Ask a Plant Manager: Is your plant ready for a holiday shutdown?

Effective shutdown planning starts early. Joe Kuhn explains how to scope maintenance jobs, verify parts, anticipate delays and coordinate resources.

Welcome to Ask a Plant Manager, the series where we put common maintenance and reliability assumptions to the test. Join Plant Services columnist and retired plant manager Joe Kuhn as he tackles the questions, rules of thumb and conventional wisdom that plant managers and maintenance leaders encounter every day. You'll get practical, straight-talking advice on what holds up in the real world.

In this episode, Joe Kuhn and Plant Services Chief Editor Anna Townshend are talking about holiday shutdowns, how to plan them, the common reasons shutdown take longer than expected, and scheduling and morale during the holidays.

About the Author

Joe Kuhn

Joe Kuhn

CMRP

Joe Kuhn, CMRP, former plant manager, engineer, and global reliability consultant, is now president of Lean Driven Reliability LLC. He is the author of the book “Zero to Hero: How to Jumpstart Your Reliability Journey Given Today’s Business Challenges” and the creator of the Joe Kuhn YouTube Channel, which offers content on creating a reliability culture as well as financial independence to help you retire early. Contact Joe Kuhn at [email protected].

Anna Townshend

Anna Townshend

head of content

Anna Townshend is the chief editor and head of content for Plant Services. She has been a journalist and editor for more than 20 years and joined Plant Services and Control Design as managing editor in June 2020. Previously, for more than 10 years, she was the chief editor of Marina Dock Age and International Dredging Review. In addition to writing and editing thousands of articles in her career, she has been an active speaker on industry panels and presentations, as well as host for Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. Email her at [email protected].

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