Developing Effective Inspection Plans for Fixed Equipment Programs

Developing Effective Inspection Plans

for Fixed Equipment Programs

by Lynne Kaley & John Conway

Lynne Kaley, PE

 Materials/Corrosion and Risk Management Engineer

 30+ Years Refining, Petrochemical and Midstream Gas

Processing Experience

 10 years owner/user plant metallurgist/corrosion and

corporate engineer

 20+ years consulting with plant management,

engineering and inspection departments:

• Risk-Based technology (RBI) development leader

• Development of implementation work process for plant

application

• Member of API committees for development of API 580 and API

581 recommended practices

 Project Manager of API RBI Project from 1996-2009

 

John Conway

 33 years Inspection/Reliability Experience

• Owner/User

• Inspection/Reliability Management

• Inspection and RBI Consulting

 Certifications/Training/Education

• National Board

• API 510 with 571 endorsement API 570, API 653

• NACE-Senior Corrosion Technologist

• BS- University of Texas at Austin

 Affiliations

• API Codes and Standards Participant

• Development of recommended practices for Corrosion Under

Insulation (CUI) and Integrity Operating Windows (IOW)

 

Purpose

 Purpose of Presentation

• Development of effective inspection programs with or without

RBI

• Proper documentation of inspection to achieve full credit for

inspection performed

• Development of acceptance/rejection criteria prior to

conducting inspection

• Show examples to demonstrate potential challenges and how

to handle exceptions during inspection

 Sources/References

• API 510, 570, 653

• API 580, 581

• API 571

 

Outline

 Introduction

 Inspection Program Goals

 Inspection Planning Process

 Fixed Interval vs. Risk-Based

 Cost Benefit for Risk-Based

 Today’s Inspection Responsibilities

 Future Inspection Programs

 Industry Examples (4)

 Conclusions

 

Introduction

 Flood of technology and regulatory requirements since

1990 has changed inspection program management

work flow

 Outsourcing inspection and engineering services has

provided additional resources and expertise but has

created a fractured work flow and introduced multiple

hand-offs

• Can introduce errors at each hand-off point

• May not achieve the same level of ownership by each party

• May not take advantage of synergy potential between parties

 Inspection data analysis required to:

• Develop, evaluate and interpret inspection findings

• Provide recommendation for next inspection required

 Multiple software products add complexity as well as

time consuming manual methods for combining results

Inspection Program Goals

 Assure regulatory and corporate compliance

 Identify program improvements by streamlining the

workflow and eliminating, to the extent possible, time-

consuming manual activities or duplicate efforts

• Provide improved inspection data quality by being more

involved and aware of the working process

• Provide suggestions for improvements as well as better analysis

and information from the field

• Help define/design the streamlined workflow including

procedure, decision-making points, analysis and reporting

 Provide added-value services for budgeted inspection

program

 Develop multi-year inspection plan for scheduling and

budgeting

 Provide data management and analysis, scorecard

metrics and dashboard reporting

Inspection Plan Development

Reliability & Risk Compliance

 

Interval Based Program

 

 

Safety & Environmental

Compliance

 

 

 

Baseline Inspection

 

TML/CML Inspection Program

Development

 

Optimized Inspection Program

 

Risk Based Program

 

 

Inspection Plan Development

 Critical to develop credible inspection plan

• Collect quality data, evaluate, validate and manage fixed

equipment data

• Historical inspection and maintenance records

• Damage assessment, damage rate and key operating variable

driving damage (integrity operating window, IOW)

• Develop specific inspection requirements based on operation

of plant and complexity of operation

 Prioritize Equipment inspection

• Inspection due dates versus internal accessibility and expected

damage

 Define criteria for inspection

• Acceptable damage for continued operation

• Fitness for service assessments, as required

• Repair/Replacement criteria