The Role of Industry Codes and Standards in

Achieving Excellence in Pressure Equipment

Integrity and Reliability

Introduction
In the first article in this series entitled How to Put It All Together -
Guide to Organizing a Successful PEI Program, (1) I provided an
overview of the necessary Management Systems (MS) for a
successful program to achieve excellence in pressure equipment
integrity (PEI). This is the seventh article in that series. Clearly, Codes
and Standards (C/S) have a major role in achieving excellence in
Pressure Equipment Integrity and Reliability (PEI&R). This article will
show how Industry PEI Codes and Standards have a very important
role in achieving excellence in PEI&R, but will also mention the
impact of PEI regulations. And finally I will show how the
management system (MS) for PEI Codes, Standards and Regulations
needs to be integrated with the 9 other important management
systems shown in figure 1 in order to achieve excellence in PEI&R.
For purposes of review and for those who did not see or perhaps
remember the original article in the Sept/Oct, 2009 edition of the
Inspectioneering Journal (IJ), and in order to set the stage for this
follow-on article on PEI C/S, I will repeat directly below, some of the
same introduction included in the first article(1). The second article in
the series covered Management Leadership and Support for PEI (4),
and appeared in the Jan/Feb, 2010 edition of the IJ. The third article
in the series covered Management of Change and Integrity
Operating Windows for PEI (5), and appeared in the Mar/Apr, 2010
edition of the IJ. The fourth article in the series covered The Role of
Corrosion Control in Achieving Excellence in Pressure Equipment
Integrity and Reliability (6) and appeared in the May/June, 2010
edition of the IJ. The fifth article in the series covered The Role of Risk
Assessment and Inspection Planning in Pressure Equipment Integrity
and Reliability(7) appeared in the Sept/Oct, 2010 edition of the IJ.
The sixth article in the series covered The Role of Life Cycle
Management in Achieving Pressure Equipment Integrity and
Reliability (8) and appeared in the Jan/Feb, 2011 edition of the IJ. For
those who would rather not review the introductory material, you
can skip directly to the third section of this article which is labeled PEI
Codes, Standards and Regulations.
Knowing what all needs to be accomplished in order to achieve
excellence in PEI&R is one thing, but knowing how to organize it all
for success is quite another. I have previously written/published
numerous articles about what all needs to be accomplished (1-3). In
this article I will show how to organize all 10 of the PEI&R
Management Systems (MSs) to achieve overall success i.e. in order
to make sure that everything that needs to be accomplished, is
accomplished using PEI&R management systems (MS) and work
process (WP) descriptions. Without an effective organizational
strategy for PEI&R, many of the 101 essential elements of PEI&R(2)
can “drop between the chairs” because there may be no
management system in place to make sure that each element gets
properly planned, scheduled and completed at appropriate
intervals by a responsible party. However with an effective PEI&R MS
in place, each site should be able to maintain pressure equipment
integrity (i.e. no breaches of containment) and to achieve pressure
equipment reliability (i.e. having pressure equipment available to
function as designed to meet the business plan), both of which
comprise PEI&R excellence.
Speaking of excellence, Vince Lombardi, one of the most famous
football coaches in the history of the NFL, once said, “Perfection is
not attainable, but if you chase perfection, you will catch
excellence.” I believe that to be very true and especially when it
comes to implementing an effective pressure equipment integrity
program. But what is excellence in PEI&R? It’s not “gold plating” nor
overdoing nor spending too much on the PEI&R program. It’s simply
doing everything that needs to be done, doing it right, doing it when
it needs to be done, in order to create, implement and sustain the
PEI&R program to avoid breaches of containment. Keep that
definition in mind, as I will refer to it often. Having effective
management systems (MS) in place for all the PEI&R issues that need
to be handled is the foundation for a successful PEI&R program.
But what is a management system (MS)? In my experience, it’s simply
a compendium of all the necessary information that describes what
must be done, why it needs to done, how it is to be done, and how
often or when. Some operating sites then combine their PEI&R MS
with PEI&R work process (WP) maps and descriptions to show who is
involved and how the work flows, i.e. what comes first, next, last and
in between plus what can be done in parallel and what must be
done in series. Management systems are the input to the WP maps
and descriptions. For the purpose of this article, I will concentrate on
creating, implementing and sustaining the MS, but will mention how
WP maps and descriptions are also needed to achieve efficiency
and effectiveness in the PEI&R program.
Note: For those of you who are more used to the term “mechanical
integrity (MI)”, I use PEI&R throughout this article as somewhat of the
equivalent of MI, but pertaining only to what I refer to as pressure
equipment or what some others may refer to as “fixed equipment”
or “stationary equipment”.
I recognize that there may be many ways to organize a PEI&R MS
program for success, so I will present just one suggested way to do it,
not the only way. Other ways to organize a PEI&R MS program may
be equally effective, just as long as all necessary elements are
included, scheduled and accomplished according to plan. This
article is intended for those organizations that may not yet be
achieving excellence in PEI&R (see above definition) and that
believe perhaps the way they are organized (or even disorganized)
may be part of the problem. Without effective PEI&R MSs, even if we
know what needs to be done, we might be just “flailing at the wind”,
as my grandmother used to say, rather than accomplishing what
needs to be done effectively and efficiently to prevent beaches of
containment.
The Ten PEI&R Management Systems
The way I see it, there are 10 essential MSs needed for an effective
PEI&R program that can achieve excellence. I like to think of having
all 10 of the necessary MSs for PEI&R in two filing cabinets, with 5
drawers each, i.e. 10 drawers total. Now before I lose half my readers
right off the top who don’t put anything into those ancient metal
cabinets any more, bear with me, as I’m old enough to still think that
way, even though I well know we keep all our files nowadays stored
electronically. Back on track; each of my filing cabinet drawers has
one of 10 PEI&R MSs that contain all the necessary information that
describe what needs to be accomplished, and how to accomplish
it, in order to achieve success in PEI&R. So in my two PEI&R MS filing
cabinets, I have one of these PEI&R MS labels on each of the 10 MS
drawers:

1. Management Leadership and Support for PEI&R

2. Integrity Operating Windows(IOW)
3. Management of Change(MOC)
4. Deterioration Management and Control(CM&C)
5. Risk Assessment and Inspection Planning(RA&IP)
6. Life Cycle Management(LCM)
7. PEI&R Codes and Standards(C/S)
8. Site Procedures and Work Processes for PEI&R
9. PEI&R Record Keeping and Data Management (RK & DM)
10. Continuous Improvement (CI) for PEI&R

Figure 1
Into each of these drawers, I will have multiple folders where I file all
the procedures, standards, guidelines, work processes, best
practices, engineering evaluations, failure analyses, metrics, etc. that
I need in order to outline and operate a successful PEI&R program.
For those who are more visually oriented learners like me, those 10
PEI&R MS are shown schematically in figure 1.
As you can see from the list of 10 PEI&R MSs above and in Figure 1,
there is much more to a robust PEI&R program than just inspection
planning, inspection execution, data taking and data management.
PEI&R is not just the result of a competent inspection program! It
takes an effective multi-disciplined approach with management,
operations, engineering, technology, maintenance and inspection
to accomplish what needs to be done to achieve excellence in
PEI&R. All of these PEI&R MSs need to be highly integrated with each
other in order to achieve success in PEI&R. Hence, if I were to draw
figure 1 more accurately, there would be a double-ended arrow
from each MS bubble to every other MS bubble on the diagram. But
that would be too messy and the effect of the illustration would be
lost; so you will just need to be aware that all those other arrows exist,
even though they are not shown. Those operating sites, which still
have each of their functions mostly “working in silos” and not
effectively integrated with the other disciplines (sub-optimized), will
not be able to achieve the level of PEI&R success that is vital in
today’s competitive environment in the energy and petrochemical
industry that demands the utmost in cost containment and reliability.
PEI Codes, Standards and Regulations
With the completion of the six previous articles in this series, we have
moved clockwise around the chart in figure 1 to about the 7 o’clock
position to PEI Codes, Standards (C/S) and Regulations. In figure 2 is
the bubble chart for PEI C/S. For purposes of this article I will use the
acronym (C/S) generically to apply to a wide variety of names for
the various documents published by Standards Development
Organizations (SDO’s) that include not only those officially named
“codes or standards”, but also those other documents that may be
called recommended practices, best practices, bulletins,
specifications, guidelines, publications, etc.
As many of you know, I’ve spent the last 35 years of my PEI career
heavily involved in the industry codes and standards committees, so
this article comes from long experience with industry PEI C/S. I could
write a book on the application of PEI Codes and Standards in the
petroleum industry, but I will refrain from doing so for this short article
and just provide a few overview highlights about the importance of
them. I have personally benefited immensely in my PEI knowledge
and skills by my long standing participation in those industry C/S
committees (especially API & ASME), and I encourage readers who
have a passion for excellence in the PEI discipline to do the same.
The success of the API & ASME PEI committees in putting together
“Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices”
(RAGAGEP) is dependent upon knowledgeable PEI specialists
participating in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
consensus process applied by most SDO’s to continuously create
and update our industry PEI C/S.

Figure 2: Codes, Standards and Regulations for PEI

After retirement from Shell, I have worked for many other clients in
the refining and chemical industry. As such, I’m amazed at how
many of them don’t know about and/or don’t use some of the
industry PEI C/S to the maximum extent possible; and that many are
not working from the latest editions of those PEI C/S. These industry
PEI C/S contain a world of expert knowledge and best practices built
up over many years by PEI specialists and consultants from many
different companies. The price of most of these C/S is small
compared to the value of the knowledge contained in them and
compared to the cost avoidance of applying them to the fullest
extent possible to avoid PEI incidents at each operating site. Before
any new editions of these PEI C/S are published, they go through a
rigorous consensus building ANSI standardization process where all
members of each committee or task group in charge of a particular
standard thoroughly discuss each issue, draft it into standardization
terminology, vote on it and finally come to consensus on the “best
practices” before anything is published. This standardization process
is tedious and lengthy, but ensures the end user that the contents of
every standard are fully vetted before publication and that the
contents really do represent RAGAGEP for our industry. New and
updated technologies, methodologies, and work practices are
constantly being reviewed for inclusion in these PEI standards; so the
user that is still using outdated editions is not getting the full value of
the latest information and work practices in each of the C/S. Now
let’s go around the bubble chart clockwise in figure 2 to briefly
summarize the major areas where PEI Codes and Standards should
be contributing to PEI&R excellence at each operating site.
Codes and Standards for the Total PEI Life Cycle
At the 12 o’clock position on the C/S MS bubble chart in figure 2, we
start with summarizing all the ANSI C/S and other SDO documents
that apply to the life cycle of pressure equipment. The nine stages of
PEI covered in the total life cycle of pressure equipment include:
design, procurement, construction, installation, commissioning,
operation, inspection, maintenance and finally decommissioning.
The ASME Post Construction Committee (PCC) has published The
Guide for Life Cycle Management of Pressure Equipment Integrity
(ASME PTB-2-2009(9)) which summarizes all the codes, standards,
recommended practices, specifications and guidelines that can be
used by manufacturers, owners, users, regulators, engineers and all
other stakeholders in the total life cycle management (LCM) of
pressure equipment. As most of you know, there is a very wide array
of such documents available and to the best of my knowledge up
until now, there has been no comprehensive guide to how all these
documents can be tied together in the cradle to grave
management of pressure equipment, from concept to
decommissioning. ASME PTB-2-2009 fills that void.
The scope of the document for the initial publication primarily covers
those documents produced by ANSI accredited Standards
Development Organizations (SDO’s) like ASME, API, NB, NACE, ASNT,
ASTM, TEMA, ASCE, EPRI, etc. However, it also covers some useful
and applicable technical papers, other publications and references
like WRC Bulletins that offer good advice in the LCM of pressure
equipment.
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About the Author

John Reynolds, Principal Consultant at Intertek

John Reynolds is a Principal Consultant with Intertek Asset Integrity
Management, Inc. Prior to this he was a Master Engineering
Consultant with Shell Oil's Westhollow Technology Center in Houston.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in
Mechanical and Metallurgical Engineering, John joined Shell in 1968
and retired from Shell in 2006. Over the 37+ years of
employment... Read more »

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Table of Contents
Jump to...

 Introduction
 The Ten PEI&R Management Systems
 PEI Codes, Standards and Regulations
 Codes and Standards for the Total PEI Life Cycle

*Subscribers Only
  New Construction Codes and Standards
 In-Service Codes and Standards
 API Subcommittee on Inspection in the API Committee on
Refinery Equipment
 Reactor Effluent Air Cooler (REAC) Systems
 ASME Post Construction Committee (PCC)
 Other Standards Development Organizations (SDO’s)
 OSHA Regulations
 State and Local Regulations
 Staying Connected with Regulators
 Integration of the C/S MS with Other PEI MSs
 Summary
 References

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