A Survey of Fitness-for-Service Trends in Industry

In 2002 TWI Ltd carried out a questionnaire-based survey of ‘user experience of plant life management practices’, to gain a better understanding of the reality of plant life management and the needs of plant operators [1]. In 2003 the European Fitness-for-Service Network (FITNET) reported the results of their survey on ‘current application and future requirements for European Fitness-for-Service (FFS) technology’ [2]. In 2006 the management of ageing plant became a regulatory hot topic in the UK with a Health and Safety Executive document on the subject being released [3]. Considering also the recent release of the new API/ASME joint FFS standard [4] TWI Ltd decided 2007 was the ideal time to carry out an updated industry survey, to assess how developments such as these might affect plant life management practices in different industry sectors across the world. The aims of this survey were to gain an insight into current FFS trends across several industry sectors and how these may change in the future. Information was gathered as to how different companies handle their FFS activities, both in terms of the types of flaw they assess and the complexity of the assessments they carry out. The survey also investigated how Safety Regulating Authorities (SRA) view FFS activities and whether or not they accept the results as the basis for plant integrity management decisions. Closely related to this is whether there is a need for better regulation of FFS activities, FFS training or indeed whether FFS qualifications should be introduced. This paper presents the results of the online industry survey and draws pragmatic conclusions that will be of interest to all those involved with FFS activities, from inspectors to researchers and from engineers to insurers.