Best Practice
SABP-A-047 11 January 2017
Qualification Criteria and Approved Service Providers
For Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) Study
Document Responsibility: Asset Management Standards Committee
Contents
1 Scope .................................................................... 2
2 Conflicts and Deviations........................................ 2
3 References............................................................ 2
4 Definitions ............................................................. 2
5 General ................................................................. 3
6 Qualification Criteria for RAM Service Providers ... 3
7 Acceptable Service Provider Listing ...................... 5
Revision Summary ..................................................... 5
Previous Issue: 21 October 2013 Next Planned Update: TBD
Revised paragraphs are indicated in the right margin Page 1 of 5
Primary contact: Youssef Abbaoui (abbaouyx) on +966-13-8809721
Secondary contact: Qadeer Ahmed (ahmedqx) on +966-13-8809782
©Saudi Aramco 2017. All rights reserved.
Document Responsibility: Asset Management Standards Committee SABP-A-047
Issue Date: 11 January 2017 Qualification Criteria and Approved Service Providers
Next Planned Update: TBD for Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Study
1 Scope
This Best Practice provides a qualification criteria and list of approved service
providers which have been proven to be qualified to conduct Reliability, Availability,
and Maintainability (RAM) studies as per Saudi Aramco requirements.
2 Conflicts and Deviations
2.1 Any conflicts between this Best Practice and other applicable Saudi Aramco
Engineering Standards (SAESs), Materials System Specifications (SAMSSs),
Standard Drawings (SASDs), or industry standards, codes, and forms shall be
resolved in writing by the company or buyer representative through the
Manager, Consulting Services Department of Saudi Aramco, Dhahran.
2.2 Direct all requests to deviate from this Best Practice in writing to the Company
or Buyer representative, who shall forward such requests to the Manager,
Consulting Services Department of Saudi Aramco, Dhahran. The CSD Manager
shall follow internal Company procedure SAEP-302 to process the request.
3 References
The following is a summary of the Saudi Aramco documents that have been mentioned
within this best practice:
Saudi Aramco Engineering Procedure
SAEP-302 Instructions for Obtaining a Waiver of a Mandatory
Saudi Aramco Engineering Requirement
Saudi Aramco Engineering Standard
SAES-A-030 Reliability Availability and Maintainability (RAM)
Study Execution
4 Definitions
Terms shown in bold font within this document are defined below:
Approval: Written authorization by the Manager, Consulting Services Department,
Saudi Aramco, Dhahran.
Acceptable Service Provider: A service provider where approval is not required
when placing a purchase order for his service. After the order has been placed, the
supplier of this product must ensure that he complies with all aspects of the purchasing
contract (e.g., must meet the Saudi Aramco Materials System Specification).
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Document Responsibility: Asset Management Standards Committee SABP-A-047
Issue Date: 11 January 2017 Qualification Criteria and Approved Service Providers
Next Planned Update: TBD for Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Study
License Agreement: A contract between a supplier and an owner of rights to an
equipment design, allowing a supplier to either (1) assemble the equipment using all
the pieces provided by the design owner or (2) assemble the equipment using a
combination of pieces provided by the design owner and pieces manufactured by the
licensee to the design owner's detailed drawings/specifications. The contract between
the licensor and licensee would (1) require the licensee to follow the licensor
manufacturing procedures and be routinely audited by the licensor for compliance and
(2) require the equipment to be marketed and labeled using the licensor's brand name.
SAMSS: “Saudi Aramco Materials System Specification.”
Service Provider: The person/company, etc., who is responsible to provide the
services to Saudi Aramco.
RAM Study: “Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability Study”
5 General
5.1 Procuring a RAM study service from a service provider not listed as an
approved service provider in this best practice is not allowed without proper
approval. Requests for approval of an alternate service provider must be
supported by documentation identifying how the alternate service provider
would better serve Saudi Aramco over the approved service providers.
Commentary Note:
If the request to procure from an alternate service provider is not approved, the
approval authority is under no obligation to present the reasons for the refusal.
5.2 The service provider listing within Saudi Aramco is provided in Section 7 of
this best practice.
6 Qualification Criteria for RAM Service Providers
RAM Service Providers qualification process has been done through a thorough
checklist of requirements and scoring system that allows regrouping those requirement
into 8 criteria as follows:
6.1 Human Resources
This has been addressed by evaluating the two (2) following requirements:
6.1.1 RAM Modeling Capabilities, and
6.1.2 Engineering Expertise.
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Document Responsibility: Asset Management Standards Committee SABP-A-047
Issue Date: 11 January 2017 Qualification Criteria and Approved Service Providers
Next Planned Update: TBD for Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Study
6.2 Business Sustainability
This has been addressed by evaluating company structure, robustness, stability,
and sustainability of the business.
6.3 Tools and Technologies
This has been addressed by evaluating RAM simulator and other tools
capabilities, expertise, and support.
6.4 Modeling Accuracy
This has been addressed by evaluating RAM model accuracy through data
cleansing and RAM model validation process review and discussion.
6.5 Experience
This has been addressed by evaluating RAM modeling experience with regard to:
6.5.1 Oil and gas upstream plants and facilities,
6.5.2 Oil and gas downstream plants and facilities,
6.5.3 Petrochemical plants and facilities, and
6.5.4 Large scale projects and plants modeling experience in the supply chain
context.
6.6 Asset Lifecycle Analysis
This has been addressed by evaluating RAM model through the whole asset
lifecycle phases including design, procurement, construction, commissioning,
operate and maintain and finally decommissioning.
6.7 Performance
This has been addressed by evaluating RAM model recommendations and
deliverables quality (i.e., technical and financial analyses of the cases).
6.8 RAM Data
This has been addressed by evaluating the ability to avail some RAM data based
on their previous experiences or through their network of companies’ involved
in RAM analyses.
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Document Responsibility: Asset Management Standards Committee SABP-A-047
Issue Date: 11 January 2017 Qualification Criteria and Approved Service Providers
Next Planned Update: TBD for Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Study
The above evaluation criteria and requirements are used to score out of a total score of
100 points. Each of the criteria has been evaluated using sets of questions that were
performed and the scoring has been done according to the scoring system displayed by
Table 1. The score of 70 out of 100 is set to qualify the service providers.
Table 1 - Evaluation Criteria Scoring System
Max Score
# Criteria
(Points)
01 Human resources – RAM Modeling capabilities and expertise 05
02 Human Resources – Engineering expertise 08
03 Business sustainability 10
04 Tools & technologies 10
05 Modeling accuracy 10
06 Experience – Oil and Gas upstream RAM modeling experience 09
07 Experience – Oil and Gas downstream RAM modeling experience 09
08 Experience – Petrochemical RAM modeling experience 07
Experience – Large scale project/plants modeling experience 10
09
(supply chain analysis)
10 Asset lifecycle analysis 10
11 Performance 10
12 RAM data 02
Total Score 100
7 Acceptable Service Provider Listing
Refer to the following link to obtain the current approved service provider list for RAM
studies.
Link: https://sharek.aramco.com.sa/orgs/30003036/RAM
Revision Summary
21 October 2013 New Saudi Aramco Best Practice.
11 January 2017 Editorial revision to change SAEP-39 to SAES-A-030 in Section 3 and change the
responsibility of the document to Asset Management Standards Committee.
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