Articles - RBI

The immediate cost saving advantages of adopting an RBI approach to asset integrity management are gaining momentum. Corporations are increasingly realizing that RBI, with its ability to intelligently analyze equipment’s probability of failure (POF) vs consequence of failure (COF), is the prudent approach to managing critical assets. Embracing RBI assures that a structured, systematic, and technically defensible approach is used to make decisions. RBI significantly reduces instances of equipment failure and minimizes unplanned shutdowns.

In the realm of asset integrity management, where every moment counts in financial terms, organizations must prioritize strategies that are not only cost-effective but also prioritize safety, regulatory compliance, asset integrity, operational efficiency, and data-driven decision-making. This is particularly crucial for owner operators who are burdened by unnecessary expenses resulting from over inspection, under inspection and outdated inspection methods. Notably, equipment failures annually cost the US refining industry billions, with a significant portion attributed to static equipment loss of containment.

Risk Based Inspection (RBI). A pillar in modern asset integrity technology, its benefits have become widely known and accepted (we examined all of the ways RBI reduces shutdowns and improves profitability in previous articles, here and here). The intelligent risk analysis afforded in comparing an asset’s unique probability of failure (PoF) vs. its consequence of failure (CoF) allows operators to reliably extend inspection intervals. In fact, RBI has been shown to reduce inspection points by as much as 80%, and cut down the likelihood of unplanned shutdowns by more than half.

The immediate cost saving advantages of adopting a Risk Based Inspection (RBI) approach to asset integrity management are gaining momentum. More and more corporations are realizing that RBI, with its ability to intelligently analyze equipment’s probability of failure (POF) vs consequence of failure (COF), is the more prudent approach to managing their critical assets. It assures that a structured, systematic, and technically defensible approach is used to make decisions. After all, it drastically reduces instances of equipment failure and more than halves the likelihood of unplanned shutdowns.

The most financially damaging threats any plant, pipeline or refinery executive faces are those associated with unplanned shutdowns. The average refinery faces an annual risk of $25 million per year due to failures of static equipment.