Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
MIKE ASQUINI
T.A. Cook
R
efinery turnarounds project of this proportion. This load will affect the event’s cost
are massive events. For article will explain how to prop- and duration and make it very
organisations to be com- erly detail planning, schedul- difficult to maintain the already
petitive, they must be able to ing and overall management for challenging targets.
manage these maintenance the preparation of a successful Although there are many
overhaul projects and meet all turnaround. ways for an organisation to
safety, cost and duration tar- structure itself to perform
gets. Considering the quantity Phase 1: planning, site-wide a turnaround, one aspect is
of labour, and the materials and support, risk management non-negotiable: this is a site-
services a turnaround requires, Before actually executing work, wide event and must be sup-
coordination is a huge under- the right people need to plan ported by everyone. Without
taking, especially because all how they will do it. Setting this mindset, it is difficult to
of these resources add up to goals, developing strategies, accomplish the turnaround’s
significant sums of money. outlining tasks, and creating objectives. Once the goals
Beyond the financial pressures, a schedule are all important have been fully defined, man-
the logistics of predicting the aspects of planning and form agement must make sure that
costs for all of the scope, which the basis of overall turnaround everyone is aligned and under-
will include both known and development. The first step in stands all of the project’s objec-
unknown work, is particularly the process is to clearly define tives. In order to communicate
challenging. the turnaround’s objectives. all the details, management and
A successful turnaround exe- Only then will the scope of work decision-makers need to host
cution means that there are begin to take shape. Before the an informative meeting for all
absolutely no safety or environ- scope can be defined, let alone turnaround stakeholders. In this
mental setbacks, all cost and finalised, management must meeting, decision-makers need
duration targets are met and the decide what work will be done, to share all facets of the upcom-
affected units are guaranteed and what work will not be done, ing event. The areas of topic
to run at the expected rate as by creating a clearly defined set will include turnaround objec-
soon as the event ends until the of criteria. The question of what tives, project preparation sched-
beginning of the next scheduled should be included in the turn- ule, capital project integration,
turnaround. To reach that point, around’s scope should be min- sharing of lessons learned from
a site must have a strong prepa- imised at this stage by being as previous turnarounds, identi-
ration strategy in place. With the black and white and selective fying the core turnaround team
help of best practice techniques as possible. Any ambiguity will members and resource require-
and organisation requirements, lead to scope creep. This type of ments as well as initiating a
a site can control a maintenance spontaneous increase in work dynamic risk management pro-
Figure 1 An example of a risk matrix. The consequences are defined on the left, then measured against the probability of
a risk occurring
cess that remains in place until a turnaround’s success using a it thoroughly using the defined
the project officially closes. The risk matrix (see Figure 1). criteria. If proposed work meets
alignment meeting is the time The turnaround team starts the requirement, it is part of the
for employees to ask questions by minimising the risks with scope and if it does not meet the
and for management to provide the highest impact. Risks will be requirements staff should con-
answers. After this, the team added to and subtracted from sider scheduling it at a differ-
should be on the same page and the list based on the identifi- ent time, such as during routine
the overall site should be pre- cation of new risks, mitigation maintenance, as part of a capital
pared for the event. of existing risks, and changing project, during the next outage
The initiation of a risk man- conditions. Even though not (turnaround or otherwise), or
agement process is a key piece all risks can be managed, if the cancelling the work altogether.
of turnaround preparation. It turnaround team focuses work Any proposed work that does
needs to be mentioned that on the items with the highest not make the cut for inclusion in
risk management is dynamic; impact, the success of the project the turnaround still needs to be
it is forever changing. Risks can be maximised. dispositioned properly.
are inherent to all projects, but Beyond scope, there are other
fortunately they can be dealt Phase 2: scope management – preparatory activities during
with. If mitigating activities are definition and freeze this phase which are part of the
planned, risks are minimised At this point, the site should planning effort. One of these
(although not eliminated) as have all the turnaround’s objec- additional activities is coor-
much as possible. In most cases, tives defined, all personnel dination between the turna-
the list of identified risks can be aligned and the scope inclu- round team and procurement
lengthy. However, core turn- sion criterion finalised. The to identify long lead time items
around team members will next phase of the turnaround is based upon approved scope.
never have risk mitigation as selecting the actual work for Procurement will also be impor-
their only function. In order to the event. Developing the scope tant to help the site develop
efficiently and effectively man- is a rigorous process. Once the contracting strategies based on
age risk, we must rank the risks team identifies each piece of whether or not scope is clearly
and work on the ones that have work that could be added to defined. There are other fac-
the greatest potential impact on the scope, they must evaluate tors to consider when selecting