The goals of maximizing assets and improving plant reliability are common today. And, as the expression goes, “if it was easy everyone would be doing it.” An effective asset management program might be easy to financially justify because the investment can sometimes pay for itself by preventing just a single unplanned shutdown. That said, why is it that more companies are not actively using asset management programs to improve performance and increase plant reliability? Several large companies have asked and answered this question and initiated a program only to find that the people asking for reliability improvements might be the same people that are preventing it!

This white paper explores the experiences of users who have successfully implemented an effective asset management and reliability program and discusses the culture and work process changes required in order to achieve significant change. The paper also looks at the work being done by ISA108 Intelligent Device Management to define best practices and work processes surrounding the use of information provided by intelligent field device.