- The Turnaround Industry Network Conference, held on June 29 and 30th in Clear Lake Texas focused attention on two primary themes:
- Implementing turnaround processes and best practices at the enterprise and site level and,
- Measuring performance
Attendees representing 13-owner companies participated in this year's conference. The event was hosted by Asset Performance Networks and was a mix of owner presentations, breakout sessions, and networking activities.
Joe Luciano, Turnaround Manager at Shell Oil's Puget Sound Refinery, chaired the session this year. The program included the following speakers:
Rich Guttchen, Turnaround Best Practices Team Leader at ChevronTexaco, shared success factors in implementing a consistent turnaround governance process across all ChevronTexaco refineries.
Bill Van Winkle, former Turnaround Manager at Flint Hills Resources Corpus Christi Refinery (and now a Senior Consultant with APN), presented a compelling case study on the steps taken at a large refinery to change the culture which resulted in a dramatic improvement in turnaround performance based on both internal financial measures and Solomon benchmarks.
Craig Small, Turnaround Manager at the Celanese Bishop Plant, discussed how to obtain and maintain effective management support through the life of a turnaround.
Bobby Vichich, Planning Supervisor at the ExxonMobil Baytown Olefins Plant, reviewed how ExxonMobil is using benchmarking to measure performance and highlighted the need to really understand the data to in order to draw the right conclusions.
Always a crowd favorite, Dennis Perz, formerly of Dow Chemical, returned this year to discuss the meaning of "culture", organizational culture, its origins, and the required critical factors to influence it to change.
Jeff Wootton, of Asset Performance Networks, presented a methodology to compare turnaround scope by formulating a Turnaround Scope Index.
Brett Schroeder, of Asset Performance Networks, reviewed recent changes and upgrades to APN's web-based portal, www.Turnaround-Network.com. Brett also reviewed the multi-year program to add new features to the portal.
There were also six different breakout sessions addressing the following issues:
- Getting Stakeholders to Participate in the TA Process
- Corporate Improvement Initiatives
- Execution Strategies
- Measuring Turnaround Performance
- Contracting Strategies & Measuring Contractor Performance
- Scope Definition and Freeze Process
All the participants shared their experiences within their respective companies and reported back to the group with the highlights.
A steering committee is being formed to help develop the program for next year's conference.
| Air Liquide |
Flint Hills Resources |
| BP |
Hovensa |
| Celanese |
Lyondell-Citgo |
| ChevronTexaco |
Shell |
| ConcocoPhillips |
Sunoco |
| Dow |
Valero |
| ExxonMobil |
|
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