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11-Revised Manual For Commissioning-Start-Up - Shut-Down
11-Revised Manual For Commissioning-Start-Up - Shut-Down
Course Director
JAMES.M.WATTERSON
Contents
Start up Organization
Section 2
Section 3
Section 5
Section 7
Section 1
In the following sections some of the problems and hazards of commissioning are
described. It should be said at the outset, however, that in many cases these have
been very successfully overcome by good organization and engineering so that, for
example, large ethylene plants have been brought up to full output within about
three days.
It can be seen that the Commissioning of any Process Plant would need the
experience of personnel who have been employed in the Petrochemical, Refinery
and the Oil & Gas industries for some considerable time. During their careers they
would have many times shut down and restarted plants and would be
knowledgeable and competent to startup new equipment and restart equipment that
has been overhauled. They would know to follow the correct methods and
procedures for doing all this.
Basic Function:
Directs the safe, economic and efficient operation and utilization of facilities,
equipment, materials and personnel on a small to medium scale project within the
Company approved guidelines and policies to discharge all contractual
commitments.
Principal Accountabilities:
Responsible for:
And also:
Direction and counseling of client personnel during the commissioning and initial
start-up through to acceptance of a process plant(s).
Directing the activities of sub-contract personnel and third party licensors to ensure an
integrated, uninterrupted start-up through acceptance of a process plant (s).
Incumbent must have the ability to impart this knowledge to other department
members and client personnel. He must have the ability to make technical decisions
and recommendations for the department and answer queries received from job
sites and/or clients and organize field personnel and direct their efforts to provide
an efficient and safe operating plant.
SUPERVISORY SKILLS:
Management and direction of a number of multi-disciplined teams in the
preparation of technical documentation during a project design and engineering
phase, as well as the resolution of technical problems associated with operating
plants.
It is not uncommon that the commissioning is a succession of crises, but this is not
the most efficient way of doing it. As it has been put by Horsley a prominent
engineer.
'It is evident that the fun and personal satisfaction of being in the thick
of things, having a tremendous degree of responsibility, working long
hours and so on are not efficient ways to start up a plant. In fact, an
efficient startup without the emergence of numerous challenging
technical problems would probably be slightly dull and disappointing to
technologists and experts.'
The work load of individuals should be checked to ensure that it is not extreme. If a
man is excessively tired he tends to become both less effective and more prone to
error.
The design and construction of a large process plant is normally scheduled using
such methods as Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical
Path Scheduling (CPS) Usually these methods are implemented on a computer.
1.3.3 Documentation
It should not be assumed that it is only the process operators who need preparation
and training for commissioning. Management requires these also.
The commissioning manager normally prepares himself by studying the process
and the plant, by visiting or working an similar plants or by involvement in the
project through work on design committees by preparing plant documentation and
operator training schemes, and so on.
There are some particular aspects on which he is well advised to brief himself
thoroughly. One is process information and knowhow which has been purchased
from outside. If problems arise in a bought in process it tends to be more difficult to
put them right. Somewhat similar considerations apply to proprietary equipment.
such as package units and complex machinery. It is also desirable for him to have a
good grasp of the general economics and contractual features of the project these
range from raw material supply contracts to acceptance conditions for equipment.
There are many variations in the ways of organizing the management team for
commissioning. One is to design and impose the organization. An alternative
described by Horsley (1974) is to let this evolve by negotiation of roles among the
managers with division of the ‘ownership’ of particular features among them.
During commissioning there is likely to be conflict between individuals. This may
be due to some extent to clashes of personality but it is generally due mainly to the
differences of tasks and viewpoint which are inherent in the situation.
The operating instructions are particularly important. These should be drafted early
on, so that they can be used for operator training, but they are likely to need some
modification in the light or operating experience.
It is also necessary to create a system of process records. The process log kept by
the operator is one. element in this. but them are numerous other records required
for management purposes.
A process plant often receives its raw materials from or sends its products and/or
by-products to other plants. The commissioning of such a plant tends to involve
some degree of disruption of these plants. There is need therefore to coordinate the
One basic method of training is the use of lectures. In some cases it maybe
appropriate to complement this with training on simulators.
Specific training in safety and loss prevention should be worked in with the other
training material.
Further training is obtained on the plant itself where the trainees become familiar
with the layout and learn to operate equipment and instrumentation. Testing with
safe fluids provides particularly valuable experience. Often there develops a strong
team spirit during this period of training.
Generally, the training activities reveal certain inadequacies in the procedures and
these should be rectified. The appropriate changes should be made in the
documentation.
It is a not uncommon experience that the level of training achieved at the end of
commissioning period is not bettered during the subsequent life of the plant.
The maintenance manuals for the equipment should be obtained from the
manufacturer and reviewed. Sometimes the manuals will be considered inadequate
in some respect. If so, the manufacturer should be consulted concerning
modification. More often, however problems arise because the manuals have not
been consulted.
The quality of the data available for analysis for reliability, availability and
maintenance of the plant depends critically on these records. It is far easier to create
an effective system initially than to try to improve a defective one. It is particularly
important to obtain good information on the symptoms and causes of faults, and on
the action taken.
Maintenance personnel should check the plant during construction for accessibility
and ease of maintenance. It may be necessary to make some alterations to the
layout, to the equipment or to the lifting arrangements.
The maintenance function is also involved in many of the pre-startup activities such
as checking and testing, and needs to make suitable preparations for this.
The process and plant designs should already have been subjected to the various
checks described earlier. In particular, the hazard and operability studies conducted
should cover operations that are carried out only in commissioning.
Some typical checks and tests carried out on process equipment and machinery are
listed in Table I.
Table I
Some checks and tests carried out on process equipment and machinery during
plant commissioning.
Also tests on
utilities
instrumentation
unit operations
simulated faults
The plant should be given a thorough visual inspection. A check should be made on
all plant equipment and pipe work to ensure that it is installed in accordance with
the engineering line diagram. In one instance, for example, the safety shower was
found to contain not water but caustic soda.
The inspection should check for items such as loose bolts or missing valve wheels
and for construction aids or debris left in the plant.
Errors in the materials of construction actually installed are quite common. A check
should be made therefore an the materials. The installation of internal fittings such
as trays, weirs, down comers and thermocouple pockets in all equipment should be
checked. It is important that these internals have the right dimensions are correctly
located and are firmly secured.
A list of some of the checks and tests carried out on process machinery such as
pumps, compressors and centrifuges is given in Table 2.
Subsystems are frequently tested on a safe fluid usually water prior to testing with
the process fluid.
Table 2 Some elements of the checking and testing of process machinery and
instruments (Courtesy of the Institution of Chemical Engineers)
Process machinery
Field disassembly and reassembly
Lubrication system: cleaning and check on circulation flow and temperature
Cooling water system: cleaning and check on circulation (flow, temperature)
Pre-commissioning of instruments
Check on free and unhindered rotation
Check an anchor bolts
Disconnection of piping to check that it does not stress equipment
Installation of temporary filter
Setting of system for 'no load'
Running or motor uncoupled
Coupling of motor
Check on alignment
Check on vent system
Check on seal systems
Dry run: check on vibrations and overheating of bearings
Load run
Performance run
Instruments
Instrument checking against drawings and manufacturers requirements
Removal of shipping restrictions
Calibration
Continuity check
Movement check
Alarms check
Interlocks check
Analyzers check
Table 2 also shows some of the checks carried out on instruments, a check should
be made that the instrument is installed in accordance with the drawings and with
Circuits should be checked for continuity from the panel to the instrument and
back.
These checks, however, are only partial checks on the instrumentation. As far as
possible the checks should be extended to cover operation with process fluids and
conditions which are realistic but which are nevertheless safe.
The difficulties inherent in a situation where basic information about the process is
inadequate have already been mentioned. This is due sometimes but by no means
always to purchase of know how from outside. Although some modifications of the
original design are almost inevitable, they tend to be disruptive and expensive and
should be kept to a minimum
The need for expert advice has already been mentioned. The behaviour of
equipment during the running-in period may be different from that during normal
operation. In one case, for example, commissioning was delayed because the
lubricating oil from the bearing of a ball mill was found to contain a high
concentration of metal particles; the vendor then confirmed that this was normal
during running-in.
Shortages of spares and other materials can result in delays. The need for an
adequate spares system has already been emphasized, but provision of other items
is equally important.
For example, mild steel bolts may be fitted where stainless steel bolts have been
specified, which in a low temperature application is a serious hazard. Likewise a
hazard can be introduced by the use of the wrong gasket.
Inexperience on the part of the process operators can result in mal-operation which
does considerable damage to the plant. For example, a pump may be allowed to run
dry or to pump against a closed valve.
Separation operations
Liquid-liquid separation. e.g. centrifuges
Liquid-solid separation. e.g filtration
Gas-liquid separation e.g demisting
Gas-solid separation. e.g. gas filtration
Automatic control
Long time lags, dead time
Valve sizing
Control of nonlinear variables e.g. pH
Unusual measurements
Unsuitable equipment
Leaks
Sudden leak in vacuum equipment
Vibration phenomena
Mounting errors
Mechanical handling equipment
Materials of construction
Design errors do occur, but are most frequent in detailed rather than fundamental
aspects. Emulsions and foams may occur on the full-scale plant, even though then
have not shown up in the pilot plant. Gas phase balancing errors can lead to
difficulties with levels and flows. Lack of sufficient Net Positive Suction Head
(NPSH) causes pumps to activate. Heat transfer phenomena which can be
troublesome include polymerization and scaling-up. The form occurs more
frequently than is admitted. Separation operations especially those involving
particulate system give rise to many difficulties.
Automatic control problems include the measurement of unusual variables, the over
sizing of control valves and the control of nonlinear variables and of loops with
large time lap and/or dead time.
Many of the test and other operations carried out during commissioning require the
use of temporary connections. These are often hoses. Hose connections have been
responsible for many accidents and particular care should be exercised with them.
Plant equipment are tested for leaks, but even so, leaks tend to develop due to features
such as loose joints open valves, gasket and seal failures, vibration, thermal expansion
and contraction, and corrosion. It is important therefore to keep a lookout for such
leaks.
Leaks from high pressure equipment can cause direct injury to personnel, leaks or
flammable materials can cause a fire or explosion and leaks of flammable liquids
can contaminate lagging, creating a further fire hazard.
Nitrogen purging is a frequent operation in commissioning. The use of nitrogen for
large-scale purging operations involves the added hazard of asphyxiation of
personnel.
There is the further hazard of contamination of the utilities by fluids from the plant
being commissioned.
1.3.11 Handover
The conditions for acceptance of the plant from the constructor by the operator are
normally specified in the contract. A handover certificate is usually issued which
contains a list of reservations of items on which further work is required. A
construction punch list of uncompleted ‘B’ items is usually filled in and handed to
commissioning, during commissioning these items should be completed by
construction. When commissioning is finished a Punch list of any remaining items
not completed along with a date for punch list completion is handed to operations.
All items should be completed before the stated date.
The handover needs to be carried out formally and with special regard to safety.
The plant should be in a safe condition when it is handed over.
With a large plant it may be desirable to have selective handover of plant systems
as they are completed. This applies particularly to such systems as the steam raising
plant, the steam pipe work and the cooling water system.
If parts of the plant are to be operated while other plants are still under
construction, it is essential to take steps to ensure that these two activities do not
interact in such a way as to create a hazardous situation. Normally areas that have
been commissioned and are in operation are barricaded off, from the rest of the
construction areas, and entry is only by entry permit.
All the formal system for control of hazards and errors should be operational.
These include in particular the permit-to-work system. Shift personnel will
normally work a 12 hour shift system rota.
1.3.13 Termination
The commissioning period should not be terminated until the plant is giving
reasonably satisfactory operation. The rate of improvement inevitably slows down
when the additional support of the special commissioning team is withdrawn.
MECHANICAL COMPLETION….
Occurs when the plant or any part of the plant has
been erected in accordance with drawings#
specifications and applicable codes and the pre-
commissioning activities have been completed to the
extent necessary to permit the client to accept the plant
and begin commissioning activities. The terms ready
for commissioning and mechanical completion are
often synonymous.
INITIAL STARTUP ..…… occurs when feed stocks are introduced to-the plant for
the express purpose of producing a product for the
first time, often referred to as "oil-in".
● SERVICES
● PROCESSES
● BUDGETS
● SCHEDULES
PROJECT ORGANISATION
● MANPOWER
● EXPERIENCE
● STANDARDS
● PROCEDURES
PROJECT CONTROL
● COSTS
● SCHEDULES
● QUALITY CONTROL
● ENGINEERING
● ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
● CONSTURCTION MANAGEMENT
● PLANT STARTUP
OWNER ORGANIZATION
PLANT EQUIPMENT
WHAT IS AT STAKE?
DEFINITION
For projects:
2. Feedstock
4. Temporary assistance.
5. Utilities.
8. Temporary facilities.
11. Training.
The average is for five to ten percent of the total installed cost of the plant for
“large” projects.
COST ESTIMATION
FORGOTTEN ITEMS:
7. Vendor Assistance.
8. Transfer expenses.
11. Recruiting.
12. Consultants.
18. Insurance.
21. Overtime.
Startup costs for process plants can be estimated by multiplying the total
installed cost by applicable factors from the tables attached.
Total Installed Cost (TIC) is the capital investment in the new facility.
1 – Base Case
Experienced Personnel )
Reasonable Schedule )
Single Unit )
A - Process Factors
B - Equipment*
1. Standard Process, Major Size Increase Throughout +3.0% TIC
C - Plant Location
D - Personnel
3. Start-Up Experience
(One or More Start-ups) of Supervisors
D - Personnel (Cont’d .)
Miscellaneous
4. Multiple Contractors
There are three categories of cost that need to be looked at when considering the
start-up budget:
1.0 The costs for normal start-up equipment, the materials that will be required
and the personnel that will be involved;
2.0 The costs for any unexpected changes that may be required and additions to
the original specification that may arise once the project has commenced;
3.0 Finally, we need to consider the breakdowns that may arise in the
mechanical equipment due to unforeseen circumstances – These breakdowns
need to be repaired as soon as possible to stop the project falling behind
schedule as this will result in further costs to the project.
It is quite common to allow between 5% and 15% of the overall capital cost of the
project to go towards start-up and commissioning;
Formulae have been developed, based on previous projects, that can now be used to
estimate both the start-up time and the start-up costs for most projects. These
formulae provide sufficient accuracy for inclusion in the initial project budget;
As we get closer to the start-up period, a more accurate budget can be obtained
based on???
A Crude Stabilisation Plan is currently under construction. Its capital cost is $100
Million and it is expected to take 8 months to complete;
Once operational the plant will be dependent on the existing Gas processing
facility for smooth operation, but it has been designed to allow it to be
isolated from the gas side given that it is a single operating unit;
A Crude Stabilisation Plan is currently under construction. Its capital cost is $80
Million and it is expected to take 6 months to complete;
Because of its location there is an abundant supply of skilled labour for the
commissioning;
The technology is all familiar and proven technology;
Once operational the plant will be dependent on the existing Gas processing
facility for smooth operation, but it has been designed to allow it to be isolated
from the gas side given that it is a single operating unit;
Test 3
A Crude Stabilisation Plan is currently under construction. Its capital cost is $120
Million and it is expected to take 10 months to complete;
Because of its location there is a scarce supply of skilled labour for the
commissioning;
Once operational the plant will be dependent on the existing Gas processing
facility for smooth operation, but it has been designed to allow it to be
isolated from the gas side given that it is a single operating unit;
Test number 4
Estimate start-up Costs & Time
A Crude Stabilisation Plan is currently under construction. Its capital cost is $100
Million and it is expected to take 8 months to complete;
Because of its remote location it will be difficult to attract skilled
labour for the commissioning;
The technology is all familiar and proven technology;
Once operational the plant will require a Gas processing facility for
smooth operation, but it has to be designed to allow it to be isolated
from the gas side given that it is a single operating unit;
Test number 1
Estimate start-up Costs & Time
Start-up Costs
Cost = 100 ( 0.10 – 0.02 – 0.03 + 0.04 + 1*0.02) = 100 * 0.11 = $11 Million
Start-up Time
Time = 8 ( 0.15 – 0.01 – 0.01 + 0.15 + 1*0.1) = 8 * 0.38 = 3 Months
Test number 2
Estimate start-up Costs & Time
Start-up Costs
Start-up Costs
Cost = 120 ( 0.10 + 0.02 + 0.03 + 0.02 + 1*0.02) = 120 * 0.19 = $ 22.8 Million
Start-up Time
Time = 10 ( 0.15 + 0.05 + 0.05 + 0.05 + 1*0.1) = 10 * 0.40 = 4 Months
Test number 4
Estimate start-up Costs & Time
Start-up Costs
Cost = 100 ( 0.10 – 0.02 – 0.03 + 0.04 + 2*0.02) = 100 * 0.13 = $13 Million
Start-up Time
Time = 8 ( 0.15 – 0.01 – 0.01 + 0.15 + 2*0.1) = 8 * 0.48 = 4 Months
Including practical exercises in planning and managing a schedule for spar parts.
Planning preparation requires a list of procedures that are needed, to define who,
what, where and when and to have spare parts and consumables available to do a
good job.
When starting to plan commissioning it is important first to prepare a method
statement as to how the commissioning will be carried out, set out the commissioning
procedure and adhere to that procedure. Have instrument technicians, mechanical
It will be necessary to prepare a list of spares that may be required like, the correct
type of lubrication oil, spare gaskets, and so forth.
If the proper steps are carried out the commissioning should go ahead with most of
the problems ready to be met by the correct people who have been organized at the
outset.
Types of Inventory
•
S(D/Q) = iC(Q/2)
Rearranging EOQ = √(2SD/iC)
EOQ Calculations
EOQ = √[(2x100x20) / (0.25x1000)]
EOQ = √[(4000) / (250)]
EOQ = √16
EOQ = 4
Startup Management
TEAM LEADERS:
PROJECT MANAGER
OPERATIONS SUPERINTENDENT
TEAM MEMBERS:
1. Project Engineers
(a) Process
(b) Mechanical
(c) Instrument
(d) Electrical
2. Operations Personnel
(a) Production Supervisor
(b) Maintenance Supervisor
(c) Plant Engineering
(d) Environmental
(e) Safety.
THE TEAM MUST HAVE ACCESS TO AND PRIORITY OVER RESOURCE SPECIALISTS.
NOTES:-
Start up management
Project Manager or Plant Manager becomes the Startup Director and has two jobs.
STARTUP MANAGEMENT
NORMAL ORGANIZATION
WORKS BY---
1. Rules
2. Regulations
3. Procedures
4. Systems
DURING STARTUP---
1. Equipment doesn't operate
2. Rules are unclear
3. Boundaries of responsibility
4. Tasks are not completed
RENDERED INADEQUATE
OVERCOME BY---
1. Additional Resources
2. Reducing inter-dependency between parts of the organization
3. Restricting the need for information processing
4. Redesigning the organization
PROJECT
MANAGER
PLANT
MANAGER
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
OFFICE ACTIVITIES
.5. Provide Manpower Estimate and Schedule for Field Startup Organization.
FIELD ACTIVITIES
11. Help Operate the Client's Facility for an Agreed Upon Period of Time After
Commissioning/Startup Activities.
STARTUP MANAGEMENT
DECISION LEVELS
STARTUP MANAGEMENT
DECISION INVOLVEMENT
STARTUP MANAGEMENT
PURPOSE:
TIME:
MINUTES:
STARTUP MANAGEMENT
STARTUP MANAGEMENT
2. Set the meeting time 45 minutes to one hour after shift change.
Schedule the meeting to last one hour.
STARTUP MANAGEMENT
8.. Keep control room traffic at prescribed levels and to specific locations.
STARTUP MANAGEMENT
15. Just before each new step in the startup activity scheduler hold a short
communication's session with the operators foremen and engineers, to
be sure each man knows his assignment and to communicate the
inevitable revision to the written procedures.
INITIAL STARTUP
YOU' VE PLANNED FOR IT# BUDGETED FOR IT, PROVIDED ALL RESOURCES FOR IT
- NOW YOU HAVE TO DO IT
STARTUP
SOME THINGS TO BE EXPECTING....
3. Who is allowed at the panel. Who is not allowed at the panel. How are
you going to limit control room traffic?
6. Instrumentation, tuning.
9. Turndown stability.
10. Experience, Know where you .can and cannot do without it.
14. Safety, can you exceed design limits, should you, safe practices and
procedures?
Start to bring the Utilities section on line by first starting stand by diesel generators,
when producing electricity, start up the cooling water system on manual recycle
bypass and control cooling water pressure by hand.
When the cooling water system on recycle bypass has lined out satisfactory, start
up the air compression system to provide instrument air for the control valve
instrumentation, when the instrument air system is up to pressure put the cooling
water pressure controller in service on automatic and close the manual bypass. The
cooling water is now in automatic control.
The next step is to start the gas turbines to provide power for the process plant start
up.
Check out gas turbine systems with a pre-start up list, making sure everything is
normal.
When the gas turbine push button has started the turbine, check that the auxiliaries
have come on line, e.g., start up of the starting device, fuel ignition and combustion
control, the unit will come up to synchronous speed, the generator is synchronized
to the system. Then you can set the demand accordingly and supply to the buss
bars.
During this time the Utilities units are started up, the boilers have started raising
steam, water treatment is started up for supplying boiler feed water.
When the steam header is up to pressure, steam will be supplied to the process units
for start up.
The processing units can take power, compressed air, cooling water, steam and
crude oil or gas, according to which that they use.
The major safety hazards are associated with the chlorine, sulfuric acid, and
phosphate injection. Caution must be exercised during initial operation of these
facilities due to unfamiliarity, even though the processes are relatively simple.
Production foremen must require all personnel involved in this work to know the
applicable safety requirements outlined in the Commissioning Safety Manual and
Department Safety Rules.
Isolation and clearing procedures will be in effect on the construction work site for
the first time on a large scale job. We must be certain that we tag properly and that
contractor personnel working with us act in accordance with our procedures.
Some areas of doubt regarding "how to tag" may develop.
STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE
Responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility
Notes:-
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Example
Calibration Report for MOV’s
3.3 1 Introduction
All the formal system for control of hazards and errors should be operational.
These include in particular the permit-to-work system. Shift personnel will
normally work a 12 hour shift system rota.
Preparation
Preparing a process plant for isolation is a large and time consuming procedure,
first of all there has to be strategy meetings with the management departments,
planning departments, operation departments, mechanical departments, electrical
departments, instrument departments and contracting department. All these meeting
will prepare the way for the shutdown.
The date has to be decided on, the scope of work has to be decided on, who does
what has to be decided on, and at what particular time during the shutdown.
The companies that buy products from the plant have to be informed as the will
probably want to increase stocks for when the plant is shutdown.
Management decide the time with the operations department who look at their
inventories, plant availability, and manning levels, and decide how to work the
shifts. The planning department works with operations to decide what equipment to
work on and in what order and then provide bar charts with manning levels and
time allowed for the completion of the jobs, over the complete shutdown.
Maintenance decide if they have enough manpower, if not, contractors are hired
and supervised by maintenance supervision instrumentation supervision and
electrical supervision.
Operations decide on when the work permits from the departments should be
completed and applied for, usually the permits are required three days before the
shutdown. The permits will be for hot work, cold work and vessel entry (if
required).
All other permits will be applied for before the work begins, e.g. radiology. The
day before the shutdown operations and other departments prepare their tags for the
shut down.
The instruction from the management shutdown meeting would read that the night
shift on duty would start shutting the plant down, and that the plant should be
“down” before the day shift come on shift.
The day shift will have had all the shutdown isolation tags previously filled in with
the necessary information on the tags, equipment number and all the relevant
information supplied.
The Operations Day Supervisor and the Day Shift Supervisor will organize the shift
crew to check all relevant valves are shut and place ‘Do not Operate Tags’ on the
valves, local pump switches which should be in the closed position and locked off
with the DNO tags supplied.
In the Electrical Switch Rooms the Operations Supervisors and the Electrical
Supervisors, will electrically isolate machinery and each should put their isolation
tags on the closed switches. The mechanical technicians should also place their tags
on the ssitches as well. This is in line with the safety rules, as both the electrical
and maintenance departments may both be working on the equipment. The first tag
to be placed on the switch is the supervising electricians tag, then operations
supervisors tag and then the maintenance tag should be on last.
The tags should be removed in the reversed order.
All storage tanks should be filled as much as possible, especially the water storage
tanks, fire water, drinking water, cooling water.
2. What are the major safety hazards associated with the operation?
3. Give an explanation, in your own words, why the vertical risers all
except one are closed off.
5. Using all electrical driven pumps, how long is the cooling water
system to be flushed?
Group discussion
The students will be divided into groups for brainstorming and will be asked to
describe what to do in different scenarios.
You are the team leader during the commissioning of a cooling water pump. You
have to assemble the team and to ask the planning department for technicians and
the contractor for labour.
Describe the how you would do this and who would be the personnel who you will
require to carry out the task..
What are some of the problems you and your organization experienced during the
various aspects of the commissioning and start up process.
Who should be included on a commissioning and plant start up team. E.g. what
skill and knowledge will be required?
Can anyone describe a situation that occurred when you where commissioning a
piece of machinery and a problem occurred and you could not progress the
commissioning until the problem was solved.
The plant is still during the commissioning stage and several units are running,
cooling water plant, power plant providing electricity, instrument air system water
treatment plant etc., suddenly there is a power failure and total black-out.
What steps do you take to bring the systems back on line.
In this lesson you will be asked to design and plan the start up and commissioning
process for one piece of machinery.
Students will each choose from the following list which piece of equipment they
would prefer to use for this example, or you can choose from your own experience.
2. A Centrifugal Pump
The students will describe the proper sequence of steps to be taken and the other
personnel that will be required to complete the task.
When the paper has been completed by each student, they will be circulated to
other students in the group for evaluation; the evaluation will cover if the proper
steps have been taken in the commissioning sequence.
This is a group activity whereby students will brainstorm with each other and the
Instructor on how to perform more efficient commissioning. It will help to bring
more awareness of the risks that can be encountered during the commissioning
process.
Proper manning
Points to discuss.
3. Foreman Ratios.
4. Others
1. Process Complexity
2. Plant Location
3. People Source
Then REVIEW....
I. Company Situation
2. Supervisory Capability
3. Schedule
4. Financial Impact
5. Outside Assistance
Now Develop....
1. Emergency Manning
2. Foreman Ratios
3. Attrition Planning
4. Union Effect
5. Planned Backup
6. Training Level
7. Available Experience
8. Temporary Assistance
9. Subcontracted Services
10. Other Unique Factors
2. Operational Team
3. Independent Source
4. Resolve Differences
2. Foreman Ratios
Overlooked manpower
1. Laboratory
2. Purchasing
3. Warehousing, Stores
4. Safety, Security
The right way to complete commissioning is to have plenty of experienced staff who have done it
all before, know what to do, know what can happen, know how to prevent it from happening and
get the job done properly.
All of the above will save the company money, time and lost production.
There are two different examples in Day 5 that will highlight the above.
Key Positions
Management Mouthpiece,
SUPERINTENDENT Planner, Organizer, Provider,
Engineer.
Overall Know-How
DAY OR AREA Indepth Experience,
SUPERVISOR Practical awareness
Forceful Diplomat
Operator Experience
LEVEL 3 Operator
Has three to five years of process plant experience
a) Prepare courses
b) Prepare detailed lesson plans
c) write training manuals and prepare handouts,
visual aids facilities, classrooms, etc.
d) Develop tests
8. Plan and direct on-the-job training during the latter part of mechanical
completion and commissioning
9. Organize vendor training programs at site and in vendor shops
2. Language training
8. Simulator training
16. Specialized courses such as fire fighting, safety, first aid. etc.
4. Loss of steam
8. Compressor trip
Section 5
Section 5
Associated gas is separated from crude petroleum and produced water at the point of production,
at the production platform further treatment is required to adjust the water and hydrocarbon dew-
points and (if necessary) remove H2S before the gas can meet the sales gas specification.
Gas drying is always carried out close to the point of production to prevent hydrate formation but
further treating may be carried out offshore, on-shore or a combination of both depending on
such factors as proximity of existing gas transport pipe-lines and the nature of the onshore
facilities to which they connect.
Natural gas is separated from condensate and produced water at the point of production and dried
before being piped to shore where further treating may be necessary to adjust the hydrocarbon
dew point and remove H2S.
Processing Plant
A variety of processing schemes are employed offshore depending on the gas quality and
quantity, the availability of crude oil and gas transfer pipe-line and the complexity of the related
processes. The following sketches outline briefly some of the various processes.
Notes:-
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( i ) Inputs (sensors on the platform which determine if specified limits have been violated).
(ii) Logic (to decide what to do if a limit has been crossed)
These three systems, when combined, form the major part of an ESD system, the following figure
below shows how inputs from plant sensors or from process control systems are transferred to a
device which, through specified logic, determines what actions are required. Outputs are then
sent to various plant items, driving them to a safe state.
Types of Shutdown
Emergency shutdown systems in the offshore industry are designed to provide the following
independently of the process control system:-
( i) Safe shutdown of the entire platform is referred to as a Total Platform Shutdown (TPS) or a
level 0 (zero) shutdown. A total shutdown is the highest level of shutdown that can take place
offshore. A TPS involves the following:-
Pages 15/16 describe two types of cause effect charts in use today, one is termed the “Fishbone
Chart Method” and the other a “Matrix Chart” both are effective.
If the equipments are not designed to meet these parameters effectively, equipment failure
and shut downs are imminent.
Planned shut down refers to the advanced planning process of shutting down a complete
process unit / equipments to achieve a desired task. The task may be to repair / replace the
damaged parts / sections / components of the equipment, whose performance during the operation
shows signs of deterioration. In some organizations, annual turn around policy may warrant that
the unit / units may be shut down over a stipulated period to improve the condition of the plant
and machinery , so that the unit runs without any interruption.
Here the question arises as to when to plan the shut down of the unit (s) once a year or
once in two years or once in three years etc. Shut down planning is based on the unit historical
data on failures / performance. Shut down plan again varies with the type of industry. In case of
units having parallel blocks, the shut down may be staggered as shown below.
Unit I
Down Stream Products
Unit
Unit II
Finished
Feed Product
Storage Intermediate
Storage Storage
Feed
Recycle
The figure shows two parallel primary units I & II of identical capacity whose products
are processed in a single down stream unit from where the finished products are routed to
finished product storage.
The facility comprises feed storage, intermediate storage and finished product storage
sections. This configuration has the advantage that the shut down of unit I or II will only
marginally affect production, whereas shutting down the downstream unit will affect the
production adversely. This effect may
be overcome by organizing the operation as follows.
Plan the shut down of unit I & downstream unit simultaneously and route product from II
to intermediate storage.
Commission Downstream unit and process feed from unit II plus intermediate storage
product.
Shut down unit II and commission unit I
Operate unit I and Downstream unit, with feed from intermediate storage.
Commission unit II after turn around and go normal.
Though emergency shut downs are not within the control of operations and maintenance
departments, it is possible to foresee and forecast a failure from the historical data and reliability
studies conducted on total plant. Using statistical and mathematical models, it is possible to
foresee the failure of an equipment from inspection records. A typical example of predicting the
anticipated failure of an equipment is given in the example. This is based on the thickness survey
of the equipment, which showed signs of deterioration right from the time of start-up.
Mandatory shut downs are compulsory shut downs the units must undertake for technical
reasons such as inspection of the equipment, pressure testing, safety checking etc due to safety
reasons.
Typical examples are High Pressure / Medium Pressure boilers, Delayed coking / thermal
cracking units, Nuclear Reactors etc. These units will be shut down as stipulated by safety
regulations and maintenance carried out as per the stipulated standards and inspected and
certified by the authorized agency, before next start up.
In the case of Delayed coking and thermal cracking, the unit will be shut down by 6 to 8 th
month of operation to de-coke all the equipment such as heater coils, fractionator sections,
reaction chambers etc. continuing the operation over and above the stipulated time is in violation
of safety practice. Hence these type of units are invariably installed with a parallel standby
stream.
In this case a number of down stream units such as Delayed Coker, Resid Catalytic cracker and
Aromatics recovery units are installed. In such complex processes, downstream units may be
designed to operate independently. In such cases, the annual shut down of the units are staggered
and the shut down schedule shall be such, that all the down stream units or some of them are on
stream, by proper isolation and back-up, so that the shut down does not affect the complete
production.
This is similar to the above case. Since various products are produced in different units,
the turn around planning should take care of what are the sections to be maintained and what are
the sequence of operation to be maintained, what are the equipments / sections to be isolated and
what impact it will have on the operability of other plants etc should be detailed out and executed
accordingly.
This is the most important turn around of the industry. When the utility is shut down for
maintenance, the process units will be on minimum load are no load as utilities like power, steam
and air will not be available and an alternate arrangement has to be made. In most cases, power
may be available from the national power grid. For other utilities, there should be an emergency
captive power boiler to supply minimum quantity of steam.
Emergency power may also be made available by EDGs ( Emergency Diesel Generator
sets) if installed. During utility plant turn around, the process plant load shall be minimum and all
out efforts shall be made to minimize steam, power and air intake. Energy intensive units may be
shut down simultaneously, with utility plant shut down and maintenance activities may be carried
out in both the plants simultaneously.
Normally boiler units operate in parallel. For example, if the steam demand is around 250
t/hr and the power demand is 18 mw, the boiler configuration shall be 4 nos of 100 t/hr each in
parallel operation. Steam turbine may be around 3 nos of 10 mw capacity each. The configuration
is such, that at any point of time 3 boilers and two turbines are always available. A typical
configuration is shown
HP Steam Generation
DSH
Section 6
9 Stages
Introduction
Critical characteristics
The Turnaround as a rational process
Logical level of business
Business influences
Turnaround business strategy
Turnaround objectives
A Model of excellence for Turnarounds
Introduction
Turnaround Hazard Profile
The Safe System of Work
Developing a Turnaround Safety Plan
The Hot Spot Inspection
Permit to Work Considerations
Safety Awareness and Briefings
Auditing Safety on Turnarounds
Conclusions
Introduction
The elements of quality
Integrated SHEOQ Management system
o ISO 9000
o EN ISO 14001: 2004-Environmental Management
o OHSAS 18001- Occupational health and safety
o TQM
o Management Audits
o Legislation and Regulation
Quality Assurance
Quality Control
Introduction
Second level planning
Effective work scope control
The planning process
The work pack
Scheduling
Pre – shutdown work
Shutdowns-Maintenance Types
Modern Shutdowns
Definitions used in a Shutdown
Planning the control of the event & Conclusion
Introduction
Optimising the contract model
Spread of contract types
The Turnaround contract
Being commercially aware
Contractor selection
Using contractors
Contracting issues
Conclusion
Introduction
Total business impact
Waste- the hidden cost
Cost reporting
The cost estimate
Volume and value
Modelling expenditure
Incentives
Conclusion
Introduction
Planning and logistics
The elements of logistics
The complexity of logistics
Marshalling bull work
The plot plan
Conclusion
Introduction
The stages of the turnaround
Delay – the silent gremlin
The power of routines
Mechanisms for control
Starting the plant up
Recording and reviewing performance
conclusions
Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Critical characteristics
1.3 The Turnaround as a rational process
1.4 Logical levels of business
1.5 Business influences
1.6 Turnaround business strategy
1.7 Turnaround Objectives
1.8 A Model of excellence for Turnarounds
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Around the world there are many tens of thousands of manufacturing, processing
and generating plants. All of these plants need to be maintained to one degree or
another.
In order to maintain some of the items of equipment in these plants the plant must
be shut down.
The maintenance event that takes place during the period of time that the plant is
shut down is variously called a Shutdown, Shut, Overhaul, Outage, Revamp etc.
For the purposes of this course the event will be referred to as a Turnaround
(probably derived from the American phrase “turning the plant around” – meaning
to overhaul plant equipment to the extent that returns the plant to a reliable state)
It is interesting to note that for such a highly complex, hazardous and, at times,
technically difficult undertaking that affects so many companies and engages so
many people at all levels of the company, there is currently (2004) such a dearth of
information, books or training courses on the subject of Turnarounds when
compared with the wealth of information available on general maintenance
subjects. Much of what does exist seems to be built around planning and
scheduling (important as these are) and tend to ignore the business approach to
Turnarounds.
When we consider the fact that a bad decision made by management at the
beginning of the Turnaround planning and preparation phase can adversely impact
everything that comes after it, this seems a strange omission.
The purpose of the course is to present a Model of Excellence for Turnarounds that
has been developed and refined over a 30 year period by many hundreds of people
working in different industries around the world.
Defining a Turnaround
We will start with a very basic definition of a Turnaround, i.e.
This is the briefest definition that captures the three types of general activity that
are performed:
The balance between these three activities will be determined by the company’s
current business decisions. At one end of the spectrum some Turnarounds are
purely reliability driven while at the other they are driven by demolition and
improvement projects, with just about every combination in between.
In order to bring out as many of the characteristics of Turnarounds as possible, this
module will deal primarily with large events. However, as will be seen later on in
the module, even for small events, consideration must be given to all of the
elements of the Model of Excellence that forms the central concept of the Module.
In some cases the result of the consideration will be to discard the elements as not
necessary for a particular Turnaround in a particular company. That is the function
of management. What is unacceptable is not to consider the elements at all and fail
through either ignorance or sloppy thinking.
We will now consider some of the business issues surrounding Turnarounds
3 In many other types of project the execution phase may be as long as, or
longer than, the planning phase. Turnarounds, especially large ones, take
many months to plan but are normally executed in a few weeks during which
a large number of people perform a large volume of work in a limited space
often under time pressure.
Due to the above factors (and others too numerous to mention here), a
Turnaround can appear very confusing to the untrained eye (See Figure 1.1).
The point being that the less effective the planning is the more need there will
be for on-site coordination and fire fighting on the day (with its need for high
volume and frequent communications – hence the radios). This is needed to
compensate for all of the details that were not properly planned. The author
once audited a Turnaround where there were more than 60 radios in operation!
If we are to extract an rational approach from all this complexity that will
assure, as far as is possible, excellent performance, we need to understand the
key relationships that influence the planning and execution of the Turnaround,
identify the critical elements that need to be managed and then integrate those
elements into a rational model.
The first step to understand the complexity of Turnarounds is to identify critical
characteristics that, above and beyond planning and managing the work, add to
the complexity of the event. The Turnaround manager and his team must deal
with issues including but not limited to the following (See Figure 1.2):
Unfamiliarity
This may involve such issues as: performing work or using work processes for
the first time or using people who have not worked on the plant before and
therefore are an unknown quantity. Also, those people will be unfamiliar with
the plant and its systems. The antidote to unfamiliarity is good training, briefing
and supervision.
Uncertainty
This has already been discussed – the fact that we are not certain that the work
we have planned will be the actual workscope on the day. Nor can we be certain
of the impact any emergent work will have on the day. The antidote to
uncertainty is contingency planning.
Complexity
The magnitude of complexity in a system is determined by the number of parts
in the system and (equally if not more important) the relationships between
those parts.
A turnaround involves many systems, processes, tasks, people, materials,
equipment, services and facilities. These “parts” and the relationships between
them need to be planned, organised and coordinated to enable a relative large
number of people to effectively perform a significant volume of work in a very
short period of time in a limited space, often working under time and financial
pressures and still produce safe, timely, cost-effective, high quality result. This
makes a Turnaround highly complex. The antidote to high complexity is
effective planning and preparation.
Impact on business
Turnarounds are expensive events and the money used to perform them comes
straight from the profit margin of the company. But more than this, we must
consider the profit lost when the plant is off line and not producing. In some
industries this loss of revenue can dwarf the cost of the event. The impact
increases if the event overruns on duration or overspends. The antidote to this is
effective financial management of the Turnaround and a high degree of
integration between technical and financial planning.
Financial pressure
Because of the above, business managers may put pressure on the Turnaround
Manager to minimise Turnaround costs. This is acceptable so long as it does not
lead to “cutting corners” on either work or quality. The antidote to financial
pressure is effective cost estimation, reporting and control and buy-in from the
senior management to the objectives of the Turnaround.
Time pressure
The requirement should always be to complete the Turnaround in the shortest
possible time commensurate with safety and good workmanship. It may be that
business managers want it even shorter than that. Again, this is acceptable so
long as it does not compromise safety or quality. The antidote to time pressure
is buy-in by the senior management to the objectives of the shutdown.
Multiple interfaces
Figure 3 demonstrates this in outline. The model of the process originally had only
4 phases. The 5th phase was added to incorporate the principle of continuous
improvement – and, paradoxically, transformed the business of Turnarounds (as
opposed to the single event) into a continuous process, so that individual
Turnarounds are seen as links in a chain that continues for many years rather than
as single events that that are separated by time.
production (larger frame) can maintain the quality and though put of its product,
allowing the business (largest frame) to maintain business effectiveness. This
indicates the impact that the Turnaround can have on business because if its outputs
are ineffective than all of the frames above it will be adversely affected.
On the other side of the coin, technical drivers and business issues can have an
impact on the Turnaround. Figure 1.5 shows this as it applies to the timing and
duration of the Turnaround. In this example the timing and duration is strongly
influenced by the sales cycle. Obviously, from a business point of view, the best
time to perform the event is when profit from sales is at its lowest and duration
needs to be minimised to prevent lost production. The dip in the sales cycle
generates a window of opportunity and the business can then decide on the optimal
start date for the event and the ideal length. If other circumstances or requirements
prevent the Turnaround being performed during this time then the business
managers must search for alternative windows of opportunity.
The above interactions between business and the Turnaround generate the need for
a business approach to Turnarounds, where the management makes rational and
comprehensive decisions about Turnarounds that will minimise their impact on
This generates a number of issues that are the business of, and can only be
processed by, the senior management. Figure 1.7 shows the main considerations.
Consider the improvement that has been made in many “plants” in the past thirty
years. One example is automobiles. If someone had suggested thirty years ago that
manufacturers should be able to give three or five year warranties with their cars
and only service them every 15000 to20000 miles they would have been branded as
fools. And yet is has come to pass through improvements in materials, design and
manufacturing processes.
Granted, the above case has not totally eliminated the need for “servicing” but it
has gone a long way towards it. Similarly, many companies that used to shut their
plant down every year to overhaul the equipment have increased that cycle
(through similar means to the automobile industry) to once every two or three years
– and some even longer than that. Our success at eliminating Turnarounds is
limited only by our belief in the possibility of doing so.
Next the company needs to align the Turnarounds with their business strategy,
giving it the same consideration as other business elements (production, sales etc)
so that they compliment each other rather than conflicting – or at least minimising
the magnitude of the conflict.
A broad business view is required that considers the issues that drive us to perform
Turnarounds (legislation, plant performance etc) and those elements that constrain
us when we do them (QQTMS) so that they are balanced in such a way as to
resolve conflicts between them so as to optimise safety, cost effectiveness, duration
and quality of workmanship.
In addition, those companies that are most effective take a long term view, seeing
succeeding Turnarounds as links in a chain where each successive link can be
improved to make it better than the preceding one by feeding forward lessons
learned on each event to the next one. Otherwise the company is at risk of suffering
the effects of corporate amnesia (especially where the gap between events is 3
years or more) because it “forgets” how it did the last event. This segues neatly into
Lenahan’s “law of repeatability” which states that events that are repeated should
get less expensive each time they are done. This is significant because the author
has polled a large number of companies and asked them the question “how much of
the work you do in one Turnaround is merely a repeat of work that you did in
previous Turnarounds. The answer lies in a band between 65 and 90%!
Finally, there is a need for the management to understand the total business impact
of shutdowns – which balances all of the various losses and expenditures against
each other.
Consider the case of a company that did not understand the principle of total
business impact and which kept the lost profit sustained due to loss of production
strictly segregated from the actual cost of the Turnaround. The Turnaround
Manager approached his manager to request an increase of £35K in the
Turnaround budget (of £1.2M) to allow for extra resources and equipment hire.
The potential payback would be a reduction of 2 days in the duration of the
Turnaround. The offer was refused as the manager’s remit was to minimise the
direct cost of the Turnaround. What was missed because of the
compartmentalisation of costs was the fact that two days production was worth
£160K. A return of approximately 360% on the £35K investment. Is that good
business?
Figure 1.8 goes a little deeper into the subject by showing the next level of detailed
management consideration of the business level.
This level concerns the issues that the Turnaround manager and his team need to
consider (See Figure 1.9). First, Turnarounds are costly events and require tight
control to minimise the impact on company profits. Next, the complexity of the
event caused by the many elements that have to be integrated added to the fact that
as an engineering event it will require planning and preparation, including safety
planning and systems because it is also a hazardous event. Reliability needs to be
taken into account because that is the whole purpose of the Turnaround. Finally it
needs to be recognised that, in many industries there are mandatory legal
requirements imposed on maintenance and these must be fulfilled.
Figure 1.10 shows more detailed considerations and these will be discussed at
length during the remainder of this module.
and the senior management abrogate their business responsibilities and devolve
them upon the Turnaround Manager – only seeming to take an interest if the event
overruns, overspends or is blighted by accident or incident. In the worst cases their
interest seems to be directed towards fixing the blame on some hapless manager;
blame that rightfully belongs with themselves.
Turnarounds. This may seem straightforward but often when there are a number of
objectives they may clash so that meeting one can often result in failing to meet
another. Principle among the conflicts between Turnaround objectives are the
following:
Safety Vs productivity
One category of underlying causes of accidents is entitled “inappropriate
motivation” and what it means, quite simply, is putting productivity before safety.
Whether this is generated by the management or by the workers themselves
Reliability Vs Workscope
In a situation where there is a lot of pressure to minimise the amount of work done
in the Turnaround it is possible to convince oneself that a particular task is not
really necessary, only to find when the plant comes back on line that the direct
result of the task not being done is a reduction in plant reliability.
Workscope Vs Cost
This is an example of “money for work Vs work for money” in action.
Cost Vs Duration
See again the case study in section 1.5.
Duration Vs Quality
If unreasonable pressure is put on people to “hurry up and get the job finished” in
order to minimise duration, there is a risk that they will cut corners to speed the job
up and, in consequence, not complete the work properly.
A case in point is of a fitter who was being pressurised by his supervisor (who was
in turn being pressurised by his manager) to hand over a heat exchanger to
production after the bundle had been pulled, inspected and replaced. The fitter
informed the supervisor at the end of his dayshift that the end cover was back on
(this normally signified the completion of the job). Later that night the production
team pressured up the cooling system and the heat exchanger leaked atrociously.
The plant was taken off line again (causing a delay of 12 hours). When the studs
were inspected it was found that the nuts were only finger tight. The following day
when the supervisor took the fitter to task over this the fitted replied “I only told
you that the end cover was back on – I didn’t say the nuts had been torqued up”. In
his haste to get the job done, the supervisor hadn’t made the proper checks and the
consequence of his action was to extend the Turnaround by 12 hours – the exact
opposite of what he was actually trying to accomplish!
There are thirteen crucial elements to the basic model and each has a guiding
principle to focus everyone on the critical requirements of the Turnaround. They
are
This is concerned with the people who will plan, prepare and execute the
Turnaround and is based on two fundamental tenets, 1) that the organisation be
designed to suit the requirements of the job – rather than patched together from
available people, and 2) that all of the disparate organisations involved are
integrated (so far as is possible for an ad hoc team) into “One Team” so that
everyone has common objective.
10. Communication Strategy Say what you mean what you say
Effective communication is absolutely crucial to the success of the Turnaround. We
promote good communications by establishing a strategy that allows us to specify
what information is required, who will receive it, by what means and when it will
be transmitted.
Closely allied to audits is the review stage of the turnaround where we collect,
collate and analyse the comments of those who were involved in the event. When
we understand what went well and what didn’t, and the root causes for inadequate
performance we can the record our findings and use them as the basis for an
improvement program that will be fed forward into future turnarounds, ensuring
that we improve continuously.
Figure 1.13 shows how these elements are integrated into a single model and
identifies a specific objective for each. Note that the continuous improvement
principle is incorporated into the model.
Figure 1.14 represents the Model in more Detail. The remainder of this Module will
be dedicated to the workings of the Model of excellence.
1
Managing Commissioning- Start-Up- Shutdown
Conclusion
This section analysed some of the critical characteristic Of Turnarounds and
reviewed business strategy and the business issues that influence it. We than
explored the relationship between senior management and the Turnaround
Manager and his team. Finally the section laid the foundation for the
remainder of the module by introducing in outline the Model of Excellence
for Turnarounds.
2.1
INTRODUCTION
In Most countries, industrial companies must to conform to safety
legislation. In the UK for instance, legislation is imposed by the “Health and
Safety at Work Act” that obliges the management of companies to take all
reasonable and practicable steps to ensure the health and safety of their
employees, and the “Environmental Protection Act” that obliges them to
take all reasonable and practicable steps to protect the environment.
Many companies have very well developed safety plans that cover all known
eventualities during normal production. It is not within the scope of this
module to discuss the company’s normal safety systems.
Purpose
The purpose of the module is to consider the differences between
Turnarounds and normal production that change the hazard profile of the
plant and generate the requirement for additional (and in some cases
different) safety measures and then to discuss the approach required to
match the increased hazard profile.
Contrasting Hazards
If we first consider the hazard profile of a plant during normal production
(See Figure 2.1) we find that the plant is doing what it was designed to do -
making money (or should be!) because it is operating in a steady state
condition where one day’s operation is much like the next. The working
routines for operating and maintaining the plant are well defined and
familiar to the production/ maintenance team because they are normally
experienced in handling the plant and have a wealth of local knowledge not
only about the operating behaviour of the plant but the known existing
hazards on the plant. The normal safety system should be adequate to cover
this situation.
Contrast this with the situation that pertains during a Turnaround, firstly, the
plant is not doing what it was designed to do - it is losing money because all
or part of the plant is shut down and has been taken apart. This introduces
hazards of a kind not normally experienced during normal production
(moving plant and cranes, confined space entries, huge increase in the
number of people working on the plan etc). In place of the steady state there
is a constantly changing hazard profile – the hazards present during the plant
shutdown differ from those during the performance of the scheduled work
and differ again from the hazards during start up (and of course there are the
unexpected changes generated by emergent work).
If the answer to that question is NO, and except for very small events or very
simple plants it is almost certain to be no, it then follows that something
needs to be done to compensate for this lack or we risk putting health, safety
In order to deal with the hazards generated by the Turnaround we first must
understand the parameters of the situation that causes them. There are a
number of issues that generate hazard, some of which may be outside of
normal awareness and only come to be known though bitter experience.
Figure 2.2 shows the main issues. There are many more but we have limited
space and will concentrate on the main issues.
Volume of Work
A turnaround normally involves a large number of different types of tasks
performed in a limited working area. Another layer of hazard is added by the
fact that, although each of the tasks may have been risk assessed
individually, the interactions between them may not have been. When time
pressure is added to this it only serves to increase potential hazard.
Large Workforce
During a Turnaround many different disciplines are used (inspectors,
radiographers, fitters, electricians, instrument technicians, civil workers,
welders, plumbers, riggers, scaffolders, laggers, water washers, cleaners
and many specialists) all of whose work carries its own individual potential
hazards as well as hazard that may be generated by interactions with other
disciplines and which must be interlocked into a single schedule.
The people involved may be supplied by a number (sometimes a large
number) of different organisations – all with their own individual objectives
that may conflict with each other’s and the client’s objectives
Unfamiliarity
Proximity working
When people doing one task are working in the same are as other people
doing another task; or when one team of workers is working above another
team of workers, there is an increased potential hazard, even if the
interactive hazard has been risk assessed. This is because people are not
Environmental issues
This refers to the immediate working environment. This may be produced by
the weather (wind, rain, snow, low or high air temperatures) or generated by
the work that is being done (pollution from product emissions, noise from
engineering equipment or dust produced from disassembling equipment).
Whatever the source, it all adds to the hazard.
Business pressures
This is a more subtle issue and can be generated by pushing the work-crews
unreasonably due to time or financial pressures. If the management has
unrealistic expectation on costs or duration this can exert pressure on those
doing the job and this can increase hazard.
Emergent work
If work emerges during the event that was not planned it can often cause a
change of intent.
For example the relatively simple task of inspecting the welds inside of a
vessel is complicated if cracks are found. Now the relatively simple job
becomes complex and the hazards change: the cracks have to be ground out
(sparks and noise) repair welded (naked flame and fumes) and then
radiographed (risk of radiation), all in a confined space. A new risk
assessment must be carried out and new permits to work issued. If the task
happens to be on the critical path so that a delay will extend the duration of
the Turnaround, people tend to go into “fire fighting” mode which is
notorious for increasing the hazard.
In order to combat the above layers of hazard we need to have a system for
working that ensures, as far as is humanly possible, the health and well
being of the people who actually do the work on the Turnaround. This is,
and can only be, achieved by managing safety. Management are in control of
the Turnaround and are therefore responsible for the safety performance.
Good management requires a system.
The concept of the “Safe System of Work” was designed to envelop the
worker in a notional “safety bubble” by a process very similar to Quality
Assurance by asking the question required by the Law of requisite variety:
Safe workplace
Ensuring the there is adequate and safe access to the work place and, should
it be necessary, safe egress. This is of special importance when people are
Safe Task
The object of planning should be not only to find the most cost effective and
technically feasible method for performing a task but also the safest method.
In fact, safety should override other considerations. If the job cannot be
made safe then it should not be done! This applies to the interactions
between jobs as well as the individual jobs themselves. This may require a
number of ancillary plans such as Lifting Plans (for heavy or awkward
loads) individual safety plan (for extremely hazardous tasks) and rescue
plans (especially for confined space entries). The worker should not be put at
risk by the task he is performing.
Safe worker
As to the workers themselves, they need first and foremost to be competent
at their job because incompetent workers can injure themselves and others
simply by doing the job in the wrong way. They must also have “safety
awareness” that comes only through safety education and briefing backed up
by experience on the job. Workers who have not worked on a Turnaround
before should be heavily supervised to ensure that they are aware of their
situation and are complying with the safety rules. Finally, it is incumbent
upon companies to ensure that the workers (including contract workers) are
provided with serviceable tools to perform the work, Worn, damaged or
badly calibrated tools and instruments are intrinsically dangerous.
At the other end of the scale there are client companies who do not feel it is
necessary to write a specific safety plan for a Turnaround. They seem to be
ignorant of the adage “failing to plan is planning to fail”. Imagine the
reaction if you made the statement –“we plan the work, we plan the costs,
we plan the logistics but we don’t plan safety!
In detail, the plan deals with every aspect of safety on the turnaround. Figure
2.4 lists some of these but the exact list of issues covered by any safety plan
would depend upon the hazard profile of a particular Turnaround.
Some of the issues covered by the safety plan will be generated by the
condition of the plant itself. In order to ascertain the condition of the plant a
“Hot Spot” inspection is carried out. What we are looking for is any
evidence of hazard.
The inspection takes place prior to the Turnaround and audits the plant
condition; visually inspecting the plant and looking for the types of fault or
condition detailed in Figure 2.5.
The permit system needs to deal with two basic types of hazard; those that
are pre-existing on the plant and those that are induced by the nature of the
work that is to be carried out. In addition Figure 2.6 indicates 14 separate
issues associated with the issue of permits on a major Turnaround.
Underlying all of these is the sheer impact on the Permit issuers, especially
on day one of the Turnaround when many more Permits are required than is
normal.
Remember, we are not seeking here to design a permit system for normal
operations. That has already been done. What we are doing is to test the
existing system to find out if it is adequate for a Turnaround, because if we
do not, and it is not, then we are guilty of breaking the first rule of permit
systems; that they should be based on risk assessment. The permit system
obliges us to risk assess the job to be done; the requirements of Turnaround
management oblige us to risk assess the permit system itself to ensure that it
is adequate.
There is one issue worthy of more explanation; the phrase “Block out”.
Before the Turnaround starts, the level of safety awareness among the
people who will perform the work is largely unknown to the Turnaround
manager. It cannot be taken for granted or assumed that the level is
adequate, therefore everyone involved in the Turnaround needs to be briefed
on the general site safety rules and the specific safety requirements of the
event.
The briefing should ideally be done immediately before the start of the
Turnaround. Some companies actually use the morning of the first day of the
Turnaround to perform the briefings, while some large contractors carry out
their own briefings prior to bringing their work crews on site.
the more aware people are of what is going on around them, the safer they
will be.
This is carried out daily by key personnel and makes a “horizontal” scan of
the total plant (or a significant portion of it), looking for unsafe acts, unsafe
conditions and the standard of housekeeping.
Figure 2.9 shows this in graphic form and page 135 of the Textbook
provides a detailed procedure for both types of inspection.
2.9 CONCLUSION
To see how one company improved its safety performance (and profitability)
by using a Turnaround Safety Plan, go to:
http://www.insulation.org/articles/article.cfm?id=IO010302
Contents
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The elements of quality
3.3 Quality Assurance
3.3.1 Quality assurance for Turnarounds
3.3.2 Typical Turnaround quality assurance issues
3.4 Quality control
3.4.1 Quality control for Turnarounds
3.4.2 Typical Turnaround quality control issues
3.1 INTRODUCTION
A with safety, most companies have their own approaches to quality. This
short section will deal with quality only as it pertains to the effective
planning and execution of Turnarounds. Also, the elements of quality will be
defined in a specific way to differentiate them and make them more
approachable.
A lot has been written over the last thirty years about Quality. It has been
analysed and presented from many different viewpoints. Take these three
ideas of quality from three different perspectives
This implies that the people providing the “inputs” to a system or process
need first to know what is required of them via roles and responsibilities,
standards and procedures etc. imposed by someone – normally management,
and then act in such a way as to conform to them.
This means that the product (or “output” of our system), should be capable
of performing to the specification set for it. E.g. if a pump is rated to work
continuously for 15000 hours at a certain flow and it does so then it can be
considered to be a quality product. It is no great stretch to translate this into
“conformance to requirements.”
This is a more subtle but also much more powerful definition and describes
the real basis of a true quality approach. For example, in a) above, we would
conform because we were “required” to by some external influence (the
management?), whereas in this example we would conform to requirements
because of an internal drive – to meet the values (requirements?) we set for
ourselves. This attitude has been referred to as “Quality People”
Many companies have found to their cost that having a quality system and
procedures without the buy-in of their employees can generate a futile and
costly exercise in bureaucracy.
Regarding the three examples above, at first glance they may seem pretty
diverse but they are, in fact, inextricably linked.
For example, if our Turnaround is to be “fit for purpose” (by achieving its
QQTMS objectives) then those people who plan and execute the event need
to understand the Turnaround requirements and conform to them, and the
people most likely to conform effectively are those who have the internal
drive to do so.
Quality Assurance is where the majority of value lies. The effort expended
before the event to eliminate faults will be repaid many times over during
the event and, as part of the pay-back, will render QC simpler and easier to
perform.
To apply them to Turnarounds (See Figure 3.2) we need only fill in the
requirements for the event and then check each of them to “assure”
ourselves that they are “fit for purpose” because their fitness will determine
the output of the Turnaround process (GIGO rule applies). Figure 3.2 shows
only a sample of the many issues that need to be covered by the QA system
to ensure quality.
Figure 3.3 shows a sample of the many activities required during the
planning and preparation of a Turnaround to assure that all QA aspects have
been organised to eliminate faults from inputs.
Material Traceability
Some Material (using it in 1ts general sense to include raw materials,
proprietary items and consumables), because of its critical nature, may
Calibration Traceability
If tools and instruments that require to be calibrated are used then we must
a) ensure that they are correctly calibrated, b) ensure that the equipment used
to calibrate them has been calibrated and c) ensure that such calibration is
traceable back to a national standard. Otherwise we cannot guarantee that
the setting for the tool or instrument is correct.
Case in point – the author once audited a company who were using pressure
gauges on their high pressure testing of vessels and pipe-work on a
Turnaround. They were asked how they guaranteed that the gauges were
correct. They stated that they “tested” their gauges by connecting them to a
“pressure tester” in groups of three. If all three gauges read the same
pressure then all three were used. If one read a different pressure from the
other two then it was discarded and the other two were used. It does not
take much analysis to discover the flaw in this logic!
Accuracy of documents
On large aging plants that have undergone a number of “reorganisations”,
undergone many “modifications with out the drawings and documents being
amended, and updated their CMMS facilities a number of times and “lost”
data in the process. This issue can assume nightmarish proportions. The
drawings and documents are the specifications of our plant. If they are
wrong they are the garbage in GIGO. They must be carefully checked to
ensure that either they are up to date or there is some responsible person on
the plant who will vouch for their accuracy – in writing.
Weld Quality
Welders are almost unique among tradesmen in that they have to constantly
“prove” their competence by passing welder qualification tests on a regular
basis and, in some cases, before every project. We must ensure that the
qualification teats are adequate. It is also important that the weld procedures,
which describe how the weld is to be done, are adequate and that the
inspection techniques set to check the weld against the standard is the
correct type.
This means that if the item being tested fails the pressure test and breaches
(causing damage to the item); the outcome for hydraulic testing would be a
leak whereas the outcome for pneumatic testing would likely be an
explosion. This is why pneumatic pressure testing is so rarely used.
Due to the hazardous nature of pressure testing we must ensure that the
equipment we use is serviceable and that the standards and procedures we
use are written and approved.
Task control
The actual tasks that we carry out on the Turnaround must also be subject to
QA because the information contained in them is the primary input into the
Turnaround process. We must ensure that the job specifications are validated
before planning starts, the work packages are validated on completion of
planning, and the schedule (which will be used to control the progress of the
event) is validated before we commence work.
Design verification
Where projects to improve plant performance are included in the
Turnaround worklist, they normally constitute a modification to the plant.
We must therefore ensure that they are e approved under a safe modification
system and are technically feasible (at least the installation phase.
Quality plans
The difference between a normal job method and a quality plan is that the
latter is written for technically critical jobs and incorporates “hold points”
where inspection must be carried out before the job is allowed to proceed to
the next activity. At each hold point the level of inspection needs to be
specified (client inspection or independent inspector etc).
This list is not exhaustive and many industries have their own unique QA
requirements. Each should be treated with the same care and attention to
“assure” the inputs into the Turnaround process.
The overriding issue regarding the need for quality control on Turnarounds
is that there is so much of it going on at the same time (pressure testing,
radiography, MPI. Visual inspections, physical measurement, leak testing,
etc). It all has to be organised and executed in the same planned manner as
the scheduled work.
Figure 3.5 shows some of the QC actions that need to be performed during
the event to expose and rectify any faults that have occurred during the
execution of the work, i.e.
Pressure testing
To ensure the structural integrity of vessels and pipe-work
Weld inspection
A number of different techniques to ensure that the any faults in a weld are
within and acceptable pre-determined standard
Alignment checks
On rotating machines, to ensure that, for example, the rotors have been
installed correctly within predetermined limits. The traditional method of
“shims and feeler gauges” has, in many cases been replaced by Laser
Alignment.
Joint Inspection
Especially in the process industry where there may be thousands of joints
broken and re-made during a shutdown. Some of these with be critical e.g.
on pipe-lines carrying flammable or toxic materials, and require extra layers
of inspection to ensure they do not leak.
Configuration check
To ensure that an item has been installed the correct way round. It may seem
hardly credible that an item could be installed the wrong way round but there
have been occasions, known to the author when pumps have been installed
that were pumping against the flow of product!
In the calibration example above, what would you do if the end of shift
check on the torque wrench that had tightened up over 60 fastenings showed
that it was out of calibration?
ISO 9000 provides definitions of key terms. ISO 9001 provides a set of minimum
requirements for a quality management system, and is intended to demonstrate
compliance with recognised quality principles to customers and third party
certification.
National Forward
This British standard is the official English language version of EN ISO 14001: 2004.It is
identical with ISO 14001:2004. It supersedes BS EN ISO 14001: 1996 which is now
obsolescent.
1. Scope
2. Normative reference
3. Terms and definitions
4. Environmental management system requirements
4.1 General requirements
4.2 Environmental policy
4.3 Planning
4.4 Implementation and operation
4.5 Checking
4.6 Management review
A: Site History
1. Previous known site activities (and dates/periods)?
2. Are you aware of any site EMS practised by the previous owners?
3. Are there any records of previous environmentally – specific complaints?
4. Are there any recorded incidents (spills, etc) whether reported or not?
5. Has the site ever been used for landfill? What was deposited?
6. Where was this disposed of?
7. Are there any records of materials used on-site by previous operators such as:
- Heavy metals
- Asbestos
- PCB
- Heavy oils?
1. What are the regulatory regimes the site is subject to? (UK- is the site subject to Local
Authority Air Pollution Control (LAPC)
2. Have any conditions been set for these authorizations?
3. Are the conditions monitored?
4. What planning consents apply to the site? Who keeps these?
5. Are there any restrictions applying to
- Processes that can be operated?
- Visual Aspects? Waste Management? Site drainage? Air emissions?
24. Cleaning
1. General
2. Plant
3. Dust , Odour
4. Water
5. Waste Management
6. Storage etc
7. Tanks
8. Drums and other stocks of liquids
9. Use of specialists chemicals
10. Geology- underlying Water and contamination
1. Contamination
- What contamination was found?
- Where was this?
- How much?
2. Remediation
- By whom?
- Where on-site?
The Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series ( OHSAS) guideline provides
generic advice on the application of OHSAS 18001.
OHSAS 18001
1. Scope
This Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series ( OHSAS ) specification gives
requirement for an occupational health and safety ( OH&S ) management system, to
enable an organization to control its own OH&S risks and improve its performance. It
does not state specific OH&S performance criteria, nor does it give detailed
specifications for the design of a management system.
This OHSAS specification is applicable to any organization that wishes to:
a) Establish an OH&S management system to eliminate or minimise risk to employees
and other interested parties who may be exposed to OH&S risks associated with its
activities.
b) Implement, maintain and continually improve an OH&S management system.
c) Assure itself of its conformance with its stated OH&S policy.
d) Demonstrate such conformance to others.
e) Seek certificate/registration of its OH&S management system by an external
organisation; or
f) Make a self-determination and declaration of conformance with this OHSAS
specification.
This OHSAS specification is intended to address occupational healt and safety
rather than product and services safety.
OHSAS 18001:
2. Reference publication.
OHSAS 18001- 1999 Occupational health and safety management system
BS 8800: 1996, Guide to OHSAS
ISO 19011: 2002, Guidelines for quality and/or environmental management systems
auditing.
3.1 Accident
3.2 Audit
3.3 Continual improvement
3.4 Hazard
3.5 Hazard identification
3.6 Incident
3.7 Interested parties
3.8 Non-conformance
3.9 Objectives
3.10 Occupational health and safety
3.11 OH&S management system
3.12 Organisation
3.13 Performance
3.14 Risk
3.15 Risk assessment
3.16 Safety
3.17 Tolerable risk
1. Continual Improvement
2. OH&S policy
3. Planning
6. Management review
b) Intent
c) Typical Input
d) Typical output
Management Review
Planning
There shall be an occupational health and safety policy authorized by the organization’s
top management, that clearly states overall health and safety objectives and a
commitment to improving health and safety performance. The policy shall:
Regulatory Structure
Controls Requirements
National government
Department
The 2000 standard uses the process approach. While auditors perform similar functions,
they are expected to go beyond mere auditing for route “compliance” by focusing on risk,
status and importance. This means they are expected to make more judgements on what
is effective, rather than merely adhering to what is formally prescribed. The difference
from the previous standard can be explained thus:
Under the 1994 version, the question was broadly “ Are you what the manual
says you should be doing?”, whereas under the 2000 version, the question is
more “will this process help you achieve your stated objectives ? Is it a good
process or is there a better way?”
The ISO 19011 standard for auditing applies to ISO 9001 besides other
management systems like EMS ( ISO 14001) etc.
3.6 CONCLUSION
Turnarounds require many QA and QC activities to be carried out to ensure
that first, as many as possible faults are eliminated prior to the event and
then such faults as do occur are exposed and rectified. Only the twin
application of QA and QC is adequate to meet Turnaround requirements
Contents
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Of all the elements involved in a Turnaround, the most complex is people.
The purpose of this section is to look at the critical activities required to
ensure, as far as is humanly possible, that the teams put together to plan and
execute the Turnaround will be effective.
The first consideration is that the Turnaround organisations are Ad Hoc. This
means that they are designed for one purpose; to plan and then to executes
the Turnaround, after which the people who comprise the Organisation
return to their day jobs and it may be a number of years, if ever, that they are
called upon to work on another Turnaround.
The second is that, because most companies do not carry sufficient full time
employees with the necessary skills to tackle a Turnaround there is the
almost universal need to engage contract companies to perform some or all
of the required work (the subject of contractors is more fully explored in
Section 6 of this module).
Two results are generated by this approach. The first is that we have the
strongest organisation possible given the people available and the second is
that, even if there are shortcomings in the organisation, we know what they
are and can do something to compensate for them. This process will be
discussed in greater detail in the remainder of this section.
Previous Experience
Do we learn from our previous experience or not? How well have
turnaround organisations performed in the past. If they were not very
successful but we intend to use the same formula, what are our chances of
success this time?
Corporate insanity has been defined as “doing the same thing you have
always done but expecting different results!”
This desire often affects a company’s ability to deal with contractors. They
want the contractor to do exactly what they are told but do not want to give
them any measure of autonomy to accomplish it. The company needs to
control its destiny and does not trust the contractor to act on its best behalf.
Present Capability
People do not stay in the same jobs for ever. Some are promoted, some leave
the company and some are made redundant. If the gap between two
Turnarounds is three years or more then it is possible, in the extreme case,
that none of the key people involved in the previous Turnaround are
available for the next one
This is what makes the Turnaround organisation truly Ad Hoc. The need to
create a brand new team each time we do the Turnaround.
Event characteristics
The type of Turnaround will determine the type of people we need to form
the Organisation. If it is a maintenance and refurbishment task then it will be
heavily populated by maintenance personnel. If, on the other hand there are
a large number of improvement projects then a higher level of project and
technical engineering may be required
Contractor Capability
In an age of the “lean and mean” company and in the face of falling skill
levels as older tradesmen retire and there are fewer younger men to take
their place, there is more and more dependency on contract companies. The
issue for the clients is that, in many cases, not only do they not know the
capability of the contractors before the event but the only way they will
discover it is by putting them to work.
The whole idea behind client’s forming partnerships and alliances with
contractors is to try to get to know them and guarantee their capability over a
long period of time.
Environmental Influences
As with all systems, the environment will influence the Turnaround
organisation. The last paragraph dealt with the necessity to use contractors –
but what if even contractors are not available? For instance, if you are a
medium sized company planning a 2 week Turnaround and there is a much
larger company in the area who will be shutting down at the same time as
you but for 6 weeks – who is going to attract the men?
Larger Frames
Within the company there may be business strategies being worked out that
we are unaware of that will influence the design of our Turnaround
organisation. Many companies have reduced the number of contractors they
deal with to an “approved contractor” list – usually large contract
companies. This may be financially rewarding for the company as a whole
but poses a problem for the Turnaround manager who is denied the use of
small local contractors who know his plant well and have always given him
good service.
An even larger frame is the long term policy of the company, that may
dictate that all turnarounds (and in some cases, all maintenance) shall be
outsourced because it is economically advantageous to do so and will also
simplify the company’s accounting systems – no more need to deal with
pensions, sickness or the welfare of staff.
In this case, some companies retain the role of Turnaround manager but his
role is drastically transformed from “work manager” to “contracts manager”.
Fig 4.2
Fig 4.4
The “Preparation” team that plans and prepares the event is responsible for
acquiring data from many sources and processing that data to form plans and
schedules that will enable others to execute the work during the event.
Fig 4.5
The diagram shows the large number of information pathways and the type
of communications that were expected along each one, whether it be
inputting data, provision of packaged work etc.
For practical purposes the diagram was then refined and reduced to the main
communication elements and key players. This is shown in Figure 4.6.
Each of the roles is defined in outline and a set of requirements is defined to
ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities during the
preparation phase.
Fig 4.6
Without this level of understanding, people get confused about what they are
supposed to be doing, many items of data are overlooked or are never
generated in the first place and the planning of the event suffers as a result.
This may seem a very obvious statement to make but the plain fact is that a
large majority of companies the author has worked with have not been in
possession of roles and responsibilities for Turnarounds
Fig 4.7
Irrespective of how large the organization is or how many levels there are in
the hierarchy, two requirements are immutable, first, everyone needs to
know what they are supposed to be doing and second the links between the
levels must be known and used to allow the flow of information between
levels to be effective.
Figure 4.7 shows the basic responsibilities in bullet form. The following
paragraph is an actual example of a more extended form of the Turnaround
manager’s role.
Fig 4.8
Having defined the roles and responsibilities we must then ask the two part
question:
“Who is available to fill this role and are they competent to do so”
The answer to that question will depend on how well the company knows
the individual.
At one end of the spectrum there could be a supervisor who has worked for
the company for fifteen years, has worked on seven Turnarounds and has
Before we answer that question let us first define competence. Figure 4.9
represents the Lenahan competence model and shows the five requirements
to promote competence. Here we are concerned with the one of the human
factors. Important as attitude may be, we are concerned here with aptitude –
the physical and mental ability to perform a specific task.
Fig 4.9
If we are selecting from among our own staff then we need first of all to
differentiate between the skills that we require and the skills that the
individual possesses. Figure 4.10 shows the principle of gap analysis with
respect to competence. If we can first define the specific skills we need for a
particular role in the Turnaround organization and then overlay on that the
actual skills that an individual possess than we can determine if there is a
“skills gap” between what we need and what we have got.
Fig 4.10
In the question of competence there is also the question of “who does what”.
If you take the traditional definition of a job, say mechanical fitter you will
find that the “job” is made up of, and defined by, a number of individual
skills (See Figure 4.11).
Fig 4.11
Having broken the “job” into its component skills it is then possible to set up
a matrix with the skills recorded horizontally and the individuals performing
that job recorded vertically as in Figure 4.12. That shows the basket of skills
required for a turnaround planner in one particular company.
Fig 4.12
Once the matrix has been set up each individual can be rated either by peer
review, by the supervisors or managers they work for, or both. Once the
This allows a number of things. First it allows supervisors to use “horses for
courses” so that the most suitable individual is used for a specific task.
Second, it indicates how many of the individuals need what kind of training
to improve their performance. Third, it shows us which individuals are best
at what skills (giving us the opportunity to download the skills and
knowledge from them and pass it onto others) and lastly, it provides a
grading sheet on which we can record improvements at any skill for any
individual so that as they improve their score increases.
If the person who is charged with managing or supervising the work crews
has this information it will improve the chances of assuring competence on
the Turnaround.
Contract personnel
When it comes to using contract personnel the task is not so straightforward
but there are means whereby we can improve the chances of acquiring
competent personnel from contract companies.
The Turnaround Manager negotiates with Contract companies to procure
named individuals and/ or ensure the competence of contractor personnel by
any of the following means:
Fig 4.13
Figure 4.14 defines some of the issues that differentiates the Turnaround
Organisation from, say, a production team where the team is built up over a
number of years and the individuals in it are trained and developed to form a
competent team that uses familiar procedures to perform work that is by and
large the same one day as it is the next.
Fig 4.14
deficiencies are known there may be little opportunity to send them for the
necessary training to enhance their skills.
The Turnaround manager, in many cases, has to work with the people he is
give and it is the test of his/ her competence to form them into a successful
organisation.
4.8 CONCLUSION
This section has discussed the importance of the teams of people who are
charged with planning and executing the Turnaround, the role that hierarchy
plays in providing the structure and critical links in the organisation and the
crucial requirements for competent people who have been briefed on their
roles and responsibilities. Bearing in mind the resulting complexity it is only
rational to assert that the Turnaround Organisation needs to be carefully
designed if it is to contribute to excellent performance.
Contents
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Second level planning
5.3 Effective workscope control
5.4 The planning process
5.5 The work pack
5.6 Scheduling
5.7 Pre- shutdown work
5.8 Shutdowns- Maintenance Types
5.9 Modern Shutdown Procedures
5.10 Definitions used in a Shutdown
5.11 Planning the Control of the event & Conclusions
5.1 INTRODUCTION
A Turnaround is a complex technical and logistical event. As such it requires
planning and scheduling of the highest order. Exactly because many of the
tasks in the event will be performed simultaneously (as opposed to day-to-
day maintenance when they are performed individually), and often in the
same area, we not only have to plan the individual jobs and integrate them
into a time based schedule, we have also to plan the interactions between
tasks.
In systems terms, the individual tasks are the elements of the Turnaround
and the interactions are the relationships between them. Both need to be
accurately planned if the event is to be successfully executed.
The purpose of this section will be to look at the process of planning, from
the collection and collation of basic data through the creation of work packs
for individual jobs, to the generation of a time based schedule for the
Turnaround.
The answer to this question will determine how we approach the process of
planning. Some companies think it is not. In fact they believe it is so simple
that they do not even produce written plans but simply rely on the past
experience and the intelligence of their people to get them through the event.
Their performance is usually characterised by overrun and overspend (that is
if they have set any kind of duration or cost targets to measure against –
often they don’t)
are to be carried out (complete with dates for their completion) so that we
achieve a rational approach to planning.
Fig 5.1
Above the mid line, the activities are concerned with logistics – the
procurement, reception, storage and distribution of materials, equipment,
services and facilities. The midline itself defines the various stages in the
technical planning of work. Below the midline are all of the other activities
required by that company to plan and prepare the event- safety, quality, costs
etc.
The bubbles in the diagram are to allow them to enter the date by which each
of the activities is to be complete to ensure that all is ready before the start of
the event
Note! Although the diagram may look like a critical path diagram it is not.
In a critical path diagram earlier activities must be completed before later
activities can be started. This is not the case in this diagram.
For example, on the top line the Activity 1 is “Specify pre-shutdown work”
and Activity 2 “Schedule pre-shutdown work”. On a critical path activity 1
would need to be completed before activity 2 could be started. In the
network shown in the diagram, specifying and scheduling are performed
simultaneously – the important point being that activity 1 must be completed
by the date in the bubble.
Fig 5.2
Some tasks that appear on the worklist do not qualify as maintenance tasks
but are rather improvement tasks - work that is carried out to enhance the
performance of the plant. Finally the company may be engaged in safety or
quality initiatives. In the process industry over the past decade there have
been safety programs to replace asbestos gaskets with more environmentally
friendly materials, and quality initiatives to upgrade gaskets from simple
fibre to engineered gaskets (e.g. spirally wound).
Effective Workscope
Having defined where the tasks come from, the next question - and it is one
of the most crucial questions in Turnaround planning - is:
“How do you know that the work you do will maximise plant
reliability?”
This question is based on the principle of the “ideal workscope” (See Figure
5.3) that states that there is a theoretical ideal worklist which would
guarantee the reliability of the plant from a maintenance point of view
(remember – we cannot control what the operations or production people
may do to the plant). In reality we have the actual workscope that has been
generated from all the sources discussed above. The second question is –
how closely does the actual worklist match the ideal worklist. We are once
more involved in gap analysis, i.e. the gap between the actual workscope and
the ideal workscope. The problem is that because the ideal worklist is
theoretical we cannot know directly what it is. However, we can approach it
by asking intelligent questions.
Fig 5.3
another, did not get done and so has been dumped into the Turnaround
workscope.
The remedy for this is good worklist analysis to ensure that every job
on the worklist is justified – i.e. some responsible person is taking
responsibility for each task that is requested.
Fig 5.4
So, the only way you will know if the work you do will maximise
plant reliability is to validate your workscope by sifting out
unnecessary work and ensuring that all necessary work has been
included.
Input of information
In addition to the worklist there is a large volume of information required to
plan the turnaround. It is derived mainly form two sources; technical input
This input consists of all the plant based information that needs to be
integrated into the Turnaround plan. This includes procedures and programs
for shutting the plant down and starting it up again; details of the permit to
work system to be used; isolation procedures to ensure the safety of the plant
(electrical or physical); details of the tagging system to be used (if any); any
process problems currently being experienced; any process improvements to
be carried out during the Turnaround; and, once again, a validation system.
Fig 5.6
This information comes in a continuous stream during the planning phase (if
it doesn’t, the planners need to go out and find it!). The information is then
collated and processed to create task work packs.
Fig 5.7
Figure 5.7 lays out the planning process that shows the amalgamation of
“man and machine in harmony” each doing what it does best. The planning
process has 6 basic stages.
Information gathering
It is worth stating again that if the basic information is wrong than the plan
will be wrong. This is the point of maximum value in the planning process –
ensuring that the incoming information is correct.
Human Processing
The planners take the information provided and process it to generate plans.
The important point here is how the information is processed and that
depends upon whether the planner relies on facts (testable and provable),
estimates (extrapolations or interpolations from known data), norms
(previously calculated values) guesses (based on experience), or assumptions
(based on values and beliefs). The further away from facts we stray, the less
likely our plans are to be effective.
Computer processing
The planner first dictates the operating parameters to the computer and then
inputs planning data into the computer – this saves countless hours of
manual processing as the computer processes the data very rapidly and
efficiently and presents it in a readily usable way. However, not being in
contact with the real world it is not so effective at producing a credible
schedule.
out the work, get rid of 150 of them on day three and then go out and re-hire
70 on day 4
Human processing
Credibility is brought to the schedule by the planner reviewing what the
computer has produced, testing against what he perceives to be the real
world situation and manipulating the parameters and constraints to optimise
the schedule.
Taking the previous example – to get rid of the peaks and troughs in the
resource curve, the planner would smooth the curve by “capping” resources
at a figure derived by dividing the total number of hours to be expended in
the Turnaround (say 58,000) by the total number of hours available on the
shutdown (say 21 days at 12 hours per day = 252). That would give a
capped resource figure of around 230. The planner would then input this
constraint into the computer and re-run the schedule. Obviously the capping
would cause the schedule to shuffle jobs about and the planner would need
to go though the iterative process of manipulating the resource numbers and
the work sequence until an optimum solution was achieved
This is when the plan is tested in the real world. If the plan does not
sufficiently match reality it will fail.
The planning process can guide us through the steps that have to be carried
out but only human competence will determine if the plans thus produced
are effective.
Planning Levels
Figure 5.9 represents the fundamental requirements of planning and
differentiates between large complex tasks and small simple tasks. The two
require different levels of planning but the quality of planning must be the
same.
Fig 5.9
The answer is that the excellent planner has a set of presuppositions built
into his thinking processes that is different from the ordinary planner (See
figure 5.10).
Fig 5.10
The essence of excellence stems from the ability to go beyond the norm, to
push the boundaries back, to push planning beyond its limit so that you
know where the limit is, and then to find ways of extending that limit.
The management of the company were horrified when they saw the figures.
The planner had, for years, been considered the expert in Turnaround
planning and had planned a total of five Turnarounds using his “little
bunce” method.
To overcome this type of thinking, many firms now use Norms. Figure 5.11
is an extract from a book of Norms, (normal times to do specific jobs).
These have been developed over the years and look very rational and
scientific. But once again we must ask the question “developed by whom?”
To the author’s certain knowledge, many of the Books of Norms used in the
UK have been derived from one Book that was developed in the mid 1980s
in a large petrochemical company.
Fig 5.11
The example in 5.11 shows the times allowed (and booked) for the breaking
or making of 16 stud flanges after a company followed the author’s
recommendation to review their Book of Norms. The time of 6.25 hours to
break a 24” joint might still seem excessive to some but the figure before the
review was 13 hours! If your company uses norms it would be advisable to
review them.
The worst example of inflated norms was a rigging norm of 142 hours to rig
a tube bundle, transport it to a washing area then return and re-install it.
This was on a 9 day shutdown being worked on a twelve hour shift.
When it was pointed out to the planner that the time he had allowed
exceeded the total duration of the shutdown, he was embarrassed.
When the job was timed and it actually took a total of 28 hours, he was
mortified.
Fig 5.12
Plot plan
This is a map to show the person doing the task where on the plant the job
location is.
Digital Photograph
This is a photograph of the actual item of equipment to be worked on so that
the person can recognise it when he reaches the location.
Services suite
At the top left hand of the sheet there are a number of tick boxes where the
planner records his service requirements. If any box is ticked then a copy of
the sheet goes to the person responsible for providing that service to allow
them to plan for it.
Trades
This column specifies the trades that will be required for each activity (F =
Fitter, E = Electrician etc)
Hours (HRS)
This column specifies the time allowed to carry out each activity. If there is
more than one person in the trades column then the time is multiplied by the
number of people to derive the total hours for the job.
Technical Information
This is supplied at the bottom of the sheet and represents all of the
information required by the various people involved in the work. The bottom
line is interesting. The first box (FITTER’S NAME) is there because there
are flanged joints to be broken and remade on this particular job and, in this
company, every fitter must “sign” for the joints he makes.
The reason for this is that, a number of years ago there were a significant
number of leaks when the plant was started up after a Turnaround and,
when the Turnaround Manager tracked down who had made which joint by
interviewing the supervisors and getting them to remember which fitters had
been allocated which work, they found that the vast majority of the leaking
joints had been made by only two fitters. So they added this box to the sheet
to make identification simpler in the future.
The second box on the bottom line requires the supervisor to sign off the job
as complete (single point responsibility at work!) and the third box requires
a member of the operations staff to check the work done and sign it off as
acceptable.
Some companies plan every job, no matter how small, on a job control sheet.
Other companies batch smaller tasks (Referred to as Bulkwork) together on
a Control sheet.
Figure 5.13 shows an example of this. If a control sheet is to be used then
there needs to contain sufficient information to allow effective execution.
Fig 5.13
Fig 5.14
Fig 5.15
1 Write down each of the natural job steps involved in the task
2 For each job step, identify any hazard associated with it – this will
normally require a visit to the plant to view the job site.
3 Define the potential loss to people or the environment associated
with the hazard
4 Specify precaution to be taken to either eliminate the hazard or, if
that is not possible, to guard against it.
Other documents required to carry out the task in the work pack include
but would not be limited to:
Drawings
Technical specifications
Line diagrams
Pressure test procedures and test sheets
Radiography request forms
Inspection request forms
“Walk through” the job activity steps before the event to ensure that
they are feasible;
Identify interfaces with other work in his area and take action to
prevent any potential hazards
Analyze logistical requirements and organise all aspects of the job:
Report any errors in the work pack to the planner before the event so
that they can be corrected
Ensure that all documents, materials, equipment and services required
for the task will be available on the day.
5.6 SCHEDULING
A normal project start off with the project definition (Let’s build a bridge).
Then, using a technique called “work breakdown structure” the definition is
broken down into smaller more manageable chunks (Fabricate bridge
structure, dig foundations etc) and then into even smaller chunks (For bridge
fabrication – formulate a design, procure materials, set up a fabrication
facility etc), The chunks are then scheduled on a time line and then they are
broken down into individual tasks.
Fig 5.17
Each step is linked to the preceding step and the succeeding step in a
continuous sequence so that when we allocate each activity a time and add
those times together we get the duration for that particular task. There may
be some overlap between some of the activities and that would be taken into
consideration.
From here we can go two ways: we can either break each of the activities
down into its natural steps to create a job method or we can combine the
whole task with other tasks to create a schedule for the Turnaround.
It is not within the scope of this course to discuss or compare the relative
merits of different software packages. Information regarding them is readily
available on the internet.
Fig 5.18
Figure 5.18 shows part of an event schedule with the basic information that
would be provided by the computer. Each activity is coded, defined clocked
and timed and a graphic representation is provided showing the connection
between the activities. In this example, the critical path runs through code
numbers S100 – S135, S173 – S185.
Position any temporary cabins, washrooms, toilet blocks etc and identify
who will inhabit each cabin. Ensure there are sources of refreshment and
food available.
All of the above will save time on the day, cut down the number of journeys
people have to make and make the Turnaround a simpler and safer event.
Here the question arises as to when to plan the shut down of the unit
(s) once a year or once in two years or once in three years etc. Shut down
planning is based on the unit historical data on failures / performance. Shut
down plan again varies with the type of industry. In case of units having
parallel blocks, the shut down may be staggered as shown below.
Unit I
Down Stream Products
Unit
Unit II
Finished
Feed
Intermediate Product
Storage
Feed Storage Storage
Recycle
Plan the shut down of unit I & downstream unit simultaneously and
route product from II to intermediate storage.
Commission Downstream unit and process feed from unit II plus
intermediate storage product.
Shut down unit II and commission unit I
Operate unit I and Downstream unit, with feed from intermediate
storage.
Commission unit II after turn around and go normal.
Contents
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Optimising the contract model
6.3 Spread of contract types
6.4 The Turnaround contract
6.5 Being commercially aware
6.6 Contractor selection
6.7 Using contractors
6.8 Contracting issues
6.9 Conclusion
6.1 INTRODUCTION
Most company’s have a well defined contracting strategy for the general
use of contractors and it is not within the scope of this section to try to
deal with such a wide subject. The purpose of this section is to explore
the main issues that are considered when engaging contractors to work on
a Turnaround
In modern business the “lean and mean” public image that companies
promote sometimes hides a “lean and ill” private reality. In a drive to cut
visible costs, many companies offload as many of their permanent
employees as possible and outsource as much of their business as they
believe they can get away with. If it works then the company will no
doubt prosper. If it doesn’t – and this has been the experience of a
number of companies – then the company will pay for it. So, effectively
handling contractors becomes ever more vital.
In the ancient world, when the main business of states was war,
“professional soldiers”- with varying degrees of fighting skill - who did
not serve any particular state would hire themselves out to the highest
bidder. The were called Mercenaries. They fought for money – they did
not worry themselves about the causes espoused by the states they fought
for. The simply fought the battle, took their money and moved on. Often,
if they were offered more money by the leader of another army – even
when they were already in the pay of one army – they would de-camp
and join the other army.
Today, the main business of companies is manufacturing (in our specific
case Maintenance and Turnarounds) and there is a similar breed of men
known as contract workers. They are not permanent employees of any
company. They work for money - they have no interest in the business
objectives of the clients they work for. They simply perform the work,
take their money and move on. If, during a contract, they are offered
more money to work on another contract some of them will leave without
notice and go to work on the other contract. They could be regarded as
the modern industrial equivalent of the mercenaries.
This is a fact of life. Client companies have to come to terms with the
additional fact that, though they may form good relationships with the
managements of contract companies – it is the contract worker who
actually does the work, and he is often not even an employee of the
contract company but is “picked up” for a particular project.
On the other side of the coin, modern industry would be all but paralyzed
if it were not for the availability of contractors. This is especially true in
What are the limits of outsourcing work for any individual company?
Limits are partly forced on the company by circumstances (e.g. the
company has 150 employees but the Turnaround requires the use of 800)
and partly by company culture (it may in some cases be more economic
to use a contractor for a particular task but the company does not “trust”
outsiders with particularly sensitive work).
Figure 6.1 shows the opposite ends of the contracting spectrum. At one
end the company plans and executes its own Turnaround with no outside
help (the ideal case).
At the other end the company outsources the total Turnaround package –
planning and execution – to a contract company, in this case, all that the
Figure 6.1 poses five crucial questions that need to be asked to find out
what the company’s approach will be to contracting out similar to the
matrix used in section 4 - Figure 4.3, although here we are not concerned
with organisational design but with the more fundamental question of
how far we go from the ideal case.
Trust only comes when the two parties understand each others drivers
and constraints and work together to find a resolution that will suit both
parties (commonly known as the win-win situation)
Unless we ask these questions and answer them honestly, companies are
in danger of stumbling into a contracting situation that they cannot
control and they become victims of circumstances of our own creation.
Critical Relationship
There is also a critical relationship defined in the diagram. Using the
normal process concept we would represent the relation ship between
contractor and client as:
Influences
It is also necessary to consider the kinds of factors, apart from the client’s
attitude, that influence the selection of contractors? Figure 6.2 shows six
main factors:
The scope of work and how it is packaged – this would influence what
type of contracting company or companies we need to used, especially if
it is highly specialised work that the company does not have the
capability to perform.
The design of the organisations - and how the contractors fitted into
that design, would influence what type of contract personnel we would
use (e.g. tradesmen only or tradesman and supervision?)
The area of the world in which the client operates – this can be crucial
as, in some parts of the world there is a shortage of skilled labour and
specialist companies.
Figure 6.4 on the other hand, lists some of the shortcomings experienced
with some contractors such as unavailability (not there when you need
them); their quality of work (not to the standard the client requires); the
fact that their objectives may conflict with the client’s (maximising profit
versus minimising cost) and the additional factor that this may lead to
confrontation and, in extreme cases, litigation.
Fixed Price
In this type of contract the price for the contractor’s Turnaround
workscope is agreed and fixed before work starts. This requires that
the client knows beforehand exactly what work he wants carried out
and then accurately specifies the work to allow the contractor to
calculate and accurate cost. Also this approach needs to be
accompanied by a robust system for handling variations to contract
(due to delays, change of intent or emergent work) – because there
surely will be variations unless the specification is perfect.
The benefits of this approach is that the cost is fixed and known and
the onus is on the contactor to perform, i.e. he has to absorb any
increased expenditure due to inefficient working etc.
The drawbacks is that the client has to pay for any lost time due to
delays and, because the reasons for this are never very clear cut, the
relationship with the contractor can become confrontational.
The benefits are that the management fee is known and the
reimbursable hours are targeted – but with inbuilt flexibility, it
therefore does not need such a stringent variation system as a fixed
price contract.
The drawback is that the actual cost of the planned event is not known
beforehand (only estimated) and it is the client’s responsibility to
monitor the performance and progress of the contractor to ensure
value for money.
Daywork
This consists of the hiring of bodies to do work. It requires neither
detailed work specification nor a variation system.
The drawbacks are that this approach is the most expensive one as it is
characterised by low productivity and it requires the client to provide
very close supervision of the works.
The requirement is for the client to optimise the contract strategy, given
the current circumstances and the knowing the factors that are
influencing contract choice. The company must choose the contract, or
combination of contracts that is most suitable for its needs.
1 Memorandum of contract
This is the legally binding agreement signed by both parties where
one party (the contractor) promises to perform specified works in
An example of this is that of a large project the steel for which was
to be delivered from Kobe in Japan. Unfortunately for the good
people of Kobe there was a large and ferocious earthquake which,
among other things levelled the Kobe steelworks. The client could
not supply the steelwork to the contractor and Force majeure was
invoked to cancel the contract. This was accepted by the
contractor because the earthquake was beyond the client’s ability
to control.
8.Appendices
This contains copies of any document that the contractor will use to
plan, manage or execute the work, such as sample planning sheets/
work packs; control sheets; run down graphs etc
Over the years is has become apparent that, although contracts may be
enforceable in law (a reactive action) they can be difficult to enforce on
the day. Here we will cite one factor, namely:
For example - the letter of the contract might state that the
contractor shall not carry out any extra work unless the client has
signed a “variation order” detailing what is to be done and an
agreeing an estimated cost. However, what would be the
consequences of trying to enforce this if the need for extra work was
discovered at one o’clock in the morning on the critical path job. In
the worst case half a day could be lost because the “variation order
might not even be started until seven o’clock when the Turnaround
Manager arrived for work and then there would be the time to specify
the work, estimate the cost and get the necessary approvals – so the
indirect bill for enforcing the letter of the law would be a half day’s
lost production and disruption of the schedule because of the knock-
on effect of the delay.
This is where the spirit of the contract operates. The contractor and
the client agree beforehand to show “good faith” which means that, in
the above case, the contractor – to serve the client’s best interest -
would proceed with the work without any written authorisation to do
so (breaking the letter of the contract) and the client would fairly
recompense the contractor after the event.
The problem here is that the client and contractor may get involved in
a dispute after the event as to what was or what was not genuine extra
work and what is or what is not a fair price. So, there are also
consequences for operating the spirit of the contract. In the worst
case it can lead to litigation. This is why so many contracting
companies have professional “Claims Engineers”
So, the Turnaround manager must strike a balance between letter and
spirit of the contract in order to keep the event on track. There are two
elements that can greatly assist him in this. They are “commercial
awareness” and “pre-qualification”
then the company should ensure that, by training and experience, the
person filling the Turnaround Manager role is commercially aware (See
Figure 6.7).
control and simply tot the costs up after the event (which may take
many months and then you may be in for an unpleasant surprise).
The second is to exercise control during the event so that costs are
recorded as they are committed, to allow the manager, at any time
during the event, to know with reasonable accuracy how much has
actually been spent as opposed to how much expenditure was
estimated at this stage of the event.
The above constitute only the basic requirements but, armed with them, the
Turnaround Manager has much better chance of controlling the Turnaround.
Without them he is liable to become a victim of circumstance.
technical ability then the contractor submitting the lowest price will be
awarded the contract.
There are other factors that may be taken into consideration – experience
of the contractor; contractor’s knowledge of the clients industry or plant
etc., but in general the above rule should apply. Where things can become
difficult is when the company enforces the rule that the contractor
submitting the lowest price – irrespective of comparative ability – is
awarded the contract. The Turnaround manager may be left to manage an
unsatisfactory situation, and may be left to take the blame if the event is
not successful.
Selection should start mush earlier than this with “pre-qualification” (as
per element one of commercial awareness). The turnaround manager
(often in collaboration with other key players) draws up a shortlist of
contract companies who will be invited to bid for the Turnaround
contract (may be for the whole workscope or a specific part of it).
The Turnaround manager than pre-qualifies each company (See Figure
6.8). This usually takes the form of inviting each of the contractors to site
for a plant tour (so that they can get a feel for the Turnaround) and a pre-
qualification meeting.
At the meeting the client explains the plant situation and any difficulties
what exist (difficult access to certain jobs, restrictions on permit etc);
outlines the targets and requirements that the contractor will have to
meet; defines any interfaces that will occur between the client and
contractor and with other contractors so that any difficulties can be
Once this part of the meeting is complete, the contractor then defines for
the client such details as the contractor management structure both on site
and at HQ that will handle the contract (CVs for key personnel may be
submitted at this stage); working patterns and pay scales (the client can
make a comparison at this stage as to the relative potential cost of each
contract); sub-contractor engagement and how it will be organised; the
contractor’s health safety and environmental policy for Turnarounds;
their quality assurance and control systems and their systems for
controlling work.
This means that when the later selection is carried out there is a greater
chance of the contractor who is chosen being suitable for the work.
Contractor Mobilisation
The first is to ensure that the event starts on time and in the correct
manner. Part of this is ensuring that each of the contractors is on site
at the time they are required, fully briefed and fully equipped to start
their work at the correct time, and that nothing is done by the client to
hold the contractor up or prevent him from carrying out the works..
Delays at this point can put unbearable pressure on everyone and, in
the worst case, guarantee that the event will overrun even before it has
started.
Contractor Monitoring
When the work starts it is vital that, at any given time, within half a
day, the Turnaround Manager knows the contractors’ level of
performance and progress against the schedule. This may be done by
active monitoring by client personnel during the working day (usually
agreed beforehand with the contractor to avoid conflict); written
reports submitted by the contractor on a daily basis and attendance by
the contractor at the daily control meeting where verbal reports on
Contractor Demobilisation
Contractors cost money so they should always be demobilised at the
earliest feasible date.
The effective Turnaround Manager will ensure that the “last 10%“
costs are held to a minimum by demobilising the contractors early.
they shouldn’t have done or something they didn’t do that they should
have. The most common faults as listed on Figure 6.10 are:
Unrealistic expectation
Where either party expects something from the other party, who is
either unwilling or incapable of giving it. The client management may
demands that the event be completed in 21 days but if the critical path
determines that it will take 23 days, this expectation will not be met.
Worst case for both parties is if the contractor pretends he can
complete within 21 days and it takes 23 – this is the case where an
inevitable fact of life is translated into a failure by stupid people.
Unclear objectives
When the client does not clearly specify to the contractor what he
wants, sometimes because the client only has a vague idea or does not
provide the means whereby the contractor can achieve the objective,
or has no means of monitoring performance to ascertain if the
objective is being met.
Hidden agendas
When either side hides a pertinent fact from the other, so as to further
their current agenda. A Turnaround manager fails to inform a
contractor of a circumstance on the plant that will make the work
more difficult in order to keep the price down at the planning stage.
The consequence is that when the contractor discovers the difficulty
he will demand extra payment. However, the Turnaround Manager
records this extra cost as “emergent work” and retains the illusion that
the initial contract price was accurate given the state of knowledge
that was extant at the time the contract was drawn up.
6.9 CONCLUSION
Working with contractors can be very rewarding or extremely frustrating.
It all depends upon the effort that both client and contactor are willing to
put in at both the planning and the execution stages to ensure that the
contract succeeds. Some client companies bemoan the fact that they have
to use contractors and treat them with the minimum of respect or trust,
but the reality of modern business dictates that contractors are a fact of
life and, if present cost reduction trends continue they will become more
and more a fact of life. The Intelligent Company will embrace this reality
and change their culture to one that understands and cooperates with their
contractors.
Contents
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Total business impact
7.3 Waste –the hidden cost
7.4 Cost reporting
7.5 The cost estimate
7.6 Volume and value
7.7 Modelling expenditure
7.8 Incentives
7.9 Conclusion
7.1 INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this section is to explore the issues of Turnaround costs both
direct and indirect. In order to control costs we must first define them. We
need to understand why and how money is expended before we can attempt
to regulate that expenditure with a view to minimising the cost of
Turnarounds and contribute positively to of the company’s business strategy.
Turnarounds are paid for from company profits, if this source of revenue is
available, or by money borrowed from the banks – in which case it will draw
interest charges, making the Turnaround even more expensive.
Event Costs
The first of the small frames represent the direct costs of the Turnaround –
money spent on planning and preparation and then on the man-power,
materials, equipment and services used to execute the Turnaround.
Preparation costs need to include every hour spent by any person in planning
or preparing for the Turnaround.
For example, if an engineer, as part of his daily work, spends six hours
writing a specification for a Turnaround task - where should the costs be
assigned? The model dictates that they should be booked against the
Turnaround. If we hide Turnaround costs among normal day to day costs
this will lead the company to believe that normal production is more
expensive than it really is and Turnarounds are less expensive than they
really are. This false knowledge will seriously undermine the company’s
ability to control either normal production/ maintenance costs or
Turnaround costs.
Potential Costs
The second small frame represents the potential costs that may be added to
the planned cost because of such factors as emergent work; the cost of the
event overrunning – which can throw the company’s marketing plan into
chaos; the cost of overspending on the event to get the planned work done;
any loss of profit due restrictions on product throughput or low product
quality caused by a poor plant start up.
Again, in many companies, revenue lost to poor start up is hidden in
production costs when it is really a cost associated with the Turnaround
Production Costs
The larger frame represents costs to production. First there are the fixed
costs for the day to day operation of the plant even though it is offline. Then
there are the down time salaries for production staff who are paid to produce
but are prevented from doing so because the plant is shutdown.
There also may be on-costs associated with need to buy in product for re-
sale to customers in order to retain the right to supply those customers. Then
there may be the costs of disposing of effluent – this is becoming more and
more expensive as the environmental laws are drawn tighter around industry.
Business costs
In the largest frame there are the costs to the business (apart form the direct
event costs). The major actual cost to the business is loss of profit – this can
sometimes dwarf the direct costs, e.g. a company that makes £400,000 per
day profit shuts down for sixteen for a Turnaround that has a direct cost of
£1.2M., compared with lost profit which amounts to £6.4.
The other costs in this frame are potential losses that could be sustained
owing to the event overrunning and the company either losing market share
or customers or even the reputation of being a reliable supplier, because it
could not deliver product on time.
Then there is the potential threat of legal action if HSE standards are
breached during the shutdown by way of accident or pollution of the
environment.
The example in Figure 7.1 shows the difference in one particular company
between what was originally calculate to be the cost of a Turnaround (before
they used the model) and the total costs exposed (approximately four times
the direct cost) after they used the model.
When the business managers saw these figures it brought home to them just
how large an impact a Turnaround had on business profitability. This caused
them to absorb Turnarounds into the main business strategy.
Figure 7.2 shows a long term Turnaround business plan laid out along a
seven year rolling timeline. The blocks on the top of the diagram represent
the company’s Turnaround pattern – a major Turnaround every three years
and a small interim turnaround in each of the intervening years.
Note also that, in the last three years there have been four unplanned
shutdowns - three of which have occurred within two months of the planned
shutdown.
The top half of the table shows the planned costs for each of the seven years
and actual amounts for each of the planned and unplanned Turnarounds for
the last three years. It also includes the cost of asset replacement and asset
improvement projects.
The bottom half of the table shows the production targets and the actual
production achieved in each of the last three years as well as the cost penalty
in the form of lost profit associated with the under-achievement. The plant
has been underperforming and, if reliability is the aim, then the reasons for
the under-performance must be discovered and, if it is related to any aspect
of the Turnaround, eliminated
Figure 7.3 shows some of the issues that lead to lost time during a
Turnaround but, like an iceberg, over 90% of the factors that waste time and
cost money are hidden under the surface of apparently effective planning
and preparation. We expend a lot of time, effort and money on planning and
scheduling the work and yet we pay little attention to the issues that cost us
so much money. Maybe the very fact, taken singly, none of them costs very
much blinds us to the fact that, taken together, they generate substantial
costs.
would need to complete the work, multiply this by hours and hourly rate and
present the “estimate” to the company.
A quantity surveyor was employed short term to look at the Turnaround cost
structure and he advised that the costing approach for scaffolding be
changed. He negotiated a “unit cost” for scaffolding that generated a cost
for each individual scaffold based on its size and height. The actual cost for
the scaffold that year was £134,000, a saving of £31,000+ on the estimate
that represented a reduction of 18%. The QS also took a photograph of each
scaffold once it had been erected and produced a catalogue of Turnaround
scaffold requirements with a picture and a detailed cost for each scaffold.
This cut future planning costs drastically.
Figure 7.4 shows a time based cost map. There are four key dates in the cost
map; the date the event is initiated; the date that worklist is closed; the date
the event starts and the date it finishes. Costs are mapped throughout the
three periods defined by the four dates as follows:
This represents work that is added to the worklist after the worklist closure
date. It defines the company’s ability to control work. Rather than just
complain about the late work – which many companies do, seeing it as a sad
fact of life, the cost mapping model measures it and its effect on Turnaround
planning and costs. All work requested after the closure date must be
requested on a “Late work authorisation” form that requires the requester to
define the work, estimate the cost and then answer two questions:
There may be a good reason – a defect that has just been discovered, but in
many cases the answer to the question is difficult. Think of the possible
responses – “I forgot”? – I was too busy”?
These responses give the company a starting point to discover and eliminate
the root causes for late work requests.
This eliminates “nice–to-do” work. If there is a good reason why the job
needs to be done it will be done but sometimes people try to sneak work
onto the worklist that is unnecessary, merely because it suits their purpose to
get it done during the Turnaround..
Finally, the work has to be approved, in writing, by the most senior manager
on the plant.
The work is then priced separately from the planned work and identified as
“Late work costs”
Once the event starts, work will start to “emerge” that needs to be done on
top of the planned and late work. It is thus therefore defined as “Emergent”
work. Again, in line with the concept of cost mapping, emergent work is
broken down into three categories:
Extra work
Defined as work that is generated by an existing work order. For
example the initial work order is for changing the bearings on a pump
rotor but when the pump is opened up the seals are found to be
damaged and now have to be replaced.
Additional Work
Defined as work that is generated by a new work order to cover
unforeseen work. This can happen for instance when an item that was
operating perfectly well before the event and was not therefore on the
event worklist, fails when the plant is started up and has to be
replaced.
Late work
Even after the start of the event, work may be added to the worklist
that should have been on the initial worklist.
All requests for emergent work need to be investigated to discover why they
were necessary.
On one plant when corrosion was found inside an item, one of the plant
supervisors remarked “That happened the last time we opened this up!” He
was asked why he had not given this information to the planner at the
planning stage when it could have been incorporated into the plan. His
response was to shrug and say “I forgot about it”. Good de-briefing would
have picked this up on the previous event.
The above three categories constitute work that must either be covered by a
contingency fund which is set aside form the main budget, only used if it is
necessary and returned if it is not, or the company makes no provision for
emergent work and “takes the hit” if it occurs. The model recommends the
contingency fund.
Figure 7.4 shows how reporting costs can be made more rational by using
the cost model. In the first example – because only a crude estimating and
reporting system was used all that could be reported was that the planned
costs were $4.5M and the actual was $5.6M. This was only reported after the
event. The reaction from the senior management can be easily imagined.
In example two the cost is broken down to show that the Planned work took
$4.3M (less than the planned cost) and the impact of late work and emergent
work were $0.4M and $0.9M respectively. This would be backed up by a
detailed breakdown of late and emergent costs. Because the late costs had
been reported before the event and the emergent costs during the event as
they increased, the management were mush more sanguine about the final
report.
Figure 7.5 Shows an actual outline cost map generated by a company using
the cost model. The plant was broken down into three system (each of which
was then sub-divided down to individual job level). For each system there
was a further break down of costs into preparation, scheduled work, late
work and emergent work costs (also sub-divided down to individual job
level). Projects also had provision for emergent work. Finally there was a
general contingency fund to cover all emergent work on the plant (it was set
at 12% based on previous experience – the actual expenditure was 8.5%) so
the remaining 3.5% was returned to the company.
One last point that is worth making regarding the reporting element of cost
mapping, it needs to be based on committed costs. To clarify this, refer to
Figure 7.6 which designates the three different stages of cost.
experience we have. If we do not map costs and analyse them then that
“knowledge and experience” may be of a very low level, and that lack could
cost the company a great deal of money (remember the scaffolding!)
The estimate is reported to the Steering Group to give them early warning of
the likely cost of the Turnaround. Where money has been allocated for the
Turnaround in the maintenance budget, it can be compared with the ballpark
figure to ensure they are “in the same ballpark”. If they are not, then the
steering group needs to take action to resolve the differences. Usually they
are three options.
as the control estimate for the Turnaround, usually 2 weeks before the event
is due to start.
The volume
Once we have a cost model including a rational way of reporting costs we
can begin to analyse the patterns associated with the volume of committed
cost as it is accrued for the whole event (from initiation through to
termination). Referring to Figure 7.8 - during the planning phase there is a
low weekly cost accrued over a long period of time (can account for up to
10% of the total direct costs), this is followed by the an increase in the
volume of cost during the build-up stage when the bulk of the pre-shut down
work is carried out (typically about 8% of the total). The event itself
accounts for some 80% of the volume of cost and there is normally a
residual cost (Approximately 2%) involved in the termination of the
Turnaround and the plant start up.
The value
Figure 7.9 shows the same pattern but it is now considered from a point of
view of value rather than volume. The value curve is almost the opposite of
the volume curve because the highest value lies in the decisions that are
taken by the steering group right at the beginning of the planning phase,
when very little money is expended. If the decisions are effective (for
example use of unit pricing for scaffolds) they can minimise costs, whereas
if they are ineffective (just hire gangs of scaffolders) they can add cost to the
Turnaround.
The next highest value is the planning phase. The same principle holds good.
The planning only accounts for 10% of the cost but if it is effective it will
minimise costs and if it is not it will generate wasted time that will drive up
costs.
The third phase is next highest in value because if we get all the necessary
pre-shutdown work completed before the start of the event then that will
simplify and speed up the event itself but, if we do not, then we will be
trying to complete the pre-shutdown work while we were tying to carry out
The event itself, which represents the highest volume of cost represents the
lowest point on the value curve because when we start the event the vast
majority of decision have been made and the plans are in place. Also, if
anything goes wrong at this point in time there is no time to recover.
Figure 7.10 shows one form of estimating model based on the cost range of
the Turnaround and broken down into key elements. Using this we can find
out the percentage costs of the elements based on an approximate idea of the
cost range. For example if we estimate that the turnaround cost is going to be
in the £2 - £5M range – say £3.5M, then we can read off the percentage
costs of the different elements, e.g. Main contractor costs 35% of the total
(£1.22M). And, from the opposite direction, if we can put a value on one of
the major elements of the Turnaround then we can extrapolate the likely
price of the whole event.
The above models were refined over a number of years using data form
some thirty Turnarounds. Each time a new set of Turnaround data were
available they would be “plugged into” the model and refine the graph. Early
on the graph oscillated but it later settled down to the figures and the curves
shown.
Caution – remember that, for the purposes of the course, these models are
indicative only. They were created in a particular industry at a particular
time and my not be applicable to other industries at other times, but the
important point is that the model works providing the data that is put into it
is high quality and detailed
7.8 INCENTIVES
This is a somewhat controversial subject which is why it was left till last.
The controversy is rooted in company culture and specifically in their
attitude towards contractors. The question is:
Incentives are usually paid for four categories. The level of the contractor’s
safety performance; the quality of work; the number of man-hours expended
and the duration of the event.
In order for the incentive to work, the contractor must declare his profit
margin. The contractor puts his profit into a pot and the client matches that
amount. If the contractor betters the incentive target he gets a percentage
reward and if he overruns the target he pays a percentage penalty
The horizontal axis of the graph represents the Turnaround duration in days
in the following manner. If the Turnaround is planned for 21 days and is
completed in 21 days then the achievement is set at Zero and no incentive is
paid. If the event is completed in 20 days then, reading off the graph, the
contractor’s reward would be a 20% increase in profit. If however it is
completed in 22 days then the contractor pays a penalty equal to 20% of his
profit.
Some companies set “reward only” incentive schemes and others try to
enforce “penalty only” regimes.
7.9 CONCLUSION
Generally the quality of costing Turnarounds is at a pretty low level. Some
companies never know what their events costs them and others think that
they do but don’t. If we remember that the function of business is to generate
profit then we must also realise that every penny we waste on Turnarounds
comes straight of the bottom line. To avoid this we must first understand
costs and then manipulate them to our advantage, in order to minimise the
price we pay for Turnarounds.
Contents
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Planning and logistics
8.3 The elements of logistics
8.4 The complexity of logistics
8.5 Marshalling bulkwork
8.6 The plot plan
8.7 Conclusion
8.1 INTRODUCTION
The purpose of Logistics is to organise the procurement, reception, storage
and distribution of all materials, equipment, services and facilities required
to perform a Turnaround.
If we analyse the above statement we can discern an outline process, i.e.
And an outline set of elements that the process acts upon, i.e.
MATERIALS
EQUIPMENT
SERVICES
FACILITIES
For instance, it is no use getting the right people to the right place at the
right time with the right information if the material for the job does not turn
up or the tools that have been provided are not fit for purpose.
Much time and effort is put into the technical plan. The non-technical plan
requires the same effort, care and attention if the Turnaround is going to be a
success.
ORDER > EXPEDITE > RECEIVE > STORE & PROTECT > ISSUE >
DISPOSE OF
In addition, the need to record the current disposition was identified and
implemented to make logistics an auditable process.
Also, in the above example, if the inspection exposed a fault in the sidewall
of the vessel that needs to be repaired, then materials and equipment that
was not in the original plan might be required.
Procurers
Due to timing and other factors, the required items may be procured by a
number of people. Commonly, long delivery items are ordered even before
the planning for the Turnaround commences. Some items will be identified
by the planner and procured via the procurement department. If there are
projects involved in the Turnaround then the items for these are typically
procured by the project engineers. Whatever the source, if logistics is to be
effective, the reception, storage and distribution needs to be organised.
Delivery
Even if long delivery items have been ordered and promised for a certain
date, one cannot merely make the assumption that they will arrive on that
date.
Such items, especially those with a delivery date on or near the start date of
the Turnaround, should be expedited to ensure that they arrive on time. This
is especially true of items that are being manufactured, and even more so if
they are one off special items.
There is also the issue of “free issue” materials. Again, the assumption
cannot be made that they are in the stores. They must be checked to ensure
that there is the correct quantity and that they are fit for purpose.
Storage
Once the items are delivered, each must have a designated storage area,
whether it be in the main stores (in which case they need to be clearly
marked as Turnaround items), or in a specially prepared Turnaround store.
Large items may need to be stored in the open air in specially designated
areas. Once in their storage location, they must be protected to ensure that
they are not mishandled, or allowed to deteriorate, to ensure that they are fit
for purpose when they are required.
Timescale
Different items are required at different times during the Turnaround. Some
are required early on (isolation plates and padlocks etc.), some are required
mid term (spare valves, pumps etc for change out.) and some are required
late on (special plates and gear for pressure testing etc).
All of these items have to be organised so that they can be delivered to the
workplace when they are needed, or before.
Emergent Materials
These have been mentioned before but it must be remembered that the very
fact that materials are required for emergent work means that, in all
probability, they will not be available on site because the work was not
planned for.
This means that they need to be procured on an emergency basis. This can
prove costly, delivery can be difficult due to the short timescale required and
there may be quality issues attached.
Heavy plant
The main issue with heavy plant is cost – large cranes can be very expensive
to hire and people tend to overestimate requirements for items such as
welding rectifiers, compressors, generators etc. Also, for diesel driven items
it provision must be made for regular refuelling.
Site clearance
When a Turnaround is completed the site can be very untidy due first top the
amount of work that has been done and second due to the refusal of people
to follow a good housekeeping policy.
The site needs to be cleared of all debris, scrap, spills and contamination
before it is handed back to the plant or production team. Also, any item that
was withdrawn from the stores but not used should be returned to the stores.
The idea behind site clearance is that the plant should be handed back to the
production team in a condition as good as, if not better than, the condition it
was in before the Turnaround started.
This can work on small events and even on medium sized events where there
is a very experienced crew who are used to carrying out the routines without
supervision. However, if the event is large or the crew is inexperienced,
central coordination is vital.
There will still be a number of people performing the logistics activities but
they should report to one person who has overall responsibility for ensuring
that “the right thing gets to the right place at the right time”
8.5MARSHALLING BULKWORK
Bulkwork refers to the many small plant items that need to be repaired or
replaced during the shutdown. The complexity here lies in the numbers
involved and the different ways the individual items are treated.
Figure 8.5 shows a block diagram plot plan for the movement of valves
during the Turnaround. In this particular example the valves are removed
from processing plant and due to the fact that they are contaminated with
product they need to be cleaned before they can either be worked on or
disposed of.
Each valve may be handled in one of three ways (identified in the figure as
A, B and C)
As an example, its path is; remove from plant > transport to cleaning bay >
decontaminate > transport to clean item bay > transport to workshops>
overhaul/ repair and test > transport to overhauled item bay > transport to
plant and reinstall.
Valve C is a valve that has reached the end of its useful life and will
scrapped and replaced by a new valve
On a major turnaround where there could be over 500 valves of various types (control,
isolation, non-return, safety relief etc) some will be changed out, some overhauled and
some repaired. In addition the valves may be sent to a number of different workshops
some of which may be a substantial distance from the plant.
To complicate things further, each valve will have a particular date by which it must be
returned to the plant in order that it can be installed within the duration of the event.
Then, to all of this, add in pumps, electric motors, flow meters, bursting discs, orifice
plates and all of the other items of bulkwork and we can begin the appreciate how
complex organising bulkwork can be.
Bulkwork needs a rational systemised plan to ensure that all of the items involved are
under control at every stage of their journey.
Figure 8.6 is an example of a simple plot plan showing the main features of the plant; the
temporary Turnaround features; the location for large cranes; vehicle and pedestrian
routes (these should be segregated where possible for safety reasons); fire assembly
points (FAP) and even the direction of the prevailing wind (very useful information to
have in the event of a toxic release.
The plot plan is used to control the site on a day by day basis. It is also
useful, as part of a safety briefing, to show everyone where everything is –
thus reducing unfamiliarity.
8.7CONCLUSION
Our aim in this short module has been to focus on the critical aspects of
logistics and to try to give a flavour of the complexity involved. Logistics is
not rocket science; it is attention to detail coupled with good coordination
and organisation. If the non-technical plan is effective then it will serve to
support the technical plan and ensure that work is carried out on time with
the right material
Contents
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The stages of the turnaround
9.3 Delay – the silent gremlin
9.4 The power of routines
9.5 Mechanisms for control
9.6 Starting the plant up
9.7 Recording and reviewing performance
9.8 Conclusion
9.1 INTRODUCTION
In the months and weeks leading up to the Turnaround, all of the planning
and preparation have been focused on ensuring, as far as is possible, that the
event itself goes without a hitch.
Now that the execution stage has arrived, planning and preparation are
largely replaced by organisation and coordination. It is one thing to state
how you are going to execute the Turnaround (talking the talk) it is quite
another to actually do it (walking the walk).
Some people find that implementation is the most difficult part of any
project – this difficulty is multiplied on a Turnaround because of the short
time scale. If something should go wrong there is almost no time to recover
from it.
the Turnaround, as well as executing the work, we are also testing every
aspect of planning and scheduling and any flaws in either will very soon
become apparent when work starts and they will cause problems; for
example if a task takes longer to execute than planned, this not only makes it
more expensive but also has a knock-on effect on the rest of the Turnaround,
delaying the start of some work that depends upon the completion of the
current task and other work that required the resources that have been
delayed.
If the task is on the critical path then duration may be affected and the
manager may be forced to take contingency measures to meet duration, such
as deleting some work from the worklist – and this could lead to reliability
problems when the plant is up and running again.
It is therefore vital that the manager and his team understand not only what
is going on but the nature of turnarounds, so that they can pre-empt
problems that might occur or, if problems do occur, know what the best
course of action will be to resolve them.
Scheduled work
During the scheduled work period (sometimes referred to as the
“mechanical duration”) period, all of the planned tasks are carried out
as scheduled by the various members of the Turnaround organisation.
The biggest cost risk during this stage is emergent work – work that
was not planned but only discovered (or emerged) when the plant was
opened up and inspected. In the worst case where the emergent work
happens on a task that is on or near the critical path time may be lost
that can never be made up, and now the risk is to duration as well as
cost.
Plant Start-up
This may be the riskiest stage in the shutdown, for two reasons. The
first is that if there are any delays to the start up (leaks that necessitate
shutting the plant down again in order to fix them, or tasks taking
longer than planned) that time can never be made up because there is
no time left. The other risk is to safety. Whereas the shutdown phase
comprised of reducing flows and energy and pacifying the plant, the
start up comprises of reintroducing inventory and generally activating
the plant. Also, there is usually an amount of testing that goes on
during the start-up and this must be effectively scheduled to prevent
further potential delays.
Segregated
The first is to completely shut down the plant, clean it and isolate it
before handing it over for maintenance. Similarly, at the end of the
scheduled work all work is signed off and all permits withdrawn
before handing the plant back for start up. This is the safest way to do
a Turnaround because there is no interaction between the three stages,
for this reason it is also the easiest to plan, but it leads to a longer
duration and it is the most expensive approach.
Integrated
The second way is to start scheduled work on plant systems as they
become available so that there is an effective overlap between shutting
down work and scheduled work. This is more hazardous because of
the interaction and it requires more complex planning to integrate the
three stages, but it leads to shorter durations and can provide
substantial savings on cost.
The approach used will depend upon company culture. The latter approach
could be regarded as a “Risk based Turnaround”
The other problem with delay is that it not affects the delayed task but
radiates out to affect other jobs and other aspects of the event. It can even
have consequences that reach beyond the Turnaround.
As an example of the above - any task that is dependent upon the completion
of the delayed task will also be delayed (scheduling problem). Also, the next
tasks planned to be carried out by the men working on the delayed job will
also be delayed or will require the procurement of additional resources
(resourcing problem). In the worst case the delay will extend the duration of
the Turnaround (workscope problem) – unless the manager decides to
cancel work to make up the lost time. This may have an impact on plant
performance once it has been brought back on stream due to the failure of
an item of equipment that should have been worked on during the
Turnaround but was not (reliability problem), and this may result in loss of
production (financial problem)
Delay occurs in one of three ways. Something prevents the task from starting
at the appointed time, something interrupts work during the task or
something causes the task to take longer than planned. The worst case is a
combination of all three.
Permits
Most industries require some form of Permit to Work to be issued
before work can start. If the permit system is ineffective due to poor
organisation, then permits will be late and delays will be caused. One
of the issues specific to Turnarounds is that on the first day of work
Materials
This issue has been dealt with earlier in this section. If the materials
required, or the accompanying documentation are not available when
required due to poor logistic control, the job will be delayed.
Scaffolding
Scaffolding that has to be built during the Turnaround may take
longer than planned due to interaction with other work in the area that
was not foreseen. Also some scaffolds need to be modified during the
task. If this is not built into the plan then delays will be caused.
Unacceptable Hazard
Sometimes when a task is started it is discovered that the hazard
attached to the work is unacceptably high and the job is stopped while
the proper precautions are put in place. This is normally due to faulty
risk assessment at the planning stage.
Inspection
Inspection and radiography have the potential to hold tasks up because
the time taken to perform them can be uncertain and may take longer
than was estimated. Radiography is usually performed when there is
no one on the plant (lunchtimes or quiet hours) the problem here is
that if, for some reason, the slot is missed, radiography may be
delayed until the next slot, during which time the task lies fallow.
Task complexity
If we underestimate the technical complexity of the task it can take
much longer to complete than we planned.
Emergent work
Emergent work (e.g. an inspection finds a fault in an item that was not
predicted) will cause delay – sometimes major delay, depending upon
the severity of the fault and the complexity of the repair.
For example, if the fault was a crack in a weld in a confined space the
delay could translate into a whole series of activities, the main ones
being:
Technical Queries
If a fault is found on an item of equipment that needs engineering
input before it can be remedied, application must be made (in the form
of a “technical query”) to the technical department to provide the
necessary design or specification data. If provision has not been made
for the technical department to handle such queries as top priority,
then time can be lost awaiting a reply to the query. This problem is
exacerbated if the remedial work constitutes a modification to the
plant item – in this case, a number of signatures may be required from
“responsible persons” and this can take a considerable amount of
time.
Manpower shortages
Where contractors are being used to supply the bulk of the manpower,
the lack of sufficient competent personnel to perform the Turnaround
work can lead to delay. Even when there are sufficient numbers at the
start of the event this does not guarantee that the same number will
still be there at the end. This issue was dealt with in section 6 of this
module.
Ineffective planning
If the task cannot be performed in the manner it was planned or in the
timescale it was planned or at the time it was scheduled, due to poor
planning, delay will occur and time will be lost.
There is power in routine, in doing the same tasks the same way every time
they are done so that people get to know what they are supposed to be doing
and when. This is why a lot of “improvements” fail. They break the routine
and don’t replace it with another routine.
Familiarity
In work (as in many other avenues of life) people like routine and give their
best performance when they are doing something they have been drilled in
and are familiar with. On the other hand, sudden change - doing something
unfamiliar - tends to upset people’s equilibrium and reduce their level of
performance.
It is part of the task of the Turnaround Manager to provide daily routine for
the Turnaround and the best place to start is with the Turnaround Manager’s
own routine. Everyone else on the event takes their lead from the
Turnaround Manager and if he is seen to be acting in a logical and rational
manner, this will go a long way to keeping everyone else well within their
comfort zone.
The Turnaround manager’s routine is designed to keep a finger on the pulse
of the event. Some managers choose to direct the event “from the office”
and relay on reports from others to aid them in decision making.
The turnaround manager is the only person who has a view of the total
project; everyone else looks at the project from their own perspective.
Example – The event was split into three “areas” with an engineer running
the work in each area. After 10 days the progress on the areas was: Area A
– 36 hours ahead of schedule; Are B – on schedule; Area C – 20 hours
behind schedule. Area A engineer was very pleased with himself but his
pleasure turned to annoyance when the Turnaround Manager said to him
“Tomorrow I want you to transfer all of your fitters and welders onto Area
C for one day to let them catch up with the schedule” The Area C Engineer
was also very annoyed at being publicly “bailed out”. Both engineers were
annoyed because the were looking at the event from their own perspective
but the manager, who was looking at the event as a whole, took the decision
necessary to get Area C ( and the Turnaround) back on track.
Figure 9.3 shows ten critical activities that the manager performs on a daily
basis to keep abreast of the current situation.
Management Meeting
A second routine that pays dividends is the daily meeting between the
Turnaround Manager, Plant or Production Manager and the Engineering or
Technical Manager. They meet to resolve problems and issues that can only
be dealt with at management level. Figure 9.4 shows the types of issues that
are discussed and resolved at such a meeting.
The meeting takes place at the same time each day and is attended by the
same appointed people to review progress, performance and problems
(which are recorded in an action log together with the names of the people
tasked with resolving the problem and a time by which it is to be resolved).
The routine agenda for the meeting requires that each of the key personnel
present a verbal report to the Turnaround Manager who then sums up the
overall situation and delegates activities to specific people. The meeting is of
the “short sharp” type and does not allow discussion of issues – that is not its
purpose.
Issues are discussed and settled outside of the meeting be specified people
and the resolution is presented to a subsequent meeting. Normally the
meeting will last between 20 and 30 minutes.
>…………), we are dealing here with the “Check” activity. In this case we
set out to measure the performance of a number of key indicators and then
compare them with a pre-set standard, objective or expectation. In order to
rationalise measurement we must ask and answer four key questions:
Who does it? - Who are the people who will carry out the
measurement?
Figure 9.6 details the main measurements that can be taken during the
Turnaround and briefly answers the four questions. Once again, the choice
of what to measure will depend on company culture. A company that is very
cost conscious will regularly measure its expenditure in detail whereas
another company that is less cost conscious may not carry out any detailed
measurements of costs at all – at the extreme end of this spectrum there are
those companies who do not know what Turnarounds cost them, and never
will. Four of the above examples will be dealt with here.
from the plant until the time they (or replacements) are re-installed in the
plant.
The sheet is useful on two levels. First, as each activity is completed the
person responsible records it so that the current disposition of any individual
valve can be identified. Secondly it can be used as a management tool by
scanning the sheets and looking for “holes” left by activities that have not
been carried out. In a case where there were several hundred valves, this
allows the manager to take in at a glance the total picture but only
concentrate on the “holes” – thus managing by exception.
The schedule will show how the work is progressing and predict when the
critical path will be completed (and remember, the critical path may change).
However it will not tell us a lot about the mass balance of hours. That is best
done using a run-down graph.
In the example shown in Figure 9.9, the planned volume of man-hours was
64,000 and the “planned” curve shows the accumulated number of expended
hours planned for each day of the Turnaround. The “achieved” curve shows
the number of hours completed against the plan on a daily basis reported by
the supervisors. In this example the achieved curve is below the planned
curve.
Calculating Productivity
Many companies calculate productivity (P) by dividing the achieved hours
by the planned hours. In this case, at the end of day 11 it would be 40,000
divided by 48,000 = P = 0.83. However, especially in the case where
overtime is being worked or extra man-power has been brought in, the
“booked” hour curve would be greater than planned and the correct method
of measuring productivity would be to divide the achieved hours by the
booked hours – in this case it would be 40,000 divided by 56,000 = P =
0.71, a much lower (and more realistic) productivity figure.
The final control measure in this section concerns a topic that evokes a good
deal of controversy. It is the measurement of manpower utilisation. The
reason for the controversy is that it resembles the old practice of work
measurement “time and motion studies. These were carried out to measure
specific individuals at work (usually to set bonus rates) and caused a great
deal of bad feeling between management and workers in the 1950s and 60s.
Resource utilisation measurement, on the other hand, is directed at mass
measurements rather than individual measurements and is performed to
measure how well the event is being managed and generate a realistic
productivity figure for p-planning purposes.
When these two measurements are known and applied to each other, a
productivity figure for the whole event can be generated. In the example the
working day is set out as a vertical column. The allowed times of absence
from site are recorded – 15 minutes at the start of the shift, 15 minute coffee
break mid morning, 30 minute lunch break and 15 minutes at the end of the
shift.
No allowance for an afternoon break was made because the management had
“bought” the break from the unions.
In the actual column is shown the findings of observers who were posted at
places where they had a good view of the comings and goings of the men
and measured the actual time lost (note that there was, in fact, an unofficial
tea-break in the after noon).
The observers also recorded, at mid session, how many of the men in their
line of sight were gainfully employed and how many were standing still
doing nothing – the activity sample.
In this example the men were available, on average for 5.60 hours and the
aggregate active average was 92%, giving effective total hours of 5.15 and a
productivity figure of 71%.
This information was used to adjust the planned timings for tasks to make
them realistic.
It was also used to investigate how the Turnarounds were managed and
define what managers, engineers and supervisors had to do to improve
resource utilisation.
Punch listing
Also, at this point, the schedule (being anywhere between 90 and 95%
complete is no longer of any use as a monitoring mechanism so it is also
suspended and replaced by a punch list that consists of every task that has to
be completed before the plant can be brought back on line – as each task is
completed it is “punched off” the list so that, at some point there are no tasks
left – the plant can then be started up. On an integrated start up this would
happen system by system. Figure 9.11 lists the objectives of the start up
team.
9.8 CONCLUSION
Success in Turnarounds, like success in any other walk of life, depends upon
a number of basic requirements. These requirements have been detailed in
this course: Organisation – are the people competent to due the work, are
they properly organised and are they led effectively; Planning - has the work
been specified, controlled, planned and scheduled to achieve it within the
required duration, and cost. Contractors – are they “fit for purpose”
effectively briefed and properly integrated into the organisation. Costs – do
we know how much the event is going to cost and do we have a plan for
controlling expenditure. Logistics – can we guarantee that the right thing
will be in the right place at the right time? And Execution – do we have the
routines and the control measures to allow us to carry out the work in a
logical and rational manner. Finally do we have the strategy and systems to
complete all of this safely and to the desired level of quality?
If the honest answer to all of these questions is YES, then the Turnaround
has the best possible chance of succeeding.
Section 7
Modern Shutdown Philosophies
What is reliability ?
Reliability results in
The precise shape of a Pareto curve will differ for any analysis but the
broad shape remains similar - following 'the 80/20 rule'. Vilfredo Pareto was
a 19th century economist who observed that 80% of Italy's wealth was
owned by 20% of the population.
In this case, typically, the first 20% of items in the list will account for
approximately 80% of cumulative ARV. For a company with a stock list of
1,000 different items this means that paying more attention to the top 200
items (with a sophisticated stock control system) will give close control of
about 80% of total stock investment.
The next, say, 40% of items, will, typically, account for a further 15%
of cumulative ARV. These can be subject to less precise control methods.
The last 40% of (low value of low usage) items then account for a
mere 5% of ARV and can be controlled with a simple system.
Other examples
Control of travel costs : again, typically, 20% of journeys will account
for 80% of total travel costs - and should be closely monitored and
controlled.
Quality control :
Failure modes can be prioritized depending on their impact on a system's
performance.
Notes:-
13. Fire
17. Spills
c) Supervisory control
a) Hardware
b) Software
Students will be given an example of a machinery report and will be asked to give an
explanation of what has happened to the machinery.
Example 1
A Cooling Water pump was found shut down, on examination, it was found that the rotor
shaft coupling was broken. What could have caused the damage? Give two reasons.
No. 1………………..………………………………………………………
No. 2…..……………………………………………………………………
Example 2
………………………………………………………………………………
Example 3
The vibration on a Cooling Water Fan suddenly increased and some noise
was heard that seemed irregular, what was happening to the fan, and what
would be the consequences if left running.
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
Example 4
A reciprocating Fire Water pump was out of service for maintenance, when the
maintenance was completed, the pump was handed back to operations and re-energized.
During the nightshift the pump started for no reason. When the operator was sent to shut
it down, he found that the pump had stopped and that one of the pistons had broken
through the crank casing. Give a reason why this particular incident could have
happened.
Students will discuss what values they have learned from the lessons in the course, what
way they can be improved, highlight what parts of the course they had difficulty in
understanding and how the course could be improved.