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February 2017
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MechChem Africa
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Plant maintenance, lubrication and filtration
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for SouthAfricanplants is betweenLevel 3andLevel 4,
with sound preventative approaches being used along
with some key optimisation initiatives.
Compared to maintenance management, the con-
cept of asset management takes amuch broader view
of operational assets. “Whilemaintenance is confined
to keeping equipment operating, asset management
looksatthewholelifecycleofaplantoroperation,from
the identification of need for newequipment; through
the conception, design, constructionandprocurement
processes; through the operate and maintain phase;
and all the way to winding down, decommissioning
and disposal.
“RenewableenergyplantsinSouthAfrica,forexam-
ple, are designed to last for 20 years, in linewith envis-
agedpower purchase agreements (PPAs). Accordingly,
the investment business cases are calculatedbasedon
that premise, and plant asset portfolio designs follow
suit. After a two-year upfront EPC phase, the plant
must be operated andmaintained for 20 years, so this
stage makes up 90 to 95% of its total life.
“Practically speaking, formal asset management
doesn’t reallymake sense for a small workshopwhere
one or two experienced people knowall themachines.
But as soon as an organisation starts to need a dedi-
cated maintenance facility and risks become appre-
ciable, then aspects of the formal asset management
Called AMIP – Pragma’s Asset Management Improvement Planning Road Map is a comprehensive framework consisting of a structured set of processes, policies
and best practices.
the Road Map
approach can be productively applied.
“To help companies implement the system, Pragma
hasdevelopeditsAssetCareCentreconcept,whichisa
contractedoutsourcing service, with its computerised
asset management software system called On Key as
its base. Maintainability and reliability can improve
significantly and risks contained, the value of which
will almost always exceed the costs of adopting a struc-
tured approach to asset management,” he suggests.
“It almost always makes sense for large asset-
intensiveoperationssuchaspowerplantsorrefineries,
processplants andmanufacturingcompanies,” headds.
As part ofmaturity assessment of anorganisation’s
asset management practices, the difference between
the actual maturity and the target maturity preferred
by the client are measured. Called gap analysis, this
is used as the starting point for developing an Asset
Management Improvement Plan.
A typical improvement plan is implemented over
a period of between one and three years. “Following
the identification and implementation of some ‘quick
wins’, most of the initial work involves a phase that we
call ‘stabilisation’, starting with the compilation of an
Asset (equipment) Register as thebackbone. UsingOn
Key, we can usually clone asset types across different
locations to reduce the burden,” Nepgen says.
“It almost always makes sense for large asset-intensive
operations such as power plants or refineries, process plants and
manufacturing companies,” Nepgen adds.