Winter is coming .... How is your reliability readiness?

"Winter Is Coming" is the series premiere of Game of Thrones; in fact, it is an idiom that serves as?a reminder and warning that something terrible is about to happen or that some tribulations and challenges are on the way and are inescapable. The series is exceptionally captivating; however, whenever I hear "winter is coming" in any of its initial scenes while everyone is guessing what could happen in the coming episodes, I get disconnected ??by an annoying question that keeps popping up in my mind .... How is our reliability readiness?

Reliability readiness refers to the asset's preparedness to perform its intended function without failure under the stated conditions. Of course, maintaining all the stated conditions is challenging, especially the environmental ones with the ongoing global climate changes, which could significantly impact plant operation and maintenance; for instance, during the summer season, it is hard to control the cooling of operating assets within the stated temperature range as the heat transfers between components and the ambient atmosphere and chilling water are remarkably reduced, permitting heat to reach unacceptable levels, which causes lubricant degradation, electronic card failures and decreases the asset lifetime.

Thus, before sailing through a crucial operation period, utilizing all the available maintenance opportunities and taking the necessary actions to ensure asset reliability readiness for the upcoming mission is essential. In my opinion, any high-reliability organization (HRO) should have a well-defined procedure introducing a systematic approach to reliability readiness management; such procedure should cover the seasonal preparations, implementation and rehabilitation within a continuous improvement cycle to capture the lessons learned and enhance the entire process continuously, the following graph demonstrates my proposed approach.

Planning

This phase should start with the identification and risk-based prioritization of the potential weather effect issues; then, the mitigation activities shall be identified, and the maintenance planning system shall be updated with such specific annual reliability readiness tasks; also, higher priority should be given to the corrective works relevant to the upcoming season.

Preparation

Operator rounds, operating procedures, contingency plans, checklists and PM plans shall be reviewed to consider the lessons learned from the last season. Also, seasonal awareness training shall be provided to address potential human reliability issues such as job closure without the complete restoration of heat trace, insulation, doorways, and access points to operational conditions. Furthermore, the season-specific tools and critical spares shall be checked, and the on-call service contracts shall be established to avoid any administrative or logistical delay if there is a failure.

Audit

A season-specific checklist shall be followed through a series of site readiness walk-downs to identify any deficiencies and issues that need repair, verify building penetrations are adequately insulated, and inspect equipment enclosures and barriers. Besides, rigorous testing and evaluations should be conducted to identify potential failures before they occur.

Execution

During the season, additional operator rounds can enable the issue's early detection, which must be reviewed daily and addressed promptly. For instance, during summer, the operator rounds should focus on monitoring heat exchanger differential pressures, cooling fans, air conditioning units, intake and cooling water systems, etc., while during the winter, operator rounds should focus on insulation conditions, heat trace and heaters operation, leaks...etc.

Reporting

It is essential to review the performance during the season and understand the causes of the significant issues prior to capturing the lessons learned and feeding them back to the preparation phase for issues elimination and loss avoidance.

I believe adopting such an approach will help improve plant sustain plant availability during the high-demand seasons as reliability readiness is about being proactive rather than reactive, which can lead to tremendous success through quick adaptability, more confidence, higher efficiency and lower risk.

It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark- Howard Ruff