With the Bilfinger Turnaround Concept (BTC), plant operators are given the tools to conduct turnarounds efficiently and effectively. The BTC is based on an analogous approach that specifically integrates the practical experiences Bilfinger has captured in the field of turnarounds. With roughly 30 turnaround projects on its roster each year, Bilfinger is a leader in the field. The BTC offers the competence and experience gained from these contracts to customers wherever they need it, while consistently maintaining the same high standards. In this way, Bilfinger is positioning itself as a strategic turnaround partner that can plan and execute end-to-end turnarounds over multiple timeframes and at different locations.
The BTC consists of nine modules covering aspects such as resource management, occupational and process safety, and materials planning. As a practical guide, Bilfinger has prepared a handbook explaining all the work steps in detail. The required workflows presented in template form in the handbook can be adapted to the specific exigencies of the plant and starting situation in question. The result is a complete progress schedule of all the simultaneous and sequential work steps involved, including their proper timing. This is the basis for exceptionally precise turnaround management, allowing project risks to be minimized and costs to be pre-calculated as accurately as possible.
The preliminary phase of a turnaround will always take far longer than the actual work itself. While the preparations for Bilfinger's refurbishment of a Rotterdam refinery owned by Kuwait Petroleum Europoort B.V. took roughly 11 months, the subsequent on-site work was executed in less than two months by the 450 workers deployed. Similarly, the preparations for a comparatively smaller plant in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, owned by Borealis Agrolinz Melamine Deutschland lasted June-August 2017, while the actual work was done in the latter two weeks of August with an 80-man team.
After planning, personnel management is the second key success factor for a turnaround. With more than 20,000 in-house employees working in maintenance, Bilfinger is well positioned in this regard. Bilfinger's turnaround unit has performed 4.5 million work hours on over 100 projects in around 10 years, without the loss of a single workday due to accidents.
The BTC includes a mobile app, allowing the progress of a project to be monitored. This works in conjunction with a centralized web application that compiles all the data recorded by the app to comprehensively reflect the status quo as recorded by the plant supervisors. Any deviations from the plan are clearly identifiable at all times, thereby enabling immediate response. This digital reflection of the turnaround status can be used to coordinate the various trades by, for example, enabling a mechanic to see when his colleagues from the scaffolding team are done so he can start working on the already scaffolded portion of the facility. The result is complete transparency about the various assignments on the project. This reduces the expenditure of valuable time for backand- forth travel, thereby shortening the plant's shutdown period.
Bilfinger's concept is taking the topic of turnarounds to an entirely new strategic level.
For more information, visit www.bilfinger.com or call ( 346) 298-6821.
