Asset Management: A Plant Manager’s Best Friend

But how can an operations or maintenance manager get the best information? To be useful, the data must be readily available and presented in a user-friendly manner. Asset management systems can fulfill this need by providing easy access to a database containing details of the history and health of every valve in a plant.

WHAT IS AN ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?

An asset management system is the valve equivalent of the electronic medical recordkeeping systems used by hospitals and clinics. For medical applications, the patient’s electronic record contains such information as test results, prescription history, diagnostic images and notes on previous appointments. The physician can access this data with just a few clicks of a mouse, no matter the time of day or night or whether he or she is in the office the patient typically visits, or at a sister facility. Having this complete record helps the physician identify any changes in the patient’s health over time, make accurate diagnoses, alert when routine tests and procedures should be completed and properly bill the insurance provider.

Similarly, an asset management system for valves stores performance data, maintenance records, test results, piping and wiring diagrams, photos and other vital and diagnostic records in a simple and logical manner. The information can then be easily retrieved for use in tasks such as performance analysis, outage and maintenance planning, inventory management, validation reporting to inspectors and loop analysis. An asset management system also can help plant personnel see trends in valve performance over time, diagnose performance problems, determine whether a valve should be repaired or replaced, streamline plant turnarounds and other maintenance activities, and more easily meet documentation and reporting requirements.

Various types of asset management tools are in use today, ranging from spreadsheets and other user-designed tools to sophisticated Web-based programs. The following are key factors to consider when evaluating the options and choosing the right solution.

RANGE OF CAPABILITIES

A key objective of implementing an asset management system is to simplify and streamline processes. To aid in this goal, plant personnel can choose a single tool that will meet all of the plant’s needs, rather than juggling multiple tools to accomplish different tasks.

This single tool should be able to capture data about all types of valves in a plant—control, pressure relief, line, gate, motor-assisted, etc. It also should record information about a valve and all of its accessories, not just an individual component, such as a positioner.

SUPPLIER SUPPORT

It also is important to have confidence that the system’s developer will stand behind the product and provide ongoing support and service, including adding new features and modules. The college student next door who is home for the summer may be a software development whiz; but he or she is not likely to be available come fall, let alone years down the road, to field technical questions and ensure a tool meets evolving needs. A wiser move would be to choose a strong provider committed to its product.

DATA INPUT

Because asset management is about the quality of data, the old adage “garbage in, garbage out” holds true. Data input and maintenance must be regular and accurate if a tool is to provide expected benefits. Some plant operators prefer to handle these tasks in-house. Those who do not have on-staff resources to accomplish these tasks faithfully, however, should consider other options. Some valve service providers offer managing their customers’ asset management systems as a value-added benefit at no additional cost. The end user still owns the data and links to that information, but the service provider handles the data entry and system maintenance.

KEY FEATURES

Something else a good asset ­management program has is tight security, and in today’s world of cybercrimes, that’s even more critical. Key features to ask for when considering an asset management system include strong firewalls against outside intrusion, robust password protection within the system and the ability to restrict access so that individuals within a facility only have access to the data that pertains directly to their areas of responsibility.

Another key ingredient is provision of reports that are useful and key in planning future action as well as reviewing past events.

Reports are an essential piece of any good asset management tool. Personnel should have the flexibility to customize reports and make the process of managing assets and providing these reports quick and easy—whether the user needs to create pie charts showing the plant’s valves by brand, to generate a list of valves due for repair during an upcoming turnaround (and hopefully a calendar to assist in that process) or to identify all of the pressure relief valves for which test certificates must be submitted to the local or state boiler and pressure vessel inspectors the following month.

OUTAGE PLANNING

Asset management tools can be a huge help in planning outages, especially in light of the fact that delays can cost thousands or even millions of dollars per day in lost production. Such tools have the potential to save both time and money. Key features that can be included in an asset management tool are:

• The ability to plan spare parts across an entire loop so that parts can be ordered in advance of an outage and surprises that might occur during that outage can be prevented.
• The ability to see comments noted during a previous outage that may be pertinent to an upcoming outage.
• The ability to track the progress made in completing a turnaround and comparing the actual completion timeline to the planned timeline. This allows maintenance personnel to easily provide updates to plant management.

IMAGE DEVELOPMENT AND STORAGE

The saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” certainly applies to management of valve assets. Good management tools allow users to quickly and easily record and view a wide variety of images of those valves and their environment from “before” and “after” parts photos and other documents related to a recent repair, to reports from the in-situ testing of a safety valve and the piping and instrumentation diagram of the loop associated with a valve. There is, after all, no better sign of preparedness than being able to answer an inspector’s question immediately by calling up the required materials on a computer with just a few clicks of a mouse.

We live in a digital world in which information has become our king. An asset management tool can be the best friend a plant and maintenance manager has by helping to navigate the waters of this digital world while ­providing quick access to essential information.

Gary Ostrowski is director of product ­management – aftermarket with GE Energy www.ge-energy.com). Reach him at gary.ostrowski@ge.com or 508.941.5407.