We all know the saying and it applies to almost all aspects of life, and your MI program is no exception.
Often we hear vendors and clients alike talk about Risk Based Inspection as the next logical step to progress a program. While there’s tremendous value to extract from a more data driven approach, it has to fit organization needs and capacity. We compare it to buying a car - yes the Ferrari is the most desired vehicle but does it make sense for a 5 minute commute through city traffic, do you have the ability to service the engine and change the oil, can you afford new tires every 5000 miles? Will the minivan with the bucket seats provide all the practical comfort at 1/10th the cost?
RBI or an equivalent quantitative assessment comes with the same fine tuning and maintenance as your new Ferrari and it is important that you understand the true cost to develop, implement, and maintain the program. Conversely, what value are you going to extract. Does your organization and local jurisdiction allow for externals in-lieu-of or an extended inspection interval? Does my facility expect diverse and complex degradation that RBI will help identify?
An equally important aspect often overlooked is your path to adoption. These complex programs require support from nearly every division of your organization - from process and operations to maintenance and inspection, all supported by an informed leadership team. These different groups will require various levels of education and training to ensure they are providing the right support during implementation and they must be prepared to maintain the program on the back end.
Beyond implementation, every relevant change to the facility will require an active update to the MI model, and your MOC process will be your best friend or worst enemy. Ensuring your MOC process and inspection management is robust and all encompassing will be the difference between a longstanding program and an untrustworthy data set in 5 years time.
We try to tell everyone that establishing the foundational pieces to your program, organizing and datamining your assets within the IDMS, offers the most immediate value with minimal organizational impact or complexity. Those early steps allow you to segue into a more complex program when you’re ready, with no loss in implementation efficiency - in other words, a 510/570/653 standard is required for a 580/581 implementation, but you don’t need to take it on all at once.
Ultimately, as the owner operator, you’re buying the product for the next 10+ inspection cycles and it’s imperative you’ve evaluated the impact to your business from both a value and cost perspective before progressing. The logical first step once you believe RBI is the right fit, is for you to run a pilot, start to finish, and evaluate the results to backtest your thesis.
Make your program decisions with a thorough review to ensure you’re taking the perfect bite