SUMMARY
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The management of a population of centrifugal pumps in the petrochemical industry can be daunting. A popular method for strategically optimizing the maintenance and operation of these centrifugal pumps is to measure the reliability of the whole pump population in terms of Mean-Time-Between-Failures (MTBF). Too often MTBF improvement becomes the focus rather than a means of supporting the actual goal, namely Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) reduction. An increase in MTBF is intuitively associated with a reduction of TCO, but this is not necessarily true. This study proposes that the MTBF vs time and TCO vs MTBF curves are characteristics of a specific industrial plant. A tool for approximating the optimum TCO vs MTBF for a plant is introduced, and a qualitative framework for managing pump reliability in the TCO context is proposed.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die bestuur van n sentrifugale pomppopulasie in die petrochemiese bedryf kan oorweldigend wees. n Popule metode om die instandhouding en bedryf van hierdie sentrifugale pompe op n strategiese vlak te optimiseer, is om die betroubaarheid van die pomppopulasie in geheel, in terme van Gemiddelde-Tyd- Tussen-Falings (GTTF), te meet. Die fokus word te veel op die verbetering van die GTTF geplaas en nie op die eintlike doel, naamlik die vermindering van Totale Koste van Eienaarskap (TKE) nie. n Verbetering in die GTTF word intuief geassosieer met n vermindering van TKE, maar dit is nie noodwendig waar nie. Hierdie studie stel voor dat die GTTF vs Tyd-kurwe en TKE vs GTTF-kurwe kenmerkend is van n spesifieke industrie aanleg. n Instrument om die benaderde optimum TKE vs GTTF vir n aanleg te bepaal, asook n kwalitatiewe raamwerk om pomp betroubaarheid in die TKE konteks te bestuur, word voorgestel.