Turnarounds, shutdowns and outages, written from the field.
Long-form guides on planning, readiness, material, cost and the sector-specific events. No gate, no email. Each one ends with the questions to ask a vendor and a short FAQ.
Turnaround software, spreadsheets or a project tool?
Most turnarounds run on a mix of spreadsheets, a scheduling tool and a general project tool. Each covers part of the event. Where each option fits, where each breaks, and six questions to ask before you choose.
Turnaround planning vs scheduling: where planning ends and Primavera P6 begins
Scheduling software sequences activities. Planning software builds what those activities depend on: scope, work packages, material and cost.
How to evaluate turnaround management software
Most turnaround platforms fail for the same five reasons: complexity, missing features, customization that never arrived, weak support after go-live, and the information that still lives outside the system.
Turnaround cost control: from the first estimate to the final forecast
Turnaround cost control has six stages: estimating, bids, budget development, daily cost and manpower reporting, forecasting, and scope change control.
Turnaround readiness checklist: what to measure at each gate
A readiness gate is only a gate if it can be measured.
What is a turnaround, shutdown or outage?
A turnaround is a planned, periodic shutdown of a process unit or plant to do the maintenance, inspection and capital work that cannot be done while it runs.
Shutdown planning for chemical plants: what is different and what to do about it
A chemical plant shutdown differs from a refinery turnaround in three ways: several units with shared utilities come down in sequence, the material list runs to specialty alloys and lined equipment with long lead times, and the site often runs batch and continuous processes side by side.
Planned outage management for power plants
A planned generation outage is a turnaround with a harder deadline.
Material tracking on a turnaround: from requisition to installation
Labor on a turnaround is tracked by the hour. Material, which is 30 to 40% of the spend, is tracked only to the warehouse dock.
PMI and MTR tracking on a turnaround: one record per item, from bill of material to installation
Positive material identification proves the alloy in the pipe is the alloy that was specified. The mill test report proves what the mill shipped.
Tracking offsite fabrication and repair: work that leaves the gate should not leave your system
A large share of turnaround work is done by someone else, somewhere else: exchanger bundles, valves, pipe spools and rotating equipment sent to offsite shops.
Bring the problem from your last turnaround.
Fifteen minutes on a live system, working your scope, material or cost problem rather than a scripted demo. Or call 626-327-6348.