In the big corporate world, there is always opportunities to become more efficient and save some money for your company. But in the oil and gas industry one of the largest expenses and the biggest maintenance expense is your turnaround/shutdown (TAR) work. Some companies have been focused on improving their TAR maintenance for years and have the costs/barrel operating cost to prove it. Others have not taken the required efforts to ensure TAR success and have left significant cost and risk reduction on the table. There are a number of ways to improve your TAR maintenance, but there is one simple trick you can use to insure you’re in a position to execute a successful TAR at your plant. What is this trick? Well its really not a trick or a secret, but too many facilities still don’t do TAR Readiness Assessments prior to their TAR to insure they are prepared.
When a TAR requires hundreds or even thousands of temporary employees to complete, even a day or two overrun on the planned TAR schedule can be in the millions of dollars of additional cost. What is a TAR readiness assessment and why should I use this tool? A TAR assessment uses highly experienced TAR management professionals to review your plant’s readiness throughout your organization. This will include your TAR Organization, Planning, Maintenance, Inspection, Operations, Projects, Safety, Technical Services, Warehouse, and Procurement organizations. Any weaknesses in any of these areas will lead to additional costs and potentially a poorly executed TAR.
TAR maintenance requires the entire organizations focus and preparation to be successful. The problem is that the entire organization has a duty to keep the plant running as efficiently and safely as possible on a day to day basis and finding the time and resources to focus on the approaching TAR can be difficult. A TAR assessment will help your organization to identify areas that need attention/gaps as well as bringing focus to the organization on the need for attention on an approaching TAR. When should I do a TAR assessment? An effective TAR assessment is best completed far enough in advance to a TAR to allow the identified gaps to be closed. Twelve months prior to the TAR is best for the initial assessment, with a follow-up assessment 3 to 6 months prior to the start date. Even if you’re getting close to your TAR start and have no done an assessment, its best to complete one even if it’s only to verify that you should consider delaying your TAR. A delayed TAR will cost you much less money than a poorly organized and executed TAR.
TAR assessments are best completed by resources outside of your plant. This allows for an outside, unbiased and objective assessment of your organization’s readiness. As a Plant Leadership Team or TAR Manager, the cost of a good TAR assessment plan for your plant is negligible compared to the benefits of identifying required actions that can be tracked to completion to insure a successful TAR. As a TAR professional/leader for a good portion of my career, I can guarantee there is no better way to get the attention and focus of an organization than a good TAR assessment. The action items generated will need to be tracked and corrected of course, but the cost savings and peace of mind that you are prepared for the biggest maintenance event of the year is priceless.