Performance Evaluation of Inspection and Protection Techniques Used in the Great Man-Made River Project in Libya

Abstract

It is noted that most of the Internal Auditors at GMRA who conduct their audits based on ISO Standards were not able to recognize many qualitative indicators for failure by the ways of doing of these audits, a decision was taken to develop this evaluation method through determining the applicability of use of other evaluation methods and select the most suitable one. The selected one will be developed to the extent that would enable the Auditors and their organization to predict for any future failure..

The methods those were reviewed in this study are; Failure mode and effect analysis "FMEA", Benchmarking, Self assessment Model (EFQM) and Auditing by process approach. A critical analysis of these methods was started by formulating a set of criteria, which has enabled the organisation to select most suitable method.

The research methodology was based on the review of; QMS Documentation, Results of internal audits, Minutes of Annual Management Review Meetings of 2013, Records of failures & investigation studies and recovery/remedial works taken place.

The score and measurement criteria has supported the selection and conclusion that "Auditing by Process Approach" is the most suitable one for GMRA which can be used to evaluate the performance of pipeline and its monitoring / inspection / protection techniques, if it is supported by other measurement technique, i.e. the FMEA.

The results supported this finding under the condition of accommodating of an additional measurement by FMEA method that depends on the Risk Assessment associated with each process to be audited, and this has helped the Auditors for prediction for future failures, but no evidence found for identifying the qualitative indicators.

Therefore it is recommended to conduct further investigation to assess whether the accommodating of the other individual evaluation techniques into the Auditing by Process Approach method will improve the Auditors capability for determining the qualitative indicators, and to what extent?

Keywords: inspection Techniques, Failures, Reliability, Evaluation Methods, Auditing, Effectiveness, score and Ranking, Indicators and Prediction