Consider critical issues during a plant turnaround

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09.01.2011 | Amendola, L., Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain; Artacho, M.A., Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain; Depool, T., PMM Institute for Learning, Valencia, Spain

More project management practices are needed to improve performance in maintenance shutdown

Keywords: [plant turnaround] [shutdown] [performance] [maintenance] [maintenance work] [project management practices] [PMP] [PMPs] [project planning]

Plant shutdowns for major maintenance work are expensive, time-consuming and very complex. An adequate plant turnaround management plan is crucial for improving shutdown performance in terms of cost and time. Our analysis has revealed the most critical issues related to the four main stages of shutdown projects. The critical issues have been related to the most suitable project management practices (PMPs). Moreover, a study of the current use of these PMPs for shutdown projects has been made. Some 89 shutdown experts from 50 chemical firms took part in two separate studies (50 experts in Study 1 and 39 experts in Study 2). The first study aimed to identify the critical activities and discover which PMPs are currently used by experts. The second study gathered expert opinions about the importance of the application of PMPs. The study identified 32 critical issues related to the main stages of the plant shutdown process.

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