Plant shutdowns (also known as turnarounds and outages) inherently cause negative financial impact on business operations. Scheduled shutdown maintenance projects are some of, if not, the most expensive and time-consuming projects. The expense of the maintenance, as well as the loss of production, can be staggering. However, there are positive benefits to be recognized, including the following:

• Increase in asset reliability;
• Reduction in unscheduled maintenance and outages; and
• Improved production.

A well-planned and executed maintenance shutdown project ultimately leads to positive financial impact that outweighs the negative impact from the planned shutdown. To make this point clear, consider an unplanned outage caused by equipment failure may cost up to ten times more than a scheduled outage for preventive maintenance. 

ACE effective maintenance planning can improve maintenance efficiency. Improve your maintenance and shutdown planning by implementing these seven principles of planning:

Principle 1: Organize your maintenance planners into their own department. The planners report to a different supervisor than that of the maintenance technicians.

Principle 2: Focus on planning future work. Technicians provide feedback on current jobs. The maintenance planners use the feedback in planning for future work.

Principle 3: Maintain a database system based on equipment numbers for tracking jobs. Maintenance planners use data from previous jobs to improve plans for future work. For maintenance shutdown planning, shutdown planning software can improve the planning process. 

Principle 4: Use personal experience to plan work estimates to avoid delays and safety problems. The planners should be expert technicians trained in planning techniques.  

Principle 5: Recognize the skills of maintenance technicians. Provide only the minimum details necessary for job plans.

Principle 6: Understand the purpose of planning is to improve wrench time and reduce delays.

Principle 7: After a shutdown is over, use "lessons learned" to restructure some of your library job plans for reuse in future shutdowns.

When planning a maintenance shutdown (also known as "turnaround" or "outage"), your goal as the shutdown planner should be to produce a detailed, time-based plan, not just a list of jobs to complete. To make the most efficient use of the available shutdown time, strive for a minute-by-minute schedule of tasks.

Even though planned tasks may change day to day, having a detailed schedule will result in savings of time and dollars and allow you to easier manage unforeseen work. To arrive at such a schedule, follow these basic steps during your shutdown or turnaround planning process:

1.Develop the shutdown work list.

2.Plan the work scope.

3.Plan the shutdown jobs and tasks.

4.Complete the shutdown schedule.

Developing of the shutdown work list should begin immediately after completion of a preceding shutdown. During the period between shutdowns, maintenance technicians should add potential work to the work list as they recognize the work.

The technicians should initiate a work request for each job, and the request should be routed to the shutdown planner for evaluation. In addition, the shutdown planner should establish a deadline for submitting work to the work list.

As the shutdown work list is a dynamic document, you should meet regularly with representatives from other departments (i.e., the shutdown planning team) involved in the shutdown to review the work list. The primary purpose of these meetings is to eliminate jobs that may no longer be necessary and possibly add new jobs. As the cut-off deadline approaches, these meetings will result in identification of jobs that are most important and are achievable with the available resources and time.

Planning work orders for shutdowns and turnarounds is very similar to planning work orders for normal operations, with only a few differences. During a shutdown, maintenance technicians have limited time to gather parts and other information. Therefore, the plant turns to the maintenance planner, using a project management tool, to identify and reserve the parts and other resources necessary for completing the work.

The planner also can do this for reactive maintenance outside of a scheduled shutdown. However, maintenance planners place emphasis on quickly planning shutdown work orders in the event an unscheduled shutdown occurs and requires finished plans.

Individual work orders may constitute most of the work for a shutdown. However, large jobs for specific equipment may instead require data, such as parts and tools used, from previous shutdowns. A shutdown planning tool is an excellent way to make this data readily available and speeds up the shutdown planning process.

Maintenance shutdowns and turnarounds require maintenance personnel to complete a lot of work in a short period. As a result, maintenance planners may feel pressure to achieve perfect estimates of labor hours for jobs. However, estimates often cannot account for unforeseen situations that are out of a planner's control.

To reduce the stress maintenance planners feel, management should not expect planned jobs to have perfect estimates for labor hours. Management should tell planners they were selected for planning jobs based on their craft experience, to provide their best guess, and forget about it.

A maintenance shutdown, also commonly known as a plant turnaround or outage, can be disruptive to plant operations. In addition, planning and managing a shutdown is one on the most resource-intensive and costly activities a company can undertake.

Given these conditions, outsource your Shutdown Maintenance with ACE to get the results you expect from your efforts and money.

ACE maintenance services include:

• Situational Analysis;
• Enterprise Information Management System design and implementation;
• Resource management system design and implementation;
• Maintenance management information system implementation; 
• Turn-around plan, schedule and control; and
• Training.