Reliability, Availability and Maintainability

Fabio Oshiro (Principal Reliability Consultant)

Monaco Engineering Solutions (MES)
mes.info@mes-international.com

About this article

This article has been produced by Fabio Oshiro, a reliability expert at MES, to present an overview of
Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM). The article briefly introduces the added value
that RAM studies bring to asset owners across the globe.

Introduction

RAM has been used throughout the project lifecycle in Concept, Design, Detailed Engineering and
Operational phases in several industries such as Oil & Gas (Upstream, Midstream and Downstream),
Chemicals, Petrochemicals, Renewables, Utilities etc.

RAM analysis is performed to confirm the production targets are met. It provides benefits including:

• The opportunity to forecast plant and equipment performance over the lifetime of a facility;
• Identifying, quantifying system and equipment bottlenecks in terms of production loss,
downtime, and unavailability;
• Optimising operating and maintenance regimes;
• Quantifying the Return of Investment (ROI) of a design and/or operating improvement; and
• Providing the basis for accurate Life Cycle Costing (LCC) Analysis.

MES has a range of reliability tools and qualified experts who have developed basic and advanced
RAM models for international projects across Exploration, Extraction, Refining, Transporting,
Terminal/Port, Subsea, LNG, Petrochemicals, Chemicals, Mining and Fertilisers.

Figure 1 presents an offshore RAM model which was created during the Engineering, Procurement
and Construction (EPC) phase for a major oil Operator. In five (5) sensitivity studies, MES evaluated
the impact of equipment redundancy, maintenance shift restrictions, different maintenance strategies,
alternative equipment capacities and different suppliers’ specifications on ROI. By implementing the
RAM recommendations, uptime was improved which was equivalent to an annual gain of 1% of oil
production.

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 Figure 1 – RAM Model Example

The basic inputs and outputs of a RAM Analysis are displayed in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – RAM Inputs, Simulation and Outputs

Inputs

Some of the basic inputs required to perform a RAM Study include:

• Reliability data (failure rate, Probability Density Function (PDF) distribution, reliability
parameters such as shape factor, life characteristic, mean life, median, etc);
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 • Maintainability data (repair time, logistic delays, shift patterns, etc);
• Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) (to be developed by the analyst based on PFDs/P&IDs);
• Planned maintenance (which includes schedule turnaround data, test intervals, vendor
maintenance frequency and duration, etc);
• Production profiles (oil, gas, water, etc.);
• Sparing philosophy (which describes whether equipment are in 2x100%, 2x50%, etc
configuration);
• Spurious trips (uncontrolled events such as power supply faults from external sources, F&G trips,
water supply faults, etc);
• Operability (e.g. switching delays from active to stand-by equipment, by-pass actions, restart
times, etc may be considered); and
• Flaring philosophy (which includes flaring allowance).

The amount of data required is dependent on the phase of the engineering project that the RAM study
is being performed. RAM studies performed during EPC phase require more data due to the maturity
of the project. For example, vendors can provide more detailed information about each package whilst
in FEED phase, it is common that the vendor has not been selected yet.

Reliability and Maintainability data are the minimum inputs required to perform a RAM simulation.
Hence, more details about these data are described in subsequent sections.

Reliability Data

During the earlier phases of facility design, often failure and repair data are not available, and it has
raised the question of whether data from similar facilities could be used to perform the availability
analysis. Typically, in case of lack of operator and/or vendor data, it is recommended to use OREDA
(Offshore Reliability Data). OREDA is a project organization sponsored by eight oil and gas
companies with worldwide operations. OREDA collects and exchanges reliability and repair data
among the participating companies and acts as the forum for co-ordination and management of
reliability and repair data collection within the oil and gas industry. The OREDA handbook presents
failure and repair data collated from different facilities and for different equipment types [Ref. 2].

During the selection of reliability data for use in RAM analysis, it is important to ensure that the
selected data is applicable for the specific equipment item and can be used with a sufficient level of
confidence. The confidence in the data can be achieved based on the population (sample size)
considered while defining the failure/repair rate of the equipment assessed. Additionally, to assess
whether the selected data is applicable, an analysis of the equipment failure modes can be performed.
This is often performed as part of a Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) which
includes the experience from operations and maintenance personnel.

The main factors that affect the failure data between equipment from different facilities are the
operating and environmental conditions, how the equipment is operated/maintained (within design

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margins or outside design margins) and the fluid composition. FMECA can be used to identify failure
modes and further eliminate the ones that are not applicable for a specific equipment items; highlight
the failure modes that may not be listed and / or highlight reliability data that do not reflect the
experience of operations and maintenance personnel.

Maintainability Data [Ref. 3]

When selecting maintainability data for process equipment, it is important to understand the
maintenance lifecycle for an unscheduled maintenance event. Detailed breakdown of the downtime
due to an unscheduled maintenance event is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Maintenance Event Schematic (adapted from ISO 14224) [Ref. 1]

Supply delay includes the total downtime in obtaining spare parts required to perform a maintenance
activity. For example, spare parts for sour facilities may not be as widely available as spare parts for
sweet facilities due to the additional sour specifications of the parts required. This may lead to an
increase in supply delays. Availability of tools are not likely to be of any additional impact to a repair
task for sour facilities when compared to sweet facilities.

Prior to performing any maintenance tasks, operators must perform a number of preparatory activities
such as obtaining a Permit to Work (PTW), perform a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA), positively isolate
process equipment, and must comply with other COMPANY standards and procedures. Preparation
may be longer for complex/hazardous processing facilities in comparison to simple facilities that
handles non-hazardous substances. Equipment in higher risk areas (e.g. toxic gas potential releases)
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should be assessed in more detail during the PTW or JHA process. There should be strict control of
personnel exposure to equipment with toxic fluids.

Additional precautionary measures and restrictions should be considered for high toxic areas such as
requirements for Breathing Apparatus (BA), toxic gas detection etc. This may result in maintenance
activities for hazardous facilities requiring more time to repair than activities in a non-hazardous
facility. Toxic fluids inside the process equipment are typically purged with nitrogen as part of the
maintenance preparations. Time for depressurisation, purging, flushing, venting and safe isolation of
process equipment may be impacted by the additional precautionary measures, tasks, and procedures
(working under breathing apparatus (BA), toxic gas detection etc). Maintenance activities performed
by personnel working under BA typically takes longer than activities performed without BA. Hence,
maintenance downtime for facilities that handles toxic gases are longer in comparison to facilities that
handles non-hazardous fluids.

Access to the repair site, failure diagnosis, replacement or repair and verification and alignment
activities are all considered as part of Active Repair Time (ART). These activities combined with the
additional precautionary measures and restrictions (BA, procedures etc.) are the main contributors to
the extended ARTs and increased process equipment downtimes for sour facilities.

As data in OREDA does not provide a detailed breakdown of ART or the time spent on each specific
repair task (i.e. isolation, access, diagnosis, repair, alignment etc.), the additional time required for
facilities that handle toxic fluids should be quantified based on experience.

Depending on the level of detail required in the availability study, high level approaches such as
taking arbitrary ART enhancement factors based on expert experience have been used e.g. increasing
the ART by X% to include BA and equipment preparation. However, more detailed approaches may
be considered such as repair efficiency under BA and equipment preparation. This should be assessed
in the presence of experienced operations and maintenance personnel.

Reliability Tools

MES has access to a range of RAM simulation tools to support Operators with their availability
requirements. Some tools are selected in accordance to the specific project sector. For example,
MAROS is typically used for Upstream/Midstream and TARO for Downstream. In addition to this,
software such as AVSim can be utilised for particular projects which require compatibility with
RCMCost.

MES has an in-house RAM Simulation tool which has been used on international projects for more
than 25 years. This user-friendly tool has been customised to support all sectors. With the tool, the
RAM Analyst can create, simulate, and monitor steady state and dynamic availability models for
studying the Operator system design and performance. The tool also supports the analyst to:

• Breaking down large and complex systems into identifiable and concise subsystems, operations,
and processes;
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 • Construction of Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD);
• Defining relevant failure and repair characteristics of the system components;
• Modelling of operational & planned maintenance scenarios;
• Modelling of spares dependencies;
• Permitting exponential, lognormal, normal and Weibull distributions for failure and repair;
• Allowing phased time profiles of simulation scenarios;
• Allowing the modelling of standby sub-systems;
• Estimating financial, safety, operational and environmental consequences of various models; and
• Provision for Markov modelling of user data.
Outputs

Some of the basic outputs of a RAM Study include:

• Overall production availability results, i.e. estimated on-stream availability and reliability of the
units/systems;
• Production results;
• Criticality and ranking of equipment, units and other sources of loss, i.e. identification of
potential bottlenecks (mechanical and process);
• Expected annual production rates, variance, interruption frequency and duration;
• Expectation curve and production efficiency profiles over life of the plant;
• Sensitivity cases as appropriate;
• Evaluation of alternative scenarios (if relevant);
• Quantification of availability of key equipment systems; and
• Recommendations for maximising availability.
Typical graphical outputs of a RAM Study are presented in Figure 4 and Figure 5.

Figure 4 - Example Plot: Production Availability, Volumes and Losses

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 Figure 5 - Example Pie Chart: Unavailability Breakdown

Conclusion

Over decades, RAM studies have provided an opportunity to forecast plant and equipment
performance over the lifetime of a facility. They help identify, quantify system and equipment
bottlenecks in terms of production loss, downtime, and unavailability. They can be used to optimising
operating and maintenance regimes and precisely quantify the ROI of a design and/or operating
improvement. RAM studies also provide the basis for an accurate Life Cycle Costing (LCC) Analysis
and is a key element to support the Asset Integrity and Management decisions.

As with all simulation tools, it is clear that the outputs are only as useful as the reliability data and
expertise used. Therefore, careful selection of data and expertise is always recommended.

REFERENCES

1. BS EN ISO 14224:2006 Collection and Exchange of Reliability and Maintenance Data for
Equipment, BSI, 2007.
2. OREDA Handbook 2015, 6th edition – Volume I.
3. ‘Plant Performance Forecasting for Sour Facilities using OREDA’, MES, 2017.

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