On a plant-based system basis, industry companies typically spend a large amount of their annual budgets to execute capital projects, maintenance turnarounds, and routine maintenance. Although significant capital is being spent, outcomes for these plant-specific activities are generally poor. Moreover, the poor predictability and performance of plant-based systems tend to erode company value. However, implementation of proven good project practices can significantly improve the competitiveness of a given site and of a company as a whole.

IPA has studied the performance of plant-based systems and has quantified practices that drive improved performance. A plant-based system that functions well provides a company with a competitive advantage in terms of capital and unit product costs, reliable and better quality facilities, and better responsiveness to the business needs.

In order to improve overall effectiveness, IPA has developed the following products to address plant-based system needs:

These products have been designed to help plant managers, plant engineers, and maintenance managers understand the effectiveness of the practices and procedures employed at the site in planning and executing capital projects and maintenance activities. Through benchmarking capital projects, maintenance turnarounds, and maintenance practices, IPA identifies, measures, and bridges the gap between a plant-based system and the Best Site in Industry. The FEL Expert software is an easy-to-apply tool designed to assess the quality of project definition for capital projects costing less than $7MM.

IPA'S APPROACH TO PLANT BASED SYSTEMS

Site Benchmarking Studies Database
IPA uses an extensive proprietary database to compare each company project with Industry and the Best Site. The goal is to provide the site with a numerical baseline to mark its current performance. The ever-growing database represents a cross-section of Industry and includes more than 2,000 projects executed at the plant level. From this database, we develop a subset of projects comparable with those executed by the site being benchmarked.

Maintenance Turnarounds Database
The turnaround database contains information on more than 150 turnarounds executed worldwide and represents a wide cross-section of the chemical and petrochemical industries. More than 1,000 variables describe the history of each turnaround in the database. These variables account for factors arising from scope development through startup and into early production. This information permits an analysis of turnarounds from inception to completion and assists in understanding the critical interfaces among the people responsible for turnaround success or failure.

Maintenance Practices Database
The maintenance database contains more than 160 sites from the process industries including chemical, petrochemical, and mineral processes. Thirty-six companies are represented in this database. The database includes more than 1,000 variables that help us identify the main indicators of maintenance performance and compare those of a site with the average site represented in the database. These indicators allow us to determine whether a site is effectively using the maintenance function and those factors that may place a site at a competitive disadvantage because of the maintenance practices and performance recorded.

For more information, call Raul Hermosillo (+1 703-726-5386).