PLANT-LEVEL ASSET MANAGEMENT

Introduction
The frequently quoted statement from a report by the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Companyi that
"the largest single controllable expenditure in a plant today is maintenance, and in many plants
the maintenance budget exceeds annual net profit" clearly highlights the importance of finding
new ways in which we manage our plant assets. It is estimated in industry that maintenance ii
related costs account for up to 40% of a plants total operational costs. By adopting a new
culture on Plant Asset Management, several operations around the world have successfully
turned maintenance from being the largest single controllable expenditure to being a source of
profit. Through proper Plant Asset Management, assets cannot only be maintained close to their
original state but their lifespan can actually be extended and the individual and collective asset
efficiencies notably enhanced throughout the entire lifecycle of the plant. The result is to
maximize the benefits (profits) derived from these assets (improved ROI).

Much has been researched, written and presented on Plant Asset Management philosophies
and strategies. This paper focuses on Plant Asset Management predominantly at the Field and
Control levels of the Plant Operational Hierarchy, but also touches on the systems that are
employed at the higher levels (see Figure 1 Simplified plant operational hierarchy). Examples
of condition monitoring are described to demonstrate how non-intelligent assets can effectively
be managed.

What is meant by Plant Asset Management?

Process plants are associated with high capital expenditure and operational costs. Plant Asset
Management is a collective of corporate culture, strategies, methodologies, systems and
procedures aimed at maximizing the benefits derived from all material and human assets in a
plant. Assets should not be viewed as costs but rather as an investment towards achieving high
productivity (quality and quantity) and profits.

How does Plant Asset Management Work?

In order to maximize the output of a plant, all assets need to be maintained at certain intervals
i.e. monitored, serviced, refurbished or replaced. Plant Asset Management assists in
determining these intervals through continual asset condition monitoring, predicting time-to-
service, providing detailed diagnostics with guidance of required service actions and system
supported planning and execution of service tasks.

Effective Plant Asset Management requires the buy in of all plant staff members. It also involves
all levels of the plant operational hierarchy, namely the Process or Field level 1, the Control and
Operator level 2, the Management level 3 and the Enterprise Resource Planning level 4 (see
Figure 1 Simplified plant operational hierarchy).
 Enterprise
Enterprise Resource Planning Asset
Management
Level 4

Performance
Management Level 3 Management

PAM
Control Level 2 Maintenance
Station

Field Level 1 Field Assets

Figure 1 Simplified plant operational hierarchy

In a typical PAM scenario the condition statuses and diagnostics of all assets are routed from
the Field level via digital networks to the Process Control Systems (PCS) and from there to a
dedicated Maintenance Station (MS). The maintenance station acts as a dashboard to the
maintenance team. It displays the assets as unified symbols in a hierarchical structure. Asset
symbols are capable of indicating the device states and severity (priority) levelsiii. The
maintenance team can drill down from a plant overview to individual assets, displaying the asset
identification data, manufacturers details, error messages, detailed diagnostics with service
hints and the offline / online device parameter list (if applicable). The maintenance station also
supports managing each assets maintenance workflow (e.g. maintenance request,
maintenance in progress, maintenance completed, cancel request etc.).

The maintenance station passes the asset status information on to the management and
enterprise resource planning levels. At the management level the asset statuses are evaluated
and combined with other process data to yield Key Performance Indices (KPIs) such as Overall
Equipment Efficiency (OEE), Cost of Ownership (TCO), True Downtime Cost (TDC) and Total
Effective Equipment Productivity (TEEP). These measures present management with the
bigger picture of how effective a plant is operated and maintained and at the same time
identify possible shortcomings in the process. With this important feedback management can
continually revise their maintenance strategies and debottleneck the processes, thereby
improving the plants overall profitability.

The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system
provides the platform for scheduling, workflow, inventory, purchasing, and other related
maintenance activities. Planning is done in accordance with one or more maintenance
strategies. There are a number of different maintenance strategies, which are however not
exclusive of each other. They can be divided into two main categories, namely Corrective and
Preventative maintenance (see
Figure 2 Maintenance strategies and Table 1 Other maintenance strategies).
Figure 2 Maintenance strategies

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis FMEA

Time Based Maintenance TBM
Load Based Maintenance LBM
Condition Based Maintenance CBM
Root Cause Analysis RCA
Value Based Maintenance VBM
Reliability Centred Maintenance RCM

Table 1 Other maintenance strategies

Condition Based Monitoring

The objective of Plant Asset Management is to do proactive rather than reactive maintenance
wherever possible. Condition Based Monitoring (CBM) focuses on optimizing the timing of
maintenance. It seeks to avoid unexpected equipment failures on the one hand (too late
maintenance) and unnecessary maintenance on the other (too early maintenance). To achieve
this goal the individual assets either require embedded intelligence or specific condition
monitoring techniques at a higher level.

There are two main asset classes. Automation assets such as field transmitters, actuators,
sensors, electrical switching & protection gear and automation system components have far
advanced with embedded condition monitoring. Process assets on the other hand such as
pipes, valves, pumps, conveyors, filters, scrubbers and other mechanical apparatus still largely
lack effective condition monitoring. While process assets typically constitute only 20% of failure
instances in a plant, these failures contribute to up to 80% of the total maintenance costs.
Various techniques for monitoring mechanical equipment have therefore been developed.
These include using control equipment for monitoring controlled devices (e.g. electro-pneumatic
positioners monitoring control valves; electrical drives monitoring conveyors etc.), installing
specialized sensors, measuring and diagnostic equipment (e.g. infrared thermography,
ultrasonic noise sensors, oil analyzers etc.) and process modelling at a higher system level.
Practical examples of condition monitoring
An example of how to monitor controlled equipment is the intelligent electro-pneumatic valve
positioner. Control valves vary in dimensions, from pipe sizes a fraction of an inch to a few feet
in diameter. Valves control the flow rate of various types of abrasive, corrosive or viscous
substances and are therefore subjected to wear and tear. State-of-the-art electro-pneumatic
positioners not only perform extensive self diagnostics but also determine the condition of the
physical valves or flaps which they control. At first the positioner learns the correct behaviour
of a good valve. Then during normal plant operation it detects any deviation from this normal
behaviour. By this principle one can detect valve stickiness, pneumatic leaks (e.g. torn
membrane), breakage of the valve cone, deposit build-ups on the valve cone or seat, wear and
tear of the valve cone or seat and various other mechanical deteriorations. To the operator the
valve may still appear to be functioning correctly at this stage, but on the maintenance station
the valve is indicated as having a problem and signals the degree of seriousness of damage.
Maintenance can immediately be planned and the necessary repair actions executed before
serious damage is caused.

Figure 3 Condition monitoring on valves deposit build-up on valve cone & seat

Another practical example is the condition monitoring of centrifugal pumps. A Pump Asset
Monitoring block in the process control system learns the characteristic curves of a good
pump. The characteristics include the flow curve, power consumption curve and NPSH curve.
During normal plant operation the Pump Monitoring block reads the electrical power
consumption, input and output pressures and the flow rate of the pump. From these variables it
calculates the actual pump operating points and plots them on the original characteristic curves.
Deviations between the actual operating points and the original characteristic curves imply that
something is wrong with the pump. The system can identify various problems such as blocking,
high gas content in liquid, dry run, cavitation or a damaged impeller. The block further
distinguishes between sudden breakage and gradual wear and tear, and reports the status and
severity level to the maintenance station. This method of condition monitoring is very cost
effective as it makes use of existing measurements instead of requiring additional specialized
field equipment.
 Operating Point

Minimum Flow Nominal Flow

Figure 4 Characteristic curves and operating points on centrifugal pumps

In a similar way condition monitoring can be performed on other non-intelligent process assets
such as heat exchangers, vessels, filters, scrubbers and even pipes and elbows by using
innovative algorithms in the process control system.

Consideration for evaluating a Plant Asset Management system

There a many different approaches of implementing Plant Asset Management. Before deciding
on which system to use, it is imperative to evaluate the options. Various guidelines and study
results have been published (please also refer to Additional literature and the References at
the end of this paper). Here is a brief list of pointers to be observed during the evaluation of a
Plant Asset Management system:

use of Intelligent field devices and electrical equipment in green fields projects
condition monitoring of all asset classes (automation and process)
good alarming, visualization and navigation hierarchy
enhanced diagnostics with guidance on necessary maintenance actions
support for managing the maintenance workflow
audit trail and maintenance reporting
integration of PAM into process control system iv
separation of operator and maintenance information
uniform symbolic representation of all asset classes (with prioritization of severity)
PAM should involve minimal engineering and maintenance effort
modularity to allow future expansions and enhancements over plants entire lifecycle
PAM / MES / EAM / ERP interoperability

Conclusion
Plant Asset Management is aimed at maximizing the return on investment of a process plant.
Sponsored by the operations executive it creates a culture according to which every staff
member contributes to the most effective way of running the plant. This process is supported by
selected tools and systems at the various levels of the plant operational hierarchy, which
facilitate managing, planning, monitoring, executing and controlling of all maintenance related
activities. The result is the optimal utilization of all assets.

The chosen maintenance strategy plays an important role. According to the ARC Advisory
Group ii up to 90% of maintenance cost can be saved when implementing Predictive rather than
Reactive or Corrective maintenance (see Figure 5 Potential cost savings when using the
correct maintenance strategy).

While no ideal Plant Asset Management exists, there are many good examples of how
operations have benefited from implementing various Plant Asset Management systems and
solutions. In order to remain globally competitive and attain a leading edge every process plant
should implement Plant Asset Management and furthermore constantly strive to expand and
improve these systems.

X Rand

0.5 * X Rand

0.1 * X Rand
Rand

Predictive Preventive Maintenance

maintenance maintenance as needed
Figure 5 Potential cost savings when using the correct maintenance strategy

Terminology and abbreviations

CBM Condition Based Maintenance
CPM Collaborative Production Management
EAM Enterprise Asset Maintenance
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
FMEA Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
KPI Key Performance Indices
LBM Load Based Maintenance
MES Manufacturing Execution System
MRO Maintenance Repair & Operations
MS Maintenance Station
NAMUR Interest Group of Chemical & Pharmaceutical Industry
NPSH Net Positive Suction Head of a pump
OEE Overall Equipment Efficiency
PAM Plant Asset Management
PCS Process Control System
RCA Root Cause Analysis
RCM Reliability Centred Maintenance
ROA Return On Assets
ROI Return On Investment
TBM Time Based Maintenance
TCO Total Cost of Ownership
TDC True Downtime Cost
TEEP Total Effective Equipment Productivity
TPM Total Productivity Management / Total Productive Maintenance
VBM Value Based Maintenance
Additional literature
Collaborative Asset Lifecycle Management and PAM Wil Chin, ARC
Condition Monitoring within Enterprise Information Systems, Maintenance Technology Rick Wetzel,
December 1999
Plant Efficiency A value stream mapping and overall equipment effectiveness study Daniel Hgfeldt,
Lule University of Technology, 2006
Plant Asset Management - Products for intelligent maintenance in the process industry Siemens AG,
April 2008
Reliability-Centered Maintenance John Moubray

Author details
Rolf Kstlin
NHD Elec. Eng. LC Technikon of the Witwatersrand
SIEMENS LIMITED
Industry Industry Automation Automation Systems
PCS 7 Product Management
[email protected]
+27 11 652 3680

September 2008

Resources
i
Report by E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co.
ii
The Value Proposition of PROFIBUS in the Process Industries David Humphrey, ARC, April 2005
Plant Asset Management Best Practices for the Process Industries Valentijn de Leeuw, ARC, May 2007
Asset Management for Mechanical Plant Components P&A Compendium Thomas Mller-Heinzerling /
Herbert Grieb / Bernd-Markus Pfeiffer, Siemens AG, 2007
iii
Status Message of Field Devices NAMUR NE107
iv
"Requirements for Online Plant Asset Management Systems" NAMUR NE91, November 2001