Production assurance

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Production assurance is a way to ensure a productive capacity meets its intended end-results such as customer requirements, [1] planned production levels, [2] safety, reliability, risk and direct economic cost. The term is used in industries as far reaching as livestock production, [3] oil and gas [4] and information technology. Production assurance is broadly related to productivity and quality management since organizational and human factors must be considered, as well as technical aspects. [5] ISO 20815:2008 introduces production assurance as a concept composed of twelve processes where "seven are defined as core production-assurance processes".

Productive capacity is the maximum possible output of an economy. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), no agreed-upon definition of maximum output exists. UNCTAD itself proposes: "the productive resources, entrepreneurial capabilities and production linkages which together determine the capacity of a country to produce goods and services." The term may also be applied to individual resources or assets; for instance the productive capacity of an area of farmland.

Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data, or information, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. IT is considered to be a subset of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system is generally an information system, a communications system or, more specifically speaking, a computer system – including all hardware, software and peripheral equipment – operated by a limited group of users.

Productivity describes various measures of the efficiency of production. A productivity measure is expressed as the ratio of output to inputs used in a production process, i.e. output per unit of input. Productivity is a crucial factor in production performance of firms and nations. Increasing national productivity can raise living standards because more real income improves people's ability to purchase goods and services, enjoy leisure, improve housing and education and contribute to social and environmental programs. Productivity growth can also help businesses to be more profitable. There are many different definitions of productivity and the choice among them depends on the purpose of the productivity measurement and/or data availability.

Production assurance normally exists in the context of an enterprise or between producers and oversight bodies, such as regulators.

See also

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DNV GL is an international accredited registrar and classification society headquartered in Høvik, Norway. The company currently has about 14,500 employees and 350 offices operating in more than 100 countries, and provides services for several industries including maritime, renewable energy, oil & gas, electrification, food & beverage and healthcare. It was created in 2013 as a result of a merger between two leading organizations in the field - Det Norske Veritas (Norway) and Germanischer Lloyd (Germany).

OREDA Offshore and Onshore Reliability Data Project

The Offshore and Onshore Reliability Data (OREDA) project was established in 1981 in cooperation with the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. It is "one of the main reliability data sources for the oil and gas industry" and considered "a unique data source on failure rates, failure mode distribution and repair times for equipment used in the offshore industr[y]. OREDA's original objective was the collection of petroleum industry safety equipment reliability data. The current organization, as a cooperating group of several petroleum and natural gas companies, was established in 1983, and at the same time the scope of OREDA was extended to cover reliability data from a wide range of equipment used in oil and gas exploration and production (E&P). OREDA primarily covers offshore, subsea and topside equipment, but does also include some onshore E&P, and some downstream equipment as well.

ISO 20815

ISO 20815 is the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standard for production assurance and reliability management in the petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries.

References

  1. ↑ Javad Barabady, Tore Markeset, Uday Kumar, (2010) "Review and discussion of production assurance program", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 27 Iss: 6, pp.702 - 720
  2. ↑ Barabady, Javad; Markeset, Tore; Kumar, Uday (2010). "A framework for improvement of production plant performance using production assurance programs". Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag. 1 (1): 59–65. doi:10.1007/s13198-010-0001-1.
  3. ↑ Livestock Production Assurance Handbook, Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd., ISBN   978-1-74036-299-3, 2015
  4. ↑ ISO 20815:2008 – Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries – Production assurance and reliability management, International Organization for Standardization, 2012
  5. ↑ Tayor and Francis Group, Safety Reliability and Risk Analysis: Theory Methods and Applications, ISBN   978-0-415-48513-5, 2009, p.1491
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