Tool Guides
Deep dives for every tool
Every tool in the Toolbox has its own in-depth guide — methodology, worked examples, common pitfalls, and cross-references to the concept library. All anchored in the standards each tool implements.
Tool 01 · Guide
Criticality Classification
How NORSOK Z-008 structures consequence classification across Safety, Environment, Production, and Cost. Includes the 2024 edition changes, barrier element logic, and a worked example for a feed pump.
Tool 02 · Guide
FMECA
Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis per ISO 14224. How to read the Annex B codes (ELP, FTS, BRD), how to enter OREDA failure rates, and how severity/probability/detectability combine into RPN.
Tool 03 · Guide
RCM
The full Reliability-Centred Maintenance decision tree, standards-aligned to SAE JA1011/JA1012 and IEC 60300-3-11. Covers evident vs hidden failure, P-F interval, six task types, and when redesign is compulsory.
Tool 04 · Guide
Concept Builder
How a completed RCM analysis becomes a deliverable Generic Maintenance Concept. GMC identification, maintenance plan structuring, document format, and what needs to be true before you hand it to a CMMS team.
Tool 05 · Guide
Work Instruction Generator
How a GMC maintenance routine becomes an executable .docx work instruction. Ten-section document structure, ISO 14224 failure-code traceability on every work step, per-step acceptance, inline hazard callouts, and the docx generation pipeline that produces CMMS-ready job plans.
Operate · Tool 01 · Guide
Root Cause Analysis
When to use 5-Whys, Fishbone (Ishikawa 6-M), or Fault Tree Analysis — a decision framework, worked examples for each method, common pitfalls, and how to combine them when a single method isn't enough. Anchored in IEC 62740.
Operate · Tool 03 · Guide
Bad Actor / Pareto Analysis
Finding the 20% of equipment that drives 80% of cost. Covers the three Pareto axes (cost, frequency, HSE), cost-basis selection, the 80% cut, and how findings feed into RCA. Includes a step-by-step export walkthrough for Microsoft Dynamics 365 (with SAP PM, Maximo, and other CMMSs to follow).
The 5-Step Workflow
Each tool feeds the next. Criticality drives FMECA, FMECA feeds RCM, RCM produces the maintenance concept, the concept produces the field-ready work instruction. Any tool can also be used standalone.
STEP 01
Criticality
Classify the asset by consequence of failure — drives all downstream decisions.
STEP 02
FMECA
Identify failure modes and rate severity, probability, and detectability.
STEP 03
RCM
Walk the decision tree to select the task type for each failure mode.
STEP 04
Concept Builder
Compile a Generic Maintenance Concept, CMMS-ready, with full traceability.
STEP 05
Work Instruction
Generate an executable .docx work instruction from the concept for a specific asset.
Reliability Engineering
The math behind the decisions
The analytical backbone under the methods above — turning failure history into the numbers that drive strategy. How life data reveals the failure pattern, and how component reliability rolls up into the uptime the business feels. Each built around a live model.
Reliability Engineering
Weibull Analysis
Reading the shape of failure. The shape parameter β reveals whether things fail from infant mortality, at random, or from wear-out — and therefore whether scheduled replacement helps, does nothing, or backfires. R(t), the hazard rate, B10 life and MTBF, with an interactive explorer that reshapes the curves live.
Reliability Engineering
Availability, Reliability & RAM
How uptime is engineered. Why reliability isn’t availability, the A = MTBF/(MTBF+MTTR) formula and its two levers, how systems combine in series and through redundancy, and the meaning of the “nines” — with an interactive availability and redundancy calculator.
Rotating Equipment
How the machines actually work
Hands-on engineering guides to the rotating equipment behind the maintenance — each built around live interactive models. The seven-part pump series runs from first principles through starting, selecting, driving, sealing and the specialised sealless and vertical machines; the motors and precision tracks cover how they are started, aligned and balanced.
Pumps · Series · Part 1
Pump Engineering: The Complete Guide
A-to-Z pump fundamentals, from "what is a pump" to NPSH and cavitation. The energy/work physics (ρgHQ), the centrifugal-vs-positive-displacement split, reading pump and system curves, the affinity laws, and two interactive models. Beginner to expert in one read.
Pumps · Series · Part 2
Starting a Centrifugal Pump
Why a radial centrifugal pump is started against a closed discharge valve — minimum power at shutoff. Includes a live interactive model for flow, pressure, brake power and motor current, the correct start-up sequence, and the axial-flow exception where the rule reverses.
Pumps · Series · Part 3
Pump Selection & Sizing
Choosing the right pump: define the duty point, select around the best efficiency point, avoid the oversizing trap, and combine pumps in parallel and series. Two interactive models — a selection/BEP tool and a parallel-vs-series combining-curves model.
Pumps · Series · Part 4
VFD vs Throttling: Pump Energy
Why slowing a pump with a variable speed drive saves energy that throttling a valve just burns as heat — the affinity cube law, the static-head caveat that limits it, and a live energy-and-cost model comparing both methods.
Pumps · Series · Part 5
Mechanical Seals (API 682)
The pump's most common failure point, explained: the lubricating film between two lapped faces, the closing/opening force balance and PV limit, balanced vs unbalanced seals, and API 682 single/dual arrangements. Two interactives — a face-balance/PV model and a flush-plan selector.
Pumps · Series · Part 6
Bearings & Lubrication
How bearings carry load on a film of oil — the three lubrication regimes on the Stribeck curve, L10 rating life and the cube-law load penalty, and why ~80% of bearings fail from contamination and lubrication, not fatigue. Interactive Stribeck and L10 models.
Pumps · Series · Part 7
Specialised Pumps: Sealless & Vertical
Beyond the standard horizontal end-suction machine: magnetic-drive and canned-motor pumps that delete the seal entirely, and vertical turbine and sump pumps for deep sources. The leakage, NPSH and installation trade-offs, with an interactive pump-type selector.
Motors & Drives · Guide 01
Motor Starting Methods
DOL vs star-delta vs soft starter vs VFD. Why an induction motor pulls 6–8× current at start, the current-vs-voltage / torque-vs-voltage-squared trade-off, and two interactive models — an animated starting-current comparison and a torque-vs-speed stall check.
Rotating Equipment · Precision
Shaft Alignment & Balancing
The proactive cure for the two most common vibration faults — the 1× imbalance and 2× misalignment. The centrifugal-force physics (F = m r ω²), ISO 21940 balance grades, alignment tolerances and laser methods, with an interactive unbalance-force model.
Rotating Equipment · Expansion Turbines
Turboexpanders: Making Deep Cold by Doing Work
The expansion turbine at the heart of every air-separation, NGL-recovery and LNG plant. Why extracting shaft work cools a gas far more than a throttle valve, the isentropic-expansion physics, magnetic bearings and brake-compressor loading — with an interactive model that pits a turboexpander against a Joule-Thomson valve on both cooling and recovered power.
Rotating Equipment · Compressors
Compressors: the Map, the Heat, and Surge
A pump for gas — but compressibility changes everything. Positive-displacement vs dynamic machines, the polytropic compression that heats the gas, why staging and intercooling save power, and the centrifugal compressor map with its all-important surge line and anti-surge recycle control. Two interactive models: a live compressor map you can drive into (and out of) surge, and a staging/intercooling optimiser.
Static & Safety Equipment
The vessels, valves and barriers
Beyond the rotating machines — the static equipment that transfers heat and throttles flow, and the safety devices and methods that keep pressure inside the steel. Each built around a live interactive model.
Static & Safety Equipment
Heat Exchangers
The most numerous equipment in the plant — and the quietly demanding to maintain. Counter- vs parallel-flow, the LMTD and effectiveness-NTU methods, and the fouling that drives every cleaning schedule, with an interactive temperature-profile and effectiveness model.
Static & Safety Equipment
Control Valves
The muscle of process control. Cv sizing, the inherent characteristics, why valve authority reshapes them once installed, and the cavitation that destroys trim — with an interactive inherent-vs-installed characteristic model.
Static & Safety Equipment
Relief Valves & Overpressure Protection
The last line of defence. How pressure relief and safety valves protect equipment, the language of set pressure, accumulation and blowdown, sizing to API 520/521, and the rules that keep them effective — with an interactive relief-event simulation.
Static & Safety Equipment
Process Safety: HAZOP, LOPA & SIL
How hazards are found and reduced to tolerable risk. HAZOP guidewords and deviations, layers of protection analysis (LOPA) and independent protection layers, and safety integrity levels (SIL) — with an interactive LOPA-to-SIL calculator.
Maintenance · Strategies
Reactive, preventive, or predictive
The three ways to decide when to maintain — fix it after it fails, act before it fails, or use live data to predict and plan. The dividing line is the breakdown: work done before it is preventive (even when a rumble or rising temperature triggered it); work done after it is corrective.
Maintenance · Strategy 1 · Corrective
Corrective Maintenance (CM)
Fixing the machine after it has failed. The precise line between corrective and preventive, deferred vs immediate (breakdown) corrective, the hidden cost multiplier of reactive work, and the cases where run-to-failure is genuinely the right call.
Maintenance · Strategy 2 · Preventive
Preventive Maintenance (PM)
Acting before the breakdown to prevent disruption — including condition-triggered work like refitting a rumbling bearing. Time-, usage- and condition-based PM, the over- vs under-maintenance trade-off, and an interactive model that finds the cost-optimal PM interval.
Maintenance · Strategy 3 · Predictive · Featured
Predictive Maintenance (PdM)
Condition monitoring made online and continuous: streaming vibration, temperature and current data, trending it, and forecasting the remaining useful life so work is planned before failure — and wired into the CMMS. Covers the maintenance-strategy ladder, the data-to-work-order loop, an interactive remaining-useful-life model, and Bluestream’s predictive-maintenance platform (with OPTEC) that integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Maintenance · Management
Plan the work, then measure it
The execution layer — how maintenance work actually gets done efficiently and how you know it’s working. The discipline behind Bluestream’s planning and CMMS consulting, where good work management turns directly into uptime and lower cost.
Maintenance · Management
Planning & Scheduling
The two disciplines that can double a workforce’s output without hiring: planning (preparing the job) vs scheduling (committing it to time). The work-order lifecycle, wrench time, backlog and schedule compliance — with an interactive model of where the maintenance hour actually goes.
Maintenance · Management
Maintenance KPIs & Metrics
The few metrics that actually drive decisions: leading vs lagging indicators, OEE (Availability × Performance × Quality), equipment availability, schedule and PM compliance, % planned work, backlog and cost as % of RAV — with an interactive OEE calculator and waterfall.
Maintenance · Management
Spare Parts & MRO Optimization
Stocking for uptime without tying up a fortune. Economic order quantity, reorder point and safety stock, the holding-vs-stockout trade-off, and why critical insurance spares break the demand-based rules — with an interactive inventory-optimisation model.
Maintenance · Management
CMMS & Asset Hierarchy
The system of record that carries it all. What a CMMS does, the ISO 14224 taxonomy and functional-location coding that underpin it, why data quality is make-or-break, and ERP/Dynamics 365 integration — with an interactive functional-location builder.
Maintenance · Condition Monitoring
Listen to the machine, act on evidence
The condition-based maintenance (CBM) toolkit — the techniques that measure equipment health while it runs and feed the predictive strategy above. Each is built around a live interactive model.
CBM · Technique 1
Condition Monitoring & Vibration Analysis
What condition-based maintenance is, the P-F curve and inspection-interval rule, the monitoring toolkit (vibration, ultrasound, oil, thermography, motor current), and how to read a vibration spectrum to diagnose imbalance, misalignment, looseness, bearing defects and vane-pass. With an interactive FFT fault-spectrum diagnoser and ISO 10816 severity.
CBM · Technique 2
Oil Analysis & Wear Debris
The machine's blood test: the three questions oil analysis answers, reading wear-metal fingerprints to locate the failing component, and how ISO 4406 cleanliness multiplies bearing life. Interactive wear-metal diagnoser and a cleanliness-vs-life model.
CBM · Technique 3
Infrared Thermography
Seeing failure as heat: how IR cameras map temperature, why emissivity will fool you, what thermography catches across electrical and mechanical faults, and the ΔT severity criteria. With an interactive thermal-image and ΔT classifier.
CBM · Technique 4
Motor Current Signature Analysis
The motor is its own sensor: analyse the supply current to find broken rotor bars, eccentricity and load faults without touching the machine. The slip-and-sideband physics, dB severity, and an interactive current-spectrum analyzer.
CBM · Technique 5
Airborne & Structural Ultrasound
Hearing failure before it is audible: the high-frequency sound of friction, leaks and electrical discharge. The decibel-vs-grease curve behind acoustic lubrication, leak and steam-trap surveys, and an interactive model that finds the exact moment to stop greasing a bearing.
Glossary
Every term, one definition
A cross-linked glossary of the terminology the tools and guides reference. Anchor-linkable — share /academy/glossary#p-f-interval directly with a colleague. Used as a reference throughout the tool guides.
P-F interval
Time between detectable onset of failure and actual functional failure.
Hidden failure
A failure the operating crew doesn't notice until the function is demanded.
Consequence class
C1, C2, or C3 rating per NORSOK Z-008 for each impact category.
Barrier element
Equipment that realises a safety or environmental barrier function per ISO 17776.
FMECA
Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis — the structured method for identifying failures.
RPN
Risk Priority Number = Severity × Probability × Detectability.
λ (lambda)
Failure rate expressed as failures per million operational hours.
OREDA
Offshore and Onshore Reliability Data. Industry failure-rate database for upstream petroleum.
GMC
Generic Maintenance Concept — equipment-class maintenance strategy template.
Work instruction
The field-executable document the technician follows to close a scheduled work order.
ISO 14224 failure codes
Annex B codes such as PLU, BRD, SER, STD that link each work step to the failure mode it addresses.
CMMS
Computerised Maintenance Management System — where the generated work instructions are executed and closed.
Standards & References
What the Toolbox implements
Every tool in the Bluestream platform is anchored in industry standards. These are the ones that matter — what each one says, and where the tools draw from it.
Tools 1, 2, 3
NORSOK Z-008:2024
Risk-based maintenance and consequence classification. Defines the framework — consequence classes drive task-selection rigour.
Tools 1, 2, 5
ISO 14224:2016
Equipment taxonomy (Annex A) and failure mode codes (Annex B). The FMECA backbone and the ISO 14224 prefix on every work-instruction step.
Tool 3
SAE JA1011/JA1012
The authoritative RCM standards. Define the task-selection decision tree used by the RCM tool.
Tool 3
IEC 60300-3-11
International RCM application guide. Aligned to SAE JA1012 for task-selection logic.
Reference Guide
OREDA
The reliability-data benchmark for upstream oil and gas. JIP, handbook, data structure, and how OREDA shows up in your FMECA. Read the full guide.
All tools
ISO 55000
Asset management framework. Shapes the platform's methodology at the portfolio level.
Getting Started
Account, tokens, and workflow
Common questions about using the platform. Each tool guide has its own FAQ for tool-specific questions.
No. The Academy is publicly accessible without an account or subscription. The Toolbox itself (creating analyses) requires a subscription.
Each AI-assisted operation consumes one token. Starter includes 10 tokens/month, Professional 30, Enterprise 100. Additional tokens can be purchased. Token cost is shown before each operation — you confirm before use.
Both. Data flows forward when you use them sequentially (criticality carries into FMECA, FMECA into RCM), but each tool can be used standalone by entering context manually. Tool 5 (Work Instruction Generator) requires Tool 4 first — everything else is optional.
Your analysis data is stored in your account, not shared with other users, and not used to train AI models. Full details in the Privacy Policy.
Work instruction outputs are .docx files, importable into any CMMS that accepts Word format. Deep compatibility with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Asset Management and Dynaway. Direct API integration is on the roadmap.
Where Next