ARMS Reliability was engaged by a client to vet its design for an extension of its oil facility with special focus on the diluent recovery unit performance. The facility had capacity to load and ship approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day and were looking to increase the capacity to 120,000 bbls/d with the addition of a DRU. In order to meet capacity goals, ARMS Reliability assisted in building a Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) remotely using failure data from previous RBDs equipment types with similar operating contexts and assigning failure models using RBDs from other sites and the ARMS Component Strategy Library. Since design choices were not finalized at the time of build, multiple scenarios were simulated using existing VRU packages from other sites and data on reliability performance of previously modeled equipment at other terminals.
This case-study presentation will discuss how a Reliability Block Diagram helped our clients:
• understand expected performance of current and potential design choices
• enable cost-benefit-analysis to determine what changes need to be incorporated for top contributors
• target optimized strategies against top contributors to availability and capacity losses
• quantify the best-case impact of process cleaning activities to inform their cleaning intervals and condition monitoring methods
Errin Evans holds a Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering and is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional. Before joining ARMS, she spent 10 years in various maintenance and reliability roles in the Petrochemical Industry. At ARMS Reliability, Errin partners with clients on a variety of reliability projects. This work includes hierarchy development, maintenance strategy development and optimization, Mechanical Integrity initiatives, and Root Cause Analysis.
