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Turnaround Assist Program (T-AP©)

AP-Networks has developed the Turnaround Assistance Program (T-AP) to enable and provide assurance that best practices are being implemented to generate safe, event-free, predictable, and competitive turnaround outcomes. The T-AP helps teams predictably and safely plan and execute turnarounds. Our turnaround consultants provide your organization with an objective, outside perspective on all of the strategic decisions and tactical activities needed to implement a successful shutdown. Combined with AP-Networks’ world class tools, our experienced staff and industry leading methodologies have consistently delivered the most cost-efficient and incident-free turnaround possible. The senior consultants who lead these engagements are uniquely qualified and collectively have reviewed and managed more than 800 turnarounds worldwide.

Recent trends have only magnified the importance of planning and preparation prior to a plant shutdown. Industry performance for high complexity turnarounds has been especially poor with very few shutdowns meeting their planned goals. AP-Networks works closely with the turnaround team at all planning and preparation stages to identify turnaround risks and mitigate those major risks that threaten meeting key objectives. The engagements are done at four major points during the turnaround life cycle and provide value across the entire enterprise by:

  • Identifying potential issues and performance gaps early to mitigate risks and avoid disasters.
  • Aligning team members with each other and with the goals of upper management.
  • Developing a detailed, on-target action plan for the turnaround.

Experience Augmentation

Our Experience Augmentation services are not staff augmentation, but rather aim to complement the experience of a company or site’s staff with the expertise of AP-Networks’ senior consultants. Through an “on call” basis a few days a week or by way of a finite assignment, our senior staff will provide specialized turnaround assistance without the economic or logistical issues of acquiring long-term assistance. AP-Networks’ veteran team brings real world experience with varying managerial backgrounds from maintenance and operations to vice presidents and site managers. This depth of knowledge coupled with our independent perspective has consistently and effectively implemented strategic decisions, tactical activities, and proven practices that have shaped the way organizations approach turnarounds and everyday operations.

Our senior consultants are not only used to professionally influence and drive behavioral change in an organization, but also as coaches or mentors to actively demonstrate how to turn concepts into results. These results include but are not limited to:

  • The development and implementation of a company and site wide turnaround work process
  • The creation of an effective turnaround team with organizational buy-in and support
  • The development and implementation of a successful turnaround strategy
  • The development and optimization of a site turnaround portfolio to meet business and facility objectives
  • The implementation of turnaround best practices through a mentoring role with the site’s turnaround manager
  • The development of appropriate contracting strategies
  • The reworking of a site’s resource planning strategy to effectively utilize local plant knowledge and talent in key pre-turnaround planning and execution roles
  • The development and implementation of a material management and control process
  • The development and implementation of a project controls process and work breakdown structure
 
Risk Based Scope Review

Deciding turnaround scope is a planning activity often marked by difficult and ineffective discussions around work to be included in a plant shutdown. Selecting the "right" scope, however, is a significant driver to turnaround performance in the areas of duration, cost, and unit reliability. AP-Networks’ Risk Based Scope Review (RBSR) process provides a structured approach to help obtain optimal turnaround scope. The RBSR and its fact-based, logical approach to decision making allows your team to:

  • Determine the right turnaround scope using fact-based methods
  • Improve start up and run time reliability
  • Gain buy-in to the final turnaround scope by all departments
Companies that are not yet using risk based decision making techniques are making scope decisions based on legal requirements, criticality, plant or company practices, and management directive. These methods tend to be very conservative because the decisions are based solely on consequences. A facilitated RBSR coupled with AP-Networks’ Risk Based Selection Tool (RBST) is a powerful combination. It brings together the elements of failure likelihood and event consequences to quantify a plant's exposure to the risks associated with a specific piece of equipment. With risks quantified, management can make informed decisions on turnaround scope. Reductions of 15% or more in overall turnaround costs are typical when a structured RBSR process is used.
AP-Networks knowledgeable consultants can train your employees and facilitate workshops on how to use the RBST and quickly bring your turnaround teams to an advanced level of risk-based decision-making. This advanced level of decision-making provides the precision necessary to defer work historically included in the turnaround scope and reduces the overall cost of your turnaround.
 
Turnaround Work Process Development & Implementation

Achieving the goal of competitive and predictable turnarounds across the enterprise is a journey that requires both a phased and gated work process, as well as effective and consistent implementation of best practices. AP-Networks’ experience and analysis of over 800 turnarounds has proven that this process must not only be phased and gated, but also begin early in the turnaround life cycle when value is most easily created.

The AP-Networks Turnaround Work Process is continually being enhanced through our work with the world’s largest and most prominent energy and chemical companies. According to World Refining Magazine, our Turnaround Work Process is the “world standard”. The AP-Networks process is comprehensive and scalable to three levels of turnaround complexity – high, medium and low – with high complexity having the greatest level of rigor in definition and planning. Furthermore, the AP-Networks Turnaround Work Process comes with a vast library of job-aids, real world examples, and guidance documents. Among other advantages, a gated process ensures the following:

  • Appropriate framing of the premises for each turnaround
  • Timely formation of turnaround teams with roles and responsibilities
  • Clear timeline for planning milestones and deliverables
  • Alignment of all key functions around objectives and planning deliverables
  • Selection of the "right" scope to meet the turnaround premises
  • Cost estimates that are commensurate with scope and level of definition
  • A framework to enable timely decision-making and prevent recycling
  • Consistency in planning and execution to provide systemic learning
  • Assurance that best practices are being employed on each shutdown
  • A common basis for knowledge sharing and corporate memory

Beyond AP-Networks’ proprietary turnaround work process, our experts have worked with several of our clients to create a customized solution. This customized solution blends the client’s work process with that of AP-Networks’ and brings it to life through the use of NaviTrack™. This allows our clients to understand the value of their organization’s existing process while simultaneously identifying improvements, through the use of our industry best practices database, to achieve key business objectives.
 
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