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Getting your Assets in gear

Editorial Type: Technology Focus     Date: 09-2015    Views: 3062      








Managing major assets using Bentley's AssetWise provides rigorous total asset management for major infrastructure operators, supplemented by predictive performance analysis from Amulet

We speak a lot about asset management when referring to the operator's duties when he takes over a building. Another term is facilities management, which covers the maintenance of the structure and the equipment installed within it - the HVAC, power, plumbing and so on, and the tools that engineers need to keep them running at maximum efficiency.

AssetWise from Bentley, though, brings Asset Management to a whole new level, with Enterprise Content Management as the starting point, used to manage the distributed assets of the largest infrastructure systems - offshore utilities, highways agencies, Network Rail.

It keeps tabs on all information relating to plant, structures, road and rail systems, asking questions like 'What models do we have for them, what documents, catalogues, specifications?' From here it builds up a system that understands the performance of each, looking at its reliability, structural integrity, expected durability and appropriate maintenance schedules, repairs and ultimate replacement.

AssetWise allows companies to build an Asset Management Strategy using a combination of immersive APM (Asset Performance Management), predictive operational analytics and reality modelling. Starting with the basic question 'what is an asset?', it looks at every aspect of an asset to deliver maximum value at minimum cost, whilst operating in a safe environment. What are its business and performance requirements, for instance, what condition is it in, and how is it performing, and what is the likelihood of a failure and its consequences?

Having optimised the operation of an asset, when will we need to replace it, and can we assess risks of not doing so, and thereby mitigate costs?

It’s another facet of BIM, used to build up the models with substantial amounts of information connected to them. It adds 4D and 5D data to the model - time and money - so that time and cost-based performance analysis can be implemented and maintenance strategies devised.

Asset Performance Modelling (another APM acronym) takes that data and makes it available, and links objects to further information - maintenance manuals, training modules, etc. - all the while building up an operational strategy that conforms to international Asset standard, ISO 55000, its system requirements, ISO 55001 and guidelines ISO 55002.

ASSET MANAGEMENT
There are a number of different disciplines involved in the management of assets - financial, structural, operational - all of which must be coordinated within an overall asset model. One of these, Structural Integrity Management, for instance, looks at all phases of its lifecycle (planning, building, operating and checking) within a SIMWork Process.

Within the oil and gas industry facilities are designed to last a specific lifetime within a particular (sometimes hostile) environment. The process brings together information checking with the structural engineering model, creates work packs and inspection routines, taking extracts for an inspection management system which gathers data for analysis and to verify the asset is performing adequately.

It uses theoretical models that can be assessed against calculated performance models and checked against actual results, enabling operators to undertake auditable corrective actions. Is the equipment degrading faster than we thought, and should we inspect it more frequently?

The end result is a whole life assessment of value and sustainability, and enables operators to manage that information to ensure optimum asset performance - perhaps pushing a focus on reliability earlier on in the asset’s lifecycle.

And there is another, third, level beyond an asset’s structural operational analytics, and that relates to Capital Planning, looking at how you use assets, their energy management, chemical consumption, human resources and other operational costs.

SAFETY AND RISK
Compliance to regulations and standards play a vital role in ensuring the industries that APM operates in can handle risk adequately and ensure operator and plant safety levels. Besides having to maintain a company's reputation, effective risk management reduces unforeseen costs.

The Asset Performance Management Process provides a framework for mitigating risk - a risk based, reliability centred approach ensures the right work is done at the right time. Using KPI dashboards operators can implement and execute strategies rapidly, with interactive inspections presenting critical information in a timely manner, assisted by mobile and remote technologies (not laptops but monitoring devices attached to plant and equipment) and asset health monitoring and management routines that translate data into actionable tasks.

With all of this information available, decisions can be made right down to the system/component level, with the whole plant being managed as a living programme - not a project.

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