Solutions for maintenance delays in Saudi oil and gas: Integrating interpretive structure modeling and relative importance index

Abstract. Delay in maintenance and repair of oil and gas plants are crucial issue that require great attention to ensure that activities are conducted as planned. This paper introduces Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) based approach to identify and correlate reasons of delay in this type of operations. The potential reasons for delaying schedule of maintenance operations are initially identified through review of the literature and experts’ interview. Then feedback from the targeted professional is gathered via survey questionnaires. The perspective of contractors and owners in the Saudi Arabia Eastern province of are considered. The identified possible reasons are ranked based on the feedback received from a total of 57 respondents. The ISM approach then is employed with the assistance of two experts to explore the correlation among the identified reasons. The relative importance index (RII) revealed that the greatest critical possible reasons for delaying schedule of maintenance operation in oil and gas are material related issues (items spare parts), delivery of spare parts, inexperienced contractor, skill levels and efficiencies of manpower, and unclear scope of work. In contrast, ISM uncovered that the most driving power possible reason for delaying maintenance operations is communication issues followed by site condition and then unclear scope of work.