SABIC Innovative Plastics (SABIC IP) is part of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation and has four polycarbonate production facilities in Europe and the USA. Each site had a scheduled annual or bi-annual shut down for inspections, maintenance and engineering projects. Following a review of possible processes and available tools, the management team decided to partner with The Woodhouse Partnership to carry out a Shutdown Optimisation Project across the four sites, with the first site being Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands. The project received senior management support with the goal to significantly reduce costs and improve performance.
Woodhouse deployed the ‘Criticality Method calibration’ to assess the impact and potential urgency of each task that appeared to require a shutdown of the plant. These were then challenged and filtered down to a list of truly shutdown-dependent activities, each was evaluated individually, and then collectively, using DST™ software tools for optimal timing and ‘bundling’.
The first step in the process was to select, from the entire workload, only those tasks which truly drive the requirement to shut down the plant. This was achieved through a series of screening and filtering processes. The selective filters ranged from simple rule-based screening to assessment and challenge by multidisciplinary teams. From a total of 24,260 tasks, 7,875 were listed as ‘shutdown dependent’ yet only 86 were actually found to be truly shutdown dependent.
Following the individual task analysis, many revealed optimal intervals equal to, or greater than a 4 year ‘ideal target’ interval. Others, however, showed optimal intervals which were less than 4 years – representing ‘bottlenecks’ to the achievement of longer shutdown intervals. The next step was to assess the best way of combining tasks with different optimal intervals into the ‘least compromise’ groupings and shared timings.
DST™ SCHEDULE software tool was employed. This module explores the effects of moving individual tasks away from their optima to share downtime or other bundling advantages with other tasks. SCHEDULE does this in “real-time” in just a few minutes by utilizing a self-learning “genetic algorithm”; normal simulation techniques would take around 4 weeks to ‘solve’ the optimal scheduling of just 10 tasks. There were 32 cost/risk and timing-sensitive tasks carried forward to this ‘optimal bundling and scheduling’ stage.
The results show that there were a number of tasks that still required and justified a frequent (annual or biannual) shutdown. The next step was therefore to “de-bottleneck” or remove the requirement for these high-frequency shutdown-dependent tasks. Having identified the de-bottlenecking tasks and removed them from the task list, the SCHEDULE analysis was re-calculated.
The project revealed that the optimum shutdown interval is now 4 years. The DST™ SCHEDULE outputs included a full NPV calculation of the costs, risks and production impact of this program (and any alternative). The full impact of the changes was directly quantifiable – and represented 7- figure annualized net benefits. With the sensitivity testing already built-in, and full drill-down clarity regarding the urgency and justification for each shutdown, SABIC senior management was able to commit to the revised plan very rapidly; all de-bottlenecking actions were approved and underway within 2 months of the study.
The Bergen op Zoom site implemented a new, 4-yearly shutdown cycle which, when left unchallenged, shutdowns and their intervals become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Where this is the case, the organization’s business processes have evolved in order to support the pattern, concentrating on efficient delivery of the work rather than challenging its need and timing.
Challenging the shutdown dependency of any task is essential, but can only be successfully done by competent multidisciplinary teams and full cost/risk appraisal, with appropriate decision support tools and robust methods for coping with the inevitable uncertainties and poor information. As with all change programs the participation of all stakeholders was crucial. In particular, the safety-critical areas of inspection and Process Safety Management (PSM) were vital participants in the study. The structured range estimating and sensitivity analysis techniques were also major factors in obtaining the confidence and credibility of the analysis results.
Net Sabic Bergen op Zoom benefits are calculated as
12 actions were required with total c.€ 250k investment (NB 5 actions have minimal/no cost at all)
Learning points – human factors & resourcing
Additional Benefits
The Woodhouse Partnership would be delighted to show you how the SALVO process and Decision Support Tools™ can be implemented to benefit your business, contact us now for a free initial consultation. We look forward to hearing from you.
“In the area of turnaround management optimization and aged assets assessment, The Woodhouse Partnership has been of tremendous help to move from qualitative, emotional and subjective statements, to solid analysis using a mix of real data and tacit knowledge, to support our asset strategy decisions.”
Mutual Energy has been recognised for effective asset management of critical infrastructure by achieving ISO 55001 certification.
This study was commissioned to ascertain the business case for re-tubing and to evaluate the life cycle cost benefits of alternative materials.
David Curtis, Director, Engineering Talent Management at Hydro One talks us through their experience with the Woodhouse Partnership and benefits of refining their asset management practices.
Over his 28 plus year span in the industrial sectors with working technical backgrounds in Project & Construction Management, Asset Operations and Maintenance Reliability Management, and being certified in various courses of study; Damien has gained the knowledge and experience and has had proven successes throughout his tenure in the Oil, Gas, Petro-Chemical and Construction sectors. Establishing his-self in the various sectors, Damien’s first experience and success started in the Construction Sector in estimating engineering. This was the stepping stone for Damien and has paved the way for his passion and continued success in supporting People, Process, and Systems in an organization.
Damien has held positions in local, international and multi-national corporations and comes from a working background in the fields of environmental, operations, project and construction management, operations maintenance and reliability management, planning, supervisory management, and has proven his abilities to succeed in each field.
Rich was an Engineer and Project Manager professional at the New York Power Authority for over 30-years. In addition to being the first Project Manager for the Niagara Project Upgrade, Rich rose to be the Vice President of Engineering having started in Operations Engineering decades earlier. Rich went on to be Vice President, Transmission and Substation at AECOM responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in design and construction. Rich joined Woodhouse Partnership, North America and participates in aligning organization towards ISO 55000 and many reliability studies supporting DST.
with
Our Asset Management Academy is pleased to announce 2023 dates for our Masterclass – the benchmark for personal development and competency recognition for Asset Management Professionals
Executive in Operational Excellence, Asset Management and Best Practices in Projects, Operations and Maintenance in the Energy and Industrial Sector.
Consultant, Instructor and International Lecturer on issues related to project management (risk management), operational reliability, strategic management of operations, maintenance, Asset Management in the energy sector (ISO 55001) and Applied Data Analytics.
PMP, CMRP, IAM and CAMA certifications, being recognized by the SMRP in 2019 as CMRP of the Year https://smrp.org/2019-CMRP-Winners.
George has over twenty-five years of experience as a consulting engineer providing design, planning, program and project management, and strategic asset management services for asset-intensive organizations in the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. His primary focus has been in the public infrastructure sector; as a result, he has intimate knowledge of the assets, processes, and resources necessary to deliver and sustain safe, reliable services to the customers of public asset-owning organizations.
George has assisted organizations with the development of PAS 55, ISO 55000, and GFMAM AM Landscape aligned asset management systems (AMS), has performed gap analyses of their AMS against industry standards and best practices, and has guided them through the creation of strategic asset management plans (SAMPs), asset management plans (AMPs), AM policy and supporting documents. He has undertaken asset risk modelling to ascertain organizations’ capability to sustain their desired levels of service. George has performed asset health-informed lifecycle cost modelling and forecasting capital and operational expenditures over near and long-term planning horizons.
With 30 years’ experience in utilities, oil & gas, transport and other sectors, John is one of the most widely known experts in integrated asset management projects for some of the largest companies in the world.
John is a Founder and Life Fellow of the IAM; he has written 4 books, chaired the development of BSI PAS55 and represents the UK on the ISO55000 committee.
He also led the international MACRO and SALVO collaboration projects in optimised asset management decision-making.
