6 reasons why your STO strategy might not be as effective as you think

May 21, 2015
Preview Plant Services' June 18 webcast on tips for optimizing your STO (shutdown, turnaround, outage) strategy.

Shutdowns, turnarounds and outages are complex, high-cost undertakings that have impacts across the entire business, from shareholders and board members to front-line maintenance workers. When not well-planned and managed, STOs can create safety risks, unplanned downtime, and cost overruns, resulting in reduced profitability if the organization is not able to return on schedule to full operating capacity. On June 18, 2015, at 11 a.m. ET, Plant Services will be hosting a webcast on STO strategies featuring a live question-and-answer format with two industry experts. Bellow are six takeaways from the upcoming presentation.

1. 85% of all STO work happens before you touch anything physically, before the shutdown. During our webcast, Joel Levitt, Director of International Projects for Life Cycle Engineering, will explore:

  • How do you initiate STO?
  • How do you identify work / scope?
  • What are the estimated benefits / yield?

2. Identifying scope is one of the most challenging STO elements, and getting people to adhere to scope is difficult. People often forget to add necessary tasks until the middle of STO.

3. Scope creep can be disruptive to the STO process. Steve Carr, Principal Consultant for Life Cycle Engineering, will be offering our webcast attendees tips on:

  • How to get identified work into your EAM
  • How to manage your spend
  • How to build in room for "discoverables" - additional work that needs to be added

4. During the webcast, Joel will explore tips on mitigating STO risks, including:

  • Safety
  • Cost overruns
  • Unplanned downtime

5. The decision to stay in-house vs. hire contractors depends on time, duration, and extent of STO. Keeping communication flowing constantly between in-house and contracted teams is essential. Also, it is best not to hire contractors for STOs that are timed close to holidays or summer vacations, as the best workers are often unavailable or on vacation

6. Identifying common KPIs used by leading organizations to track and measure the success of their STO programs and events, including:

  • Safe shutdown
  • Tracking on budget
  • Contractor burn rate (tip: use clock in / clock out system)
  • Finished on time
  • Finished on budget - often won't know this for weeks afterward, due to contractor billing

To learn more about STO, sign up for our webcast.

Sponsored Recommendations

April 14, 2025
This paper addresses where leaks commonly occur, leak detection methods, and practical advice for an audit and repair plan. You'll learn why an ongoing leak detection and repair...
April 14, 2025
Here are some things you can do in between formal preventive maintenance visits on your electric screw compressor to extend compressor life and prevent downtime.
April 14, 2025
They cost more than refrigerated dryers. They need more parts and service than refrigerated dryers. They increase demand for compressed air. So when should you use a desiccant...
April 14, 2025
Follow these ten steps for energy savings in your compressed air system.