Safe and Reliable Plant Operations E-Book

Dietrich Roeben

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 195

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Dietrich F.O. Roeben Safe and Reliable Plant Operations - Operations Management for Hazardous Facilities Industrial plant operations carry inherent risks for safety, environment, asset value, and lost production. As production processes and industrial plants get more complex due to new production technology and increased automation a comprehensive but pragmatic approach to manage these risks is required. Here is where Safe and Reliable Plant Operations steps in with an integrated methodology to design safe and functional production systems as well as implementing safe and reliable operations encompassing production, maintenance, inspection, and plant engineering. This book gives an overview of the underlying principles of risk management, defines unambiguously key terms, and integrates the many concepts Process Safety, Reliability, Asset Integrity into one comprehensive but simple operations management strategy with work processes, organisation, and systems. An outlook for future Plant Operations Management 2050 closes the book and encourages the reader to improve current operations.

Leseprobe

Preface

Industrial plant operations carry inherent risks for safety, environment, and even lost production. Various concepts have been developed for effective and efficient risk management to deliver safe and reliable plants and operations.

Production processes and industrial plants get more complex due to more and new production technology and increased automation. The corresponding risk were not always fully recognised and controlled. This creates the need for simple but effective methodologies to design safe and functional production systems as well as implementing safe and reliable operations encompassing production, maintenance, inspection, and plant engineering.

Safe and Reliable Plants and Operations are directly linked to Asset Integrity Management. This term has been going around for many years with different meanings, purposes, concepts, and was often misunderstood and wrongly used. Process Safety Management is another concept, which will be integrated into the Plant Operations Framework in this book. Safety for its own sake is admirable, however it has also to serve the purpose of business continuity and value generation for the company’s operations. Therefore production function, value generation and safety of the assets are considered equally. The objectives are Asset Safety and Reliability. This book explains and integrates the underlying concepts and systems of hazardous industrial plant operations management.

Safety and Reliability are achieved following few simple principles and applying simple work processes every day. Excellence is achieved by being highly disciplined in every work process.

The biggest value is realised when all functions or processes are integrated and play seamlessly together in one system. This integration comes by implementing one common system (work management system), which enables a consistent way of managing all plant activities and is the foundation for continuous improvement.

The LEAN philosophy and the Toyota Production System had a big impact on my management thinking. The philosophy of integrating all resources of a company, even external resources, and respectfully working together with high discipline in all operations and continuous improvement should be recognised, lived, and cherished in any industrial organisation. Even though the principles of Taiichi Ohno are nearly 70 years old, they apply to our modern operations more than ever. While he was short of materials and funds when getting his automobile manufacturing on track, we are short of time and talent in today’s world and can’t afford working with high effort on the wrong things.

What we can expect for plant operations 2050 – about 100 years after Ohno strategised his production system. The world will be different from the old top-down command system, and we can expect a world where virtually all information is available from common storage spaces. However, we may still face similar challenges to Japan after WWII because resources and energy are not as abundant and cheaply available as now. To succeed in such environment, we need passionate and well-managed continuous improvement with talented skilled people following and improving simple processes within an integrated networking system.

The focus in this book is on process and hazardous industry plants with high reliability requirements for profitable operations, with principles applicable to other production and services industries. “Safe and Reliable Plant Operations” is based on the predecessor “Managing Asset Integrity”. People had confused Asset Integrity with Technical Integrity and didn’t recognise the focus on Operations Management for Hazardous Industrial Facilities, LEAN Management, and Operations 2050. The book in its second edition changed focus accordingly and is intended to stir the curiosity of the reader to optimise his or her own plant operations.

Hanover, Germany 2023

Dietrich F.O. Roeben

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION

2 SAFE AND EFFICIENT PLANT OPERATIONS

2.1 A

IMING FOR

S

AFETY AND

E

FFICIENCY

2.2 S

AFETY AND

R

ELIABILITY

2.3 R

EFERENCES

C

HAPTER

2

3 THE INTEGRATED PRODUCTION SYSTEM

3.1 D

EFINING THE

P

RODUCTION

S

YSTEM

3.2 U

NDERSTANDING THE

P

RODUCTION

S

YSTEM

3.3 D

ESIGNING THE

P

RODUCTION

S

YSTEM

3.4 A

SSET

L

IFECYCLE

C

ONSIDERATIONS

3.5 R

EFERENCES

C

HAPTER

3

4 IMPLEMENTING SAFETY INTO PLANT OPERATIONS

4.1 O

PERATIONS

R

ISKS

M

ANAGEMENT

4.2 S

AFE

P

LANT

D

ESIGN

4.3 S

AFE

P

LANT

O

PERATIONS

5 IMPLEMENTING RELIABILITY INTO OPERATIONS

5.1 E

QUIPMENT AND

S

YSTEMS IN

O

PERATION

5.2 U

NDERSTANDING

E

QUIPMENT

F

AILURES

5.2.1 Causes of Equipment Failures

5.2.2 Degradation Mechanisms

5.2.3 Failure Models and Failure Prediction

5.3 M

ITIGATING

F

AILURE

E

FFECTS

5.4 R

ELIABILITY AND

R

ISK

-

BASED

M

AINTENANCE AND

I

NSPECTION

5.4.1 Reliability Centred Maintenance

5.4.2 Risk Based Inspection

5.4.3 Application of RCM and RBI

5.5 R

EFERENCES

C

HAPTER

5

6 WORK PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS

6.1 D

EVELOP

O

PERATIONS

P

HILOSOPHY AND

F

UNCTIONAL

R

EQUIREMENTS

6.1.1 Development steps for Operations Philosophy

6.1.2 Definition of Operations Functional Requirements

6.2 P

RODUCTION

S

TRATEGY

6.2 D

EVELOP THE

A

SSET

R

EGISTER

& C

RITICALITY

6.3 MITP D

EVELOPMENT

6.3.1 Maintenance and Testing Plans

6.3.2 Inspection Plans

6.4 M

ATERIALS

M

ANAGEMENT

6.4.1 Materials Catalogue

6.4.2 Consumption Rates

6.4.3 Stock Levels

6.5 R

ELIABILITY

M

ANAGEMENT

6.5.1 Design for Reliability

6.5.2 Equipment Performance and Operations Monitoring

6.5.3 RCA and Modifications

6.5.4 Optimise Planned Maintenance and Inspection Routines

6.6 W

ORK

M

ANAGEMENT

6.6.1 Work Identification and Prioritisation

6.6.2 Planning and scheduling

6.6.3 Technical Feedback

6.6.4 Work Management System and CMMS

6.7 P

ROCESS

S

AFETY AND

P

RODUCTION

R

ELIABILITY

– S

AFE

O

PERATIONS

6.8 I

MPROVEMENT OF

O

PERATIONS

7 ORGANISATION

7.1 O

RGANISATIONAL

D

ESIGN

7.2 D

EPARTMENTAL

O

RGANISATION

7.3 O

UTSIDE RESOURCES

7.4 B

UILDING AN

O

RGANISATION

7.5 LEAN P

HILOSOPHY

7.6 R

EFERENCES

C

HAPTER

7

8 THE ASSET LIFECYCLE - CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS

9 NEXT GENERATION PLANT OPERATIONS

9.1 A

NTICIPATE

C

HANGES

9.2 T

ECHNOLOGY

9.3 S

OCIETY AND

R

EGULATIONS

9.4 O

PERATIONS

M

ANAGEMENT

2050

9.5 R

EFERENCES

C

HAPTER

9

10 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

APPENDIX 1 ABBREVIATIONS

1 Introduction

Industrialisation has helped to elevate humans into a healthy and wealthy life unimaginable to our ancestors 150 or even 100 years ago. This was only possible due to modern production technology and cheap energy applied in industrial factories (also called plants). Over the years more and more complexity and subsequent risks were added to plant operations. This had an impact on safety of workers and the plant environment.

Our modern world demands many products, which can only be manufactured using hazardous ingredients and complex technical processes. Not always were all hazards of complex plant operations fully understood and led to minor and disastrous incidents. Some of those incidents had such an impact that companies went out of business and minor incidents often led to follow-on incidents of larger scale. Our world depends on industrial plants and the effective and efficient management of operational risks. Operating complex plants requires that related risks are pro-actively managed.

The story of humans controlling technology for their benefit is as old as mankind. In the last century however the complexity and scale of industrial plants and related risk has grown to levels where safety (incidents, failures) and unavailability are not acceptable anymore. Risk management becomes paramount in many aspects of life.

When it comes to plant operations, the safety and reliability are key operational success factors. This book defines key concepts and develops a simple straightforward methodology for industrial plants’ risk management. It provides the reader with a reflection on key terms and principles and shows a process how to build and implement safe and reliable operations.

After the introduction (chapter 1), chapter 2 defines objectives, key terms, and concepts for Safe and Reliable Plant Operations. This forms an unambiguous foundation for the following strategies and concepts and work processes. Safety, Reliability, and Asset Integrity have been widely used for different concepts and clarity is required. Chapter 2 concludes with a map showing how the key concepts are integrated.

Chapter 3 looks at Integrated Production Systems and plant models. Key documents are explained to the newcomers and the experienced plant-engineering professionals will see how the puzzle of concepts and engineering deliverables smoothly fit together. All this information is integrated into the framework of an operations philosophy, which then leads via operations functional requirements into the Basis of Design for plant new-builds and modifications.

In chapter 4 the rubber eventually hits the road: Operations Risk Management is explained in simple terms. Key concepts in plant safety management like the risk matrix, the bow tie, and selection of safety equipment and maintenance is integrated into a comprehensive but simple methodology. The chapter concludes with the pragmatic concept of Safe Plant Operations.

The following chapter 5 focuses on the Reliability of plant operations. Safety is the precursor to operations reliability enabling production and value generation. The reader will understand the nature of equipment failures, which are undesirable but reality in plant operations. Important terms like Failure Mode and Effects are explained. Finally a methodology to develop Maintenance Inspection and Test Plans to mitigate failure effects concludes the reliability management framework.

Chapter 6 is about Work Processes. A set of structured work processes for Safe and Reliable Operations is developed, explained, and integrated into a management system. The reader will understand the underlying principles and methodologies and can then develop processes fitting his or her plant’s circumstances. Special focus is given to work management systems (WMS, CMMS, ERP), Safe Operations, and Improvement of Operations.

The Plant Organisation (people and systems) is the focus of chapter 7. Organisational efficiency is defined and functional departments are built based on business processes. Special attention is given to the integration of outside resources (Outsourcing or Contracting) as this will become more important in future organisations. The impact of LEAN Plant Operations is put into context. The chapter closes with an outlook on how LEAN will shape the future operations.

Chapter 8 gives a brief perspective on the plants’ lifecycle and impact on operations, before chapter 9 brings us eventually to the Operations Management Strategy 2050. The most important change drivers are changes in society and technology, which are analysed in respect to their transformational impact to be expected in the next years and decades. A future network plant operations organisation is strategised and the reader is put into imagination mode before chapter 10 concludes this book.

2 Safe and Efficient Plant Operations

Every plant has its own specific technologies and processes. Those determine how Process Safety and Production Reliability are to be implemented as part of the plant operations. The objective of this book is to present a generic way or strategy of how best to develop and implement safe and efficient plant operations.

The term “strategy” was found as most appropriate. Henry Mintzberg /1/ once wrote that a strategy could be regarded in five different ways: a plan, a pattern, a position, play or perspective. He said a strategy could be a plan or course of action how an intended set of goals is to be achieved. It can also be regarded as a perspective based on a theory and mindset how the business should function.

These two definitions describe how the Process Safety and Production Reliability Strategy in this book is intended: a plan or generic course of action how the plant operations’ goal of safe and reliable operations can be achieved. The plant specific steps and activities will be chosen by the reader based on the strategy formulated in this book.

The strategy development starts with a generic operations framework for hazardous and process industries. The strategy then emerges through steps in risk management and description of best-in-class methodologies and tools. The book formulates the generic strategy and lists best in class examples; the reader makes a plant specific implementation plan addressing his or her plant circumstances.

Different concepts and methodologies of Safe and Reliable Plant Operations and Engineering are applied. The overall objective is to manage proactively Asset Integrity (and Productions Reliability) for hazardous industrial plants based on latest technology and best in class practices. Figure 2-1 outlines the steps of the strategy development.

Figure 2-1: Strategy Development Steps

2.1 Aiming for Safety and Efficiency

Any journey starts with the definition of the destination and final goals in mind. Nothing is more hindering success than ambiguously defined targets. Process Safety and Uptime were always cornerstones of plant operations; however, the goal post has changed in recent years.

The case for change

Higher focus on operations safety in regulations

Society is less tolerant towards any harm to people and the environment

Shareholders have stringent expectations in terms of profitability and lower risk tolerance for production downtime

Plant technology has become more complex and facilities are getting costlier. Production Reliability must be high for investment efficiency

Taking into consideration these targets and standard industry practice, the Objectives of Safe and Reliable Operations are

Compliance with regulatory requirements to maintain “Licence to Operate”

No harm to health and safety of employees and environment

Proactive Risk Management: all operational risks are under control. Which means all hazards and risks involved in plant operations are actively managed to ALARP

1

level

Reliable Production to satisfy the business plan

Continuous improvement on Risk Management, Productions Reliability, and Operating (Lifecycle) Costs

These objectives apply throughout the whole lifecycle of the plant. They already determine the targets and activities to be achieved in design, construction, installation, commissioning (Project Phase), as well as start-up and long-term operations (Operations Phase), and decommissioning.

2.2 Safety and Reliability

Various concepts have been developed and applied when it comes to Safety and Reliability of Operations. Initially the key concepts Asset Integrity2 (AIN), Process Safety (PS), Reliability (REL) are explained and then combined to form the foundation of the Operations Management Strategy, which is emerging as a concept incorporating safety and process safety as well as efficient and profitable plant operations (production reliability). It is the foundation for continuous improvement of plant reliability aiming at operational excellence.

Licence to Operate (LTO)

The LTO is the approval and acceptance of the plant and its operations by the stakeholders, most important by society and regulators to safely install and operate the plant in its location. Often two separate terms “social” and “technical” LTO are mentioned, both however aim at the initial approval of the plant being built, installed, and commissioned and the continuing approval of ongoing plant operations by the stakeholders. LTO goes beyond just obtaining a technical permit to install and operate industrial plants or equipment; it is given by the stakeholders to the operator under the premise that all risks of plant operations are “under control”3.

Focus in this book is on technical risks, production reliability risk, and most important Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) risks. Those risks can be regarded as “under control” when they have been adequately identified, assessed, mitigated (by putting measures / barriers in place) and constantly managed by proactive barrier maintenance and assurance. Risks can be fully or partially reduced. The extent of risk reducing measure being put in place depends on the impact of the initial risk events / hazards and their probability of occurrence. An acceptable risk level is called As-Low-As-Reasonable-Practicable (ALARP) - more about risk management in later chapters. For some risks the regulator requires full adherence to technical standards for design, construction, commissioning, start-up, and operations that may be above (safer than) the ALARP level.

LTO requires the operators to assure the society and in especially the regulator that all construction and operational risks are managed at an acceptable level.

Safe Operations

All risks associated with plant operations are identified, assessed, and managed to an acceptable level. Risk management assurance activities confirm that operations are ‘safe’.

Safety has two components when it comes to plant operations: Personal & Environmental Safety

4

and Process

5

Safety.

Personal and Environmental Safety concerns the humans working within the plant and plant related environment (nature, communities, and individuals), their physical and mental health and the prevention of work related injuries – Health & Safety.

Process Safety concerns the integrity and reliability of safety critical systems. Safety critical systems have been put in place to manage process inherent risks, e.g. leak detection of fire fighting systems. Often the occurrence of these risks (probability) is very low, consequence however is high. HSE risks are normally the other way around.

Environmental Safety (the “E” in HSE) is regarded as the same as Personal Safety just with focus on the plant’s environment.

Safety is a prerequisite for Reliability.

Most regulatory requirements in the operations phase concern HSE and PS. The plant configuration and its operating & maintenance procedures must comply with these regulatory standards. Chapter 4 explains in detail how safety (HSE and PS) is implemented into plant operations

Availability (AVA)

AVA represents the time a production system can be used for production purposes (in 100% functioning condition) in a defined period. This definition is in line with Blanchard /2/, VDI /3/, and Leitch /4/ and is called the operational or production AVA.

The main determinant for AVA is the downtime of the system / unit. Downtime can be planned or unplanned. The first being determined by the time required for planned maintenance and testing, the second by the ability of the organisation to bring the system back into operations (determined by the availability of spares, workers, tools) after a failure. Adding redundancy into the system can also increase the system AVA.

Other authors /5/ see AVA as a probability that a system functions at a given point in its lifetime. That view is not shared in this book: availability is a measured or planned ratio of a system’s ability to fulfil its production function. The probability of a system being available at any given point in time during the operating life, is here called reliability.

AVA means that the system can function or produce at a defined level of performance (the Performance Standard – PES). Following this definition, under-performing equipment already results in downtime.

Another common measure for AVA is the Mean-time-between-Failures (MTBF) in relation to the whole operating time6. This is a retrospective or lagging indicator, which needs a clearly defined length of time (interval) for meaningful interpretation. It is only suitable as a comparative measure for equipment in identical operating conditions.

with T being the time interval analysed

In contrast to MTBF the Mean-Time-to-Repair (MTTR) is an indicator for the ability of the organisation to bring a deficient system back to the full functionality. Some authors regard MTTR as a measure of maintainability. Both MTBF and MTTR are only meaningful as comparative indicators when similar operating conditions (including the same levels of required performance) are applied. MTBF is used for repairable systems, while MTTR fits better with non-repairable systems. MTBF is often used as a design requirement for equipment selection. The most meaningful measure of success is AVA as defined above though.

Using MTBF and MTTR the inherent availability is calculated by

which is in line with the definition shown above. In this definition, only corrective maintenance time counts against the system. In a further definition, the operational availability as per /2/ can be regarded as the Mean-Time-Between-Maintenance (MTBM). Achieved AVA means that both corrective and preventive maintenance time counts against the system. This is the Operational Availability:

Reliability (REL)

The Reliability is a probability that a system will perform its intended or required function (to PES) during a specific period of time under stated operating conditions. AVA carries no probability; it is just a time-based ratio of % uptime in a chosen time interval. AVA can be increased by adding stand-by or redundant systems, REL however is an equipment / system specified probability (failures are therefore random) and doesn’t change with additional systems; it depends on equipment specifications and plant configuration. REL is then the probability that a system will perform its function over a chosen period /5/.

This rather simple definition assumes a time interval. The probability of failure is normally called λ.

In mathematical terms REL is defined as the probability of failure free operation at PES over a period t.

As in the definition of AVA, a failure is a condition when the system cannot perform up to the PES. In respect to MTBF a corresponding number would be the Mean-Time-to-Failure (MTTF). MTTF is then calculated as the length of the time interval divided by the failure in that interval. The MTTF divided by the length of the interval equals the Probability of Failure.

Production Reliability (PREL)

A measure to determine if all equipment or systems of a plant / unit together operate as per designed capacity and fulfils 100% of the nominated / requested capacity. In short it reflects the ability of the asset / plant / unit to produce nameplate capacity when requested.

PREL in contrast to REL is not a system or equipment specific measure, but an objective of plant operations – same as safety. High production reliability means that both AVA and REL of the respective systems or the plant are high. Both PREL and safety are interlinked as unreliable systems carry the risk to harm people and environment as well as to production. In comparison with REL, PREL considers the fact that equipment (EQP) is not always requested or nominated to produce. For a 100% PREL the plant must operate at the requested (or nominated) capacity level 100% of the time. Some systems can in fact be non-operational or in stand-by mode.

Actual Production (capacity) maybe higher than 100% of the nameplate or design capacity. PREL however can maximal be 100% as it only represents the reliability of all plant systems at nominated (planned) times.

High AVA of a system means minimum downtime.

High EQP REL means maximum production possible at nameplate capacity with minimum downtime.

High PREL means the overall system performs at the PES capacity level (on spec final products).

Asset Integrity (AIN)

AIN is the integrated concept / strategy to manage all safety and production reliability aspects in plant operations. A plant, or often also called an asset, can only operate safe and reliable if it was built and commissioned to adequate design standards, all equipment and systems (SYS) 7 operate within their (design) limits, and all maintenance 8 is carried out as per plan – under the positive assumption that all standards, limits, and maintenance programs are adequate. If all these aspects are fully complied with, the plant / asset has integrity. Under these conditions all plant EQP-related risks and operational risks are reduced to an acceptable level. This is called As Low as Reasonable Practicable (ALARP) – more in chapter 4. The licence to operate is only granted when asset integrity can be demonstrated to stakeholders throughout the asset’s life cycle.

Integrity is a compliance with expected standards as promised in the LTO and the investment approvals, or a measure of confidence that the plant can deliver its name plate production capacity safely under all framework conditions. Once the plant fulfils all integrity requirements, the operations can focus on production reliability improvements.

The concept of AIN can be simplified into one formula

with As-Built-Integrity (BI), Operating Integrity (OI), and Technical Integrity (TI). An asset can only have integrity if all components have integrity (>0) and the maximum integrity available is limited by the smallest component value (logical multiplication / product combination). Figure 2-2