Dave Reykdal is the director of Tri Energy Services, a turnaround, maintenance and construction company in central Alberta, Canada. In the following article, Dave Reykdal discusses ways to improve construction industry turnaround planning and execution.
Turnarounds or shutdowns are pre-planned stoppages of entire plants or part of their operations. Regardless of the industry or type of facility, every plant requires a turnaround at some point.
Facilities conduct turnarounds for home additions, repairs, replacements, upgrades, or other regulatory compliance reasons. But essentially, all turnaround goals relate to performance optimization, safety improvement, profit increase, or cost reduction explains Dave Reykdal of Tri Energy Services.
Turnarounds come with risks; they’re battles against the clock to complete work while minimizing downtime. Overrunning on budgets or scheduling damages the bottom line. So, improving planning and execution is vital.
Dave Reykdal of Tri Energy Services says that carefully managed turnarounds help avoid common pain points and ensure a timely, budget-adhering process.
Dave Reykdal on the Common Pitfalls of Turnaround Planning and Execution
Dave Reykdal of Tri Energy Services notes that plants that operate continuously require turnarounds to identify and negate risks associated with equipment. Often, they’re the largest maintenance activity, requiring time, money, and people power.
If turnarounds are executed on schedule, on budget, and with all tasks completed, they’re considered successful. Unfortunately, however, only about 32% of them meet this criterion.
Dave Reykdal explains that the common pain points and pitfalls tend to involve the following:
Resourcing
Standard budgeting procedures might not work for turnaround planning. Budgets should be approved almost 24 months in advance, including contingency plans to account for lost production or overruns.
Scoping
Turnaround planners often bundle jobs that can be finalized while the plant operates into turnarounds, increasing shutdown times unnecessarily and diverting manpower away from pressing tasks.
Plus, the lack of individual work order detail presents problems, as does insufficient visibility with overall scheduling.
Scheduling
Dave Reykdal of Tri Energy Services says that abrupt changes in the schedule undermine the plan, add costs, and increase the complexity of turnaround management.
6 Ways to Improve Turnaround Planning and Execution
Dave Reykdal of Tri Energy Services says that by following the steps below, professionals stand the best chance of avoiding the pitfalls by improving their turnaround planning and execution strategies:
#1 Craft the Schedule
Dave Reykdal says that all-plant turnarounds should be crafted ten years in advance. After all, facilities are long-term assets; thus, they fail to fit into the standard investment and deterioration cycles with companies’ usual two- or five-year plans.
With a ten-year turnaround plan, professionals get sufficient insights into optimization routes, inefficient processes, and best protocols. Plus, companies can attract and manage servicers.
#2 Ensure Budgets Align
The budget estimate should be secured a minimum of 12 months before the actual turnaround occurs, as per the ten-year schedule.
Failing to finalize the budget in good time presents procurement issues and avoidable cost increases. To do this, Dave Reykdal of Tri Energy Services recommends:
including costs in the previous year’s budget as per historical spending OR
establishing a parallel turnaround budget process that adheres to longer timelines.
#3 Plan a Rigorous Closeout Process
Closeout inspections must be rigorous and confirmed in advance. Ideally, plants should examine operations at three major points:
- Before restarting the plant — Check critical jobs are completed, update SOPs, evacuation, pre-startup safety reviews, and more.
- 15 to 30 days after restart — Ensure satisfactory operation, demobilize all contractors, increase clearing of invoices, and restock supplies.
- Three months after restart — Conduct formal closure and present findings.
#4 Resource a Knowledgeable, Technically Minded Team
For improved turnaround execution, teams must include several core team members, such as:
- Plant manager
- Operations manager
- HSE manager
- Production area managers
- Maintenance managers
- Engineering manager
- Production engineering manager
- Mechanical integrity manager
- Cost accountant
- Safety and reliability manager
- Sourcing representatives
Turnaround teams can then use their combined knowledge to problem solve, determine needs, set benchmarks, identify remediation points, and investigate solutions.
#5 Construction Time
With everything transparently planned, construction begins on the preset date and time. The clock starts ticking from the word go.
At this stage, Dave Reykdal says that vigilance is vital. Management teams need to assess performance against the schedule to ensure materials are in the right place at the right time. Plus, they can identify mishaps or emergencies in good time to avoid devastating consequences.
#6 Turnaround Completion and Reporting
Finally, it’s time to execute the pre-defined closeout procedure. A turnaround’s success rests on its scheduling and budget adherence. If both were completed, it’s likely a success.
Dave Reykdal of Tri Energy Services says that reporting is essential to ensuring future turnarounds are completed successfully, even if the most recent plan didn’t work as well as the team expected.
