RBI is a method for using risk as a basis to prioritise and manage the efforts of an inspection programme. An effective risk based inspection programme can be designed to either reduce the level of risk for a given inspection activity level, or reduce the level of inspection activity required to maintain the level of risk, or indeed a combination of these.

Purpose

In any operating plant, a relatively large percentage of the risk is usually associated with a small percentage of the equipment. Adopting a Risk Based Inspection methodology to plan inspection activities enables the shift of inspection and maintenance resources to provide a higher level of coverage on the high-risk items and an appropriate effort on lower risk equipment.

How can RBI help my inspection planning?
Risk Based Inspection makes use of a broad range of technologies including consequence modelling, reliability and failure frequency analysis and limit- state approaches to provide industry with a risk-based method for evaluating and developing inspection plans. RBI is used in calculating both the consequences of possible failures and the likelihood with which those failures are expected to occur. The product of consequences and likelihood is used to identify which equipment poses the greatest risk and therefore warrants the most inspection attention in order to manage that risk effectively.

Benefits from implementing an RBI programme

As plants become older, inspection activity increases and maintenance requirements can become more onerous. With operators wanting to improve safety and achieve optimum plant reliability and availability, investment in maintenance can be a substantial entry on the balance sheet. To reduce this overhead there is clearly a need to have a systematic and cost-effective inspection programme based on more inspection for equipment more likely to require maintenance and less inspection for more reliable equipment. By focusing your inspection efforts on these high-risk areas, much low-value work can be eliminated thus reducing costs without compromising safety or reliability.

Using Software for Risk Based Inspection

Given the vast amount of data required during Risk Based Inspection the use of software has a key role to play. Our Safeti RBI package includes modules for

• Quantitative and qualitative RBI
• Onshore chemical plants and refineries
• Offshore topsides and pipelines
• Inspection task list creation