Editorial - October 2025 - November 2025

The unfortunate thing about corrosion is its autocatalytic nature, once corrosion commences, and
then that is it. In practice, the best way to prevent the spread of corrosion is to prevent it from
starting at all! Given the cost of engineering, procurement and construction of process installations,
the ultimate successful facility is one that remains in the intended service for as long as possible.
In this issue, we discuss how ‘corrosion and integrity management’ is a systematic approach to
protect assets from material degradation, ensuring their safe, long-lasting, and reliable operation. It
involves developing and implementing a Corrosion Management Plan (CMP) that includes
procedures, risk assessments, and performance metrics, all within an organization’s overall
management system. The goal is to minimize life cycle costs, meet safety and environmental goals,
and prolong the life of critical assets like pipelines and storage tanks.
It’s also high time we look at asset integrity management as a value enabler, rather than a
compliance tool. New technologies use AI to analyze data from sensors and images to predict
corrosion, identify it earlier and more accurately than traditional methods, and recommend
preventative actions. This leads to more efficient, proactive, and cost-effective corrosion control
strategies. AI models can analyze historical and real-time data to predict where and when corrosion
is likely to occur, enabling proactive maintenance and preventing costly failures.
But all this would be of no use if the people are not well acquainted or aware about what they are
supposed to do. Or, simply are not trained. Asset owners must invest in their people, train them, and
build a culture of innovation and technology. You can have all the technology, but you need to have
trained people who need to put in the data, analyse the data, and work on that data. If you feed
garbage, it’s simply garbage in, garbage out!
Henry Ford, the famous American industrialist and business magnate, and founder of the Ford
Motor Company once said: “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them
leave is not training them and having them stay!” This appliesto all trades including corrosion.
As the year comes to a close, let me take this opportunity to wish each and every reader, advertiser
and well-wisher a great festive season and a wonderful year ahead!!!