As its name plainly infers, risk-based work selection (RBWS) provides a systematic approach to screening potential turnaround work that results in an optimized work list that is risk-justified. While ensuring maintenance resources are used cost effectively to mitigate risks, RBWS also helps with scope definition and alignment across a multidiscipline team.
"It's all about managing risk," said Pam Sherman, corporate turnaround manager for HollyFrontier Corp. "It's all about making sure that our folks are focusing on the highest- risk jobs for the turnaround. We only have so many resources to go around."
In a session titled "Risk-Based Work Selection: Optimizing Work Scopes to Improve Turnaround Performance" at the AFPM Reliability & Maintenance Conference and Exhibition held recently in Grapevine, Texas, Sherman stressed that while both budget and the schedule are important, people responsible for setting those budgets and schedules and implementing them are far more important.
"We can stretch our people so thin during a turnaround trying to run around and focus on too many things that we lose sight of the high-risk work," Sherman said. "Doing risk-based work selection makes sure that we're keeping our folks focused on the right stuff."
Sherman outlined several reasons RBWS is a viable approach to work selection.
"Our turnarounds are getting more and more complex every year. And some of the things that are driving that complexity are stretching our intervals, so you get more work when you're stretching your intervals," Sherman explained.
Further, she said, capital load is going up.
"Fifteen years ago, when I got into the industry, most of our capital work was tieins only," Sherman said. "That's not how we're running our business anymore. A lot of times, we're coming out with new projects, and we've got to get them started up reliably on the first try."
Another argument for RBWS, Sherman said, is that risk-based inspection (RBI) has driven the use of more advanced inspection techniques requiring additional vessel prep.
"RBI (risk-based inspection) is driving advanced inspection," Sherman said, adding it's essential to make sure the level of inspection completed results in the highest effectiveness scores "so that hopefully we won't have to go into those vessels again at the next turnaround. If we get the right inspection, we may not have to go into it in five years."
Sherman also shared that turnaround spend is two to three times more expensive than regular maintenance. The more work that can be done with daily maintenance, the greater the returns for the facilities.
"What we see is that you can have about a 20-25 percent reduction in your scope by doing this type of exercise," Sherman said.
The other side of the RBWS coin
As is the case with any process, Sherman observed there are some arguments to be made against RBWS.
"It's a fairly new process, especially at the site level, and so there's some training that has to happen, and that does take time. It takes resources to do it," she said.
RBWS also requires additional preparation, "so we're asking those detailed questions early on in the process," Sherman said, adding that factor "is a good thing" in terms of preparing for a turnaround.
"But it does place a strain on your resources, because they're not going to be used to doing that," she said.
Additionally, there is a cost associated with bringing in consultants to assist with adopting RBWS.
"I personally think the gain is worth the cost, but we have to acknowledge that it's there," Sherman concluded.
