According to Jude Noel, operations excellence lead for Phillips 66, there are seven key steps of operational readiness.
"It's a challenge for our whole industry to get this right," he said.
The first three steps are the planning aspects of the job. Steps four through seven are the execution phase.
"Steps one through three are where operations identifies a problem and communicates the problem to the maintenance department, which comes up with a joint solution in agreement with operations' plan. Then, you [prepare] for execution," Noel said.
However, the real challenge lies in steps four through seven, which are part of the execution phase. In steps four through seven, operations prepares equipment for maintenance, then maintenance completes the plan and turns the work back over to operations. Finally, operations returns to service.
"Steps four through seven are the key focus points for making sure we get it right 100 percent of the time. That's where a lot of the high risk comes about," he said. "When you're in the planning phases, you have the opportunity to identify and fix the issues, but when it comes to execution, the margin of error is much smaller."
At the end of maintenance's work, Noel recommended making a very good handoff between maintenance and a return to operations, which indicates the job has been properly completed and operations has accepted the outcome of the work.
"Operations does its due diligence to make sure equipment can be properly returned to service," which is integral, Noel said. "All the meters [must be] closed, plugs installed, checks performed and the work scope completed."
Noel encouraged full engagement among all teams involved with a project "in order to make sure it's done properly and safely, and anybody can utilize their stop work authority at any point in the process to go back, identify the concern and stop the job.
"Make sure you're paying strong attention to every detail because details matter in our industry," he said.
Lesson learned
In 2020, a gas release occurred at a LyondellBasell site during startup activities following a scheduled maintenance outage. The source was determined to be a manway that was left open on a flare knockout drum. No injuries or damage occurred as a result of the incident and emissions were below the reportable quantity.
Following the seven steps, particularly the last four, is a regimen that is strongly endorsed by Garrett Alexander, manager of health, safety and environment for LyondellBasell.
At the end of the scheduled maintenance outage, the gas release incident occurred.
"We were starting to re-inventory the unit, and there was a manway left uncovered. It was physically on the supports and over the location where it was supposed to go, but there were no bolts, so it was essentially an open hole," he said. "Luckily, there were no injuries or adverse consequence of the event. We had a gas release, but did not find an emissions source. The event was a very close call."
The immediate cause of the event was obviously the manway being left open.
"The line break tag was not used, which adds a little more context to what happened," he said. "It was not originally part of the scope for this outage."
Alexander pointed to the unexpected change of plan as a key factor for the event, and the mechanisms for the crew to communicate the changes were inadequate at the time.
"There was a lot of verbal communication, but we didn't utilize the proper tag. So, when we were finished with the work, we did not pressure test this particular vessel," he said.
No injuries or damage occurred and the emissions were below the reportable quantity because, Alexander said, the crews paid "particular attention to steps four through seven."
Lawrence Moreaux, site manager for LyondellBasell, noted that all of the work the company's teams do is geared toward helping the front line.
"If we're producing tools that are not being used by the front line, that's a miss, so please help us there," he said. "We want to help you."
