This book has the depth and content to really help maintenance organizations change and improve reliability. This is a book with true content, without having to own numerous other books to provide information one might need.
- Ricky Smith
This new edition of a bestselling and authoritative text (it was chosen as the basis for a course on risk and reliability strategies offered by ASME) is written at a level and style that practicing engineers and managers alike can readily understand and apply. It describes the crucial role of maintenance in minimizing the risk of safety or environmental incidents, adverse publicity, and loss of profitability. And it explains the applicability of risk-reduction tools to specific situations, thereby enabling you to select the tool that best fits your requirements. Bridging the gap between designers/maintainers and reliability engineers, this book will help your organization utilize its assets more effectively, safely, and profitably.
Features
- New coverage of Risk-Based Inspection and Instrumented Protective Functions.
- Accounts of the Longford (1998), Columbia (2003) and Sayano-Shushenskaya (2009) disasters reinforce the evidence for the event escalation theory explained in chapter 9.
- Chapters 12 and 14 are new to this edition.
Table of Contents
The Production and Distribution Process. Process Functions. Reliability Engineering for the Maintenance Practitioner. Failure, Its Nature and Characteristics. Life Cycle Aspects of Risks in Process Plants. Process Plant Shutdowns. Facets of Risks. The Escalation of Events. Maintenance. Risk Reduction. Information for Decision Making. The Reliability Improvement Process (TRIP). Improving System Effectiveness. Book Summary. Glossary. Index.
Review
It is obvious that Vee has lived what he preaches about. He is not a theorist; he is a seasoned practitioner. He has worked out the 'bumps in the road' to true Reliability and now effectively shares his life experience so we don't hit the same speed bumps. I think his acronym GTBR sums up the key to Reliability....Getting the Basics Right! True Reliability is not merely a job; it is a way of life. It is about looking at the world through a pair of proactive lenses and ensuring there are no surprises. --Robert J. Latino (Hopewell, VA USA)
On Page 230 of this book, Vee makes a series of profound statements which summarise the book and its approach.
He writes:
''There are many learned papers that address the application of reliability engineering theory to maintenance strategy discussions. Many of them use advanced mathematics to fine tune maintenance strategies. The authors have limited access to field data, and their recommendations are often abstract and difficult to apply. So these remain learned papers, which practitioners do not understand or cannot apply to real life situations''.
He goes on to say later that ''This chasm between the designers and maintainers on the one hand and the reliability engineers on the other is what we have to bridge.''
I can not agree more with these statements.
While this book ventures into statistics and probability theory in some areas, it does so in a practical way and provides excellent guidance on such matters. Overall it is a practical book providing practical advice for people involved in maintenance and reliability management. It goes a long way to bridging the chasm that exists.
This is a very good text that has a place in any maintainer's library.
-Mr. Steve Turner ''Reliability Consultant'' (Melbourne Australia)
This is without a doubt the best reliability text around. No rubbish just straight to the point strategies based on sound engineering. Its a small book but is perfectly suited as a quick reference.
Kay Coady (Australia)
What I like about this book is that it places maintenance in context of the wider society. I think in this bottom line world we know the cost of everything but perhaps the value of nothing so it is fundamental to really understand why it is necessary, or not, to maintain functional assets. The author explains with clarity those analytical processes applied to develop maintenance tasks that when appropriately implemented will reduce the probability of failure or degradation of functional assets. This is particularly important in any industry where the Operator must demonstrate risks are as low as are reasonably practicable. The book also explains how effective maintenance will not only ensure technical integrity but can reduce operating costs significantly and more importantly increase revenue streams through high equipment availability. I also find it very refreshing that in its wider context the book illuminates the human aspects related to the maintenance process and how different are our perceptions of risk. It is critically important to understand for example the behavioural aspects as to why, after appropriate maintenance tasks have been developed, non-compliance with these tasks may be endemic, and how different individual perceptions of risk may lead to flawed decision making.
Bill Campbell (Glenrothes, Scotland. UK)
This book explain all the steps in a process plant and the importance of maintenance to obtain results. Safety is always highlighted, due to the stretch relation with comply with the process. The author explain all the themes with excellent results, doing the reading very simple.
It is an excellent book to introduce to maintenance and reliability --Ariel Leiva
On Page 230 of this book, Vee makes a series of profound statements which summarise the book and its approach.
He writes:
''There are many learned papers that address the application of reliability engineering theory to maintenance strategy discussions. Many of them use advanced mathematics to fine tune maintenance strategies. The authors have limited access to field data, and their recommendations are often abstract and difficult to apply. So these remain learned papers, which practitioners do not understand or cannot apply to real life situations''.
He goes on to say later that ''This chasm between the designers and maintainers on the one hand and the reliability engineers on the other is what we have to bridge.''
I can not agree more with these statements.
While this book ventures into statistics and probability theory in some areas, it does so in a practical way and provides excellent guidance on such matters. Overall it is a practical book providing practical advice for people involved in maintenance and reliability management. It goes a long way to bridging the chasm that exists.
This is a very good text that has a place in any maintainer's library.
-Mr. Steve Turner ''Reliability Consultant'' (Melbourne Australia)
This is without a doubt the best reliability text around. No rubbish just straight to the point strategies based on sound engineering. Its a small book but is perfectly suited as a quick reference.
What I like about this book is that it places maintenance in context of the wider society. I think in this bottom line world we know the cost of everything but perhaps the value of nothing so it is fundamental to really understand why it is necessary, or not, to maintain functional assets. The author explains with clarity those analytical processes applied to develop maintenance tasks that when appropriately implemented will reduce the probability of failure or degradation of functional assets. This is particularly important in any industry where the Operator must demonstrate risks are as low as are reasonably practicable. The book also explains how effective maintenance will not only ensure technical integrity but can reduce operating costs significantly and more importantly increase revenue streams through high equipment availability. I also find it very refreshing that in its wider context the book illuminates the human aspects related to the maintenance process and how different are our perceptions of risk. It is critically important to understand for example the behavioural aspects as to why, after appropriate maintenance tasks have been developed, non-compliance with these tasks may be endemic, and how different individual perceptions of risk may lead to flawed decision making.
-Kay Coady (Australia) --Bill Campbell (Glenrothes, Scotland, UK)
This book explain all the steps in a process plant and the importance of maintenance to obtain results. Safety is always highlighted, due to the stretch relation with comply with the process. The author explain all the themes with excellent results, doing the reading very simple.
It is an excellent book to introduce to maintenance and reliability --Ariel Leiva
About the Author
V. Narayan is a leading authority on maintenance and reliability engineering. A mechanical engineer with over 40 years of experience in maintenance and project management, he has worked in the automobile, pharmaceutical, liquefied natural gas, oil & gas production, and petroleum refining industries. During his long career he has trained, consulted, and worked in many countries, including eight years as the head of the Maintenance Strategy group in Shell UK Exploration and Production. At Shell, Narayan was a founding member of the very successful MERIT initiative and developed refinery performance measurement methods in the 90 s that are still effectively used today. For about the past 20 years he has been teaching Maintenance Management, Reliability Centered Maintenance, and Root Cause Analysis around the world, and is the coauthor of Case Studies in Maintenance and Reliability: Practical Lessons from On-the-Job Experience (Industrial Press).
