Turnaround Planning Using Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) Analysis

A paper entitled, "Turnaround Scope Development Through Reliability, Availability and Maintainability Analysis," prepared by Shailendra K. Gupta and John E. Paisie, both senior reliability engineers with Sun Oil Company, Toledo, OH, USA, was presented at the recent NPRA Maintenance Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The authors highlighted factors associated with turnarounds (T/A) in refineries and chemical plants, depending upon size and complexity:

• Typical frequency of 2 to 5 years
• Can last for 10 to 40 days
• During T/A affected units are not generating revenue
• Maintenance costs incurred can be up to 10's of millions of dollars
• Unit must operate efficiently and reliably till the next T/A

The challenge posed: Establish the T/A scope so costs, duration and frequency are optimized while improving production availability.