Shutdown and Outages Strategy and Management
This item is free to Āpōpō members through our partnership with IAM.
Version 1, July 2022
This SSG has been developed in recognition that the most significant cost across the lifecycle of an asset occurs through the maintain and operate phase.
To ensure assets continue to maintain their function the optimum maintenance and inspection strategy must be selected. Often these strategies require the asset to be taken out of service or configured in such a way that service is impaired to execute maintenance, replace or upgrade. The requirements will be business and industry specific and driven by the relevant value drivers for the organisation at the point in time. The default position would be to identify an asset management strategy that can be deployed that does not require a shutdown/outage, however due to a range of possible constraints this may not be economically or technically feasible.
Furthermore, failure of an asset or identification of a potential failure may result in a decision to force a shutdown or shutdown/outage earlier than originally intended or an additional shutdown/outage to implement corrective solution. Thus, an organisation must ensure processes for identification, planning, scheduling, delivery and control of work related to shutdowns or shutdown/outages are in place and identify risks and any contingency plans needed. These include policies and processes for the implementation of the shutdown and outage strategy to ensure the effective management of shutdowns and outages, and to drive a culture of continuous improvement to optimise performance.
The complexity of a shutdown/outage will be increased when maintenance and inspection activities are combined with capital engineering activities for new/upgraded assets. This will require greater attention to coordination of resources and integration of overall preparation, planning, scheduling and execution activities.
This SSG has been created to provide guidance to organisations which require shutdowns/outages. This document covers both strategic and tactical elements of shutdown management. It is intended to mesh with other SSGs, e.g., ‘Reliability Engineering,’ and is meant to provide guidance, but is not exhaustive.
