With proper preplanning, you set yourself up for a safer, more efficient turnaround
Executing turnarounds requires considerable alignment between management, safety professionals and turnaround providers. With an overall goal of safety, these groups must also efficiently execute maintenance and repairs while reducing overall downtime. To create a successful turnaround, you need to begin with a turnaround plan.
Why We Take Turnaround Planning So Seriously
Turnarounds have many moving parts to them, all of which can compromise the safety of your workers and the productivity of your site. The best way to ensure a smooth turnaround is to understand all of its components, including the necessary equipment, budget, manpower and objectives.
Below, we outline what goes into turnaround planning for the best turnaround solutions possible.
Turnaround Equipment
Not having the right equipment on site means delayed timelines. As part of planning, all the necessary turnaround equipment needs, including respiratory protection, gas detection, PPE and fall protection, are accounted for. By properly indexing your equipment before the turnaround begins, you can properly allocate resources efficiently and effectively. That means no wasted days because you’re waiting for new equipment to arrive.
Turnaround Staffing
Just as you need the right equipment, you also need the right people in a turnaround. By preplanning your turnaround, you can reduce redundancies and staff skilled safety professionals in only the necessary roles. By developing schedules and logistics of your turnaround so that each safety professional understands their role, personnel management and activity recording become frictionless.
Communication Setup
Safe, productive turnarounds require that everyone is on the same page at every step. With a new workforce who might not know the minute details of your job site, communication keeps people safe and aware of both their roles and others’ efforts.
We meticulously lay out each level of our turnaround solutions and utilize intrinsically safe Motorola two-way radios so that all workers, supervisors and directors are able to clearly understand their roles and responsibilities.
Budgeting
Turnarounds are costly. Not only are you dedicating considerable efforts to shutting down your operations for necessary maintenance or repairs, but each day that you are in turnaround is also a day that you aren’t generating revenue. By establishing a strong preplan that accounts for all equipment, people and efforts, you have a better understanding of your total costs and can implement known contingency plans in the event of unexpected roadblocks.
Execution
With proper preparation in place, turnarounds become about executing a well-designed plan. People know where to be, the right equipment is ready for its job, and the correct problems are addressed in the right sequence. This makes for a safer turnaround, a faster turnaround and a less stressful turnaround.
Post-Turnaround Review
The benefits of a proper preplanning extend after a turnaround. With proper equipment indexing, efficient staffing and a full understanding of the turnaround efforts implemented, you have fewer loose ends to tie up after a turnaround. That means faster billing so that you can get back to production quicker. It’s also an opportunity to further improve pre-planning efforts for your next turnaround.