The steering team has the overall responsibility for the success of a turnaround (TA). One of the primary reasons a TA fails to meet its cost and schedule goals and objectives is a lack of understanding about how the scope management process impacts a TA. Whether late scope comes from known but not-yet-submitted scope, the addition of late capital projects or on-the-run inspections that were not completed prior to scope freeze, all amount to late scope being added to the TA, which detrimentally impacts its outcome.
Following a regimental process for determining when and how scope will be managed throughout the TA preparation will ultimately determine TA cost and schedule outcomes.
The TA premise document: Scope definition
The TA premise document is important, as it frames the goals and objectives of the TA and includes specifying the units to be worked on during TA execution. The TA premise document outlines the boundaries of work to be included in the TA, regulatory mandated requirements, work that can only be conducted safely or economically during a TA, reliability to achieve the required run length until the next scheduled TA, and discretionary work that can only be completed while a unit is down.
Scope submittal and challenge process
Scope stakeholders can have competing views and priorities that can challenge scope gathering, adherence to a scope freeze date and the addition of late work after scope freeze. All known regulatory, maintenance and inspection scope should be submitted by the scope submittal date so that a thorough multidisciplinary review can be conducted to determine which scope will be included in the TA. Each risk-ranked scope item should be reviewed to determine if the work can be performed safely and economically on line or requires the unit to be down in order to be executed.
Scope freeze date
How far in advance scope should be frozen depends on the complexity of the TA. The more capital projects take from the TA execution portion of the budget and the greater the overall size of the TA itself, the greater the complexity of the TA, and hence the further in advance scope should be submitted and then frozen. Generally, scope freeze should be six to 12 months in advance of the start of TA execution.
Scope change control after scope freeze
Once the scope freeze date has been set, an effective scope change control necessitates the implementation of a formal Late Work Request (LWR) process. An LWR form states:
• The need for adding the scope, clearly outlining the change item the team needs to review.
• The reason for the request: The item cannot be completed economically or safely on the run, or it is required to make the run interval to the next TA.
• The economic impact estimate if the work is not completed and the unit must be taken down on the run, and/or product quality impacts of not conducting the work.
The number of LWRs, their estimated dollar amount, dates submitted and approval should be tracked to determine if specific functional groups are contributing to the late scope by not following the scope submittal process stated in the premise document and to ensure LWRs are being processed in a timely manner. The overall LWR progression (not individual LWR decisions or analysis) should be touched on during each steering team meeting to identify trends and/or issues. Late scope additions are major contributors to turnaround cost and schedule overruns.
Summary
One of the ways to impact TA cost and schedule overrun is to vigorously manage the entire scope collection process. The steering team has a pivotal role in driving and communicating the scope submittal date and scope freeze date across the site and hence is the primary determinant of TA outcomes. A rigorous scope submittal review process prior to scope freeze helps ensure only TA work that is required for safety, regulatory and economic reasons should be performed during execution.
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