Performance

The organization must measure turnaround performance and observe trends� As with all measurements, a single indicator can mislead� It is, therefore, necessary to design a number of criteria to provide a balanced indication of performance of the shutdown� Table 18�1 lists some suggested criteria�

Having a work process does not guarantee a successful turnaround, but benchmarking considerably reduces the likelihood of failure� Organizations that complete turnarounds on time, on budget, and without surprise invariably have a defined work process and adhere to it�

Though the process is the key; today’s technology provides tools that allow organizations to specify the process, define the tasks, and measure adherence� Web-based technology is an ideal medium to organize and control the multitude of tasks, information, and issues that are critical to the successful completion of turnarounds�

Performance check: The performance of all equipment should be recorded� This serves two purposes: one, whether it is known that the equipment is performing as expected, and the other, for the base readings for all equipment for their performance levels� Performance checks should include

• Visual observations of critical equipment • Online vibration measurements on equipment and also critical

pipelines • Skin temperature measurements of internally refractory lined

equipment • Record flows, yield points, and other data for reference for compar-

ing post-turnaround results in the future

For companies that run continuously, shutdowns and outages consume a lion’s share of maintenance and capital budgets� By its very nature, the shutdown is “fat�” The reason for this is the skewed balance between downtime expenses and the cost of shutdown resources� In some cases, having extra resources, such as cranes, are dwarfed by the avoided cost of downtime� Shutdowns are also fat because of an attitude that includes worrying about the budget when it’s over�

Times have changed, however, and it’s important to rethink your approach to shutdowns� All parts of the organization now come with budget scrutiny� As a result, we’re running our shutdowns under tremendous pressure�

One strong temptation is to cut corners on safety or environmental issues� For example, I can’t imagine skimping on fall protection harnesses or safety glasses� Small improvements in managing shutdowns can provide large weight losses for the maintenance department� The key is to cut waste without compromising safety or environmental compliance�

Based on my experience from a variety of shutdowns, here are some important actions to take�

1� Estimates are to be perfect: Maintenance shutdowns and turnarounds require maintenance personnel to complete a lot of work in a short period� As a result, maintenance planners may feel pressurized to achieve perfect estimates of labor hours for jobs� However, estimates often cannot account for unforeseen situations that are out of a planner’s control�

2� Reduce surprises: At the beginning of a shutdown (when you start opening things up), you may discover some surprises� Some ideas to reduce this occurrence include • Open everything on day one� • Keep a history based on previous experience� Such a history will

be important as it will show any deterioration in efficiency� A lot of things deteriorate at a relatively constant pace and they have similar failure modes�

• Diagnostic predictive maintenance technology (i�e�, infrared and vibration analysis) might give an indication of what’s going on� Schedule nondestructive testing (NDT) right before you close the work list�

• Do a mini-shutdown before conducting a bigger shutdown� When you do a mini-shutdown, you open everything up, perform inspections, close the job, and go back into service� This isn’t possible in a lot of places, but crewmembers said their shutdowns were relatively controlled and didn’t produce a lot of surprises�

3� Use software: If there are more than 25 tasks in the shutdown (a very small event), then using software for project management will lean up the shutdown by shortening the duration� Be sure planners and schedulers are well trained in the software package you use� The advantages are simple: • By calculating the critical path, you know early on if the shut-

down is on or off schedule� • By realizing the tasks that are on or near the critical path, you

know what to focus on� • Knowing that without extra intervention, if a critical path item is

behind, then the whole shutdown will be late� • You can see a problem coming when it’s small enough to easily fix� • You can create displays that explain the shutdown and show its

current status� 4� Plan properly: Did you know that 85% of planning and scheduling

is done before the shutdown begins? The point of planning is to identify the elements of a particular, unique job� The main point of scheduling involves precisely bringing together the key elements of a unique specific maintenance job: • People with the right skills to perform the job and are physically

able and mentally alert� • Safe job steps� • Correct parts, materials, tools, supplies, and consumables for the job� • Adequate equipment for lifting, bending, drilling, welding, etc�

• Personal protective equipment (PPE)� • Proper permits and lockouts� • Custody and control of the asset� • Safe access to assets, safe work platforms, and humane working

conditions� • Updated drawings and wiring diagrams and other information� • Proper waste disposal� • Make sure you take advantage of the time before the job starts to

line up all of the elements� Remember if any item is missing, the job will stop or people will improvise, which increases the probability of a problem with quality and safety�

Focus on overall daily work completion: Management should not hold technicians to the planned hours for a single job� Instead, focus on technicians completing all jobs assigned to them for the day�

Good maintenance planners estimate reasonable amount of work for a week and maintenance supervisors can assign reasonable amount of work for each day� Maintenance productivity increases because the plant assigns a reasonable amount of work�

Work assignments and expectations: A maintenance supervisor should assign each maintenance technician a full day’s work at the beginning of the day, not one job at a time� Base the amount of work to assign on the maintenance planner’s estimates, which should be reasonable� This approach lets the maintenance technicians set their goals of how much work to accomplish each day and helps them pace their workday� This approach reduces the stress of wondering what the next job is and eliminates guessing at expectations�

5� Don’t over order materials: Keep an eye on the over-ordering of materials and returns as soon as possible� When the shutdown is completed, the tendency is to shove all the extra material into the storeroom and take credit for the value� In this way, the shutdown budget is helped, but there’s an overall cost to the organization unless the material is used in a fairly short time� Many storerooms have leftovers from projects and shutdowns for years after the event�

6� Make certain there are enough supplies: In terms of whether there are enough supplies for the whole shutdown, the planner should put his or her hands on these items and not accept the computer’s inventory level� Supplies include rags, oil-dry compounds, welding rods or wires, gases, nuts and bolts, etc� Shutdowns have been stopped in their tracks because someone made an assumption about simple resources (i�e�, running out of welding wire or rod, not having enough torque wrenches)�

7� Limit unneeded rentals: Keep an eye on the excessive numbers of rented cranes, welding units, generators, compressors, tanks, scaffolding, and other equipment� Investigate and return what’s clearly not needed and doesn’t provide any benefit, unless it’s there to provide insurance against some significant loss� Return equipment rentals of all kinds as soon as practical�

8� Eliminate unused resources: Be on the lookout for situations where resources are being paid for, but are not being used because of resource-leveling problems� Have some lean shutdown ready� This would also include spending a little extra to leave scaffolding to do some routine maintenance after the shutdown, or keeping cranes for a few extra days, as well as labor during the shutdown�

9� Validate the work list: Validate the work list and remove duplications, remove jobs that aren’t essential, and be sure the wording of the work requested is clear� On individual jobs, look at the scope of work as a contractor would� Be sure it’s as clear and complete as possible� A better scope will result in lower prices if there are fewer unknowns�

10� Settle claims with contractors: Settle claims with your contractors promptly�

11� Have good, efficient meetings: Good meetings are essential to the success of the entire shutdown effort, while encouraging the lean process� Wasted meeting time is highly leveraged� If there are eight people at a meeting and they’re waiting for the ninth, then the group’s time is being wasted� It isn’t just one person’s time; the loss is leveraged and time involving the eight people is gone� You’ve got to have productive meetings�

People come in late for meetings or don’t do their homework� They don’t pay attention and then act inconsistently with the decisions of the group� Moreover, they don’t have good discipline and management often doesn’t have a solid behavior model for meetings either� By the way, do you have rules about sending text messages or checking e-mail during meetings?