Refinery proves that a strong reliability program makes financial sense

Oct. 12, 2017
Learn how the Saudi Aramco Shell refinery developed a successful reliability program and won the 2017 Emerson Reliability Program of the Year award.

At the Saudi Aramco Shell refinery (SASREF) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, performance benefits were realized in emergency maintenance and mechanical availability, both of which jumped two quartiles. This added some real value with a 13.5% reduction in maintenance cost from the total budget, including overhead, and a 38% reduction in cost-avoidance bad actors, reducing maintenance costs an additional 3.2% this year. There were many other reliability improvements.

All of this couldn’t have been achieved without hard work and a successful reliability program. For its efforts the refinery won the 2017 Emerson Reliability Program of the Year. "It starts with our vision to safely achieve best-in-class performance, maximizing profitability, with commitment to our people and community," said Yahya Hamdi, reliability engineer, maintenance strategy, at SASREF. "We have four core values: people, safety, ethics and excellence. We always start with people."

Its reliability program will expand with plans to look at future and continuous improvements. Benchmarking and performance will be studied with actions and plans assigned as needed. SASREF also will continue to develop its excellence center and ISO 55001:2014 asset management along with programs to execute a culture of sustained reliability while partnering with Emerson.

To learn more, read "Saudi Aramco Shell refinery jumps two quartiles in reliability performance" from Control.

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