It has become wholly unacceptable for companies to allow or tolerate equipment deterioration that results in failures with serious health, safety or environmental consequences. While this has been publically adopted by major corporations throughout most of the world, events continue to occur that have catastrophic results. These are often found to be a combination of human error and equipment failure. This combination, along with failures of complex protective systems (machines monitoring machines) has been the root cause of some of the world’s most devastating accidents. A quick google search will instantly return events like the Texas City Refinery Explosion, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Chernobyl, Aloha Flight 243, 3 Mile Island and many others.
This presentation will explore the concepts of equipment failure consequence and its relationship to probability of failure. These are elements in the development of an equipment criticality rating and relative risk score, both of which can be used to prioritize corrective work backlog and reliability program improvement initiatives. Using this information, we will then examine methods to develop proactive maintenance strategies that are designed to effectively manage that risk to a “tolerable level”. These strategies typically include a mix of direct maintenance tactics, modifications, training and procedures. The goal is an enhanced understanding of the relationship between safety and equipment reliability programs.