Today’s challengesReducing operating costs and increasing efficiencies – without negatively impacting power production or safety – are key challenges for power stations today. And where better to look for cost savings and improvements than in activities that take a significant chunk of overall costs, such as shutdowns, turnarounds, and outages (STOs), large capital projects, and … Read more
Turnarounds: Frenzied Failures or Streamlined Accomplishments?Long-term planning. Sleepless nights. An interruption to home life. Coordination of thousands of people, assets, timetables and budgets. Managing change quickly, practically on-the-fly. All of these (and many more) describe the execution of turnarounds in industrial workplaces, as businesses embark on a race against time to get equipment up and … Read more
Turnarounds Are Being Deferred PetroVietnam Dung Quat Refinery is another of the growing list of sites announcing the deferral of their planned major turnaround for 2020. Anyone who has worked in a refinery or petrochemical plant will know that the last year of the cycle is tough – equipment is fouled, pressure drops are higher, equipment is … Read more
Why are Turnarounds So Challenging?“A large turnaround can include up to 150,000 individual activities. With this level of complexity, approximately half of all shutdown projects are delayed by more than 20% and 80% go over budget by more than 10%. Frequently, the work scope increases unexpectedly by up to 50%.” Achieving Turnaround Success, Digital Refining In … Read more
Hard to believe that the quote used for the title of this blog was said by Benjamin Franklin more than 200 years ago. Very relevant to today’s business environment, it’s just one of the many quotes that you can find relating to change. Is Success Based on Change?More than 2,000 years ago, Greek philosopher Socrates … Read more
COVID-19 and the demands for social distancing present many challenges in the industrial workplace. Can group activities be eliminated or automated? Can we be effective as social humans with restricted physical access to our colleagues? In industrial settings, many activities are either “team sports” or cannot be performed remotely – “welding from home”, for example, … Read more
Throughout time, pandemic diseases have generated change. COVID-19 is no different, as social distancing, staying home and isolation continue to change the fundamentals of social interaction and challenge the very essence of our society. When he stated “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity”, Albert Einstein was clearly focused on the intrinsic connection between … Read more