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hutdowns, turnarounds and outages of dollars, target dates missed by days) are still as
All the major process industries (refining, prevalent as ever. The same mistakes are being
petrochemicals, power generation, pulp repeated over and over. The main problem is that
and paper, etc.) have their own nomenclature for turnaround managers continue to treat turnarounds
maintenance projects. For the purposes of this as if they were ‘Engineering, Procurement and
document, ‘turnaround’ is intended to encompass Construction’ (EPC) civil projects and hence apply an
all types of industrial projects for existing process EPC-centric project management methodology.
plants including –
• Inspection and testing One of the greatest challenges to turnaround
• Shutdowns managers is realising that turnarounds are different
from EPC projects. They have their own unique
• Emergency outages
characteristics and demands. They require a specialised
• De-bottlenecking projects project management methodology. This document
• Revamps is intended to spark a dialogue for developing a
• Catalyst regeneration, etc. turnaround-specific management methodology.
provides a loose guideline for structuring a project proper application of the PMBOK to a turnaround-
management methodology, and describes its specific management methodology.
primary purpose as being – Most turnaround managers employ an EPC-centric
‘....to identify and describe that subset of the PMBOK project management approach to turnarounds. In
that is generally accepted. ‘Generally accepted’ means order to analyse the applicability of this approach,
that the knowledge and practices described are we first need to understand the important
applicable to most projects most of the time, and that differences between turnarounds and EPC projects.
there is widespread consensus about their value and Then we shall have the proper basis for evaluating
usefulness. ‘Generally accepted’ does not mean a turnaround-centric project management
that the knowledge and practices described are or methodology in accordance with the PMBOK.
should be applied uniformly on all projects; the
project management team is always responsible for Important differences between
determining what is appropriate for any given project.’ turnarounds and EPC projects
There are significant differences between
It is up to turnaround managers to evaluate the turnarounds and EPC projects (see Table 1), which
applicability to turnarounds of their specific are worth exploring.
project management methodology. Many
turnaround managers do not have a formal Because the scope is only partially known when
background in project management and have execution begins, turnarounds demand much stricter
never studied the PMBOK. As a result, there has scope management controls. A constantly changing
been little discussion in professional circles of the scope (and schedule) means that the baseline
schedule is a useless measuring stick. As it is the
entire basis for measuring and tracking EPC project
PROJECT TURNAROUND
performance, it is clear that a different paradigm is
required for turnarounds.
One result of this is that turnaround budgets Management needs to exercise care when evaluating
are rarely based upon a complete, detailed plan. add-on repair scope, in order to ensure that existing
They are often based upon conceptual estimates, resources, productivity and time can accommodate
extrapolations of past turnarounds, or on incomplete the work (where the repair scope is not operationally
planned scopes that are compensated with a large critical or safety critical). Management can end up in
allowance for contingencies, and it is therefore a position of balancing the impact of add-on repair
necessary to review the cost estimate for the final work against the culling of original scope where
approved scope and make sure it is covered by the resources become constrained on work that is non-
critical (from both a time and operational or safety Because of the compressed nature of turnarounds,
point of view). there is a very small window available for recording
and processing information on progress in order
It is desirable to classify scheduled or progressed to generate updated schedules for the next shift.
activities according to two main criteria, viz. The greater the detail in the activity definition, the
less thinking or guesswork is involved in assigning
(a) • Approved Scope
progress to the defined tasks.
• Unapproved Scope
• Cancelled Scope Activities must be clearly defined, and should be
and (b) • Original Scope measurable. This means anyone should be able to
• Add-On Scope determine whether a particular activity (as defined) is
in progress, or completed. Activities must be defined
every time there is a break or change in work content,
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT or changes in the work crew.
One of the most obvious signs of the low maturity
in turnaround project management is the state of Scheduling
the planning and scheduling that is intended toIt is of paramount importance to understand that
form the foundation of the management process. A
– unlike EPC projects where a baseline schedule
successful turnaround management methodology is often used as a firm contractual commitment
must set a high standard for the planning and – a turnaround schedule should be considered
scheduling to be successful. a guideline tool to drive the execution of the
work. This understanding is fundamental
to developing a successful turnaround
It is of paramount importance to understand that a turnaround management methodology.
schedule should be considered a guideline tool to drive the
Turnaround managers have a lot of
execution of the work. This understanding is fundamental to discretion with regard to scope management
developing a successful turnaround management methodology. in schedules. While there will be portions
of the scope aside from the critical path
work that must be executed within the
instant project, a significant portion of the scope
Activity definition may usually be postponed to future turnarounds
The planning of activities that are overly broad or maintenance opportunities. As priorities
in scope is one of the biggest obstacles to using a shift, depending upon the scope of add-on repair
schedule for any meaningful purpose. They – work and resource constraints, managers need
• are difficult to estimate with confidence, a turnaround schedule that offers flexibility in
managing the non-critical work.
• can mask details that the planner
neglected to consider,
Baseline schedules (other than for critical and
• preclude a detailed critical path near-critical paths) are meaningless for turnarounds
analysis where more detail may once they start. For turnarounds, it is expected that
allow refinements in the logic, as inspections are performed, a changing scope
• detract from the accuracy of (and therefore priorities for constrained resources
progress estimation (estimating or non-time-critical work) and often poor schedule
% complete is more difficult). compliance (due to unavoidable circumstances)
will force the schedule for non-time-critical work to
change from update to update.
Because of the dynamic nature of turnarounds it At the end of a turnaround, the final scope of the
can be counter-productive to employ soft logic execution usually encompasses several categories of
and resource levelling schemas that smooth work, viz.
the schedule. Both techniques are designed to • known scope (planned or estimated)
produce a static plan for execution that is not
• anticipated repairs (may or may not
practical for turnarounds. Soft logic will necessitate
have been planned or estimated)
constant time-consuming changes and updates to
maintain a meaningful schedule once deviations • unanticipated repairs (not
from the schedule occur (and this is expected in planned or estimated)
a turnaround). Resource levelling schemas that • unauthorised work (not
alter a hard logic schedule will introduce multiple planned or estimated)
problems within a turnaround context. (See the • cancelled work (planned or estimated
white paper Resource Levelling or Critical Mass? on our but culled during execution).
website: www.interplansystems.com/html-docs/
resource-leveling-critical-mass.html). So, prior to execution, the turnaround manager may
have a set budget covering known scope, anticipated
It is instead preferable to maintain a schedule for repairs and some contingency allowance to cater
critical and near-critical path analysis and to allow for possible remaining items. Because most indirect
field supervision discretion in directing their crews costs (though not necessarily material costs)
on non-time-critical work according to changing are keyed off the direct labour costs, the key to
priorities and circumstances. At every update successful cost control in a turnaround is execution
turnaround managers should monitor progress control (keeping resources productive) and scope
trends, productivity/earned value and scheduled management (balancing add-ons against non-critical
resource requirements, to ensure that sufficient time work).
and resources are available to complete the non-time-
critical work within the span of the critical path. Earned value management
In most cases, it is very difficult to obtain a
meaningful earned value analysis in a turnaround.
PROJECT COST MANAGEMENT There are several problems that conspire to frustrate
Turnarounds are notorious for over-running the the system:
budget. Part of the problem, as mentioned earlier
• The process for capturing and
in the Scope Planning section, is that budgets are
approving actual hours usually lags
rarely based upon the detailed plans and estimates
behind the progress updates by at
for the scope. Many turnarounds have failure
least one shift, if not two or three.
predetermined! Should budgets be based upon a
detailed plan (or at least cover the estimate for it) • The application of the correct work order
turnaround managers have a reasonable basis for and cost code number on timesheets is poor
managing costs according to the formula used in • Unauthorised work is charged to existing
EPC projects, as laid out by the PMBOK, viz. – work orders and cost codes but not
• influencing factors that create captured for planning and estimating.
changes to the cost baseline to ensure
that changes are agreed upon, Where earned value analysis is conducted, it may be
most meaningful to compare numbers analysed by
• determining that the cost
resource type instead of by work order or cost code. In
baseline has changed,
this fashion, managers may have some measure of the
• managing the actual changes productivity of the resource relative to the schedule.
when and as they occur.