Running a plant or industrial facility comes with a lot of responsibilities. Environmental responsibilities are highly regulated, and failure to meet those regulations could result in a plant shutdown. Safety responsibilities put the lives of your employees in your hands, and again could result in the cessation of operations. Luckily, there are a number of programs and strategy in place to help people who run those plants do so efficiently, profitably, and to the benefit of their employees, clients, and investors. Check out a rough glossary of some of them below:

RCM Asset Management
Reliability centered maintenance is the process designed to ensure that systems do what they are required to do — generally, it’s used to improve systems where there are levels of safety that must be maintained. The successful implementation of RCM design is intended to increase reliability, machine uptime, and understanding of the risks imposed by those systems.

NDT Inspection
Non-destructive testing is an umbrella term for a wide variety of analysis techniques used in industry to evaluate the properties of a system, without causing damage and in some cases without even stopping operations. It is a highly valuable technique in that it can save time and money, as well as giving a much more accurate reading on any of the systems being assessed. Some techniques include: liquid penetrant, eddy-current, and radiographic testing techniques.

Asset Integrity Management Systems
This system outlines the ability of an asset (like an industrial machine of systems of machines) to perform its function effectively and safety — especially according the the EPA and OSHA. The better a plant or factory can understand how well and how safely their operations are, the better it’s managers can plan for expected delays in production or the need to replace machinery. The employees will also be safer, since the likelihood of accidents will dramatically decrease.

Whether a plant uses asset integrity systems or RCM asset management system, they are protecting their assets and those of their investors by being proactive about potentially catastrophic future events. Audits are inevitable at industrial facilities, and by implementing at least one of these management strategies, the heads of plants will rest easy knowing that they are complying with regulations and increasing the efficiency and profit margin of their plants. Research more here.