TABLE OF CONTENTS It doesn't work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.
American proverb
The process used to prepare and conduct the regular renewal maintenance that is designed to ensure on-going reliable performance can have any of a number of names. Sometimes it is called an overhaul, sometimes a shutdown, sometimes an outage, and sometimes a turnaround.
For purposes of this discussion, I will use the following definitions:
A Turnaround is a planned activity involving an entire plant or facility that is intended to reset the clock on all affected equipment so the unit can complete the maximum possible production run without interruption.
An Outage is a planned activity involving only a portion of a plant or facility.
A Shutdown is an unplanned interruption with the typical response being to repair only the equipment that caused the interruption and restart as quickly as possible.
An Overhaul is a planned activity that involves only one specific item of equipment and is completed in a manner that resets the clock for that item so that it can complete the maximum possible run without interruption.
This discussion will focus on the Turnaround Process (TAP) specifically. The Outage Process and the Overhaul Process are special instances of the Turnaround Process that affect only a part of a plant or only a specific item of equipment.
As the proverb at the introduction is intended to suggest, conducting a successful turnaround is like leaping a broad chasm. It is impossible to do so in two...
