategy is risk-based, where risk assessments and risk-based planning of the relevant control and mitigation measures are the core basis of the integrity management strategy. Early adoption allows the verification of condition status, the demonstration of on-going fitness-for-service, and serves to improve the understanding of in-service plant performance.
Our strategic approach is iterative and is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, where plant performance is measured and verified via a formalized risk-based plan, and the key learnings allow further fine tuning and a more focused series of proactive measures to be developed. The earlier in an asset that such an approach is adopted the better. As plant performance and behavior becomes better understood, any performance shortfalls can be observed and captured, providing the means of optimizing plant performance, reliability, and importantly maximizing safety.
The risk-based integrity management plan is normally developed in consultation with the key stakeholders within the wider asset management team. This approach serves to allow planned activities to be embedded within the integrated plan for the asset. This approach also allows for synergies to be identified and potential cost savings through more optimized mobilizations to be realized.