Turnaround managers begin with bright hopes of safely performing the scope assigned in the time allotted for the cost agreed on. Occasionally, a turnaround comes along that seems to manage itself, while most seem only to mangle themselves. One is not successful at managing turnarounds unless he or she is good at managing recovery. No one knows who said it first, but it is nonetheless true: "Stars shine best in darkness." But bear in mind, a recovery plan is not always necessary. If the project is in the early stages of execution, recovery may occur naturally as productivity normalizes. Project completion forecasts often have limited value prior to the project reaching about 20 percent of its planned duration. If overall progress has slipped but the critical path is still on track, usually there is not much value in accelerating work that is not critical or near critical.
Recovery not always sensible
If the cost of compressing the schedule by a certain number of days exceeds the production value for the same period, then compression should not be attempted, especially since compression always comes with added risk.
Recovery not always possible
Obviously, project overruns due to issues such as severe scope growth, material delays, shop delays or personnel shortages can be impossible to recover. But recovery can also be limited by the amount of space available for workers or equipment and logical sequences that cannot be altered.
When recovery is the prudent course of action, leaders who are decisive and analytical should promptly take five steps toward lighting up the dusk:
- Validate the status of the project. If field work has not progressed adequately, the recovery plan may be unnecessarily aggressive and, in fact, a recovery plan may not be needed at all. Unfortunately, a project that has fallen behind may also be over-progressed to brighten the picture, resulting in a recovery plan that is not aggressive enough to succeed. In addition to current scope, all scope approved for addition must be added and progressed. All scope approved for deletion must be eliminated from the schedule prior to forecasting.
- Identify the issues that caused the need for recovery. Was it due to worker performance? Was it due to acts of God? Was it due to logistics? Was it due to delays caused by the site? Was it due to poor reliability data resulting in excessive discovery? Was it due to planning oversights? Was it due to unrealistic scheduling? Obviously, the cause must be the major basis of mitigation and forecasting any remaining impacts.
- Formulate the recovery plan. The recovery plan must address the entire remaining life of the project. Commonly, recovery plans only address the recovery of time lost to date but fail to address how to counteract future losses that will occur over the life of the project, as suggested by properly constructed forecast curves. Recovery plans must address negatives as well: What may keep the recovery plan from working? What new risks and unintended consequences are being introduced by the recovery plan? What assumptions must be understood and validated? Effort should be made to minimize distraction to project controls personnel who are managing the turnaround. The bulk of the planning, estimating and scheduling associated with added work and the recovery strategy should be handed off to supplemental personnel when possible.
- Get broad buy-in for the recovery plan. The need for a recovery plan can shake team confidence in project execution or the project planning process. For recovery plans, it is especially important to collaborate with all affected stakeholders and re-establish team trust and team commitment to the path forward. Not doing so could create even bigger obstacles to project completion.
- Baseline the recovery plan. Without a baseline, there is no way to monitor the extent of compliance with the recovery plan, nor to measure the degree of success of the recovery plan.
First, determine the need for a recovery plan and, with the five steps above, your path to getting your turnaround back on track will be much more successful.
For more information, contact Onpoint at (281) 461-9340, email sales@onpoint-us.com or visit www. Onpoint-us.com.
