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ARC view just published: Perfect storm brewing -manage change and risk with Ivara

Thursday, June 21st, 2012

Paula Hollywood, Reliability Industry Analyst at ARC Advisory Group recently met with Ivara CEO, Paul Marshall. They agreed that the perfect storm is brewing. With increased complexity and diversity of assets in the manufacturing process,  companies are seeking risk management solutions to limit their exposure. And with the growing shortage of skilled trades to operate and maintain assets, something needs to change.

Change is difficult but not impossible to achieve with enabling tools, focus on the business process and best practices in Maintenance and Reliability. Read the full ARC view: http://htl.li/1kz56C

 

June 21st, 2012      Industry Solutions - Risk Management - Strategy & Leadership   Leave a Comment »

Arc Advisory Group reviews Ivara Reliability Leadership Summit

Friday, May 18th, 2012

The Journey to Operational Excellence Begins with Risk Management

Paula Hollywood, Industry Analyst at ARC Advisory Group, attended the 5th Ivara Reliability Leadership Summit held May 1 – 3, 2012 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, where over 200 people shared their experiences, challenges and lessons learned on their continuing journey to operational and maintenance excellence. Paula attended keynote addresses by Jim Gowans, Debswana CEO, and Ian Travers, Health and Safety Executive, UK and several sessions from the three tracks that included customer case studies from Agrium, Shell, Barrick Gold, BHP Billiton, Pacific Gas & Electric, First Energy, Essar Steel Algoma, Exelon, ScottishPower, Debswana Mines, Epcor Utilities, and ArcelorMittal.

Here is a link to her report on the Journey to Operational Excellence…

http://www.arcweb.com/strategy-reports/2012-05-17/the-journey-to-operational-excellence-begins-with-risk-management.aspx

May 18th, 2012      Asset Integrity - Industry Solutions - Regulatory Compliance - Risk Management - Safety and Environmental   Leave a Comment »

If there is no silver bullet for improving reliability, what should I do?

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Knowing the right maintenance to do at the right time to avoid the consequences of failure –is no easy task. You might believe that the longer your company has been around the more effective your maintenance program. Unfortunately this is not always true. For the most part companies are doing too much maintenance too early, or too little too late, all of which have cost consequences to the organization. It definitely is not from a lack of trying. But trying to improve reliability and asset performance without the right business process focus, alignment of practices and enabling tools can make matters worse.

Interestingly the required information and knowhow typically already exists in your company but is so scattered throughout the organization that it leads to inconsistency. Someone tries something new with success, but the unfortunate part of taking a silver bullet approach to improvement is that it tends to become very short lived, eventually becoming the flavor of the month. Experience has shown that a strategic and comprehensive approach to physical asset management is the best way to improve equipment reliability.

For ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor, this meant changing from a reactive maintenance culture to a proactive culture at a 45 year old facility. The World Class Equipment Reliability Team has independence. Without the independence from the reactive, the team would never overcome the reactive organization. The team focuses on all areas of the business process (plan, improve, control, assess). Key changes were:

  • Identify on-condition and scheduled tasks through RCM and MTA/FMEA analyses. Management supported this process. It yielded better documentation and we were able to template many MTAs
  • Validate and implement on-condition inspection tasks (routes)
  • Perform inspections (write work orders for equipment issues; provide feedback for analysis and route validation)
  • Interface with Operations on day-to-day issues
  • Plan and schedule proactive work generated from inspections as well as daily generated work from Operations

To read the complete case study on how ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor does reliability the right way and achieves cost savings of over $2 million dollars annually, click here.

April 3rd, 2012      Implementation Success - Industry Solutions - Process & Practices - Strategy & Leadership   1 Comment »

Game Changer –Asset Integrity and Risk Management additions to Ivara EXP Enterprise

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

In the history of the company, I think that Ivara will look at it’s latest release of its software as a significant milestone, adding Asset Integrity and Risk Management capabilities to it’s fully featured Asset Performance Management software solution.

EXP 6.1 delivers a complete platform for Integrity, Process, Corrosion and Inspection Engineers to work together to ensure the safety and integrity of pressure assets such as piping and vessels. The software is based on the American Petroleum Institute recommended practice, API 580 for Risk-Based Inspections, to conduct consistent and structured risk analyses as well as develop inspection programs aligned with risk.

EXP 6.1 provides a integrated RBI program for corrosion monitoring loops and corrosion circuits ensuring the safety and integrity of assets such as pipeworks, vessels and process systems primarily in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries. The module includes a plant asset register, risk based assessment and prioritization of failure modes, inspection planning and work package definition, inspection results storage/tracking/analysis, Integrity Operating Window parameters and excursion tracking as well as inspection interval updating, system audit, and a quality improvement process.

Sophisticated risk analysis tools evaluate probability of failure, as well as economic, health and safety, and environmental consequences of failure using direct assignment, simple, or detailed questionnaires. Ivara’s methodology is flexible in providing qualitative and semi-quantitative evaluations for determining the risk assessment.  Risk results are used along with the confidence assessment and inspection factor to calculate the next inspection date; and corrosion rate calculates estimated remaining life.  Risk analysis results are used to identify the type and frequency of the next asset integrity activity required.

This added functionality shows the robust nature of the Ivara EXP Enterprise software platform and the innovative capabilities of its designers. Key to success was developing the software with the support and guidance of customers, in particular, a large multi-national oil and gas leader.The software will help companies in the Oil, Gas & PetroChemical industries to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements. Ivara customers can at a glance provide required proof for regulators that their production assets are safe to operate.

Ivara is presenting an Asset Reliability and Integrity Strategy web workshop on this topic on Feb. 16 at 11 am. Register here to attend. https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/571224793

January 10th, 2012      Asset Integrity - Industry Solutions   Leave a Comment »

Managing Asset Performance & Reliability with IBM Maximo & Ivara EXP

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Organizations thinking about how they can improve maintenance effectiveness, are recognizing that they need to focus on doing the right work – that is, the maintenance tasks that represent the minimum amount of work to ensure that a given asset delivers the performance needed at the lowest possible cost. EXP feeds Maximo better and more timely information to ensure Maintenance is doing the right work.

EXP is integrated to IBM Maximo for asset strategy, consolidation and analysis of data from multiple sources, CBM analytics and Work Order triggers as well as backend analytics for continuous improvement of asset intelligence and relative EAM strategy. With a certified “Ready for Tivoli” interface, Ivara EXP Enterprise helps organizations maximize their investment in the IBM Maximo solution by enabling a proactive approach to equipment performance management.

Watch the short demo showing how Ivara EXP is integrated with IBM Maximo  to manage asset performance and reliability:

June 3rd, 2011      Developments in EXP - Industry Solutions   Leave a Comment »

Baker Panel Report motivated ScottishPower to act on Process Safety

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

There have been many catastrophic industrial incidents since the BP Texas City refinery incident, but not at ScottishPower. The Baker Panel Report into the BP Texas City refinery fire motivated ScottishPower to carry out a self audit assessing if a similar catastrophic incident could happen within its operations, and if so, how well could risks be managed?

ScottishPower is not a complacent organization. They were given just two years to address process safety; develop sustainable processes to address the British Government’s Health and Safety Executive HSE Plant Ageing report of 2006 (RR509) and also to attain PAS 55 accreditation. If anyone tells Martin Sedgwick, Head of Asset Management at ScottishPower, that it cannot be done in so little time, that was motivation to get the job done!

It was time to change a very reactive culture in an older coal fired plant to a proactive culture, while at the same time, addressing the future lost knowledge due to employee attrition and the lack of technology to support the approved business model.

In only two years, ScottishPower successfully established the asset management and process safety framework that has led to improved plant reliability. As a result, they have improved performance and transparency of key processes, as well as experienced fewer unplanned outages and breakdowns with significant cost savings:

  • 20% reduction in operations and maintenance costs
  • 22% increase in plant availability
  • 25% reduction in plant forced outage rates
  • 10% reduction in insurance premiums

Read the story…

April 19th, 2011      Industry Solutions - Regulatory Compliance - Safety and Environmental - Strategy & Leadership   Leave a Comment »

Managing Asset Performance and Reliability with SAP EAM and Ivara EXP

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Watch this 3 minute video demonstrating the value of EXP integrated to SAP for asset strategy, consolidation and analysis of data from multiple sources, CBM analytics and Work Order triggers as well as backend analytics for continuous improvement of asset intelligence and relative EAM strategy. Together, SAP PM and Ivara EXP enable a proactive approach to asset performance management.

March 21st, 2011      Developments in EXP - Industry Solutions   Leave a Comment »

The Role of Software in Asset Performance Management: Reduce maintenance cost, downtime and safety incidents

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Ivara is a proud sponsor of the Aberdeen Group Benchmark Report 2010.

While frozen budgets have been a key issue for maintenance organizations, the results from Aberdeen’s fourth annual research study, including responses from 117 executives revealed that managing employee and plant safety, reducing maintenance costs and minimizing asset downtime is placing increasing pressure on these groups. This report will serve as a guideline for maintenance and reliability professionals to understand how to proactively manage these challenges in this uncertain business environment.

For a limited time only, download the report here

November 2nd, 2010      Industry Solutions - Uncategorized   Leave a Comment »

Ensure You Have the Right People Involved When You Define Your Maintenance Program

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

The only people that can truly define an effective Asset Maintenance Program are those that design, operate and maintain the equipment:

  • Operators and Trades (Crafts)
  • Maintenance and Operations Supervisors
  • Engineers and Equipment Specialists

With the combination of these people, you have the right mix of knowledge to define the proper maintenance and operating strategy for an asset. Ultimately, the success of any new program depends on the buy in of those that execute the program.

For more information on how to effectively define a maintenance program, visit this link

http://www.ivara.com/index.php/services/the-services-we-offer/asset-performance-management-cycle/strategy-development-services/

June 3rd, 2010      Implementation Success - Industry Solutions   Leave a Comment »

Learn through experience: ScottishPower’s Journey to Operations and Maintenance Excellence through PAS 55

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

ScottishPower Energy Wholesale was the second company in the world to achieve PAS 55 compliance to the updated 2008 standard. Scottish Power successfully ingrained a sustainable process for asset management. The framework for their Operations and Maintenance Strategy (OMS) included a risk-based approach to asset management. Watch Ivara’s recorded ScottishPower case study to understand the key elements required before you define your AM strategy, tips on how to develop and implement an AM Strategy, how to identify, appraise and prioritize options and develop effective AM plans. Ensure that your organization knows and manages risk effectively and understands how to review and improve performance over time. Define asset information, guide how it is gathered and analyzed, how it is interpreted and how it is generally managed. Finally understand the key steps in how ScottishPower developed their organization for a sustainable AM culture.   

To help formulate your strategy as well as see hands-on experience in how to achieve PAS 55 certification, attend the Ivara Reliability Leadership Summit. Includes full day workshop on The Path to PAS 55 Certification. For more information, visit http://summit.ivara.com or to download Ivara’s webinar on the ScottishPower PAS 55 experience visit http://www.ivara.com/index.php/solution/by-industry/utilities/

May 27th, 2010      Industry Solutions   Leave a Comment »

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