Why "Zero Overdue Inspections" Doesn't Mean Zero Containment Failures
Facilities that proudly report “zero overdue inspections” month after month can still suffer serious loss of primary containment (LOPC) events, according to a piece in Inspectioneering Journal by Jeff Goldstein, principal engineer at Bighorn Integrity. Goldstein argues the disconnect usually comes down to one of two problems: either KPIs are poorly designed “vanity” metrics built to look good moving up the chain, or well-designed goals never get translated into action by the individual contributors doing the work on the ground. He notes that inspection programs need a mix of leading, lagging, compliance, and effectiveness indicators, but even a strong metrics package fails if it doesn’t change how work gets prioritized and executed day to day, especially as inspectors face growing workloads that squeeze out time for proactive improvement.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Mechanical integrity and inspection subs bidding turnaround or NDE work should expect owner-operators to scrutinize how field-level task prioritization ties back to plant KPIs, not just whether inspection schedules show “green.”
- Firms staffing inspectors on integrity contracts should be ready to document how procedures translate corporate compliance metrics into daily field decisions, since that gap is flagged as a root cause of unexpected LOPCs.
- Contractors proposing reliability or RBI program support can differentiate bids by showing effectiveness/efficiency tracking at the individual-contributor level, not just compliance dashboards, when responding to refinery RFPs.
