Turnaround Inspections Performance Measurement Tool

Turnaround Inspections, or alternatively called Testing and Inspection (T&I) activities are critically important for the integrity of oil and gas facilities, and if not planned and executed properly, can easily lead to catastrophic failures that may possibly result in injuries, fatalities, property damage, and production losses. Measuring the performance of the teams planning and conducting T&Is, and feeding the measurement findings into the existing plans to achieve continuous improvement, is key to the success of these operations posing high risk. This paper provides detailed information on the structure, design criteria, applicability, and benefits of a T&I Performance measurement tool, developed for a hydrocarbon producing department running several gas oil separation, gas compression and utility plants, and continuously performing T&Is of various magnitudes, based on annual equipment inspection schedules. During the design and development stage, several expectations from Operational Excellence Program, Safety Management System, and Corporate Maintenance Council, were incorporated into the tool. The mentioned alignment with various management systems strengthens the measurement coverage, and if used properly, the tool can bridge multiple gaps identified in various programs. The tool provides a single dashboard "T&I KPI" in the form of a composite index, expressed with four (4) major components, which are namely, HSE (Health, Safety and Environment), Cost& Profitability, Reliability, and Effectiveness. These major components are further broken down to planning and executional success factors, obtained from the actual worksite data and planning compliance checklists. Accidents recorded, availability of job safety analysis, confined space, scaffold, and critical lift plans, compliance to corporate requirements prior to execution of the work, work quality, scheduling performance, and budgetary discipline are among the success factors that feed into the performance readiness and execution measurement calculations. The tool can be utilized for T&I activities governed by an annual schedule, a set of critical equipment to be opened up during planned/unplanned shutdowns, or for a multi-component unit with its associated equipment to be tested and inspected under a single scope, such as a gas compressor system. It drives actions as different aspects of the T&I activities are reviewed with a solid scoring methodology that clearly indicates the areas of improvement, which can then be addressed with corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence. Continuous and consistent utilization of the tool can lead to reduction in the accident frequencies, T&I durations, and outages of critical equipment, vessels, and storage tanks, which could possibly impact plant output rates.