Abstract (Presentation Description) / Résumé (description de la présentation)
Shutdown is a generic term for what may be called an Outage, Turn Around (TAR) or Overhaul.
Running a shutdown well has always been key to the financial contribution of a business. However, something important has changed. The post pandemic reality is that turnover and extended vacancies are eroding established maintenance processes that now struggle to yield the required plant availability.
One tactic to mitigate this is to make the process “turnover proof”. This is achieved through disciplined execution of documented processes backed by role definitions, training material, cross-training and training the trainers, etc. The good news is that tactic is entirely within the control of the Maintenance area to create.
This paper proposes a framework to manage Plant Shutdowns in the mining industry and discusses four case studies, one of which is currently on-going. The case studies are selected to show application over a range of different size shutdowns from micro to mini to macro.
Shutdowns vary immensely in nature, scope and duration but all have four common objectives:
• Do no harm, (safety and environment)
• Reliability restoration, i.e., plant runs reliably until the next planned outage
• Schedule compliance, complete the work within the planned shutdown duration
• Shutdown budget compliance
Like any other work, executing a shutdown is a process. It can be thought of as a combination of the Weekly Maintenance Work Cycle and a Project, as it has elements from both, and any work process can be optimized. Shutdowns have two main loss drivers that impact production, those being:
- shutdown duration, including schedule overruns
- unplanned outages, post shutdown, due to work not done or work poorly done, during the shutdown.
While this paper focuses on the management of shutdowns to control schedule and restore reliability, it should be noted that these improvements in execution will also benefit safety and cost.
Running a shutdown well has always been key to the financial contribution of a business. However, something important has changed. The post pandemic reality is that turnover and extended vacancies are eroding established maintenance processes that now struggle to yield the required plant availability.
One tactic to mitigate this is to make the process “turnover proof”. This is achieved through disciplined execution of documented processes backed by role definitions, training material, cross-training and training the trainers, etc. The good news is that tactic is entirely within the control of the Maintenance area to create.
This paper proposes a framework to manage Plant Shutdowns in the mining industry and discusses four case studies, one of which is currently on-going. The case studies are selected to show application over a range of different size shutdowns from micro to mini to macro.
Shutdowns vary immensely in nature, scope and duration but all have four common objectives:
• Do no harm, (safety and environment)
• Reliability restoration, i.e., plant runs reliably until the next planned outage
• Schedule compliance, complete the work within the planned shutdown duration
• Shutdown budget compliance
Like any other work, executing a shutdown is a process. It can be thought of as a combination of the Weekly Maintenance Work Cycle and a Project, as it has elements from both, and any work process can be optimized. Shutdowns have two main loss drivers that impact production, those being:
- shutdown duration, including schedule overruns
- unplanned outages, post shutdown, due to work not done or work poorly done, during the shutdown.
While this paper focuses on the management of shutdowns to control schedule and restore reliability, it should be noted that these improvements in execution will also benefit safety and cost.
If this content has been presented before, please provide some information and context
An earlier version was presented at the CIM Conference in Montreal, May, 2023