What is a criticality study? 
 


A criticality study is a method used to rank the importance of assets according to risk. Risk is a product of failure consequences and failure probability. To accurately assess an asset's risk, the criticality study will score against a number of consequence factors. These typically include the following:

  • Commercial Impact
  • Safety Impact
  • Environmental Impact

When these consequences are combined with the likelihood of failure, the relative risk of each asset can be determined, allowing an asset ranking by criticality.
 

Where are criticality studies utilised?
 


Criticality studies can be used for many different purposes as follows:

  • To provide a basis for prioritising improvement initiatives such as RCM 
  • To provide a basis for prioritising the planning and scheduling of maintenance activities
  • To assist with the optimisation of spare parts requirements
  • To enable operations and engineering staff to better understand the relative importance of plant assets
  How to use a criticality study with RCM?
  
Criticality studies are frequently used to assist with the planning of improvement initiatives. The criticality study provides an overview of the relative risk of your assets, highlighting the bad actors and helping to focus attention where the need is greatest. This helps the organisation prioritise the available resources to review assets with the greatest potential for improvements and benefits. 
  

How to conduct a criticality study?
 


The criticality study is a facilitated process with inputs from your organisation's staff who have good knowledge of the assets and processes. The facilitator will use the experience of the team combined with historical data extracted from production and maintenance records to populate the model and arrive at the relative risk ranking.

Criticality studies may be either qualitative or quantitative in nature and the model used to assess the risk can be tailoured to suit individual organisational requirements. At Asset Dynamics Asia we have experience in implementing a number of different criticality models and have extensive expertise in data analysis and facilitation.  For more information on how we can assist your organisation develop and apply a criticality model for your assets please contact us at info@assetdynamicsiasia.com.