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Radical Improvement of Site Turnaround Performance |
Background
The plant is a large petrochemical site which suffers from a worse-than-average turnaround (TAR) safety and performance record. In an effort to improve overall TAR results, the company encouraged its staff and contractors to spend more effort identifying and appraising risk and reviewing working practices. Whilst this yielded some improvement, it simultaneously pushed costs on an EDC basis into the low 3rd Quartile. It was decided that processes and competences would need to be thoroughly improved if TARs were to be ranked amongst the best within the targeted 5-year timeframe.
Objectives
Recognising that planning for the $70m, three-asset TAR was at a late stage and the Execution phase just months away, management nevertheless requested that T.A. Cook validate the state of readiness and provide an independent view of the opportunity for improvement. If appropriate, the Consultant team was also to assist with converting the opportunity.
Approach
5-week Analysis: Other readiness evaluation processes provide only a review against best practice, the T.A. Cook methodology identifies and implements quick wins even during the Analysis and lays out specific improvement actions over the short, medium and long term. These are referred to as Short Impact and Long Term Optimisation Programmes and incorporate detailed project plans for conversion of the opportunity.
Findings
5-week Analysis: Even though the TAR process on this and other company sites is governed by a company-wide process, adherence and understanding was mixed, because of high staff turnover and a supposed temporary shift to a TAR approach which had actually become the default way-of-working. As in many places, the processes themselves were acceptable, but TARs were not seen by many departments as a priority. Even with significant sums at stake, other work was judged more important with the result that scope, work lists and contracts were poorly managed.
Inter-departmental risk management was not established clearly, meaning that mitigation efforts were uncoordinated. Many client staff and contractors were found to be working in structures and groups without clear accountabilities and without defined expectations. Despite a steady shift to the use of contractors in most fields of maintenance and TARs, contractor management was poor with estimates and schedules frequently inflated by more than 25% and Execution resources showing about 40% productivity. The T.A. Cook team identified significant short and long-term opportunities worth around 20-30% of the original TAR budget, which were validated with the client and agreed in principle.
Solutions
Short Impact Programme: Following the fruitful co-operative, yet challenging style of the Analysis and despite being just 6 weeks away from the Execution phase, the client requested that T.A. Cook start the Short Impact Programme. The objective was to save 12%-15% off the latest TAR estimate and ensure on-time, in-full completion of three separate TARs on a 50-day mechanical cycle. The team highlighted a number of specific areas which were judged, even at this late stage to make an impact. These were contractor renegotiation on contingency assumptions, working hour expectations, scheduling, shift crew logistics, transportation, permit preparation, scope variance and structured risk mitigation.
After agreeing certain process improvements and having secured significant changes in attitude, the team spent the first 2 weeks of the Execution accompanying management, supervisors and contractors on their shifts to gather information. Significant emphasis was placed on establishing accurate progress against plan, recording and analysing timesheet data and determining the best supervisory mechanisms for controlling and improving the utilisation of labour. In the subsequent 4 weeks the team transformed into a coaching, challenging and expediting force, the result being, that for the first time in 5 years all three TARs came in on time, on budget and with a better than usual safety record, despite unforeseen scope and bad weather delays.
T.A. Cook was instrumental in achieving results that had previously been seen as unobtainable, with an engagement style that combined technical and managerial challenge with pragmatic support and cultural awareness. With a heavy TAR programme scheduled over the next five years, T.A. Cook was engaged on a further 18-month site-wide project to identify and deliver a 25-30% improvement on TAR spend from budget through preparation to execution for 2010, 2011 and sustainably thereafter.
Benefits
• Acceptance that TARs can be planned and executed with greater certainty with a 30% reduction within 5 years
• Immediate 8-12% cost reduction on running TARs
• Establishment of minimum effective management processes and KPIs for sustainability
• Future indirect and overhead cost reductions of up to 50%.
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Benefits
• Immediate budget adherence valued against previous cost and time overruns of at least 10%
• Radically improved understanding and management of scope, planning, scheduling and contractor management
• Robust TAR Preparation
and Execution process and management systems
• Creation of standardised core TAR scopes for each unit
• Establishment of standardised work practices, job norms and planning & scheduling expectations
• Targeted 25-30% reduction in total 5-year TAR spend
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