The single biggest burden plant owners face in terms of maintenance is plant shutdowns. When operations fully stop at a site, the plant isn’t profitable. The longer the shutdown, the deeper it cuts into the plant’s bottom line.

As a result, plants are turning to grooved mechanical piping systems to help shorten the shutdown time, among other benefits. These piping systems allow supervisors to allocate their budget, labour force and on-site resources much more efficiently.

A grooved mechanical piping system consists of four elements: the grooved pipe, the gasket, the coupling housings and the nuts and bolts. The pipe groove is made by cold forming or machining a groove onto the end of a pipe. A gasket enclosed in coupling housings is wrapped around the two ends of the pipe, and the key section of the coupling housing engages the groove. The bolts and nuts are tightened with a socket wrench or impact wrench, which holds the housings together. In the installed state, the coupling housings encase the gasket and engage the groove around the circumference of the pipe to create a leak-tight seal in a self-restrained pipe joint. Piping up to 60 inches in diameter can be grooved and joined with couplings. For piping greater than 60 inches in diameter, special rings can be applied to the pipe ends, and the joint can be assembled with a coupling.

Joining pipe with grooved mechanical couplings can be up to 10 times faster than welding because the gasket and housings simply need to be positioned on the grooved pipe ends, and the bolts and nuts tightened with standard hand tools.

The Safer Solution
In addition to the time savings and ease of installation, grooved mechanical piping systems also offer improved safety during installation. When welding, workers face hazards from toxic fumes, flames and sparks, which can cause burns, eye damage and even explosions. Because fires are a concern, welding requires a fire watch during and following the work, which slows the installation or maintenance schedule and increases plant downtime. Grooved systems, on the other hand, do not require an open flame or arc during installation, and a fire watch is not necessary when assembling or disassembling a grooved joint.

SImple Maintenance
When it comes to maintenance, grooved mechanical piping systems offer easy access, which is as simple as disassembling the coupling by loosening the nuts and bolts and removing the housings and gasket. Welded systems convert individual pipe sections into a single unit, making it much harder to access a specific point in the system.

As well, downtime is extremely costly, and grooved systems can reduce downtime by as much as 25 percent compared to welded systems, so a typical plant shutdown of a week or two can be shortened to as little as a few days.

Performance Benefits
Couplings offer several performance benefits that alternative pipe joining methods cannot match. With the availability of rigid and flexible couplings, a grooved joint can be completely rigid, like a welded joint, or offer flexibility to accommodate deflection, thermal expansion and contraction, seismic movement and vibration. Couplings localize vibration within the pipeline, dampening the vibration of the system.

Couplings can also significantly reduce or eliminate energy loss attributed to leaks in compressed air systems, which is one of the most common and costly problems a plant can face. Compressed air lines with threaded pipe joints are especially prone to leaks because standard plant activities that expose pipes to impact or vibration can loosen the thread tape or sealant. Improper initial installation and poor thread cuts can also cause leaks. Unlike leaks in water lines, for example, a leak in an airline is not visible and often unheard because of the noise level within the plant. Although there are steps a plant can take to find the leaks and mitigate the problem, often the fix is to tighten the joint. However, tightening one end of a threaded joint ultimately loosens an adjacent joint, so fixing one leak may lead to a new one. Compressed air systems joined with couplings practically eliminate leaks, potentially saving the plant hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Although there are some upfront costs involved in retrofitting the compressed air system, many plants have realized long-term cost savings based on reduced energy costs.

Grooved Helps Plants Meet Their Goals
Grooved mechanical piping systems reduce installation time, improve worker safety, allow for easier maintenance, provide faster turnaround time during plant shutdowns, and offer unmatched performance benefits. These attributes can make grooved pipe joining technology an ideal choice for utility and process piping systems throughout a plant.

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John MacFarland is the Canadian power-market manager with Victaulic, a producer of mechanical pipe joining systems. For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

Taltson Hydro is back in service.
 
Located 64 kilometers north of Fort Smith on the Taltson River in the Northwest Territories, the 18-MW plant with the Northwest Territories Power Corp. provides power to Fort Smith, Hay River, Hay River Reserve, Fort Resolution and Enterprise.
 
Last fall, from Sept. 9 to 18, 2009, Taltson underwent an annual scheduled maintenance shutdown. During start-up testing on Sept. 18, inordinately high bearing temperatures were recorded. The unit was shut down. Further inspection determined the thrust bearing at the head of the turbine (generator) had failed rendering the unit inoperable. The back-up bearing was installed to bring the unit back in service.

NTPC staff took many steps over the next several days to bring the unit back to service as quickly as possible.
 
The original equipment manufacturer was flown to site over the weekend to assess the damage and assist in developing a restoration plan. Within 48 hours, the manufacturer had dispatched five staff to remove the bearing.  NTPC located and dispatched specialized scaffolding equipment to the site and located an industrial facility that could repair the bearing. They company released a press release saying they were back online at the beginning of November 2009.

“A number of people worked day and night until all the resources needed were in place. Their commitment to keep the lights on and keep equipment serving our customers is second to none,” said Brian Willows, chief operating officer.  

Customers were served by diesel generation while repairs took place.
www.ntpc.com

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

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

CONTENTS on this page: 1. Reduce surprises 2. Use software 3. Plan properly 4. Don’t over-order materials 5. Make certain there are enough supplies 6. Limit unneeded rentals 7. Eliminate unused resources 8. Validate the work list 9. Settle claims with contractors 10. Have good, efficient meetings

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

Based on my experience from a variety of shutdowns, including those in the oil/gas, utilities, mining and primary metal industries, here are some important actions to take:

1. Reduce surprises
At the beginning of a shutdown (when you start opening things up), you may discover some surprises. Some ideas to reduce this occurrence include:

• Open everything on day one;
• Keep a history based on previous experience. Such a history will be important, as it will show any deterioration in efficiency. A lot of things deteriorate at a relatively constant pace and they have similar failure modes;
• Diagnostic predictive maintenance technology (i.e. infrared and vibration analysis) might give an indication of what’s going on. Schedule non-destructive testing (NDT) right before you close the work list;
• Maintenance workers on an oil platform in the Gulf of Thailand do a mini-shutdown before conducting a bigger shutdown. When they do a mini-shutdown, they open everything up, perform inspections, close the job and go back into service. This isn’t possible in a lot of places, but crewmembers said their shutdowns were relatively controlled and didn’t produce a lot of surprises.

2. Use software
If there are more than 25 tasks in the shutdown (a very small event) then using software for project management will lean up the shutdown by shortening the duration. Be sure planners and schedulers are well trained in the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK), including intimacy with whatever software package you use. The advantages are simple:

• By calculating the critical path, you know early on if the project is on or off schedule;
• By realizing the tasks that are on or near the critical path, you know what to focus on;
• Knowing that without extra intervention, if a critical path item is behind, then the whole project will be late;
• You can see a problem coming when it’s small enough to easily fix; and
• You can create displays that explain the shutdown and show its current status.

3. Plan properly
Did you know that 85 percent of planning and scheduling is done before the shutdown begins? The point of planning is to identify the elements of a particular, unique job. The main point of scheduling involves precisely bringing together the key elements of a unique specific maintenance job:

• People with the right skills to perform the job and are physically able and mentally alert;
• Safe job steps;
• Correct parts, materials, tools, supplies and consumables for the job;
• Adequate equipment for lifting, bending, drilling, welding, etc.;
• Personal-protective equipment (PPE);
• Proper permits and lock outs;
• Custody and control of the asset;
• Safe access to assets, safe-work platforms and humane working conditions;
• Updated drawings and wiring diagrams and other information; and
• Proper waste disposal.

Make sure you take advantage of the time before the job starts to line up all of the elements. Remember if any item is missing, the job will stop or people will improvise, which increases the probability of a problem with quality and safety.

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

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

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

7. Eliminate unused resources
Be on the look out for situations where resources are being paid for, but because of resource-levelling problems, they’re not being used. Have some lean projects at the ready. This would also include spending a little extra to leave scaffolding to do some routine maintenance after the shutdown, or keeping cranes for a few extra days, as well as labour during the shutdown.

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

9. Settle claims with contractors
Settle claims with your contractors promptly.

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

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

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This is an edited article written by Joel Levitt, president of U.S.-based Springfield Resources. You can reach him by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . The article is partially adapted from Lean Maintenance and Managing Maintenance Shutdowns and Outages textbooks both published by Industrial Press.

Properly balancing shutdown, turnaround and outage (STO) strategies requires a company to have a complete view of its entire asset base. This means being able to balance the demands for production, maintenance and engineering changes from the asset base. By examining the complete lifecycle of the asset, you can determine the true impact that properly managed STOs can have on the total cost for the asset.

The challenge for managers in any business is to identify the critical elements that determine success or failure in their respective disciplines. Doing so is a three step process:

1. Reinforce and exploit those elements that generate success;
2. Eliminate, so far as is possible, those that lead to failure and finally;
3. Recognize those that are beyond their power to affect.

Managing shutdowns is no different. Out of vital decisions, activities and constraints that drive a shutdown, the manager has to distill and extract those critical elements that determine the outcome of the event. Further, if excellent performance on a continuing basis is the objective, then the elements must be fashioned into a framework that can be used as a blueprint for success on an ongoing basis.

This article presents such a framework. It was developed in Great Britain over a period of years by a number of professional shutdown managers and engineers. Their aim was to understand in detail how shutdowns worked — and why they sometimes didn't — so that a system could be developed for repeatable success. The final product of this process is the Framework for Excellence for Shutdown Management.

The framework is deceptively simple but the managers and engineers who have used it around the world (now numbering over one hundred), either to audit their company's performance or as a framework to create a comprehensive shutdown methodology.

It is simply a checklist of basic requirements. At a higher level, it is a tactical tool that allows us to focus time money and effort where they are needed. At its highest level, it is a mechanism to promote strategic management thinking. But before plunging into the main body of this article it may be advantageous to examine three larger frameworks that influence the ability to use the Framework for Excellence.

The shutdown in a business context
The function of business is to generate profit. Profit is what is left when the cost of production and distribution is subtracted from the selling price. Production requires a reliable manufacturing plant to produce sufficient throughput of the right quality of product to make it worth selling. The function of maintenance is to protect the reliability of the plant. A shutdown in its simplest form is a large maintenance event during which existing plant equipment is inspected and refurbished, new equipment is installed and redundant equipment is removed — all to promote reliability in the plant that provides the production that generates the profit.

In establishing this direct link between shutdown effectiveness and business effectiveness, it may seem to the reader that I am simply stating the obvious. I am. And the reason is: in dealing with a large number of companies over the last 10 years, I have met many managers and engineers who, if their actions are any guide, have forgotten the existence of the link or never knew it existed in the first place.

The shutdown as a project
A shutdown has all of the elements of a project but it also has some unique features to it. The most crucial of these distinctions is the uncertainty generated by the project. Admittedly, there are uncertainties in any kind of project, but these are normally generated by the environment — late delivery of materials, etc. However, one thing that is known, and usually very well defined, is the scope of work.

In the case of the shutdown there is an inherent uncertainty that lies at the heart of the project — the actual work scope of the project is unknown until we open up equipment inspect it. For the purpose of this article we shall call this "emergent" work simply because it is work that only emerges after the project is underway.

Under normal circumstances, emergent work may increase the work scope by between five and 15 percent. Under abnormal circumstances the increase in work scope and its attendant difficulties can increase the impact of the emergent work to the point where it may dwarf the original work scope. Unfortunately, as plants age, as we lose more and more local knowledge of our plants through employee down-sizing, and as we outsource more and more work to contract companies who (rightly) require visible payment for every task they perform, there is an increasing risk that the abnormal may become the norm unless we do something to reverse the trend.

I am frequently asked by clients "Why are we not doing our shutdowns as well as we used to?" The answer may well be: "Because over a period of years you have changed the way you do shutdowns and you have not made adequate provisions for the change." Of course, there is always the niggling suspicion that we never actually did them as well as we thought — but that's a whole other can of worms.

Because of the uncertainty, we schedule work, enter into contracts, and procure resources against a plan that is, at best, an intelligent estimate, very often a hopeful guess, and at worst, a venture into the unknown.

As responsible engineers however, we cannot, in the face of this uncertainty, simply wring our hands and hope for the best. We must develop a routine for handling emergent work that will allow us to eliminate as much of the uncertainty as we can before the event and minimize its impact during the event.

Uncertainty, coupled with the need to exert control over it is, in my estimation, one of the main factors that make a shutdown a unique type of project.

The shutdown as a process

If, as I and others contend, a shutdown is a rational process then we should be able to describe it in simple terms and lay bare the logical sequence of events that leads from the first to the last action. There are others who contend that it's much more complicated and, for reasons best known to themselves, hide behind the parapet of confusion. "We've always done it this way!" is their credo. The rational process is made up of five main phases.

PHASE 1 — Initiation
This is the strategic phase in the process. It is the most crucial because it forms the foundation for everything else that comes after. It is also, sadly, the least understood and the most ignored of the phases.

Initiating the shutdown is the responsibility of the senior management of the company. It requires the concerted input and commitment of the senior managers in all key elements of business including, but not limited to, business, marketing, asset management, engineering, operations/ manufacturing, maintenance, quality and safety.

It is the responsibility of these managers to consider and balance the drivers, constraints and requirements of the shutdown to ensure it is performed on a sound business footing. It is also their responsibility to formulate the objectives and limits for the shutdown that will define the context within which everyone else will work.

PHASE 2 — Preparation
This is the longest phase of the shutdown process during which information from many sources is collected, validated, collated and processed into plans, schedules and estimates. The common name for this activity is "planning". The reason we need to plan a shutdown is because it is a complex event. But the planning of a shutdown is a complex process — so does that mean we have to plan the planning?

The answer is most certainly yes. This preparation network highlights the large number of activities that have to be performed within the preparation time frame to ensure all is ready for the event start date and the tasks are not only completed, but have been approved by the senior management.

PHASE 3 — Execution
Execution of a shutdown is performed by a (relatively) large group of people in a small geographical area using many different working techniques, some of which are inherently hazardous, under time and financial pressures. This requires an effective organization working for a professional manager to carry out the plans and schedules required to meet the objectives of the event.

The event itself can be further sub-divided into three main phases.

1. Shutting the plant down — when the plant is brought offline and, if necessary decontaminated and pacified.
2. Performing the scheduled work — when all of the planned major tasks, minor tasks and bulkwork are carried out, including any emergent work
3. Starting the plant up — when the plant systems are recommissioned, tested and brought back online until full production is achieved.

How these three phases are integrated will have a significant effect on safety, costs and duration.

PHASE 4 —Termination
This phase has two distinct features:
1. The handover of the plant systems to the production teams; the removal of all traces of the shutdown from the plant; and the final inspection and hand back.
2. The debriefing of the personnel involved in the shutdown to learn lessons from the event that can be used for future improvement; and the shutdown manager's final report that records the conduct of the event and will provide a starting point for the management team charged with organizing the next event.

PHASE 5 — The interim
This phase, as its title implies, is the period of time between the termination of one event and the initiation of the next. The types of activities carried out during this phase are those that will facilitate the learning process from one event to the next — updating and archiving of shutdown systems, procedures and documentation, training needs analysis and the recruitment and training of key personnel, review and amendment of contracts, and the introduction of new operation and maintenance techniques aimed at reducing the need for, and the impact of, shutdowns.

It must be pointed out that this phase would only exist within companies that considered the business of shutdowns as a continuous process with the events as successive links in a logical chain stretching over the life of the plant. Companies who view shutdowns as discrete, unconnected events that happen once every few years can never reap the benefits of the interim phase.

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Tom Lenahan is an acknowledged expert in the field of plant shutdowns and turnarounds. Based out of the U.K., Tom has worked and consulted internationally. His 1999 book, Turnaround Management, published by Butterworth Heinemann shows the maintenance manager or project leader how to get the job done correctly. He can be reached at www.T-T-L.co.uk/.

A shutdown is a major task that has a significant business impact. Shutdowns are expensive because they are labour and material-intensive and because they take productive capacity off-line. It is imperative that shutdowns are carried out quickly and effectively to minimize negative business impacts.

This handbook focuses primarily on the latter. What defines a successful shutdown? Is it keeping within budget? Is it completing the planned work scope? Is it starting the facility back up on time and without incident? Is any one of these alone an indicator of success?

How can we call a shutdown successful if all the work we had planned to complete was not executed? Or the duration had to be extended to complete the entire work scope? Or the actual expenditures exceeded the budget by more than the allowed contingency? All of these are factors in gauging the success of a shutdown. If the objectives in any one of these areas have not been met, we cannot call the shutdown successful.

It does not matter whether we are looking at a paper machine down-day or a total petrochemical complex turnaround. There are a number of common factors in the success of the shutdown activity.

Problems commonly encountered in shutdown execution are:

• Lack of an integrated management strategy;
• Unclear definition of work responsibilities.;
• Incomplete work scope definition;
• Ineffective planning effort;
• Uncoordinated procurement of shutdown materials; and
• Poor contractor control and communications.

Any one of these and a number of other reasons can contribute to a failure to achieve shutdown objectives.

The discussion that follows will be put forth in the context of a large facility shutdown or turnaround carried out on an annual or bi-annual basis. The basic concepts are as applicable to a six-week schedule of down-days or wash-days as they are to the large, multi-week unit turnarounds. This article will cover the main phases of a management shutdown process and the key activities in each of the process phases. There is no attempt to lay out the individual steps in detailed chronological order; rather we present an overview of the important steps, key decisions and activities necessary to manage the high-profile facility shutdowns.

Organizations that are successful in completing the planned activities on time and on budget share several key traits in their approach to shutdowns. First and foremost they believe in two overriding principles:

1. That there must be clear and continuing communications between all stakeholders in the organization;
2. That shutdown planning is a continuous activity that is essential to success.
These organizations have a long-range strategic plan with specific objectives that are directly linked to overall business goals.

There are shorter-term objectives that establish criteria for all of the key components of shutdown management, from scope-determination to improvement activities.

Successful organizations will have a model that outlines all of the key phases of a shutdown management plan. From the model, they developed a step-by-step process that links all the phases and provides a meticulous guideline for carrying out the individual steps required to complete each phase of the shutdown plan.

There are defined roles with responsibilities that are specific to the management of shutdowns; all are linked to the steps in the process.

The process includes steps that cover all the activities necessary to develop and manage an effective, comprehensive and successful shutdown plan.

The process will include steps that:

• Provide for the development of long-range facility shutdown maintenance plans that are used to establish shorter-term goals and specific shutdown objectives;
• Require the creation of a team organized to manage the overall shutdown;
• Establish a disciplined work identification and work scope development process that encompasses all departments and functions that are involved with the facility and will account for all activities undertaken during the shutdown;
• Ensure that there is adequate time for the detailed planning of all jobs included in the scope and to allow for the development of a detailed schedule for the shutdown;
• Include the execution of the shutdown plan as well as all necessary pre- and post-shutdown activities for maintenance, operations and engineering and the continuous monitoring of progress against the schedule to aid in the early identification of potential problems and initiation of control actions;
• Allow for the gathering of feedback and the use of that feedback for the improvement of all the components of the overall shutdown management process.

The long term strategy provides the overriding philosophy regarding facility outages and encompasses a period of no less than five years and may extend out to 10. It links items such as the organizational growth plan and its marketing plan with its facility improvement and upgrade plan and its overall asset management and maintenance plan. It is used to aid the long-range budgeting cycle and will aid in balancing activities from one year to the next. The strategy will define the overall approach to shutdowns and will provide guidelines regarding issues such as inspection intervals, preference for unit shutdowns vs. complete facility outage, etc. The strategy will also lay out the requirement for resources over the long term and can be used to balance the requirements across various time frames including those for contractor support where needed.

There should be a review team in place that meets semi-annually or quarterly and is composed of: production management, maintenance management, planning and scheduling and engineering. The team's primary role is to manage the long term planning process at its facility. It will provide a mechanism for the input and review of proposed activities from all departments. It will also evaluate current stationary and mechanical inspections that require a shutdown and the frequency of those inspections.

This will determine a framework from which the long range shutdown plan can be built. The details for specific periods in the long-range shutdown plan will differ in detail depending on your planning horizon and generally doesn't include specific dates. At this stage we are only determining that there is a need for a shutdown and what major activities are scheduled for that shutdown.

The short-term or annual plans are much more focused and are built on a 12 to 18 month horizon. It is the beginning of the detailed planning cycle for the upcoming shutdown. Shorter term plans are developed and managed by a shutdown management team. That team involves those responsible for production material supply, sales and marketing, MRO materials management and representatives from operations, maintenance and engineering. This is to ensure that there is direct communication between all the groups who are impacted by the facility shutdown and to minimize any conflicts between sales requirements and the facility's production capacity.

The key ongoing role of the team is to manage the overall shutdown planning process, forming the core of the organization that is put in place to effectively execute all the necessary steps in the shutdown management process. All the members of the team have specific roles with defined responsibilities in the execution of the shutdown planning process and will be accountable to make sure that all milestones are clearly identified, deadlines are met and to monitor the overall shutdown plan development. This shutdown organization is responsible for managing the budget, schedule and allocation of resources throughout the shutdown. The size and complexity of the organization established to execute the shutdown activities will vary with the size and complexity of the facility it is supporting.

The team will begin the creation of a more detailed plan based on the budget forecast and the need to balance the requirements for a shutdown with the real time production requirements as well as long-term market fluctuation. It will establish the specific objectives for the upcoming shutdown. By taking all the activities identified in the long-term strategic plan, plus all other activities that are proposed, including maintenance items like equipment inspections, overhauls and any capitol improvements, the team will begin to identify the activities that are critical to the success of the shutdown and those that will be part of the critical path. It can also identify potential bottlenecks to successful completion by reviewing, in detail, all of the work scheduled for the shutdown. The team will also continuously review all identified work activities to ensure that the shutdown is indeed the most appropriate time to do the work proposed. One point must be continually emphasised — shutdowns accomplish specific goals in as short a time as is possible while maintaining a safe work place. Since it takes the facility out of production, the shutdown cannot be allowed to "grow" to accommodate everything that anyone wants — it must remain focused on the business objective. Only work that requires a shutdown should be included in the work scope. It should not be treated as an opportunity to reduce the backlog or to do all the nice-to-have jobs. The shutdown management team establishes necessary control documents and reporting procedures required to provide information for progress reporting and key performance measurement reporting. This will include the processes and control documents necessary for the management of all "extra" and "added" work activities as they are identified, at any time after the "cut-off" date, either prior to or during the shutdown period.

There are a number of milestones that must be set as a part of the defined shutdown management process and others that will need to be established by the team. Of these milestones, two of the most crucial are the actual shutdown date and the work cut-off date. While it is sufficient to know only the month for the shutdown early in the planning process, the actual dates should be established as early as possible since almost all other milestones are generally "backed up" from this date. The other key date is the work identification "cut-off" date, which is set between four to six months prior to the shutdown start. The actual interval will vary depending on the size and complexity of the facility, but it is seldom less than four months. This is the point where the work scope is "fixed" for the shutdown and the final budget can be developed. The major drivers behind this date are the length of lead-time needed to acquire major shutdown-related materials and the need to notify and confirm contract resources. After this date, any work that is requested will require approval before being added to the work scope. The work justification and approval processes are part of the defined management process and are rigorously applied to all activities identified after the cut-off date. This is the only way the shutdown-planning group can have any chance of putting together a schedule that can be realistically completed.

Shutdown work identification is an ongoing activity and effectively starts the day after the previous shutdown is completed. A large portion of the actual work included in the scope of any shutdown is either repetitive from shutdown to shutdown (e.g.: catalyst bed changes, filter media replacement), mandated by regulatory bodies (e.g.: vessel inspections, relief valve tests), or drawn from the long-range facility plan (e.g.: capitol improvements, major equipment overhauls). There will also be a number of activities identified during condition-based-maintenance, on-the-run inspections or identified by operations or maintenance personnel in the normal course of operation.

In all cases, there must be a formal mechanism in place to collect and evaluate all the proposed shutdown work for it to be approved for completion during the shutdown. Each job that is proposed for the shutdown should have an owner or sponsor that understands the full scope of the proposed work. The proposal for work should be submitted with written justification, an initial risk assessment and reference to approved business plans where appropriate.

The shutdown management team is responsible for reviewing, validating and prioritizing all proposed shutdown work prior to including it in the final scope of the shutdown. Establishing a work list review process is essential to any successful shutdown. The review team defines the scope and final budget for submission to your management team. If these steps are not managed properly, the collection of proposed work items could be seen as an open invitation for all departments to enter not just shutdown items but routine work that should be conducted outside the project's window. When asking for the proposed work items the need for clear direction is required to make sure that only shutdown work is submitted to the review team. Remember shutdowns are not an overtime equalization opportunity but a strategic piece of business that needs to be monitored and controlled.

Planning of the jobs identified for the shutdown should follow the same methodology that you use for your routine maintenance. It is, however, a common misconception that shutdown planning is totally different from planning used in routine maintenance planning. There is no difference in the level of planning that should be put into your routine planning or your shutdown planning.

You need to document work plans for all jobs. Those plans include: estimates of time and labour, identification of safety and environmental concerns, identification of parts and material requirements, tool and equipment requirements and key steps in completing the work. If the work that has been identified for your shutdown has been completed in the past, there probably is an existing plan already built for it. If the shutdown job is new then you need to start detailing the job. Planning of jobs has to start as they are identified and approved by the shutdown management team for budget estimates to be available at the cut off date.

As part of the planning process there will need to be a review of all procedures and work practices required for process decontamination and vessel/confined space entry. Procedures will have to be developed to cover all new tasks undertaken and all existing critical task procedures will need be reviewed, updated as required and then signed off during the planning stages of the shutdown. Blind/lock-out sheets need to be reviewed and updated as required. As well, the pre-start-up equipment inspection and checkout procedures should be reviewed.

Once the cut-off date has passed and the complete scope of the shutdown is known, the final work list can be compiled and reconciled against the available budget. At this stage of the shutdown pre-planning process, the shutdown work list review team will start totaling all the submitted work ranked by the priority assigned to the submitted job.

Necessary contingency allowances are added at this time to cover non-discretionary work that could arise as the shutdown work proceeds. In the best-case scenario, the total of the work estimates, with contingencies, are within the budgeted amount and the shutdown can proceed. The more common situation is that the shutdown team does not have the budget to accomplish all of the submitted work. There is then a management decision that is required. Either the lower priority jobs are dropped off the work list and deferred to the next shutdown or you must increase the budget allowance for the activity. From here onwards any additional work that is identified requires management approval and budget before it is included in the shutdown work scope. This may require dropping some other less critical activity or a further increase of the budget to complete the added work. Once the scope and date of the shutdown are fixed, the outstanding planning activities can be completed. Two of most obvious are the staffing plan for the shutdown and the ordering of consumables, tools, rental supplies and any outstanding short delivery items. Determining how much of the work can be completed by internal resources and how much will require contract resources is a critical part of the planning process and will impact the final scheduling of jobs within the overall shutdown schedule.

A number of questions need to be addressed in determining the staffing plan:

• What resources are available from the unit or site outside the maintenance organization and which shutdown activities could they be used to complete?
• Can personnel be brought in from other units on the same site or from other sites? What jobs require specialized skills?
• Which of the jobs on the list must be done by site employees?

These questions need to be answered during the schedule development to determine the actual resource requirements. Once these questions are answered and the schedule put together in a draft form, the contractors can be contacted and provided with numbers of people required by trade. It is up to the shutdown team to question the need for contractors if resources can be obtained from other sites.

Once the numbers of contractors and the work they are being requested to perform is known, the number of supervisors can be determined. Outside shops can also be notified of the time frame that they will be receiving the requested work or when the materials and parts they are preparing will be required.

Other important steps in the shutdown planning process are:

• Identify materials storage and lay down areas;
• Designate equipment wash areas;
• Establishing crew-marshalling areas in the event of an emergency; and
• Determine what lunch, lavatory and change room facility requirements are required — ensure they are available

The scheduling of shutdown work begins with identifying the activities that will determine the "critical path" for the shutdown. The critical path activity is usually one of the key business drivers for your shutdown. The critical path (or sometimes paths) defines the shortest period of time in which the shutdown can be completed. As such, it is the series of interrelated jobs which add up to the longest period of time required to complete the key activities. Once you have the critical path on the schedule, start adding in the other known shutdown jobs to the schedule. Task dependencies can impact the critical path so you must also look for areas where that occurs as it could cause problems during the shutdown and lead to delays in start up.

Planning and scheduling are concurrent activities for shutdowns. As detailed plans are developed, they are added to the initial shutdown schedule. As more details are defined, the schedule may need to be altered to accommodate the changes.

Once the work cut-off date has passed and the complete scope of the shutdown is approved, the detailed scheduling of the activities within the shutdown interval can begin. Several schedule scenarios can be developed to determine the optimum shift schedule and total resource requirements.

The importance of managing and minimizing changes to the work scope after this point cannot be stressed enough. Each change will have some level of impact on the overall schedule. Crew utilization, task order, job dependencies and equipment requirements will all have to be reviewed and reworked as required.

The schedule should include all the events leading up to the actual shutdown of the facility. Critical parts deliveries, fabrication work and procedure documentation should be detailed on the schedule as they form a critical path of their own in being prepared for the shutdown.

The integration of the operations and management tasks into a shutdown master plan is a major milestone in the process; most shutdowns concentrate solely on the maintenance or project work that is to be done during the shutdown. The shutting down, isolation and decontamination, management tasks, safety inspections and start-up are all part of the entire operation and impact the total length of a shutdown.

The execution of the shutdown should be as simple as following the detailed plan and schedule. It actually starts, however, when work begins on the first make-ready job for the shutdown. This may be the fabrication of replacement components either onsite or in a vendor's shops. This work starts well in advance of the actual shutdown date and could even be started several months before the schedule is finalized. Just as it is imperative that the shutdown team closely monitor progress during the execution of the shutdown, it is just as important that the team manage these pre-shutdown activities with as much diligence. These pre-shutdown activities can contribute to more significant delays than many of the potential problems that may be encountered during the shutdown itself. The status of these preparation jobs needs to be included as an agenda item on each shutdown throughout the time leading up to the shutdown.

Facility preparation work can and should be treated as a separate critical path. The more that can be accomplished without creating hazards or interrupting normal operation prior to the actual start of the work activities the better. Set up all the scaffolding that is needed throughout the shutdown or have it staged and ready to be set up.

The cost of renting scaffold is minimal compared to having tradespeople waiting for scaffolding to be erected. By completing all pre-work that is possible before the shutdown, the shutdown team is prepared to only manage the shutdown and the unexpected work encountered during its execution. The point at which the shutdown team begins to meet on a once per shift basis will depend on the activities that are underway at the site. Once the facility is down, there is no question about there being status update meetings at least once every shift.

One of the agenda items at these regular meetings will be to review and approve any "added" or "extra" work activities that have arisen. Added work is any variance to the original scope of an approved shutdown worklist item that are identified after the scope lock-down date. Extra work is any new work identified after the shutdown work list cut-off.

Both added and extra work items should be tracked and reported separately as part of the overall shutdown reporting process. The shutdown work completion is only one major step in the process at this point. There are several other key steps that have to be included in the process. Pre-start-up safety and environmental reviews and start-up inspections are crucial to an incident free start-up. Housekeeping and the physical integrity of the facility are critical to a safe start-up.

Start-up can be the most stressful part of any shutdown. We have all heard the saying: "We are great at shutting it down, but starting it up was another story." There is no magic formula for starting up a facility. But, having well defined procedures for the start-up at your facility are one key component. Another is to make sure that you have the right mixture of operations and maintenance personnel coverage during the start-up to address problems that do arise.

The final step in the execution phase is the demobilization after the shutdown. It is as important as doing the pre-work before a shutdown. The post-shutdown demobilization of all the contract and support crews, the return of all rental equipment, tools and surplus materials should be part of your total shutdown schedule and resource plan and it should be managed with the same thoroughness. By having the people available to remove all of the rental equipment and to clean up the facility you allow the operations teams to focus on the operation of the facility and making quality product.

The last phase of the shutdown management process are the steps that detail the activities necessary for follow-up and improvement of the overall process. It is the one phase that is most often not completed or only partially completed, yet it is the phase that has the most potential for providing lasting payback for future shutdowns. It entails the capture of what has been learned from the shutdown just completed for use in improving the management and conduct of the next shutdown.

The steps will include the completion of all documentation relating to all the work completed, the updating of equipment information for any modifications completed as well as the documentation of all repair work performed for equipment history.

The last item on the overall schedule is often the shutdown review meeting where a cross section of the facilities personnel and representatives of the major contractors meet. Their purpose is to identify what went well and what improvements could be implemented in the process. The outcome of this should be a series of action items with assigned responsibilities and specified completion dates. Outcomes from the meeting will be used to upgrade the long range and short term plans as appropriate. This is really the start of the process for the next shutdown.

There is no single factor that will ensure a shutdown is completed successfully, that it is on budget, on time and that the identified work scope gets completed. Clearly, there are any number of items that, if not managed appropriately, could spell disaster in the execution of the shutdown activities. The common keys to success are: communications between all groups, the shutdown affects, having a long-range plan for the maintenance of the facility and having a management process that details the steps and activities necessary for the effective completion of the shutdown.

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Alan Johnson is a Principal Consultant with PwC Consulting, Physical Asset Management Group, Edmonton, AB. This article was written with help from the following individuals:
- Members of the PwC Consulting, Physical Asset Management Group making significant contributions to this article.
- Tom Hubbard, Principal Consultant, Physical Asset Management Group, PwC Consulting, Calgary, AB
- Hugh Watson, Principal Consultant, Physical Asset Management Group, PwC Consulting, Portland, OR
- Jim Picknell, Director, Physical Asset Management Group, PwC Consulting, Toronto, ON
- Overall direction provided by John D. Campbell, Global Partner, Physical Asset Management, PwC Consulting, Toronto, ON