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That lifecycle is usually measured in decades, with most of the accumulated lifecycle costs, estimated at between 60% to 80%, occurring during the operate and maintain phase. Efficiency in the day-to-day running of such plant, therefore, is essential to minimise downtime and to run reliably at peak performance levels.

Peak performance levels, though, may already have been compromised. Recent studies have found that up to 65% of large projects fail to meet schedule, budget and production goals for various reasons, so that, on handover, they fall far short of production targets, and are unlikely to reach and maintain that lost performance. Lower performance levels make it more difficult for the operating company to bridge the gap between CapEx and OpEx.

The problem is exacerbated by the way in which operators maintain their plant. At one end of the scale, equipment is only replaced when it wears out or breaks down - run to failure - the dead light bulb procedure, except that unplanned maintenance causes unplanned stoppages, with all of the extra costs that entails. An improvement on that is time- and wear-based preventive maintenance, usually determined by manufacturers’ recommendations or historical knowledge of a component’s reliability.

With advanced equipment monitoring tools, though, we can go further and implement maintenance schedules that are based on analysis following condition monitoring or predictions of wear. The optimal solution focuses on reliability-centred maintenance (RCM), used to 'engineer out failure' on high value assets. All but the first of these have their place in an overall maintenance schedule, depending on the value and strategic importance of the equipment involved.

Then there is the human end of the operation, with the usual problems of aging workforces using paper-based records to maintain plant, resulting in knowledge lost when employees retire, discontinuity between processes and maintenance engineers working in isolation from each other.

BENTLEY ASSETWISE APM
An industrial-strength process is therefore required to manage the performance and reliability of assets throughout their working life.

This is provided by Bentley's Asset Performance Management methodology, AssetWise, which not only drives the process using reliability-centred maintenance practices for an entire operation, but also manages change, ensures that skills are properly maintained, and that employees develop competency and understand their roles and responsibilities, and are accountable through key performance indicators. It provides an all-in-one analysis and information management system for ensuring an asset's reliability and integrity.

In the latest version of the software, V7.3, AssetWise adds process safety to the management process, ensuring that, whilst an asset is run with total efficiency, it is both safe and reliable, and inspected and maintained to reduce or eliminate risk. According to Alan Kiraly, Bentley senior vice president, server products: "AssetWise APM V7.3 meets the demanding requirements of reliability, integrity, safety and maintenance managers and engineers, in industries ranging from oil and gas, petrochemical, and mining and metals to power generation and other utilities."

SAFETY SYSTEMS AND HAZARDOUS PROCESSES
Now safety and risk management can be factored into the process at the strategy development phase of a project, closely aligning the goals of operations and maintenance with the business goals of the company, and identifying the physical assets that pose the highest risks, in terms of personal and equipment safety and environmental risks.

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