Hard on the Processes, easy on the People

As an industry we are very good at managing and complying to regulatory legislated and company mandated quality processes. Where we seem to feather the line of continuity is developing and managing maintenance processes and procedures. The fundamental results of this include inconsistent priorities, communication gaps and finally an erosion of confidence in the maintenance organization. These factors then evolve from from infancy to adolescence. During the transition to adolescence the host organization will experience some growing pains including increased asset down time, increased urgent and emergency events equalling increased overtime, risk and process interruptions.
In order to transform into mature model organization we need to first, have a plan, set of goals or deliverables and a clear path forward. Then we need the fortitude to learn and grow. This means selecting the right people, continue training and allow the system to grow with the organizational needs.
It is my understanding that the consistent goals of any organization is to increase reliability, throughput and decrease negative risks. So... is this part of the development of a mature organization.

Lean SIx Sigma

Schedule Management Planning for success

It is my experience that most of us in the Plant Turnaround and Maintenance business fail to utilize tools including a Schedule Management Plan. Understanding that I may not be in my current position for long; I decided to create a Schedule Management Plan for the somewhat complicated Joint Venture Turnaround Project that is now in the final stage of execution. The intent is to create a document that will act as a road map for the current and future Turnarounds...which in this case occur every six years.
Most organizations forgo this exercise and proceed directly from planning to the schedule. This is a logical relationship, however developing a clearly defined Schedule Management Plan will pay almost immediate as well as long lasting benefits. Essentially main purpose is to create a standardized approach to scheduling practices and requirements. This is accomplished by identifying the software and version as well as rules regarding processing, formatting, modifications, reporting and Scheduler responsibilities. The plan also includes descriptions of Gantt Charts, Work Breakdown Structure, Milestone Charts as well as some insight of schedule development logic. This is especially important when major contractors are required to provide a schedule that is to be merged into a master. When using Primavera it is important to understand the logic of relationships, activity types (LOE, WBS Summary or Task Dependant), layouts (plf. files) to ensure the migration is as seamless as possible.
The schedule process includes information on when the schedule should be baselined as well as updating frequency. Where as formatting establishes understanding of the WBS structure, relationship, duration and percent complete types to provide clean outputs.
The bottom line, in my opinion, is organizations who understand and ultilize tools such as this truely understand the value of not recreating the scheduling wheel. By providing a proven, consistent methodology for schedule management the organization will enable confidence in the tools that help develop our landscape.

The Halo Effect and Turnaround Management

For those who are not familiar with the Halo Effect; the common definition can be described simply as: An assumption that is made when a person is a subject matter expert, the expertise is transferable. This is most commonly used in the advertising industry who contract famous people to promote the products they sell. Essentially, how many models are used for selling cars. So how does this fit in with the Facility Turnaround Manager you ask. It seems that in the Turnaround business we are in the practise of promoting craft discipline subject matter experts to Coordinators or Managers. Unfortunately TA projects are typically very demanding multi disciplined events that require focus on all managing and controlling opportunities and risks of required deliverables. Although the acting TA Manager may be a competent subject matter expert and perhaps a good supervisor the tipping point often occurs when Project Management methodologies and experience are not utilized. The outputs include, confusion, lack of direction, poor communication, inability to identify triggers and subsequently manage risks. These factors result in scope creep, employee attrition, low productivity and finally budget and timeline overruns.The solution, in my opinion, is to develop a Turnaround Team of subject matter experts, train the members in Project Management and create a clear TA framework and methodology. Bottom line is that we need to bridge the gap between Management mandates and Project level needs and expectations. Only then will we start seeing some progress.

Job Plans vs Procedures vs Scheduled Activities vs Work Packages...

During the past few years I have noticed that there is some confusion regarding the differences between a Job Plan, Work Procedure, Schedule Activities and finally the Work Package.

When together seem to be one of the same, however like many other things in our complex world... it is the subtle differences that often cause grief. Well the following are my understanding of the definitions, how each relates to one another and why we need each. First off...the definitions:

Job Plan: List of activities outlining requirements to complete a deliverable.
The job plan is created when the lead craft assigned to the deliverable reviews the scope, verifies location, defines what work is required and the magnitude of work involved. Upon investigation the risks, support, equipment (tools), material and duration estimate is compiled. The components of the plan are then entered ino the CMMS and queued for execution.

Work Procedure: Similar to a Job plan however a procedure is a more stringent approved document which includes or references an organizations policies, processes, checklists and instructions including but not limited to manufacturers instructions. The work procedure may also have an assigned expiration date as well as being subject to a process change control system. Organzations subscribing to ISO 900X may be more involved in creating and managing Work Procedures.

Work Package: From a project perspective the work package is the lowest level of the projects WBS. The work package is the group of documents that includes items such as the Job Plan, Work Procedure, P&ID, Detailed Safety Plan, Engineering Documentation, Blindsheets, Material Details, QA/QC Documentation etc...

Schedule Activities: Represents the sequencing, timing and duration of activites to be performed within a specified period. These activities relate to the scheduled completion of the deliverable of which the Job Plan or Work Procedure was created. With this said each planned activity does not necessarily need to be included within the schedule. The scheduled activities should, in my experience, enable clear understanding of deliverable completeness. For example, there may be 25 activities defining detailed information to clean an Exchanger; from a scheduling perspective these 25 activities often can be summarized to 5-10 schedule activities such as:

10 Blind Exchanger
20 Remove End Plates
30 Clean Exchanger
40 Inspect Exchanger
50 Install End Plates
60 Remove Blinds

Project vs. Turnaround Scheduling

The main difference between a TA and project is that you can get surprised when you open equipment and see the internal condition. Understanding how found work will be identified, communicated,planned, approved, tracked and ultimately...managed will enable success ensuring that only activities truly neccessary will be performed.

Relationships - Scope and Schedule Baselines

It may seem that I have been on my soap box lately regarding the WBS,and perhaps I have been, however... we still hear about TA and Projects in crisis. I am confident stating that we consistently focus on the Schedule Baseline and make the assumption that the Scope Baseline is mirrored. The scope baseline will consist of a WBS structure or hierarchy of major deliverables decomposed into smaller, more manageable components down to the Work Order level. The Work Orders then identify schedule activities, resources, duration and attributes neccessary for schedule development. Then once the scope has been established, the schedule developed and baselined we should be functionally ready for execution.

Primavera WBS Summary Activities

What is the need and relationship between WBS Summaries vs Activity Type WBS Summaries in Primavera P6?A project with ~1000 tasks and 10 summaries. Under the “Activities”-tab you will see both the WBS-summary without an ID-number and immediately below a schedule activity with an Activty ID defined as “WBS Summary”. Under General – Activity also has the same start / finish dates as all the schedule activities under each summary.

Question 1: How are the 2 WBS-summaries levels related? What is the purpose, benefits and/or risks?All is well, until you check the schedule log after a “Reschedule”. The log indicates there are 101 activities without a predecessor and 101 activities without a successor. When checking the project, there are no activities with out a predessessor or successor except the start date and the completion date. The activity ID’s are not present in the schedule log, now remove the filter applied above and observe that all the remaining 100+100 errors/warnings are coming from the WBS-summaries.

Question 2: Should activity type WBS summaries be linked to task dependent activities?

Question 3: Will linking the activity type WBS summaries to task dependent activities remove the error / warnings from the schedule log - without predecessors / successors?

Primavera WBS

It seems that quite a few of us are not using Primavera's WBS structure. Recently I have been developing the WBS down to the WO#; the latest being 6 levels. Is anyone else doing this for TA's?