Partnering with AP-Networks Leads to Predictable and Competitive Turnarounds During COVID-19

In 2018, a large refiner’s main facility in the Southeast executed a medium complexity turnaround that did well in Environmental, Operability, and Safety. However, cost overran by 93 percent, the duration was 60 percent longer than expected, post scope freeze growth was 9 percent and emergent work during execution ran a hefty 57 percent, and overall labor hours increased from the definitive estimate by 40 percent.

• Key contributors to this outcome performance were:
• Significant discovery work
• Unrecognized scope
• Contractor staffing shortages
• Lack of organizational alignment
• Shortage of detailed planning resources
• Inability to actively manage known risks and emergent work

Coming off this challenging 2018 turnaround, site and corporate turnaround leadership chose to go a different way and engage with AP-Networks to ensure they would not experience these same issues in a series of three high complexity turnarounds, with significant capital project integration, at the same facility in 2020.

Utilizing AP-Network’s proprietary NaviTrack within the Turnaround Network (TAN) coupled with a comprehensive T-AP program, the internal turnaround team aggressively attacked the definition and planning phases to ensure everyone would be ready for Execution. One of the highlights of the T-AP program that contributed to scope management was the implementation of equipment based contingency planning throughout the planning phases.

As planning progressed, readiness for the turnaround series continued to improve and all three events were executed during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic that was negatively impacting labor availability and increased risk exposure for the site.

Here’s what happened. The team was able to effectively manage risk and execute the series of turnarounds with continued strong Environmental, Safety, and Operability performance results. In the other key areas, the site team performed similarly well:

• Cost: Including a $3.5MM charge for enhanced COVD-19 protocols, cost performance significantly exceeded plan for the series by 4 percent, with only one event exceeding budget by 5 percent, well above median Industry performance.
• Schedule: Schedule performance improved by 16 percent, with a duration that was reduced significantly. Even more, these turnarounds were executed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Scope: As a series, the turnarounds matched Top Quartile performers at 3 percent for post scope freeze work additions. The real story for these three high complexity turnarounds was that by implementing equipment based contingency planning, emergent work averaged only 6.3 percent. This resulted in a reduction of emergent work by more than 50 percent with no negative impact to site operability!
• Labor Hour Growth: As a series of high complexity events with significant capital project integration, Labor Hour growth was held to 11.3 percent in stark contrast to growth of 40 percent observed on the previous medium, complexity event.

This is a case where the right team, armed with the right tools and insight, can execute predictable and competitive turnaround events under even the most challenging conditions.