When oil refineries in three cities go through their planned maintenance outages simultaneously, it takes detailed planning and deep resources on the part of their vendor partners to keep up. That was the situation facing Jeffers Crane Service Inc., a member of The ALL Family of Companies, when it was tasked with providing more than 80 cranes — and the operators to work them — to refineries in Toledo and Lima, Ohio, and Detroit during the same period this fall.
It was a project that showcased the logistical expertise, large inventory and human talent on display across the ALL network.
The process began in the field, with project engineers recording detailed measurements of the physical space where work was to be done and carefully calculating weights of parts and equipment that would need to be lifted. Once compiled, the data informed the decisions on what types of cranes would be best suited to perform each type of lift in the available space.
Jeffers has two branches located in Northwest Ohio and one in Detroit, but it still needed to call on the full network of more than three dozen ALL Crane branches across the U.S. and Canada to round up the required number of cranes for the project.
“Cranes were needed on-site in all three cities, beginning in early September,” said Chad Rados, project coordinator. “In August, we started making the calls to our other branches, reserving the machines Jeffers would need to fulfill the order.”
In all, 82 cranes were pulled from branches located in eight states. The breakdown was 17 carry-deck cranes (ranging from 8-15 tons), 50 rough-terrain cranes (30-150 tons), 13 all-terrain cranes (165-900 tons) and two crawler cranes (80-100 tons).
Rados ran logistics out of ALL Crane’s Cleveland, Ohio, headquarters so Jeffers could focus on its work instead of making arrangements with all the other branches. Once the assignments were made, the service departments of the respective branches performed regular maintenance on the machines before sending them on.
“This is where having our own tractors and trailers was invaluable,” said Rados. In fact, with more than 400 tractors and 2,500 trailers, The ALL Family of Companies would be the nation’s fifth-largest trucking company — if it were a trucking company. “That’s quite a resource to draw upon when we’re routing dozens of cranes from multiple states to three cities in the Great Lakes region,” said Rados.
Common lifts performed across all three refineries during the maintenance outages involved hoisting or setting valves, pipe spools, exchangers, fin fans and catalyst changeouts. The jobs also required a combined total of 20 critical lifts.
“When we’re getting that close to max capacities, we work with our customers to make sure every detail is checked and rechecked so the lift is safe,” said Rados. For these critical lifts, engineers calculated weight capacity and ground-bearing pressures, generated computer-aided lift plans and submitted them for review. Then all parties signed off on them before they were stamped for approval by the engineer.
There were also many manned lifts with workers and inspectors in man baskets, particularly for stack inspections. The majority of these exceeded 200 feet in height. In Detroit, a four-foot-by-four-foot man basket was raised 205 feet and lowered down a six-foot-diameter stack, like threading a needle.
“We don’t accept any surprises on our customers’ jobsites,” said Rados. “Every move is planned far in advance and talked about in exacting detail. Walk-throughs are conducted at regular intervals. It’s about safety, No. 1, and efficiency, No. 2.”
For more information , visit www.allcrane.com or call (800) 232-4100.
