Turnarounds usually occur according to tight schedules and are typically the largest maintenance expense for industrial plants. Plus, the operational downtime is very expensive, often exceeding the cost of maintenance and upgrades. To help deliver efficient turnaround programs, Veolia works with our customers on turnaround programs to ensure their project deadlines are met, the quality of our work meets regulatory requirements and their expectations, and contingency costs are minimized.
The operating culture for industrial services contracting can often be reactive, but Veolia’s best practice model for turnaround management focuses on effective preparation in partnership with our customers’ turnaround teams. As a result, our standard operating procedures increase worker productivity and work quality, better manage deliverables, and maintain a clear and continuous dialog with our customers. We bring proven turnaround management expertise to our customers that is driven by five key principles:
- Proactively understanding a customer’s turnaround requirements and expectations
- Aligning Veolia’s operational team and resources accordingly
- Partnering with the customer to develop and manage the scope of work in advance, including recommending Touch Free technologies to maximize productivity
- Effective communication and execution of the plan
- Post turnaround review and documentation
Building an effective safety culture
Veolia’s safety culture is fundamentally based on the strongly held belief that each employee is obligated and equipped to protect one another. Our best practices are backed by a “Goal Zero” safety and operational culture that aims to continually improve turnaround outcomes by reducing workplace hazards and ensuring workers are fully trained and equipped to carry out their responsibilities. Veolia works closely with OSHA to develop and implement industry leading safety practices and has 14 VPP Star-certified locations in North America.
Seeing the results
Veolia is an industry leader in the development and use of Touch Free technologies for industrial cleaning and maintenance applications. Our Touch Free technologies surpass traditional cleaning methods by substantially increasing the cleaning power and accuracy to complete industrial cleaning objectives. These technologies remove workers from the line of fire, decrease crew size, and produce better results in less time, generating more value for our customers.
Following this best practice model, Veolia helped one of its Gulf Coast customers achieve exceptional results during its 5-year turnaround. Using effective operational planning strategies and Touch Free cleaning technologies, fifty heat exchangers (the equivalent of 600,000 tubes) were cleaned two weeks ahead of schedule, with 30% less manpower, on a very small footprint and with no safety incidents. This resulted in $1.2 million in time and labor savings for the customer, and opened room in the schedule for other critical path projects.
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