Risk Based Inspection (RBI)

Ankaa Consulting adopts a risk based approach to AIM.

When developing an RBI scheme for an asset, we adopt a two stage approach. Initial risk is determined utilising a qualitative or semi-quantitative approach. High risk items identified after this stage are then subjected to a quantitative risk assessment to greater refine the calculated risk. This approach offers a highly cost effective approach for the risk determination and inspection planning process.

Items with a high risk are given a higher priority for inspection while medium and low risk items are given a lower priority. This is achieved by relating the level of risk calculated to required inspection intervals.

RBI assists a company to select cost effective and appropriate maintenance and inspection tasks and techniques, to minimize efforts and cost, to shift from a reactive to a proactive maintenance regime, to produce an auditable system, to give an agreed “operating window”, and to implement a risk management tool.

The benefits of RBI include:

  • To provide a holistic, interdependent approach for managing risk
  • Identification of equipment operational risks through identification of their failure mechanisms.
  • To apply a strategy of doing what is needed for safeguarding integrity and improving reliability and availability of the asset by planning and executing those inspections that are needed
  • To reduce inspections and shutdowns and increase plant availability without compromising safety or reliability
  • To safeguard integrity and reduce the risk of failures
  • To provide a dynamic system that continuously improves and adapts to changing risks
  • To ensure inspection techniques and methods consider potential failure modes
  • To reduce inspections for low risk items allowing costs to be optimised more appropriately to high risk items.