Equipment Maintenance
Investing in a stockpile of equipment is significant capital cost. Attentive care and regular maintenance is essential to ensure that the equipment is ready when an incident occurs. We have seen many instances where an organisation's investment has been rendered useless due to the lack of maintenance. We are specialists in the care and maintenance of equipment. The maintenance of oil spill equipment presents some unique challenges due to its (let's hope!) lack of use. It therefore not suitable to follow the manufacturers planned maintenance schedule as they generally assume that the equipment is in constant use, or make recommendations for long term storage. Neither of these apply to oil spill equipment, which must be stored and ready to be operational at a moment’s notice.
We recently completed the development of a maintenance programme for a client operating in The Gulf region. The information supplied has been prepared for entry into SAP, the proprietary business management software, as part of the company's reliability and integrity programme. The programme we developed involved quarterly maintenance on all equipment with internal combustion engines, and 6, 12 or 24 months for other items. We established a balance between cost of the maintenance and low usage of the equipment by extending the manufacturers recommended service frequency where appropriate. The schedule was also adjusted to match the maintenance periods with the company's exercise programme. It is important that the maintenance of specialised equipment is undertaken by personnel who are familiar with the equipment and how it will be used in the field.
For further information, please contact Kevin O'Connell.
