Plant Turnaround/shutdown Over planning and project flexibility

Plant Turnaround/shutdown

Over planning and project flexibility

Dealing with plants turnaround and shutdown as a unique project is the key for success and meeting the project goals, this article addressing some thoughts and practical information about plants turnarounds and shutdowns over planning and how to balance your overall project flexibility.

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Plant turnaround / shutdown as a project?, by definition TA is a project and as every project is unique, plant turnarounds / shutdowns is a project having its own characteristics which is defers from one industry to another, from firms in the same industry and from turnaround / shutdown events performed within the same firm.

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What is over planning?, over planning is to plan excessively or in more detail than is necessary, over planning can be an enemy to your plant turnaround / shutdown event if not managed in a very balanced way, going through details is good, but you should identify the required level of details for each event, and direct your team efforts and focus into the most important and priority parts of your plant turnaround / shutdown event.

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Performing huge number of activities within a short duration is a challenge considering many uncertainties and unlikely events, but your team understanding about the event of plant turnaround / shutdown is bigger challenge, here the leader’s role is very important to ensure that all team members understand the objectives, requirements and structure of the event.

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Pushing your team deep and deep towards more details may have a negative effect on the whole event, you have to identify the detailed planning criteria for each event and direct your team towards the event objectives explaining to them what is the tolerance allowed to ensure that you have approached the proper planning with the required level of details without affecting your event flexibility.

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What is project flexibility?, project flexibility is the calculated tolerance which is identifying the boundaries where the turnaround / shutdown team is allowed to move, ensuring that the plan is followed and all undesired findings during execution can be controlled and addressed.

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Plant turnaround / shutdown events are not predictable 100%, you should have proper detailed planning with proper level of details and you should have the flexibility of your plan and your team as well.

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As a conclusion, it is about balancing between level of details and project flexibility, your team have to understand how to stick to the plan and at the same time be flexible against any changes required to achieve the event objectives.