What Asset Integrity Management (AIM) is and How To Measure It

Managing heavy equipment and machinery requires the right strategy and continuous effort. This is especially true in the energy and oil and gas industry. Asset management is a strategy comprising multiple processes to ensure a company’s assets remain high-performing and reliable. This is no small feat, as it requires the right resources, internal processes, technology, expertise, and tools to succeed. 

This article will introduce Asset Integrity Management (AIM), its implementation, its benefits, and how to measure it. It will also introduce LLumin’s Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS+) and explain why LLumin can help you implement and support your AIM processes. 

What is Asset Integrity Management (AIM)?

Asset Integrity Management (AIM) is a systematic approach to ensuring assets remain high-performing and reliable throughout their entire life cycle. Heavy machinery, equipment, and facility infrastructure will degrade and fail randomly over time. To ensure assets are safe to use and do not break down unexpectedly, leading to safety incidents, unexpected downtime, and costly repairs, AIM uses several processes, including condition monitoring and other preventive measures, to mitigate risks. 

Asset Integrity Management is known for its ability to help spot signs of mechanical failure before it escalates and results in catastrophic consequences. It also helps organizations optimize productivity and comply with state and federal regulations. 

An effective AIM strategy will ensure proper asset management from initial asset design and fabrication to operation and maintenance. It will also help ensure the right processes are used, access to resources and training to support AIM, prioritized management of business-critical assets, and proper allocation of resources, such as manpower and finances. 

AIM is a critical strategy in industries such as oil and gas, manufacturing, and utilities, where there is a direct link between asset performance and operational safety and efficiency. Notably, AIM has helped extend rigs’ operational service life in the oil and gas industry. In the energy industry, it can help ensure reliable operations and avoid downtime affecting supply. 

Beyond the aforementioned industries, AIM is essential in several industries where unexpected breakdowns of critical assets can lead to costly repairs, safety incidents, and loss of customer and stakeholder trust. 

Our asset maintenance management software tailored for utilities

Why is AIM Important for Industrial Operations?

AIM is important for industrial operations because it helps improve safety, reduce operational costs, and ensure regulatory compliance. Organizations prioritizing AIM can improve asset reliability and lifespan, manage risk, and ensure steady and increased profits. It can also lead to measurable improvements in promoting efficiency, waste reduction, and product consistency.  

However, perhaps the most important aspect is AIM’s ability to reduce the occurrence of unexpected equipment failures, which lead to safety incidents and environmental damage. 

Benefits of Effective AIM

An effective AIM strategy will provide several benefits, from improved safety and regulatory compliance to reduced operational costs. The overarching objective is to properly manage assets, manpower, and resources to ensure an organization stays efficient and avoids otherwise preventable negative and costly outcomes. 

Reduced Safety and Environmental Incidents

An effective AIM strategy’s objectives will be considered in the early stages, even before facilities are built. Research and careful design, engineering, and management work together to prevent the change of mechanical breakdowns and failures that lead to catastrophic consequences. 

Inadequate maintenance can spell disaster, whether dealing with new equipment with manufacturing defects or older equipment that has degraded over time. In fact, for many organizations, a single safety incident resulting in damage to environmental and reputational disaster can result in closing doors or millions of dollars of losses. The goal of AIM is to build asset integrity into all design and operating processes from day one to avoid these outcomes. 

Regulatory Compliance

Industrial facilities must adhere to various state, local, and federal regulations that dictate how harmful substances, risks, and facilities should be managed. A comprehensive AIM strategy enhances internal processes and ensures compliance with these external requirements.

Staying compliant requires detailed documentation of maintenance activities, inspections, and procedural tasks. AIM systems streamline this documentation process, making it easier for organizations to demonstrate compliance during audits and maintain operational licenses. This proactive approach helps avoid regulatory penalties and strengthens trust with stakeholders.

Equipment Reliability

Many industrial facilities use aging or outdated equipment, which requires careful management to keep it functional, safe, and efficient. AIM deploys several important and effective processes, such as condition-based monitoring and predictive analytics, to determine when inspections, maintenance, and repairs should occur. These advanced processes can reduce unexpected equipment failures and accidents, extend asset lifespans and improve an organization’s ROI on costly investments. 

Further, by increasing the time equipment is high-performing and reliable, organizations can better meet stakeholder expectations, serve clients, and uphold safety commitments that affect greater communities in the areas in which they operate. 

Proactive Maintenance

AIM provides teams with critical insights and data to make more informed, strategic, and proactive management decisions. By being aware of the early signs of failure patterns that indicate equipment and component failure, teams can act to prevent issues rather than address them after they’ve escalated into costly breakdowns and emergency repairs. 

A proactive approach will include comprehensive maintenance planning and scheduling based on real-time equipment conditions, safety performance-driven assurance, spare part management, and adherence to applicable safety standards. 

Less Downtime

Planned downtime is a routine process in industries like energy and oil and gas, where engineers and technicians upgrade and replace equipment components during optimal times. Unplanned downtime, conversely caused by unexpected equipment failures, frequently disrupts daily operations and leads to costly repairs and production losses. 

Unplanned downtime is also associated with expenses not typically accounted for in maintenance budgets, such as labor and repair costs and last-minute part and component purchases. Organizations under pressure will have to incur these expenses to resume production quickly. An effective AIM strategy can help organizations avoid this outcome with better maintenance and strategic planning.

Production Consistency and Better Products

Adherence to best practices and optimized asset management practices can lead to longer periods of time where production schedules remain undisrupted. This can also improve product quality. This will also directly impact improving trust with company stakeholders and consumers, as any event that can halt or delay operations or cause detrimental damage to business-critical assets is dealt with proactively. 

Reduced Operating Costs

An effective AIM strategy can significantly impact cost control and cost reduction. Organizations that allocate resources more effectively and proactively address maintenance and material management will ultimately drive better financial performance, ensuring long-term success and resilience in industries that depend on multiple assets to support their daily operations. 

In the energy and oil and gas industry, organizations are always under pressure to improve efficiency while managing limited resources. An effective AIM strategy helps organizations reduce costs by optimizing maintenance practices to reduce waste and unnecessary repairs and regularly planning and scheduling asset integrity tasks. Ultimately, the core of AIM is powered by research and planning, access to real-time asset data, advanced analytics, and accessibility to comprehensive documentation. 

Implementation of Effective Asset Management Processes

Implementing an effective Asset Integrity Management (AIM) program requires a strategic approach based on each asset’s criticality and lifecycle. This process begins with understanding each asset’s lifecycle, from procurement to decommissioning. Following this, condition-based monitoring, predictive maintenance, and data analytics will form the program’s foundation.

The core objective of an AIM program should be risk management, which encompasses more than just compliance with regulatory requirements. While adherence to regulations is essential, focusing solely on compliance can lead organizations to overlook broader benefits, such as enhanced employee safety, optimized resource allocation, and reduced operational costs. Organizations can ensure regulatory compliance and greater business value by adopting a holistic approach to AIM.

Essential Asset Management Processes
Risk-Based Assessment	Conduct a thorough evaluation of risks associated with each asset. Prioritize resources and efforts based on the potential impact of asset failure on operations, employee safety, and the surrounding community.
Inventory Audit	Maintain an up-to-date inventory of all assets, including their condition, location, and criticality. This ensures transparency, improves resource allocation, and supports more effective planning.
AIM Company Culture	Promote your AIM program as a core organizational process rather than a regulatory obligation. This will help ensure your employees see the program as mandatory, comply with procedures, and avoid shortcuts.
Complimentary Systems	Leverage synergies with existing equipment reliability initiatives. Aligning AIM processes with other reliability efforts can enhance results, reduce redundancies, and lower costs.
Prioritization	Address risks comprehensively, prioritizing the safety of employees, the surrounding community, and the business. Proactive risk management reduces liability and ensures business continuity.
Supportive Technology	Integrate technologies like condition-based monitoring, predictive maintenance, and advanced data analytics. These tools provide real-time insights, enabling proactive decision-making and enhancing the overall efficiency of the AIM program.
Compliance	Adopt a holistic approach to compliance that exceeds basic regulatory requirements, ensuring long-term sustainability.

Condition-based maintenance strategies that support AIM

An Effective AIM Implementation Plan Should Include:

• Inspection, Testing, and Preventive Maintenance: Regular assessments to ensure assets remain in optimal condition.
• Training: Comprehensive training for all personnel involved in AIM processes to ensure consistency and adherence to best practices.
• AIM Procedures Development: Establish clear and actionable procedures for managing assets throughout their lifecycle.
• Quality Management: Incorporate quality assurance measures to maintain high standards across all AIM activities.
• Resolution of Equipment Deficiencies: Identify and address deficiencies promptly to minimize downtime and risks.
• Auditing of the AIM Program: Conduct regular audits to evaluate the AIM program’s effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

Implement effective asset management policies with our free template

How to Measure AIM Effectiveness

Measuring the effectiveness of AIM is essential to ensure your efforts are producing results. Several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can serve as benchmarks for progress, such as asset reliability, maintenance costs, downtime frequency, and overall equipment efficiency (OEE). Further, metrics such as Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) can offer important insights into performance. 

MTBF is a KPI that measures the average time between asset failures, which indicates how reliable and durable an asset is in operation. MTTR, on the other hand, will provide insight into how quickly an asset can be restored to full functionality after a failure, affecting operational downtime and maintenance costs.

Regular audits and risk assessments will also help identify gaps in your approach. These evaluations can help identify areas that need improvement. An AIM solution, such as LLumin’s CMMS+, can help optimize KPI tracking, risk assessments, and audits, enabling you to document your efforts, generate detailed reports, and adjust your strategies to improve results. 

How to Maintaining Asset Integrity

A comprehensive maintenance strategy will play a foundational role in maintaining asset integrity. This strategy should include establishing a comprehensive, scheduled maintenance plan based on asset life cycles, manufacturer recommendations, and real-time operational conditions. Predictive analytics will optimize this process with data collected from machine-level sensors and systems, which can be analyzed and used to forecast potential failures. 

Real-time, condition-based monitoring plays a critical role in maintaining asset integrity. This process can include vibration and temperature analysis to detect signs of wear and tear. Continuously gathering data from equipment, control systems, and operational environments enables organizations to take corrective actions at the right time. 

However, your asset integrity management plan will only be as good as the team that supports it. This means your organization must encourage a strong culture of safety, accountability, and improvement. Employee participation is key. Your teams need to understand the importance of AIM and their roles in maintaining it. Regular training, updates, and safety drills can help employees stay connected and informed about best practices and new technologies. 

Get Started With LLumin’s CMMS+

At LLumin, we understand that implementing an AIM strategy requires careful planning and support throughout all phases. To ensure your success, we offer a honed implementation process, highly responsive customer support, and ongoing training. 

LLumin’s CMMS+ is a comprehensive solution designed to support Asset Integrity Management with advanced analytics, real-time monitoring, and user-friendly tools that can help your teams streamline and automate proactive maintenance tasks. With LLumin, you can implement and support AIM, resulting in reduced unexpected downtime and safety incidents, improved operational efficiency, and long-term asset reliability.