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Mechanization of static mechanical systems inspection planning process: The state of the art

R.M. Chandima Ratnayake (Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering and Materials Science, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway)

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

ISSN: 1355-2511

Article publication date: 11 May 2015

348

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of inspection and maintenance (I&M) practices used for aging and newly built oil and gas (O&G) facilities. It also proposes a framework and an approach for mechanizing inspection planning to perform preventive maintenance (PM) activities, taking technical condition (TC) and relative degradation (RD) into consideration.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper systematically collects, categorizes, and analyzes the published literature of both researchers and practitioners. It also utilizes industrial experience that has been accrued and utilized from inspection planning practices for static mechanical equipment on aging O&G production plants.

Findings

The paper defines significant issues in I&M of O&G assets related to: different philosophies; stakeholders’ requirements trade-off; dependability and asset deterioration challenges; items interacting with inspection planning mechanization processes and I&M optimization approaches. A framework is identified to mechanize the inspection planning process in order to reduce the effect arising from human involvement, while improving the effective utilization of data from different sources. The suggested approach improves the quality of an inspection program, while minimizing the variability and cost to the engineering contractors as well as to the owners of O&G facilities.

Practical implications

The mechanization of inspection planning (MIP) is vital to have inspection programs with uniform quality. The currently employed inspection practices face challenges in maintaining uniform quality from one inspection program to another due to the variability present in the planning process, especially among the different inspection planning engineers. The suggested fuzzy logic-based MIP supports the minimization of the variability and increases the quality of inspection programs.

Originality/value

The paper provides a comprehensive review of research contributions and industrial development efforts. These will be useful to the life cycle stakeholders in both academia and industry in understanding the inspection planning problem and solution space within the O&G asset I&M context.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This paper is a revised and expanded version of an article which was presented at the ASME 2012 31st International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Volume 6: Materials Technology; Polar and Arctic Sciences and Technology; Petroleum Technology Symposium Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 1-6, 2012, ISBN: 978-0-7918-4493-9.

Citation

Ratnayake, R.M.C. (2015), "Mechanization of static mechanical systems inspection planning process: The state of the art", Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 227-248. https://doi.org/10.1108/JQME-09-2012-0033

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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