Soon we can kickback and watch the superbowl kick-off. By now all those within the organization clearly understand the requirements for making each play a success. When a player executes his assigned responsibilities well, it contributes to the success of the whole team. A good turnaround organization requires much the same approach.

The maintenance organization is your defense…
Each plant has a maintenance organization in place to handle day-to-day maintenance activities. It’s their mission to maintain the plant in a way that best optimizes the use of assets. But routine maintenance and turnarounds are two different animals and the approach to each discipline is strikingly different…much like the differences between football’s offense and defense. Think of the plant maintenance organizations as the defense. Their full time job is to make sure the plant is maintained to run smoothly and to defend the production process to minimize breakdowns, upsets and other unexpected events.

The turnaround organization is your offense…
While scheduled turnarounds are a function of the maintenance department, a specialized designated turnaround organization is required to plan and execute the event. The turnaround is more of an “offensive” measure because its purpose is to make the plant more efficient/productive, safer or more environmentally sound. Preparing for a turnaround is not a part time job and there is no such thing as the east side of the plant having a turnaround while the west side of the plant conducts business as usual. Team members may not join the team at the same time and some positions begin as part time but evolve into full time.

Make sure you’ve chosen the right players…
Your turnaround organization should be structured to represent the way the work will be packaged and executed. Within your turnaround organization there will be two teams, the planning/preparation team and the execution team…two special teams within your offense. The preparation team may even require some part time assistance from those who will also be involved in the execution stage. The turnaround manager has the same responsibility as a good football coach and must carefully select personnel with the required expertise who, in his opinion, can best perform the job.

Make sure everyone understands how to get to the goal line...
Once the turnaround organization is identified, specific roles and responsibilities need to be developed for each position on your organizational chart. This is where offense and defense combine their expertise so they can function as a true team. The overall focus must be the ultimate goal of completing the turnaround with the best possible outcome. Safety, environmental, engineering, inspection and maintenance activities will continue during the turnaround but these groups must understand that they will have fewer people to do the job.

Study the book and practice the plays…
As you assign responsibilities, remember that these fall into two categories–– individual and departmental. It is imperative that each department knows what will be required of it and that it must assist in the preparation and execution of the turnaround. This is a plant wide event. Egos must be set aside as cooperation is key. Individuals in the turnaround organization must have specific documented roles and responsibilities enabling them to understand and perform the duties required. It is not enough to simply document the roles/responsibilities; there should be an orientation and training for each person. What if your favorite team ran onto the field for the kick-off without first practicing the plays?

Reaching the time/cost effective goal…
When developing a turnaround organization, define the departmental responsibilities (special teams, offense and defense). Identify the positions required (quarterback, receiver, linebacker, kicker, etc.) Choose personnel capable of filling the positions. Review the roles and responsibilities (learn the playbook). A well-planned and well-trained turnaround management organization will make a big difference in the outcome and predictability of your turnaround. Build the best team you can and you cannot only make it to the Superbowl…you can win it!

For more information contact David Frinsco at 281-461-9340 or E-mail him; frinsco@tamanagement.com or go to www.tamanagement.com

Return to article list

Today we often find ourselves having to plan and execute turnarounds with a new and inexperienced organization. This is because there is a shortage of qualified managers and controls personnel to prepare and execute turnarounds/projects. Even the Turnaround Manager may be new to the position, or, as some say, “it’s their turn in the barrel.”

Thinking differently…
To overcome this handicap, our industry has to think differently about project execution. We have contracting strategies for work distribution. We have strategies for improving safety and resource efficiencies. Now we need more focus on the front end loading process as it pertains to turnaround preparation.

Most turnaround organizations focus on planning and execution with milestones/goals. But that is not enough. Turnaround organizations need specific strategies that help define the processes and roles of the organization. We spend lots of time and money developing plans, schedules and processes that will help us execute the work efficiently. Doesn’t it make sense to develop strategies that will define how we will meet the front end loading milestones?

Understanding how you fit in…
To meet our goals/milestones it is necessary that everyone understand the milestones and how each milestone effects project preparation. We need a strategy to achieve this. One belief is that a strategy can only succeed with the backing of the right people/resources; these must be properly aligned within the strategy. Organizational alignment is a condition in which every participant understands his /her role in making the strategy work. It is imperative that we align all activities with the strategy’s intention.

The strategic plan is comprised of processes, systems, and procedures that guide us through the process for the planning and the execution of turnarounds/projects. The plan defines specific deliverables and the timing required to insure that all of the deliverables can be completed in a logical order and time frame.

The basics…
Some elements of a strategic plan are as follows:
• Scope development
• Engineering packages IFC
• Detailed job plan packages/
   integrated schedules
• Cost estimates

Here are five basic steps of strategy formulation that can be applied to each milestone:

• Identify all threats and opportunities
• Identify resources capabilities
   and practices
• Consider strategies for addressing
   threats and opportunities
• Build a good “fit” among strategy
   supporting activities
• Create alignment

Being specific…
One threat that can affect the scope development process is that there are no specific criteria in place to define what type of work is considered appropriate to be executed during the turnaround cycle or that there are no processes in place to approve the potential items. Or it could be that there is no systematic way to change, add or delete scope items once the scope is frozen or approved. One opportunity is that the duration and cost for the turnaround could be more predictable if we focus on only the work that should be executed during the turnaround cycle. Another opportunity is to leverage all of the available resources by keeping the scope specific to items that can only be executed during the turnaround.

A strategy for developing turnaround scope could be to define the criteria for an item to become part of the turnaround work list and to implement a scope change process. In addition you would want to develop an approval process and identify a core team that will approve all work based on the approved criteria. Identifying activities that will allow you to review the scope items in a methodical and timely manner in order to meet the scope development milestone is a must. This same process can be applied to all elements of the strategic plan. The training and orientation of new team members also needs to be a part of the strategy. It is very important that all involved in the process understand the strategy and how their participation can affect the outcome of the turnaround.

Don’t overlook issues identified during the last turnaround’s critique. They can be important in improving turnaround predictability and these should be reviewed early on in the strategic planning phase and be a part of the new turnaround strategy.

For more information contact David Frinsco at 281-461-9340 or E-mail him; frinsco@tamanagement.com or go to www.tamanagement.com

Return to article list

Golf is a challenging game that I enjoy very much. While golf courses are beautiful places to be, for myself the challenge comes from knowing how well or poorly I played against par (the established standard). Without knowing what par is or what my score is, I would quickly lose interest. Then golf would be “ a good walk ruined,” as someone said. I would have to find something else that would require keeping score so that I could measure my progress to see if I was slipping, staying the same or improving.

Achieving objectives measures progress…
Having objectives, then measuring our progress by meeting those objectives, is fundamental to achievement. This principle applies to sports, careers and turnarounds. The fun of golf is to exceed expected progress (like making a birdie). The satisfaction in turnarounds is also derived from exceeding expected progress. Someone once defined the word goal as “a scheduled conflict with the status quo.” 

Par for the course…
We all want, and need, to know what is expected of us. In golf we need to know what par is. It’s the same in organizations like turnaround teams. It is good to establish objectives, the results that we want to achieve and set standards––like a yardstick––that we can use to measure and rate the results we’ve achieved. These objectives should cascade down from the corporation’s business objectives to our functional areas. In turnarounds, the objectives should cascade down from corporate objectives, to the WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) to job packages, to contracts, and etc. The principal here is that better direction yields better results.

Assessing the FEL performance…
While assessing performance is widely practiced in personnel management and in turnaround execution, it is not as widely practiced in the preparation stages of a turnaround.  When I say the preparation stages, I am referring to the knowledge work of turnarounds that we have come to know as FEL (Front End Loading). Because it is knowledge work and more strategic in nature, it is more difficult to quantify. It may be difficult to quantify, but it is cardinal to playing to par for our turnaround projects. Establishing objectives and standards for turnaround management FEL is tantamount to the turnaround execution and is fundamental to being prepared. As General MacArthur said, “Preparation is everything."

In golf, the golf course designer established par. In the execution of turnarounds we use our tactical plans and organizational practices to establish par. While executing the turnaround we use assessments countless times a day in the form of safety permits, schedule updates, inspection reporting, cost reporting, and on and on. All of these assessments are needed for us to stay the course and are an integral part of keeping score to determine how well we have scored versus the established par.

Auditing is key…
So, what practices should we employ to assess FEL knowledge work? I think it’s auditing. It’s as pure and simple as that. Assessing the plan versus the actual deliverables of the FEL process. In the industry these go by a number of names such as “cold eye reviews”, readiness assessments, peer reviews, etc. But the real value of the assessments is the anxiousness they invoke in our being prepared for the assessment. This anxiousness will lead to internal audits of the elements of the preparation work like scope development, a control estimate, the schedule, the environmental and safety plans, job plans, resource contracting and on and on. 

The practice of assessing performance considers the principal of people wanting to know what is expected of them. Measuring performance against a standard gives people an opportunity to see how well we doing.

Ideally each of these internal audits would produce a gap analysis, a set of consequences if the gaps are not remedied and options for making up the gap and correcting course if necessary. “Trust but verify,” as President Reagan said.

The practice of assessing is one of the Best Practices of those companies in the top quartile of turnaround performance. And remember to keep it simple; complexity is not our friend, there is power in simplicity.

For more information contact David Frinsco at 281-461-9340 or E-mail him; frinsco@tamanagement.com or visit our new website: www.tamanagement.com

Return to article list