The long term management of a production asset raises several major issues among which rank the technical management of the plant, its economics and the fleet level perspective one has to adopt. Decision makers are therefore faced with the need to define long term policies (up to the end of asset operation) which take into account multiple criteria including safety (which is paramount) and performance. In this paper we first remind the reader of the EDF three-level methodology for asset management. As introduced in PVP 2003 and PVP 2004, this methodology addresses the component/technical level (how to safely operate daily and invest for the future), the plant level (how to translate technical decisions into plant-wide consequences including economic performance) and the fleet level (how to manage a large number of similar assets). We then focus on the software tool that implements this methodology in order to allow decision makers to define, evaluate and analyze long term plant operation and maintenance policies. Lastly we show how the methodology and the software tool were used on a pilot case study. The technical and economic results obtained at the plant level are described as well as the conclusions one can draw from them in order to help decision makers evaluate and analyze long term asset management strategies.

This paper presents a methodology for anticipating failures in a component up to the end of its life cycle. Often, feedback data is not sufficient and must be complemented by the analysis of expert judgment. The methodology developed aims at anticipating the degradation mechanisms responsible for aging, and evaluating their relevance and related uncertainties. This is necessary information for risk analysis related to the operating of a component up to the end of its life cycle. Lastly, the methodology is applied to a nuclear component.

Cet article met en avant les enjeux importants de la gestion de connaissances pour le producteur d'énergie qu'est EDF. Ces enjeux, et les besoins auxquels ils répondent, conduisent à des démarches pouvant avoir plusieurs objectifs opérationnels. Au coeur de la conception des solutions envisagées se trouvent la mise en oeuvre de systèmes d'organisation des connaissances adaptés et la manière de prendre en compte, gérer ou produire des documents. Cet article propose une analyse de démarches de gestion de connaissances existant à EDF en préalable à la spécification d'une méthodologie de gestion des connaissances incluant la caractérisation des systèmes d'organisation de connaissances (SOC) associés. ABSTRACT. This article states the most significant stakes of knowledge management for an energy producer such as EDF. These stakes and the needs they intend to answer in an operational context yield to the implementation of different approaches. Putting into operation the best suited knowledge organisation systems and dealing with documents (producing them, managing them or exploiting them) play a key role in the design of knowledge management solutions. This article proposes an analysis of EDF existing knowledge management approaches prior to the specification of a knowledge management approach including associated knowledge organisation systems (KOS) characterization. MOTS-CLÉS : gestion des connaissances, ingénierie des connaissances, système à base de connaissances, systèmes d'organisation de connaissances, cas industriel.

The life management of a nuclear power plant raises several major issues amongst which ranks the aging management of the key components of the plant, both from a technical and an economic point of view. Decision-makers are thus faced with the need to define the best strategy in order to achieve the best possible performance which requires both a very precise modeling of the plant and a detailed analysis of all risks potentially incurred.In this paper, we wish to provide the reader with an overview of how advanced expert elicitation techniques can help identify, structure, quantify and feed sensitive data into a risk-based information system which can then be used for risk-based asset management evaluation.First we focus on the way knowledge management techniques allow EDF to structure and collect life-cycle management data into knowledge-based information systems. The elicitation of component experts is key, particularly in order to get technical information on the future behavior of the component ("anticipation" of whatever events may occur on the plant).We then detail how expert elicitations allow to quantify the probabilities of occurrence of the events: whether there is feedback data, models or not, expert opinion has to be taken into account and mixed, for instance with Bayesian procedures, to this information.Lastly we describe how the information elicited from experts can help top level decision makers get a transverse, long term view on how life management investment strategy translates into plant availability, avoided costs and improved component durability. INTRODUCTIONThe management of a production asset, especially with a long-term goal to achieving an optimum lifetime, raises several major issues, among which rank the technical management of the plant, its economics and the fleet level perspective one has to adopt.Decision-makers are therefore faced with the need to define long-term policies (until the end of the life of the asset), which take into account multiple criteria including safety (which is paramount) and performance.In this paper, we first remind the reader of the EDF three-level methodology for nuclear asset management, as introduced in PVP 2003 [1] and PVP 2004 [2]. The knowledge management techniques used to support the expert elicitation process (in order to anticipate whatever could occur to the plant) and which facilitate the structuring and the processing of the acquired knowledge are then presented. Emphasis is given to the methodology developed for the quantification of the events (i.e. their probabilities of occurrence, their consequences in terms of availability) and of the mitigation actions (i.e. their cost, duration and impacts on events' occurrences). Lastly, we describe how the methodology, the information elicited from experts and their implementation in a software tool can be used in order to process technical and economic indicators obtained at the plant level as well as the conclusions top level decision makers can draw from them in order to evaluate and analyz...

The long term management of a production asset raises several major issues, among which rank the technical management of the plant, its economics, and the fleet level perspective one has to adopt. Decision makers are therefore faced with the need to define long term policies (up to the end of asset operation) that take into account multiple criteria including safety (which is paramount) and performance. In this paper we first remind the reader of the EDF three-level methodology for asset management. As introduced in PVP 2003 and PVP 2004, this methodology addresses the component/technical level (how to safely operate daily and invest for the future), the plant level (how to translate technical decisions into plant-wide consequences including economic performance), and the fleet level (how to manage a large number of similar assets). We then focus on the software tool that implements this methodology in order to allow decision makers to define, evaluate, and analyze long term plant operation and maintenance policies. Lastly we show how the methodology and the software tool were used on a pilot case study. The technical and economic results obtained at the plant level are described as well as the conclusions one can draw from them in order to help decision makers evaluate and analyze long term asset management strategies.