TRC-2018 Rap Talk - 18:52

by Ramesh Gulati, Jacobs

Most of the asset fail during operation, or defects which cause failures, get detected during the operational phase. What and who cause these failures? Is it operations (operators) and/or maintenance? In the past, maintenance and sometimes operations got blamed for these failures. Are they solely responsible? In recent years, we have learned that majority of asset failures are caused by defects which are introduced during the design, procurement, build/fabrication, and installation, also known as acquisition phase. It is much more economical to correct these defects at early stages to design/build assets for reliable operations. This is what we call Designing for Reliability. This RAP Talk suggests that little more investing during the acquisition phase can reduce failures as well as the total cost of ownership.