Turnaround Stakeholder Alignment 2012 Shutdowns Superconference

Opening Chairman Presentation - SD Superconference 2012

For those who were not able to attend the Shutdown Superconference this past month in Calgary, please feel free to read the opening speech below. For those who were able to attend, I truly wish the experience was fruitful. When reading the main body, the only request I have is that you try to put into context the intent and main theme. Delegates spend significant expense and effort to attend events such as this and we as speakers and industry representatives are obligated to provide value. I do believe there is value in attending conferences however I often question if there are any real gains. The speakers are often share learning and experiences but...more important is recognizing gaps within your organization and developing bridging strategies.

Please forward comments and questions...and enjoy...happy New Year!!!

11th Annual Shutdowns Superconference

Dec 4&5, 2012 Calgary, Alberta

 

Opening Speech

Introduction: Mike Grabill

Good Morning everyone, I’d like to thank you all for being here, and I’m sure we’re all looking forward to the presentations scheduled within the next two days.

First and foremost I would like to thank Denis Korol for organizing the event and for bringing together a superb group of speakers.

Also, a special thanks to the sponsors as without you events like this would cease to exist and we would be at a real disadvantage as a professional function. 

I recognize quite a few faces, companies and sponsors.

It is really exciting to see so many familiar people and companies - this demonstrates the value of the conference and is a testimony to the relationships and opportunities within our industry.

Moreover, it is equally impressive to see a collection of new sponsors and delegates – this demonstrates the wealth of emerging technologies, ideas and growth.

The greatest opportunities can only be generated and realized when these two groups come together at venues such as this.

With this said, I would like to take a few moments to speak to you about the broader picture the conference entails.

While it is good to focus on particular areas that interest you as individuals, I think we deprive ourselves of opportunities if we don’t, at least, look beyond that which is of immediate interest and utility for us. The diversity within this conference will prove to pay dividends when we aggregate the individual elements housed within each presentation.

This Conference also presents a chance to socialize with those who share your interests and expertise, an opportunity to share new ideas, latest thoughts and experiences.

 I think it would be difficult to come away from this conference without having learned something you can use for your next Turnaround.

Yet, I hope that all of you realize and exploit the larger opportunity. We have, here, under one roof, a tremendous depth of experience and expertise.  We have representatives from Upstream, Downstream, On-Shore and Off Shore, Mining and Chemicals.

From a Turnaround perspective you would be hard pressed to find more experience, talent and diversity in one place.

And for each of us here today, that is the opportunity that this conference represents: A chance for you to not only validate your experiences and practices, but also to learn about other leading edge practices are within our industry.
Thank you and know extend your welcome to Phil Stassi, Group Vice President, Jacobs Global Field Services for the Keynote Address.

Risk Management / Onshore vs Offshore - STO North America Conference 2011

Internal Scheduling Programme?

Scheduling, specifically for Turnarounds and Maintenance Operations has been a challenge for many Upstream and Downstream organizations for many years. With increasing focus on managing deliverables the need for a robust Planning & Scheduling programmes. Although there is a multitude of service providers aiding in the understanding of tools and systems the big picture is too often missed through lack of internal support programmes. Below is a theoretical programme framework to enable continuous improvement, support and standardization. Further posts will focus on detailed information regarding programmes, the opportunities and considerations when implementing and managing these types of systems.

1.0 INTRODUCTION:

The leadership of Company XXX has determined that many members can benefit by offering a Planner – Scheduler Certification Programme that incorporates the use of Primavera Scheduler to meet recognized industry best practices for the effective planning of work and the subsequent scheduling of work for the benefit of improving overall asset performance and improved utilization of resources. The objective of this programme is to establish knowledge and skills requirements for the individuals that plan and schedule work within the Primavera Scheduler application and third party products that create a fully integrated planned and scheduled result.

2.0 Scope:

This program is limited to those who work within the Planning & Scheduling discipline and/or key leadership roles where effective development and management of scheduling systems will provide effective structure. The content of the programme will be the property of the Company XXX and will be the certifying organization based on the content of the programme. Mandatory participation in training sessions with written examination at the end of each section will comprise the certification process determining level of competence. Additional outside courses, certifications and experience (ref. Figure 1) will be taken into consideration enabling respective participants to progress into the appropriate level. If the participant does not advance through the Level examination extra training and experience will be required. To re-write failed examinations all training conditions shall be met including four month timeline from the examination date.

Maintenance & Reliability Strategies

The role of Maintenance within the Operational organization is built on providing a service of competing priorities where Corrective, PDM and PM activities struggle to meet the demands to realize sustainability. The premise, when achieved, equates to the comfortable awareness of predictable and manageable asset reliability while mitigating the risk of unscheduled downtime.

Unfortunately too often the systems we develop are not effectively understood, managed and integrated into the Maintenance and Operational organizations. The resulting factors define a culture focusing on immediate quick fixes undermining the integrity of the reliability ideology. Commonly this is a result of not developing and establishing a Maintenance Strategy, framework and processes to support the safety and production objectives that enable smooth consistent operation. Beginning with the vision statement feeding to the Maintenance Strategy, supporting management framework and reporting structure, reliability is a system which, like Safety is everyone’s responsibility. The reality is…if we are not managing a robust Maintenance & Reliability system we fail at providing the solutions to the core business pillars we endorse and live by. 

With the preamble said…based on my experience, below are a few common pitfalls and practices that induce failure…from a Maintenance perspective.

1.      Lack of Executive Management Support

Attempting to build a plan, system and governance guidelines is like pushing a string up hill if sustainability, production and safety are not top priorities. A good Maintenance programme increases reliability, increasing stable production while providing a consistent prioritized approach to work which increases safety.

2.      Not implementing a Maintenance Strategy

The strategy is required to provide guidance to ensure consistency of Maintenance policies, objectives and requirements reducing the effects stemming from reactive, emergency corrective activities. Introducing vision, quality, metrics, tools, training, change management provides a platform for adoption and governance.

3.      Establishing a Strategy without a framework

Many organizations create a strategy defining methodologies, lifecycle analysis, condition based monitoring, root cause failure analysis, PDM & PM programs along with the utilization of tools including the CMMS and supporting software’s. In order to continuously improve…change management, leading & lagging reporting performance and trend analysis guidelines. Unfortunately the framework often consists of individual silos of information and stakeholder groups that do not communicate effectively. Within the individual elements that the strategy and framework exist is the missing binding agent…communication and process adoption.

4.      Not establishing a Methodology

Although this may sound redundant, if the Maintenance system does not establish a structured and integrated framework the risk of managing the asset both micro and macro perspectives may compromise health and sustainability. Methodology is required to ensure consistency and to reduce the risk stemming from gaps in analysis, communication and inexperience.

5.      Installing a tool without a Process

Whether it is implementing a new version of CMMS, scheduling or condition motoring tool the lack of poor or non-existent processes leads to confusion, inconsistent data and loss in confidence in the role of Reliability & Maintenance. Realizing there is know out of the box one size fits all software solution. Each tool requires tailoring to manage the demands and requirements of the organization. The development of processes clearly defines and establishes gathering, reporting and analysis protocols at an objective level.

6.      Not developing an Asset Prioritization matrix and  tool

Reliability, Operations and Maintenance stakeholder groups need to have consistent tools, developed by all key groups, to best understand work prioritization and risk. This begins with establishing criteria and scale for assigning asset priority from both an HSE and Production Critical perspective. It is this list that will drive focus on PDM, PM, Corrective, Turnaround and Project activities. This list, when integrated into the CMMS and Work Prioritization Matrix will objectively help not only understand and manage asset care and attention, from a reporting view it allows crucial data to be reported, trended and managed effectively. Many KPI’s can be derived from asset prioritization which leads to transparency, better communication and resolving of key challenges.

Planner Role - Time and Scope Managment

Time and priority management is essential to maintaining the maintenance backlog and ultimately increasing confidence that "Approved" Work Orders are prioritized and queued for execution. In order to begin to achieve a level of competency it is important to first understand the current condition and compare to the plan. To clarify, the plan was to develop a backlog where all Work Orders were prioritized, planned and estimated with target dates.

Below are a few steps to discuss with stakeholders in order to have a clear discussion about the role "Planner". Because lack of stakeholder support is a leading cause for the breakdown of Maintenance success, stakeholder alignment is the lynch pin for establishing a cohesive environment.

Scope Management

   1. Typical list of tasks you are responsible for and currently perform as a Planner

1. Scope jobs in field
2. Create job plans on CMMS
3. Scope jobs in field
4. Identify & Order Material
5. Create reusable job plans & maintain data base
6. Create WO’s and schedule 3^{rd party contractors}
7. Produce detailed cost estimates as required
8. Manage Backlog and Target CMMS
9. Produce high-level weekly contractor schedule outline
10. Run adhoc Reports to determine Backlog health

  2. Typical list of tasks you currently perform as a Planner that you are not responsible for

1. Sort and manage work orders directly from Operations
2. Create Work Orders for client
3. Provide emergency coverage for Priority Urgent and Emergency Work orders
4. Manage & delegate FCR’s
5. Scope/manage priority Urgent and Emergency Work Orders
6. Manage poor Work Order reporting practices ( Poor WO prioritization, verbal WO, unnecessary break in WO)
7. Assisting with management of daily work activities
8. Identify the 4 or 5 major time consumers that consumes your day
9. Managing Priority Urgent and Emergency Work Orders
10. Managing daily work activities due to lack of understanding of Planner roles and responsibilities
11. Managing & delegating FCR’s
12. Managing & delegating Break in work   

Time Management

1. Identify the 4 or 5 major time consumers that negatively impact productivity and work towards developing a balance between being at the desk, meeting with stakeholders and being on site.
2. Set a routine based on Work Order Priority, Target Start Date and magnitude of scope.

Welcome to my blog site.
I encourage you to review and comment on any of the posts I have written.
For those whom are visitors I truly wish you have gained some value and insight into my thoughts and real life experiences accumulating over the past twenty years. Unfortunately I will be taking a short sabbatical to follow, yet another journey with a group which will command much attention. This along with my personal ambition to complete a Masters in Business will consume much of my time.
My goal is to continue writing, time permitting...however accumulating and aggregating new experiences and resolving challenging dilemma's will be an on-going process that I will cherish, gather then share.

I wish you the very best in the new year and look forward to new beginnings in 2012.

Kindest Regards...Mike Grabill

Post Turnaround Presentation - Shutdowns Superconference 2011

The 10th Annual Shutdown Superconference in Calgary, Alberta Canada was a true success in every way.
I would estimate there were more than 300 attendees. I was fortunate to talk a little bit about Establishing the Foundation for Turnaround Success during the Development Phase and close the Conference with a talk about the value of a proper Closure. There was very good discussion after the presentations and much support. I thank everyone who attended.


Below are my "Speaker Notes" from the Turnaround Closure Session...

Good Afternoon every-one and thanks for coming and thanks again Mr. Chairman for the introduction.

Again my name is Mike and for those who were not able to hear my presentation on developing a robust Turnaround Framework during the Initiation or Definition Stage of the Turnaround Lifecycle… I currently work with the Capital Project and Conventional side of the Canadian Natural’s Business here in Calgary.

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about the Post Turnaround Phase and provide some insight to some of my findings and experiences as well as inviting some interactive discussion.

The answer to this question is related to how much time and resources are budgeted to allow a proper Turnaround Closure to be completed.

If we answer “YES” we are stating that sufficient budget, resources and time are approved to complete the Post Turnaround Phase effectively.



Analogy: If you are are Runner, we can time how fast you ran your last race. Unfortunately this does little when determining overal health.


By assessing the ability to establish sustainability more like a diagnostic health check aimed at understanding and detemining how healthy the runner is. Therefore being sustainable goes beyond the outcomes of any individual race and is more targeted at being healthy, agile, flexible and responsive.

To discuss some of the key components we often overlook when thinking about elements that we choose to ignore during the Post Turnaround Process

The Post Turnaround Phase covers the completion of the final walk down and punch list deliverable with contractor along with de-mobilization, documentation, closing out the schedule, reconciling schedule updates with CMMS wok package completion as well as preparing final cost, safety, inspection and Performance Reports.

Along with the documentation or administrative closure this is the best time to gather valuable information from key resources and contractors for lessons learned that can be carried forward to the next Outage.

Just as vital is that the Core Team is maintained and allowed time to complete this aspect of their responsibilities.

Many turnarounds do not emphasize the need a proper control and monitoring of post turnaround activities. As a consequence, the completion of turnaround activities may stretch out for a longer period of time which may result in cost overrun and increasing safety risks.

There is a need for administrative details.

The lessons learned during each Turnaround have to be documented in the specific unit's history record for future mitigation plans.

Also, the turnaround manager, with the assistance of all key stakeholder, is charged with compiling a comprehensive turnaround performance evaluation report which identifies strengths and weaknesses of the current turnaround.

Included is the completion of the final turnaround report which evaluates the overall performance of the TAR which is essential for the development of future initiatives.

Because, successful completion of this Phase can have major impact on the next Turnaround.

I think most of us can relate to the fellow walking on the sand, the effects the Turnaround environment and how demanding it is on people.

The biggest challenge during the Post Turnaround Phase is keeping momentum and focus.

With this said I would like to ask every one to stand up for a couple of seconds

Now I am going to make an assumption that every one is comfortable this is Day Two of the event and we know what to expect and are comfortable with our environment.

Please keep standing…understand a key part of my role is to introduce change and build relationship and create communication pipelines.

With this said everyone standing…can every one in alternating rows please turn 180 degrees and introduce yourself to the person facing you…then have a seat.

I am hoping that this was somewhat uncomfortable but I am confident everyone is engaged

Demobilization of Contractors

Post Turnaround Clean-up of Units and Lay-down Areas

Collection and Disposal of excess materials

Gathering Tools

Removal of Temporary Facilities

It is vital for core teams to be maintained during this pahse and allowed time and resources to complete the more tangible deliverables

During the demobilization Phase there is a sense of urgency to ensure all temporary trailers, wash facilities, tool cribs, safety equipment, tools and equipment and spare parts are remove from site.

However often there is still a significant amount of physical work to be completed outside demobilization and clean up.

Insulation repairs

Scaffold removal

Spare asset – Lay Up

To mention a few things that can take up to three or more months to complete. As these activities are still burning principle it is very important that we do not lose track of productivity and status reporting.

As well this is often the phase where we are most susceptible to risk from a safety perspective

Now that the physical aspects of the plant clean up are underway the next concurrent step is to gather information for archive, reconciliation, performance management and the Turnaround Post Mortem.

Essentially what I am alluding to is the completion of the Turnaround Hand-over package which is neglected and is subject to creating a Turnaround that never seems to end.
Consequently the hand-over and close-out activitesand durations should be identified within the Turnaround initiation Phase when the Turnaround Management Plan is developed and Scheduled

I think some of the reason Administrative Closure is not often discussed in detail is that it is not very interesting and I am not going to go through the motions of telling you guys the details and dependencies.

However I will tell you a story about money…

For those who can recall yesterday I prefer that the authorized Work Orders are housed I the CMMS and the parent Child relationships or hierarchy mirror the WBS and CBS which in turn is replicated in the Schedule.

This was key to resolving a major bust… the communication was good, the metrics, framework, timesheet protocol and expectations were clear but…

During the closure phase when we were reconciling the Plans variances to schedule Variance to Timesheets we found that there were a few groups that updated everything correctly but there were major variances in charges to individual Work Orders…since this was a JV event there was some discrepancy in charges to the JV.

This initiated a detailed claim investigation which took a few months to resolve.

The short term results were positive for both partners because of the relationships and the data that enabled clear negotiations for a positive outcome.

The long term initiative was to add more clarity to the billing process, cost control and tracking process daily.

These are all identified and progressed within the Post Turnaround Execution Schedule

What I really mean here is does you Organization develop KPI’s for each phase of you Turnaround and does this roll up the Final Report?

If not why not?

Gathering information and updating data bases is important but if we are spending time, effort and money doing this there must be a defined process.

Throughout the Turnaround Closure phase we’re constrained be lack of available resources, from the contractor side because the key resources that can provide the best information are off the to the next event, in-house resources often are exhausted and the processes timeline and budget are often not aligned.

You may recall this slide from yesterdays presentation…the point is that we are still burning the Turnaround Budget which requires effort throughout all phases.

If we can I would like to shift gears abit again but sill keep in line with Lessons Learned and the meaning of Success.

It is my opinion that this Conference was formatted quite well in that it essentially follows the Turnaround Lifecycle starting during the Development Phase where we went through the Safety Initiation moving to PreTurnaround carrying over to Execution and now focusing on the Closure Phase.

I would feel that this Conference was a success and more specifically if my involvement provided at least one of the following opportunities.

1.     To challenge at least one component of your current Turnaround Management Plan

2.     To take a different look at the value of being prepared and how it influences risk

3.     Evaluate the traditional constraints of Scope, Schedule and Budget and the relationships with Quality, Expectations and Stakeholder Alignment

However it is important to here from you the key Stakeholders, what is important to you from a Turnaround Perspective….where, in your opinion do we need to focus more attention.

I would like to engage you all in a game called the wedge game

Remembering the lose graphical representation of the past 30 years through the tumultuous roller coaster ride of the Oil booms and busts.

Understand where we are now and what we forecast for the next 5-10 yrs where do we need to get better.

Graph arch – drawing

Where we are now and forecast

What do we need to work on from the lessons we have learned in the past 30 yrs.

Organizational

A Robust Turnaround Philosophy and Vision

Understanding productivity and how do we manage

Training and Mentorship

Continuous Improvement Initiatives that have Traction

Leveraging Experience

Functional

Use of Tools

Planning development

Scheduling and Project Controls Development

Leadership training

Can we build this thing together….

Final Checks and balances come with communication and Stakeholder Alignment

This Slide speaks for itself because if we like it or not we have to evolve with changing expectations and realities.

Duriing the past two days I am hoping we have developed a better understanding and consciousness of where we are and where we strive to be to be sustainable and successful.
I truly wish the presentations and tyransparency of the discussions reasonated with each of you. I also hope that you can take away a few key items that will enable your Turnarounds to become more successful.


In closing...Time is a non-renewable resource.