Use of Critical Index as a method of management, planning and control of the maintenance in an oil refining plant

The purpose of this study is to show a technique for programming and maintenance control, used by the "API" oil refinery plant (located in Falconara, Italy) to maintain of its assets. Referring to the modern need for a careful maintenance policy, and its management techniques and methodologies provided in the relevant literature, we will discuss about Critical Index, as a synthetic and representative method, widely used from the API plant (although still supported by other methods), on which to base a proper and efficient maintenance policy. In this paper, the data refer to the fifteen items which will then define the Critical Index, and that will be explained in detail afterwards; the years taken into account are 2009 and 2010.