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Having established the need for a new or upgraded asset and identifying the basic operating concept to be used, it is necessary to convert the operating concept into practical assets and systems. These must be able to meet the operating requirements at the lowest overall cost. Failure to properly determine the real needs of the organisation can lead to poor asset selection and subsequent failure of the asset to meet the business needs when in service. The scope development phase considers how to meet the operating scope and whether suitable equipment, systems and software are available to meet these requirements. The process usually begins by breaking down the operating scope into manageable sections and identifying established engineering solutions where available.
Traditionally, the operations group determines the operational requirements and the engineering (or projects) department decide how to meet these requirements. The engineering department selects, sources, builds and commissions the project according to the operating scope provided by operations and the engineering design prepared by engineering and accepted by operations. In recent years the need to optimise the engineering designs available from suppliers has become increasingly important as the whole of life cost becomes a major Asset Management consideration.
Before appropriate assets can be selected to meet the operations scope, it is important to have a good understanding of how operations and maintenance practices can impact the overall performance of the asset before specific asset types are considered for the application. Inherent in all asset designs are particular constraints and limitations that impact the overall performance of the asset and stay with it throughout it operating life. These constraints or limitations can relate to an asset type or class or to specific brands or models of a particular asset type. The manner in which individual manufacturers implement their design for a particular asset type (e.g. pumps from different manufacturers can have different design features) can significantly influence the operational behaviour of the asset and also the ease and cost of performing routine and repair maintenance.
It is at the scope development phase where choices are made as to the asset type to be used to meet the operations scope and therefore these characteristics are ‘frozen’ into the design at this stage. Any need for design changes at a later stage will inevitably be more expensive than if optimum selections were made at this stage.
Only when maintenance and operations practices reach worlds best practice (w.b.p.) will it be possible to reach and sustain the inherent capacity and Reliability of the plant. It should be understood that this is a difficult goal to achieve on a long term basis especially if the asset is marginal in design or specification for the application and the resulting ‘temperamental’ nature of the asset can make it very difficult to keep it at this performance level. Specific asset types, as well as specific assets, will have operating and maintenance requirements that have to be met through its operating life and both operations and maintenance must perform their tasks and duties at the highest level of proficiency if the maximum performance of the asset is to be realised at the lowest cost.
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