scope plant shutdown turnaround
TRANSCRIPT
SABIC PLANT SHUTDOWNS AND TURNAROUNDS,
SCOPE VARIATION PRACTICAL APPROACH
PREPARED BY:
MOHAMMED S. AL-QADDA
51060024
PREPARED TO:
DR. M. SRIDHAR
OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
SABIC PLANT SHUTDOWNS AND TURNAROUNDS, SCOPE
VARIATION PRACTICAL APPROACH
BY
MOHAMMED S. AL-QADDA
51060024
Project Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Master of Business Administration in Project Management
OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
2009
I dedicate this thesis to my dear mother, father, wife and son.
I
ABSTRACT
As a big company in petrochemical industries, SABIC has more than 100 plants in
Saudi Arabia and over the world. To keep those plants running in reliable manner, it is require
conducting periodic shutdown maintenance for each plant.
This periodic shutdown maintenance is called turnaround in SABIC terminology. The
cycle of the turnaround is different from plant to another according to operation process and
type of equipment in each plant. Each turnaround is progressing through four main phases;
initial, planning, executing and close out phase.
A huge organization such as SABIC needs effective and powerful maintenance for its
plants to help the company in improving reliability and products quality Plant Turnarounds
are very important to give SABIC better competitive advantage in terms of products quality
and cost leadership. Plant shutdowns for scheduled major maintenance work are the most
expensive and time-consuming of maintenance projects because of the loss of production and
the expense of the turnaround itself. They can be complex; and as the complexity increases,
they become more costly and difficult to manage. A plant shutdown always has a negative
financial impact. This negative impact is due to both loss of production revenue and a major
cash outlay for the plant turnaround and shutdown expenses.
Managing the changes in turnaround scope is significant for SABIC turnaround
management in Jubail in order to reduce its impact on turnarounds cost, quality and time. The
aim of this research is to study and analysis the causes of that variation in scope of work in
SABIC turnarounds and find out why the final scope is deviate from original scope. The
reasons and cause have been proposed to be analyzed by conducting a quantitative survey
among a chosen focus group and a case study approach. The quantitative opinions are to be
analyzed by statistical measures of mean and Tally tables using the software called MINITAB
and EXCEL. Based on the results of the analysis, recommendations have been proposed for
SABIC Jubail so as to minimize the changes in turnaround scope of work and to minimize the
impact of changes on safety, duration, cost and quality.
II
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I thank my god for helping me completing this dissertation despite difficulty
with the ongoing business hurdle and studying other courses. Also, thanks good for getting
support from the company, instructor, and everybody for conducting this study.
I thank my advisor Dr. Sridhar for his support in my dissertation program. He was
always there to listen and to give advice. He was responsible for involving me in the project in
the first place. He taught me how to develop dissertation questions and express my ideas. He
was available whenever I needed his support. He showed me different ways to approach a
research problem and the need to be persistent to accomplish any goal.
Thanks also to learning and Organizational department for helping me in the
questionnaire formatting, wording, and categorizing.
Let me also say „thank you‟ to the people at my company who participated in the
survey and interviews with honest feedback for the interest of the company and their
colleagues.
Last, but not least, I thank my family: my parents for educating me with aspects from
both arts and sciences, for unconditional support and encouragement to pursue my interests,
even when the interests went beyond boundaries of being single, also I want to say thank you
very much to my wife and son Fahd whose patience was important in giving me time to
search, collect data, analyze it and finally put it in the form of a thesis.
III
Declaration and copyright
Name : Mohammed Saleh Al-Qadda
ID# : 51060024
I declare that the work I am submitting for assessment contains no sections copied in whole or
in part from any other source, unless it is explicitly identified by means of quotation marks or,
in the case of very long quotations, by means of wholly indented paragraphs. I declare that I
have also acknowledged such quotations by providing detailed references in an approved
format. I understand that unidentified and un referenced copying both constitute plagiarism,
which is one of a number of very serious offences under the University's Code of Practice and
Ethics.
Copying any information from this dissertation is not allowed without prior approval from the
author.
Signature:............................................... Date:…………………………
IV
APPLICATION TO CONDUCT RESEARCH PAPER
PART A: STUDENT PARTICULARS
1. Name of Student : Mohammed Saleh Al-Qadda
2. ID# : 51060024
PART B: PARTICULAR ABOUT THE PROJECT
1. Title of the project :” SABIC Plant Shutdowns and Turnarounds, Scope Variation
Practical Approach”
2. Research objective:” to evaluate and analyze the causes, impacts and practical
solutions for the work scope changes in petrochemical plant turnarounds in SABIC,
Jubail.”
3. Proposed Research Method :
Research Design: Questionnaire
Case study
PART C: FACULTY’S INPUT
1. Topic chosen : Acceptable / Not Acceptable
Suggested supervisor for the student:
V
RESEARCH PROPOSAL SUBMSSION FORM
Project Paper Title:
” SABIC Plant Shutdowns and Turnarounds, Scope Variation Practical Approach”
Director
Open University of Malaysia (OUM)
Bahrain branch
Dear Sir,
Attached are the following documents of your evaluate and approval
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Chapter 3: Scope Change Management and Control
Chapter 4: Research Methodology
Chapter 5: Data Analysis
Chapter 6: Discussion of Results
Chapter 7: Research Conclusion
Chapter 8: Reference
Chapter 9: Appendixes
I have thoroughly checked my work and I am confident that it is free from major grammatical
errors, weakness in sentence construction, spelling mistakes, referencing mistakes and others.
I have checked with OUM MBA program guideline for writing project paper and I am
satisfied that the project paper proposal satisfies most of its requirements.
Thank you,
Student Signature:…………………………….
I have read the students‟ research proposal and I am satisfied that it is line with the OUM
MBA program guideline for project proposal. It is also free from major grammatical errors,
sentence construction weaknesses, citation and others.
Supervisors Signature……………………………
VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 - Research Introduction
1.1. Introduction………………………………………………………...………..……….........1
1.2. Research Background……………………………………………...……………..…..……1
1.3. Discussion of the Research Problem………………………………………………..……..2
1.4. Aim and Objectives of the Research…………………………………..………..……....…3
1.5. Research Questions……………………………………………………………………..…3
1.6. Research Hypothesis ……………………………………………………..………..…..…5
1.7. Scope of the Research…………………………………………………………………..…5
1.8. Research Design and Methodology ……………………………………………....…….…6
1.9. Research Organization…………………………………………………..………..…….…7
1.10. Chapter summary……………………………………………………..………..……...…8
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
2.1. Chapter Introduction………………………………………………………...………..……8
2.2. Overview of SABIC…………………………………………………………..………...…9
2.3. Plant Turnarounds…………………………………………………………………..……11
2.3.1. Defining Turnarounds and Shutdowns………………………………….......…11
2.3.2. Turnaround Management………………………………………………………11
2.3.3. The turnaround Process……………………………………………………...…12
2.3.4. Turnaround Vs Project…………………………………………………………12
2.4. Petrochemical Plants and Turnarounds………………………………………………..…14
2.5. Turnaround Scope of Work in Petrochemical Plants……………………………..…...…16
2.6. Turnaround management in petrochemical plants……………..……………………...…18
2.6.1. The steering committee……………………………………………………...…18
2.6.2. Periodic reviews……………………………………………………………..…19
2.6.3. The phases in plant turnaround process……………………………………..…20
2.6.3.1. The conceptual phase…………………………………….……..……20
2.6.3.2. Work scope development………………………………….…………21
2.6.3.3. Detailed Planning………………………………………….…………21
2.6.3.4. Pre Turnaround Work………………………………………..…….…22
2.6.3.5. Turnaround execution………………………………………..…….…22
2.6.3.6. Post Turnaround…………………………………………………...…23
2.6.3.7. Measuring the success of the turnaround performance…………....…23
2.7. Deviation between final and original scope of work …………………………………...24
2.7.1. Causes of big changes in turnarounds scope of work……………………...…..24
2.7.2. Impacts of change in turnaround scope of work………………………..…..….24
2.7.3. Scope change management and control in turnarounds…………………….….25
2.8. Chapter summary………………………………………………………..……………….25
Chapter 3 - Scope Change Management and Control
3.1. Chapter Introduction…………………………………………………...…………………26
3.2. Defining the scope……………………………………………………...……………...…26
VII
3.3. Project Scope Management…………………………………………………………....…27
3.4. Scope Management Plan…………………………………………………………..…..…27
3.5. Scope Change Management and Control……………………………………………...…29
3.5.1. Scope Change………………………………………………………………..…29
3.5.2. Change Management………………………………………………….……..…29
3.5.3. Goals of scope change management………………………………………...…30
3.5.4. Purpose of scope change management…………………………………........…31
3.6. Scope Change Management in Petrochemical plant Turnarounds………………….……31
3.7. Primary Drivers in Plant Turnaround Scope Change Management……………...………34
3.8. Scope Change Requests and Change Process in plant turnarounds…………………...…34
3.8.1. Key Personnel and their Responsibilities…………………………………....…36
3.9. Scope Change and Tracking form……………………………………………..…………37
3.10. Template for Scope Change request, impact assessment and cost assessment…………38
3.11. Chapter summary………………………………………………………….............……42
Chapter 4 - Research Methodology
4.1. Chapter Introduction……………………………………………………...……...…....…42
4.2. Research Approaches………………………………………………………………....….42
4.3. Research Strategy………………………………………………………………….…..…43
4.4. Quantitative Data Collection……………………………………………………..………43
4.4.1. The basics of the Quantitative research methodology………………….………44
4.4.2. The Principles of Quantitative Research Method…………………………....…45
4.4.3. The Quantitative approach for this research work………………………..……46
4.4.4. The quantitative questionnaire…………………………………………………47
4.4.5. The Sample space for the Quantitative research…………………………….…48
4.4.6. The interpretation of Quantitative data…………………………………..….…49
4.4.7. Reliability and Validity of the data collected……………………..………....…50
4.5. Quantitative data collection for SABIC turnaround scope change analysis…………..…51
4.5.1. The survey questionnaire……………………..……………………………...…51
4.5.2. The sample space……………………..…………………………..…….………54
4.6. Case Study as a research methodology……………………..……………………………55
4.6.1. The Case Study approach……………………..……………………………..…56
4.7. Case Study data collection for SABIC turnaround scope change analysis….………...…57
4.8. Chapter summary…………………………………………………………………...……58
Chapter 5 - Data Analysis
5.1. Chapter Introduction……………………………………………...………………………59
5.2. Analysis of the Quantitative survey data………………………...……………….………59
5.2.1. Data Interpretation………………………………………….……………..……59
5.2.2. TALLY statistics for Part 1 Questions…………………………………………60
5.2.3. TALLY Analysis of Part 2 Questions……………………………………….…64
5.2.4. TALLY Analysis of Part 3 Questions……………………………………….…71
5.3. Discussion of the Results of Quantitative data analysis……………………………….…82
5.4. Chapter summary…………………………………………………………………..….…84
VIII
Chapter 6 - Discussion of Results
6.1. Chapter Introduction…………………………………………………...…………………84
6.2. Case study of SABIC scope change management and control………………..………....84
6.2.1. Objectives of case study…………………………………………………..……85
6.2.2. Company background……………………………………………………….….85
6.2.3 Executive synopsis of SABIC turnarounds………………………………..……85
6.2.4. The strategies in SABIC turnarounds………………………………………..…87
6.2.5. Areas of Consideration in the case study………………………………………88
6.2.5.1. Current activities in SABIC turnarounds……………………….……88
6.2.5.2. Scope management in SABIC turnarounds……………………..……91
6.3. Statement of the problem observed in this case study……………………….………...…93
6.4. Identification of problem solution and Alternative course of action………..............……94
6.5. Recommended Scope change management solutions……………………………………95
6.5.1. Recommended SCM procedure for initiation of the scope change request……95
6.5.2. Recommended SCM procedure for the scope change cost estimate…………...96
6.5.3. Recommended SCM procedure for assessing the impact
of the scope change request………………………………………………....…97
6.5.4. Recommended SCM procedure for the scope change approval……………..…98
6.5.5. Recommended SCM procedure for the scope change tracking………..………99
6.6. Recommendations for SABIC TA SCM based on quantitative survey…...…………....100
6.6.1. Recommendation for how to minimize the changes in
turnaround scope of work………………………....……….…………………100
6.6.2 Recommendation for how to minimize the impact of
changes on safety, duration, cost & quality……………….……………….…101
6.7. Chapter summary…………………………………………………………………….…101
Chapter 7 - Research Conclusion
Conclusion……………………………………………...……………………………102
References……………………………………………………………………………….…..104
Appendices……………………………………………………...……...……………………107
IX
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1. Turnaround Vs Project………………………………...……………..……………13
Table 2.2. Milestones in the Plant turnaround management system…………..……...………17
Table 3.1. A sample template for the scope identification……………………………………28
Table 3.2. A sample template for the scope acceptance and changes…….…...……...………29
Table 3.3. Sample Template for Scope change tracking log……………….…………………38
Table 3.4. Sample Template for Scope Change Request………………...………...…………39
Table 3.5. Sample Template for Scope Change Request approval……………..………….…40
Table 3.6. Sample Template for Scope Change Impact Assessment…………………………41
Table 3.7. Sample Template for Scope Change Cost Assessment……………………………41
Table 6.1. Methods of stream to stream TA duration calculation………………………….…86
Table 6.2. The standard Turnaround stream to stream time duration
(in Days) per plant unit based on the TA list and the maintenance……………..…86
Table 6.3. The TA cycle and the Planning period………………………………………….…89
Table 6.4. Performance assessment by critical success factors……………………….………93
Table 6.5. Scope change request template……………………………………………………96
Table 6.6. Change cost estimation template…………………………………………………..97
Table 6.7. Impact assessment template…………………………………………..……...……98
Table 6.8. Change Approval form ……………………………………………………………99
Table 6.9. Scope Change tracking form……………………………………………..………100
X
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 2.1 Total production by the six business units of SABIC
for 2008 (SABIC reports and accounts, 2008) …………………………..…..………9
Fig. 2.2. The strategy of including the plant turnaround
process in the corporate business plan………………………………………….……15
Fig. 2.3. Factors influencing the operations and activities
of the turnaround steering committee……………………………………….....……19
Fig. 3.1. The prominent scopes in a petrochemical plant turnaround process…..........………33
Fig. 3.2. Sample Change request form……………………………………………..........……34
Fig. 3.3. The Sequence diagram for a Scope Change Control Process…………………….…35
Fig. 4.1. The possible Likert scale…………………………………………………...……..…50
Fig. 5.1. Quantitative data interpretation in the Likert scale……………………………….…60
Fig. 5.2. The descriptive statistics of Part 1 questions………………………………………..61
Fig. 5.3. Tally statistics for part 1 question 1………………………………………...…….…62
Fig. 5.4. Tally statistics for part 1 question 2…………………………………...………….…62
Fig. 5.5. Tally statistics for part 1 question 3…………………………………………...….…63
Fig. 5.6. Tally statistics for part 1 question 4………………………………………...…….…64
Fig. 5.7. Tally statistics for part 2 question 1………………………………...…………….…65
Fig. 5.8. Tally statistics for part 2 question 2……………………………………...……….…65
Fig. 5.9. Tally statistics for part 2 question 3……………………………………...……….…66
Fig. 5.10. Tally statistics for part 2 question 4……………………………………………..…66
Fig. 5.11. Tally statistics for part 2 question 5………………………………...…………...…67
Fig. 5.12. Tally statistics for part 2 question 6……………………………………...……...…67
Fig. 5.13. Tally statistics for part 2 question 7…………………………...…………..…….…68
Fig. 5.14. Tally statistics for part 2 question 8………………………………...………..….…68
Fig. 5.15. Tally statistics for part 2 question 9………………………………...…………...…69
Fig. 5.16. Tally statistics for part 2 question 10…………………………………...………….69
Fig. 5.17. Tally statistics for part 2 question 11………………………………………...….…70
Fig. 5.18. Tally statistics for part 2 question 12………………………………………...….…71
Fig. 5.19. Tally statistics for part 3 question 1…………………………..…………...…….…72
Fig. 5.20. Tally statistics for part 3 question 2……………………………..……………....…72
Fig. 5.21. Tally statistics for part 3 question 3………………………………..………...….…73
Fig. 5.22. Tally statistics for part 3 question 4…………………………………..……...….…74
Fig. 5.23. Tally statistics for part 3 question 5………………………………………….….…74
Fig. 5.24. Tally statistics for part 3 question 6………………………………………...…...…75
Fig. 5.25. Tally statistics for part 3 question 7…………………………………………......…76
Fig. 5.26. Tally statistics for part 3 question 8…………………..……………………...….…76
Fig. 5.27. Tally statistics for part 3 question 9……………………..…………...………….…77
Fig. 5.28. Tally statistics for part 3 question 10…………………………...……………….…78
Fig. 5.29. Tally statistics for part 3 question 11………………………………...………….…78
Fig. 5.30. Tally statistics for part 3 question 12…………………………………...……….…79
Fig. 5.31. Tally statistics for part 3 question 13………………………………………...….…79
Fig. 5.32. Tally statistics for part 3 question 14…………………………………...……….…80
Fig. 5.33. Tally statistics for part 3 question 15………………………………………...….…81
Fig. 5.34. Tally statistics for part 3 question 16…………………………………………....…81
1
Chapter 1: Research Introduction
1.1. Introduction:
The aim of this chapter is to introduce the research background and the research
problem statement. Also, this chapter introduces the aims and objectives of the research, the
research questions and hypothesis. The chosen research methodologies have also been
discussed in detail. The areas under study or the scope of the research and the organization
of the research chapters have also been explained in detail.
1.2. Research Background:
Petrochemical products have become a part and parcel of our everyday life. These
products range form cables, insulators, cloths, plastic products, fertilizers and even toys. In
the recent past the demand for these products are seen to be increasing drastically. The base
petrochemical products are the intermediates, polyolefin, polyesters and fertilizers.
According to Al Mady (2004), Saudi Arabia accounts for nearly 10% of the world‟s
petrochemical products. The two industrial cities, Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia are the
home for many petro chemical plants. There are about twenty two petrochemical plants in
these cities. These petrochemical products are manufactured by technical procedures in
specialized industries or process plants. There may be many related processes associated
with the production of these petrochemical products; these may be done in the main process
plant itself or in subsidiary plants. The petrochemical projects have to be executed according
to the specified standards in adherence to the budget and time duration. Every petrochemical
process is seen to be of unique nature as the technical approach and methodologies are
different. The issues related to shutdowns, turnarounds and outages in petrochemical plants
are crucial as they decide the plant performance and profit. Managing these petrochemical
processes and turnarounds needs special care. The present day demands with regard to
turnaround and shutdowns in petrochemical plants are such that, the duration of turnaround
processes are chosen to be very less so that the production profit could be maximized,
thorough and detailed scope identification, realistic shutdown or turnaround plan, execution
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of the activities in the critical path based on Risk Analysis Procedure, delay free start up,
innovative safety plans and reduction in scope variations based on risk inspection. Also the
situation becomes more complicated when there are work scope changes in these turnaround
processes. The scope change again demands special management techniques for overall
benefit in terms of cost, risks and time of the petrochemical plant turnaround processes.
This research intends to analyze the variations in scope of work in the turnaround
processes in SABIC Jubail. The research tries to analyze the causes, impacts and practical
solutions of the scope changes in the SABIC plant turnarounds.
1.3. Discussion of the Research Problem:
As the research scenario for this research work happens to be the petrochemical
plants in Saudi Arabia, the SABIC Jubail United has been chosen. As the Saudi government
aims at increasing its production of petrochemical products from 8% to 15% by the year
2015, effective process management and turnaround management have become highly
essential. A plant turnaround process has five distinct stages namely strategic planning
stage, detailed planning stage, organizing stage, executing stage and close out stage. In
reality, these stages may overlap. Shutdowns and Turnarounds in a petro chemical plant cost
nearly 30% of the maintenance budgets. Any lag or improper performance or delay in
starting this turnaround/shutdown process may lead to severe loss in terms of operating
benefit. Hence the shutdowns and turnarounds need to be managed in a professional
manner. In such an optimized turnaround process, the rise of work scope change pose a
major threat for the overall benefit of the petro chemical plant Turnarounds. The impact of
this turnaround scope change could be felt in terms of increased cost, increased time for
turnaround completion, and quality of turnaround, turnaround risk and loss of turnaround
control. Thus the management of scope change in turnaround seems crucial. The reasons for
turnaround scope change could be improper original scope, insufficient history of the
equipments in the plant, difference in the type of plant, ageing of the plant and other such
aspects. With respect to any plant turnaround process, scope change management is the
process of ensuring that all the scope changes in the plant turnaround process are being
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carried out in an authorized and planned manner. Turnaround Scope Change management
could also be defined as the formal process of tracking and documenting the scope changes
in the turnaround or project. If the scope changes are not tackled efficiently, then these
changes would be a threat to the success of the project or turnaround/shut down process.
1.4. Aim and Objectives of the Research:
Any research work needs to have a clear aim and specific objectives. These
objectives need to be framed such that they satisfy the research phenomenon and thus it has
to accomplish the research aim. Thus the aim and the objectives, when defined properly
would provide a clear idea about the research phenomenon. The objectives of a research
work also aids in the proper choice of the research methodology.
The main aim of this research work is to evaluate and analyze the causes, impacts
and practical solutions for the work scope changes in petrochemical plant turnarounds in
SABIC, Jubail.
The major research objectives of this research work could be stated as follows,
To determine the reasons of increasing changes in SABIC turnarounds scope of
work.
Identify the negative impacts of changes in SABIC plant Turnarounds scope of
work.
To find out how to minimize the changes in SABIC Jubail turnarounds scope of
work to less than ± 5%.
To propose practical solution for minimize the negative impact of changes in
turnaround scope.
1.5. Research Questions:
In a research work, the research question best describes the research phenomenon
and the research hypothesis that support the discussion of the research phenomenon. Any
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research work should have a specific target phenomenon. The aim of this part is to analyze
this target phenomenon. To have a more detailed literature survey, specific strategy for
research data collection, the target phenomenon has to be described properly. This research
phenomenon could be stated in the form of a research question or research statement. If the
research phenomenon is in the form of a research statement, the following literature survey
and the related discussion should in the form of for and against the concept of the chosen
research phenomenon. This approach of research question definition is called as the
inductive approach. According to Marike Hettinga (1998), the inductive approach could be
described as:
“A researcher should not commit himself to one specific theory because then he
becomes insensitive and is preoccupied with testing, modifying, and seeing everything
form this one angle”.
Another method of defining the research phenomenon happens to be the deductive
method. In this approach, the research phenomenon is stated in the form of a research
question. Here, the deductive approach of the research proceeds to formulate a question that,
when answered would describe the research phenomenon. Marike Hettinga (1998) states
that this question has to be framed based on:
“Statements about what is to be explored, the purpose of the exploration and the criteria
by which the exploration will be judged successful”.
This research has opted the deductive approach of representing the research
phenomenon, where, the major research questions have been detailed as follows:
What is the reasons of variation in SABIC turnarounds scope of work?
Is there enough time for turnaround scope development?
What is impact of scope change on turnaround budget and duration?
What can be done to minimize the changes in SABIC Jubail turnarounds
original scope of work?
5
How can be the turnaround scope management process modified to minimize
the negative impact of scope changes on turnaround process?
1.6. Research Hypothesis:
After defining the research phenomenon in the form of a question or statement, the
research work has to formulate the research hypothesis which would help in exploring the
research phenomenon in more detail. The hypothesis is more closely related to the research
question and hence they could help in answering the research question in a better way.
Generally, these hypotheses are in the form of statements that are explained elaborately
during the research discussion. Most of the research works are driven by more than a single
hypothesis, but are usually restricted to not more than three hypotheses. This hypothesis
could be explained as the more specific predictions of the nature of relationship between
two or more variables in the research phenomenon. Thus the research hypothesis not only
aid in the direction of progress of the research, but also aids in analyzing the major factors
involved in the research phenomenon. Hence, the research hypothesis could be viewed as
the basic building blocks of the research process to acquire the expected research output.
The major hypothesis of this research work could be listed as follows:
Insufficient Time for turnaround scope development process could be a
significant cause of unclear and unspecific scope of work.
Failure and defect in equipment after between scope cut off and turnaround time
could be significant reason of changes in the scope.
Poor Scope change management process is significant reason to control changes
in the scope.
1.7. Scope of the Research:
The scope or the conceptual areas of this research work include the processes in the
petrochemical plants. As the research phenomenon is related to petrochemical plant
turnarounds and the scope changes in these processes, the scope happens to be wide. These
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topics include the overview of SABIC Jubail, concepts and the stages in turnaround /
shutdown / outage process, proposal for turnaround planning and preparation, scope
identification and planning, quality and safety management in turnaround, cost
considerations, the five phases of turnaround and their implementation, turnaround
inspections, work scope changes in turnaround processes, concepts of scope management
and project management, scope change control, principles of scope change management,
different formats or templates for scope change requests, scope change impact, scope
change approval, scope change inspection and cost estimates.
As this research work intends to analyze the causes, impact and practical solutions
for the scope change of work in the SABIC turnaround processes through a thorough case
study and quantitative survey, the scope of this research also encompasses concepts related
to the quantitative method of data analysis. The survey questionnaire preparation, sampling
size of the participants, focus group, ethical issues related to survey method have also been
detailed. The other aspects that come under the scope of this research work include the
statistical analysis of the quantitative data, the statistical measures for quantitative data,
correlation principles and different chart representations of the statistical data. The main
scope of the data collection forms a part of the case study of the SABIC Jubail united.
1.8. Research Design and Methodology:
Any research work has to be accompanied by valid data collection and valid research
methodology. The most important part in any research work is the choice of research
methodology and research design. The research design process as described by John W.
Creswell, (2003), is
“Research is the process of making claims and then refining or abandoning some of
them for other claims more strongly warranted”.
The research design and the data collection methodology, specifies the process that
has to be adopted to achieve the desired research objectives. For this research work, the
research aim is to formulate a set of recommendations that would help to manage and
7
monitor/control the scope changes in the turnaround process. It is required to come up with
an idea and base the research recommendation relative to the practical solution for TA scope
change. This recommendation is required to cover the ways of minimizing scope change,
ways of minimizing the negative impact of TA scope change and the ways to handle /
control / track TA scope change in better way.
To accomplish this, the chosen research methodology happens to be the case study
of SABIC Jubail and a survey with quantitative questions. The survey has been proposed to
be conducted among the focus groups, who are often involved in the turnaround processes
in petrochemical plants. The focus group comprises of technicians, planners, engineers,
supervisors and team leader or managers, each of them have at least 2 years of experience in
the TA process.
1.9. Research Organization:
This research has been organized into various chapters. After the introduction of the
research concepts in this chapter, the second chapter deals with the literature review. The
literature review covers the concepts of turnaround management, project management,
petrochemical plant turnaround / shutdowns / outages, turnaround scope of work in petro
chemical plants, milestones in the Plant turnaround management system, periodic reviews
in turnaround, the five phases in the turnaround process, performance metrics of plant
turnarounds, causes for deviation between final and original scope of work, general
impacts of change in turnaround scope of work and the scope change management and
control in turnarounds. The next chapter deals with the concepts of scope change
management, the discussion under this chapter includes scope management plan, goals and
purposes of scope change management, scope change management and control, primary
drivers in plant turnaround scope change management. A few sample templates for scope
change requests, scope tracking, scope inspection, scope impact and cost assessments have
also been presented. The fourth chapter deals with the research data collection and research
methodology. The data collection includes a case study for benchmark and a quantitative
survey. Hence the fourth chapter deals with the sample space, validity and reliability of the
8
data. The fifth chapter has been organized to analyze the data collected. Statistical analyses
using Excel and MINITAB have been proposed. The sixth chapter discusses the results of
the data analysis and comes out with a set of recommendation for how to minimize the
changes in turnaround scope of work and recommendation for how to minimize the impact
of changes on safety, duration, cost & quality. The final chapter presents the research
conclusion.
1.10. Chapter summary:
This chapter has introduced the research background and the research problem
statement. Also, this chapter has dealt with the aims and objectives of the research, the
research questions and related hypothesis. The chosen research methodologies like
quantitative survey by questionnaire and case study of SABIC Jubail have also been
discussed in detail. The areas under study or the scope of the research and the organization
of the research chapters have also been explained in detail. The research proceeds to the
next chapter of literature review.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1. Chapter Introduction:
This literature review discusses about the concepts related to turnaround
management. As the research is based on the SABIC petrochemical industry, a brief
introduction about SABIC, Jubail has been given in the beginning. The chapter then
discusses in detail about the concepts of general turnaround process in any industry. It later
correlates the turnaround principles to the plant turnaround, shutdown and outage concepts
of process plants including petrochemical plants. The turnaround scope of work has been
detailed with respect to a petrochemical plant; the different phases of the plant turnaround
processes have been explained. Finally, the scope change characteristics in turnaround
processes have been discussed along with an introduction to scope change management and
control for change in work scope in the plant turnaround processes.
9
2.2. Overview of SABIC:
The SABIC is the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), headquartered in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is a leading manufacturer of chemicals, plastics, metal and fertilizers.
The company operates in many countries like Asia Pacific, Europe, America, Africa and
Middle East, whose major stakeholder is the Saudi government (70%) and the remaining
30% by private parties. The company is a high profit making company with revenue of SAR
150,809.6 million during the financial year ended in 2008, this was an increase of 19.5%
over the previous year. The operating profit of the company keeps fluctuating and was at
SAR 37,335 million in the year 2008, which was a decrease of 12% compared to the
previous year. The success of the company has been based on three major principles, which
are best technology and research practices, partnership with local investors and ambitious
growth strategy. There are seven business units in the company geared by 16 research and
technology establishments across the globe. The official site of SABIC states that
“These are: Chemicals, Polymers, Performance Chemicals, Fertilizers, Metals,
Innovative Plastics and Manufacturing. Each of these is headed by a Vice-President.
Six of these business units make four different kinds of products”
(http://www.sabic.com/corporate/en/ourcompany/default.aspx)
With employee strength of 33,000 in all the hundred countries, SABIC is a fast
growing producer of petrochemicals, fertilizers and steel products. According to the annual
report for the year 2008, the total production (in MT) of these six business units in SABIC
for the year 2008, has been shown in Fig.2.1.
10
Fig. 2.1 Total production by the six business units of SABIC for 2008 (SABIC reports and accounts, 2008).
One of the basic and essential goods produced by SABIC is seen to be the Basic
chemicals (23,691 MT). The Al-Jubail plant, which is a major petrochemical hub, acts as the
main contributor for the basic chemicals. According to the SABIC reports and accounts
(2008),
“The fifth expansion of the Saudi Methanol Company (AR-RAZI) in the Jubail
Industrial City went on stream on May 1, creating the world‟s largest single
chemical methanol production complex. The new plant added 1,500 metric tons a
day, taking production up to 5,000 metric tons a day. AR-RAZI now produces more
than three million tons a year from its four plants.”
Apart from this, the plants in Jubail also contribute to the production of Polymers
and its feedstock–Ethylene Glycol, Polypropylene, Fertilizers (AL-BAYRONI), methanol
(AR-RAZI). In the year 2008, the Linear Alpha Olefins (LAO) technology was
implemented at Jubail United. In spite of all the above credentials, the major challenges
11
facing the SABIC Petrochemical industry are the rapidly rising global competition,
increased cost of projects and long lead times, geo–political issues, disturbance sin the
energy environment and economic imbalances.
2.3. Plant Turnarounds:
Turnarounds are planned activities in certain process industries like petrochemicals,
refinery, pulp and paper mills, electrical power plants and the like. These turnaround
activities intend to revitalize the existing operations or in other words, they renew the
process units in the plants. Turnaround is one of the general procedures in which the process
unit is taken off stream for revamping. This process of turnaround may include many
processes like shutdowns, inspection and testing, revamps, debottlenecking the projects,
catalyst change out, outages, etc. Turnarounds are planned in the yearly business plan
budget and the cost of turnaround is considered as maintenance expense. They are highly
expensive as the production would cease. Not only the production losses, but also the
expenses for the turnaround process like labor cost, material cost, cost of equipments and
tools, cost of heavy materials and other such expenses. These turnaround expenses form a
major portion of the plant‟s budget.
2.3.1. Defining Turnarounds and Shutdowns:
Turnaround is a planned procedure that is undertaken for the maintenance,
inspection and testing of plant units. This process lasts for specified time duration and is
essential for plant safety, reliability and efficiency. A shutdown is an outage that exists for a
pre – determined time, when the entire plant is shutdown. A shutdown could be a planned or
unplanned shutdown or even an emergency shutdown.
2.3.2. Turnaround Management:
The management of these turnaround processes requires unique management
strategies. If not managed properly, the turnaround process can affect the plant‟s operations
in terms of loss of revenue due to delay in turnarounds and increased turnaround costs.
12
Turnarounds constitutes to the largest expense for a company in terms of maintenance.
Managing the time and cost in a turnaround process are crucial and challenging. The
potential to save cost in a turnaround process is large and hence it could directly constitute
to the bottom line profit of the company. The management of the turnaround process is done
under the leadership of experienced personnel and based on the highly proven systems and
procedures. These tested and proven procedures can lead to less failure of the turnaround
process and can increase the overall efficiency of the plant. These systems and procedures
also improve the information flow within the turnaround operations and that of the
organization. Assigning the responsibility is an important task and has to be based on the
decisions needed and the decision making capacity of the personnel involved. Thus
organizing a turnaround needs rearranging the flow the information and the authority levels.
To have fewer delays, few people need to be involved in the information flow path.
Generally a turnaround organization chart is prepared and presented to all who are involved
in the turnaround process.
2.3.3. The turnaround Process:
The actual turnaround process deals begins with the setting of clear goals and
objectives, developing the turnaround scope and work list, estimating the budget, planning,
scheduling, balancing the man power and man hours, reporting the progress, documenting
the activities, auditing , planning for additional work, critical path scheduling, estimating the
repair work and preparing the turnaround schedule. The actual field scope of the turnaround
process includes requirements for alignment, cranage, scaffolding, NDT, offsite, insulation,
equipment, painting, torquing and cleaning. The entire turnaround process is carried out in
five different phases.
2.3.4. Turnaround Vs Project:
Understanding the difference between the concepts of project and turnaround is
highly essential to manage turnaround situations efficiently. The general project
management follows Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) for civil projects
and the like for other process industries. The demands and characteristics are different for
13
turnaround and require a unique management methodology. The differential characteristics
of the project management and turnaround management have been outlined in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1. Turnaround Vs Project.
Turnaround Project
Definition of scope is vague and is based on past
turnaround experiences, operation requests,
inspection reports.
Scope is well defined based on specifications,
execution plans, and contracts.
Scope changes dynamically based on
inspections.
The scope is static in nature and very few
changes occur while executing the project.
Planning and scheduling could be done only near
shutdown, after the approval of scope.
The process could be planned in advance and
scheduled.
Turnarounds are based on work orders and
defect. Projects are cost / commodity based.
Extensive safety / shift permits are required. Normal safety / shift permits are sufficient.
Manpower staffing varies a lot due to
fluctuations on scope.
Staffing would not vary during the execution of
the project.
Updates need to be done daily. Updates could be on a weekly or on monthly
basis.
Time management is crucial and hence time is
measured in hours or shifts.
Time measurement is not so crucial and is in
days or months.
Scope could be flexible. Scope is not flexible but is mandatory.
The schedules are compressed and opportunities
to correct failures in the critical path seem to be
minimum or nil.
As the schedules are uncompressed, the
slippages could be corrected by schedule
acceleration.
Requires a strict scope management control than
that of the project management scope control
methods.
Scope management control need not be strict
and it is sufficient if the baseline schedule is
followed.
14
2.4. Petrochemical Plants and Turnarounds:
Petrochemical products are very important products in daily life. The different types
of petrochemical products range from fertilizers, polyolefin, polyesters, insulators, cable
wrap, plastics and others. According to the annual report of Saudi Arabia General
Investment Authority, SAGIA (2005), the demand for petrochemical products has been
increasing in the past decades. The projects in petrochemical plants need to be carried out
with precise quality specifications and budget within the stipulated time. Most of the
petrochemical projects are hi - tech projects and are generally patented.
Turnarounds in petrochemical or any process plant does not necessarily mean
corporate crisis, it could also apply to situations of major maintenance or scheduled process
outage. This outage, called as “plant shutdown”, requires specific type of management
which is referred to as “Plant Turnaround management”. This process of plant turnaround
happens to be continuous from one major outage to another outage. The plant turnaround
process begins well before the actual outage (off line) and continues for some time even
after the scheduled maintenance work is over. There are many phases in plant turnaround, in
that; the plant shutdown stage comes under the execution phase.
The main advantages of the plant turnaround process are the reliability of the asset
(equipments) increases, reduced risk of unexpected or unscheduled outages, and reduction
in catastrophic failure. On the other hand, the drawbacks could be listed as, the turnaround
expenses would be high, plant shutdown are time consuming and expensive, shutdowns and
turnarounds are generally complex and difficult to manage, turnaround leads to a negative
financial impact due to loss in production revenue.
The duration of plant turnarounds are generally very short. The plant turnaround cost
consumption within four to five weeks could be equivalent to the cost of the yearly
maintenance budget. John McLay (www.pmpt.org ) states that plant turnaround
15
“Requires the greatest percentage of the yearly process outage days. As the plant
shutdown is the major component of plant downtime and maintenance costs, proper
plant turnaround management will have a significant impact on the bottom line.”
Generally, the management team trades off between the excessive turnaround budget
and the plant‟s improved asset reliability due to turnaround. John McLay adds that
“Without scheduled maintenance outages, equipment will fail, and an unscheduled
outage is up to ten times more expensive than a scheduled outage. The cost is much
higher again if the outage is due to a catastrophic failure.”
Due to the advantage acquired by this tradeoff the owner / senior management team
tend to include the process of plant turnaround in the business plan budget itself. As the
business plan budget and the schedules of process outages need to be predicted long before,
details of the expected turnaround estimates are derived from plant turnaround support plans
and existing maintenance work packages. The strategy for including the plant turnaround
process in the corporate business plan is shown in Fig. 2.2. It could be seen that the
planning, structuring,
Fig. 2.2. The strategy of including the plant turnaround process in the corporate business plan
16
executing and closing of plant turnaround need to be given importance in the business
budget of the corporate. It could be said that the philosophy of plant turnaround has to be
integrate with the vision and mission of the corporate plan. Integrating the plant turnaround
in the corporate business plan would increase the benefit and reduce the cost during outage.
The turnaround process begins with the documentation of the procedures, policies and
guidelines. The policies and procedures should account for all the key issues like run time,
unexpected outages, turnaround frequency and the like.
2.5. Turnaround Scope of Work in Petrochemical Plants:
The petrochemical (or any process industry) plant turnaround process has five
fundamental phases. These phases are the strategic planning phase, detailed planning phase,
organizing phase, execution phase and close out phase. The plant turnaround process is
always a continuous process and requires overlapping between turnarounds. When the
turnaround overlaps, the budget has to be standardized and appropriate cost control
measures need to be adopted, proper training has to be given to improve the skills of the
turnaround team.
The turnaround team should include personnel from all areas like operations,
administration, maintenance, engineering, health and safety environment (HSE), product
procurement and planning (PPP), quality assurance (QA) and turnaround supervision. When
the complexity of the turnaround process increases, third party contractors could be
involved to supplement the existing resources of the company. The selections of these
personnel are done in the initial phase of the plant turnaround process. The various stages in
the turnaround process could be listed in the form of a milestone listing, called as the
“Master Milestone Schedule (MMS)”. This MMS acts as a guideline for the various
activities and time schedules for the turnaround team. These milestones are as shown in
Table 2.2. These milestones encompass all the stages / phases of the plant turnaround
process. The below described milestones help in measuring the rate of progress in the
turnaround process compared to the expected progress. This schedule and the measurement
of progress would help in future planning of the scheduled outages.
17
Table 2.2. Milestones in the Plant turnaround management system.
Phase of T/A Milestone Responsible area
1
Selection of T/A manager Owner or Senior management
Turnaround kick off T/A Manager
Set T/A strategy/premises T/A manager
T/A scope statement (work list) T/A team
Initial cost estimate T/A Team
Work breakdown structure T/A Manager
Cost Control Structure Administration
Organizational Breakdown Structure T/A Team
2 Work list cut-off date T/A Team
Support plans complete Support plan rep
Work Package complete Planning
3
Master Execution Schedule complete Scheduling/Planning
Detailed cost estimate T/A Manager
Procurement of materials Procurement
Procurement of machinery Procurement
T/A Readiness Review Audit T/A Team
4 Plant feed-out Operations ( 0 months )
Plant feed-in Operations
5
Reports & documents complete T/A Team
Evaluate plant turnaround T/A Team
Postmortem meeting T/A Manager
T/A Summary report T/A Manager
If the strategic and detailed planning phases are not given enough care, then
variations may occur in between, the planned budget and the actual cost, the work progress
and the work scope. These variations would be apparent in the execution phase. The
turnaround process facilitates the replacement / changes in design / updates the procedures
18
of certain critical jobs. A Management of Change (MOC) process would justify and control
these changes and hence the turnaround cost. These changes need to be recorded. The MOC
process has to begin before any interdepartmental review and authorization.
The major players in the plant turnaround process are the planners, technicians,
supervisors, engineers, and managers. The scope of work in the turnaround planning and
execution phases include formation of the turnaround team, information gathering,
preparing the turnaround work list and work order, organizing work order, defining
activities, estimating duration of activities, estimating repair work, estimating extra work,
contracting bids, critical path scheduling, shutdown scheduling, maintenance scheduling,
schedule refinement, daily turnaround scheduling, interpreting a Gantt chart , setting
priorities after evaluation, manpower scheduling, manpower leveling, critical mass,
assessing the tradeoff between overtime–premium time and time / cost benefit, analyzing
the productivity (earned value), daily meeting regarding turnaround progress, managing
information flow at various levels of the turnaround process, and measuring and reporting
progress.
2.6. Turnaround management in petrochemical plants:
The management of the turnaround process in a petrochemical plant is under the
control of a steering committee and the activities are carried out by the members of the core
team. Regular communication between the steering committee and the core team becomes
essential for improved correlation between the scope and the budget.
2.6.1. The steering committee:
The steering committee is the team that acts as the senior management team in the
turnaround management. This committee coordinates with the TA planning team
comprising the maintenance engineers, Equipment reliability technicians and others.
According to Rod Oliver (2001), the responsibility of the steering committee is described as
19
“The obvious purpose of such a group is to provide direction and guidance to the TA
planning team and ensure that the turnaround meets the needs of the business. However, the
more important function of the committee is to ensure that the scope and budget for the
turnaround are in alignment.”
The activities and factors that need to be considered by the steering committee have
been shown in the following Fig.2.3.
Fig. 2.3. Factors influencing the operations and activities of the turnaround steering committee.
2.6.2. Periodic reviews:
To ensure that the activities of the turnaround process are being executed according
to the planned scope, there has to be periodic reviews or audits. Practically these audits are
done at the end of each stage in the turnaround process. The individuals involved in the
audit or review process should not be involved in the turnaround stage and hence the desired
choice is to bring people from outside. This selection of the auditors has to be done by the
Internal constraints (time, money,
opportunity, industrial relations)
Steering committee (TA
manager, HSE manager,
Production manager,
engineering manager)
Issues (timing, safety, work scope
preparation, resources,
communication, marketing,
alignment, quality, contractors)
External constraints (competition,
market availabilities, environment,
legislation)
Desired outcome (completion of
TA within the targets for cost,
safety, time, quality)
Group members (stake holders,
decision makers, fund providers)
20
steering committee. The two most important audits in the turnaround process are the audit
after the conceptual development stage and the audit after the detailed planning phase. The
first one after the conceptual design audits the basic resources and the turnaround
procedures. The later one reviews the preparedness of the plant for the turnaround process.
These audits compare the turnaround progress with the planned milestones by
conducting site visits, group discussions and meetings. Each turnaround process has a
unique milestone schedule that details the time and tasks in each stage. Thus audits are the
prime means of measuring the planned progress and ensure that the individuals are
committed towards the tasks, supply of data and information are proper, tasks are
progressing as per the turnaround plan.
2.6.3. The phases in plant turnaround process:
As mentioned earlier, the long range business plan of the plant should account for
the turnaround process and the deliverables like an annual turnaround schedule, a long term
(five year) rolling turnaround schedule, turnaround budget for the next five years, long
range improvement plans and the like. Due to the varying nature of the market and the
supply of resources, the long term plans become flexible and hence the turnaround should
also be flexible.
2.6.3.1. The conceptual phase:
The first phase of the turnaround–the conceptual phase begins immediately after the
post turnaround of the previous turnaround process. In this stage the functional members for
each of the core area need to be selected and their meeting with the steering committee
should be conducted. This meeting would clearly define the philosophy for the upcoming
turnaround. Care has to be taken to define the type of turnaround, activities like significant
capital items, catalyst change, time till next turnaround, etc. When the turnaround
philosophy is defined, the core members start the relevant activities and the outcome of this
phase is seen to be
21
“Turnaround philosophy, Preliminary work list, Basic cost estimates (± 30 per cent),
Estimated duration, Turnaround preparation milestone plan, Manpower forecast for
turnaround planning resources, Organization structure, QA/QC requirements, Stage
report and the audit schedule, The milestone plan.” (Rod Oliver, 2001).
The time required to complete this phase must be two to three months after the
previous turnaround.
2.6.3.2. Work scope development:
The second phase of the turnaround management involves the work scope
development. After defining the work, the critical path schedules need to be developed for
cost effective turnaround. The major deliverables of this phase include
“An integrated plan (schedule, equipment and resources), Preliminary critical path
schedule, Refined budget estimate (±20 per cent), Updated preliminary and approved
work list, Long lead materials ordered, Critical lift plans, An additional work
approval process, Work scope closed, Stage report, Review or audit report.” (Rod
Oliver, 2001).
The timing for this phase has to be 12–15 months before the shutdown stage of the plant.
2.6.3.3. Detailed Planning:
This phase has to be managed by specific application of certain tools to ensure that
all the turnaround activities are incorporated into the plan. This work integration is highly
essential as it would lead to budget and time overrun. The major activities in this phase
include, finalizing the work list, scheduling the critical path, detailing the execution and
safety plan, preparing final estimate, finalizing the material procurement plan, defining the
format and frequency of the reviews. The outcome of this phase as described by Rod Oliver
(2001) has to include,
22
“Integrated execution plan (finalized on critical and sub critical work), Final budget
estimates (±10 per cent), Final work list, "What if" scenarios, Lifting plans, Mobile
equipment requirements, Detailed shop loading plans, Review or audit report.”
The timing for this phase has to be fixed at four to six months before turnaround.
2.6.3.4. Pre Turnaround Work:
This phase is just before the execution. The primary activities are orientation and
training, mobilization, final execution plans. The major deliverables of this stage include,
“Execution plan finalized, Pre shutdown turnaround work completed, Execution
team trained Turnaround organization charts, Reporting plan, Field mobilization
complete, Shutdown meeting procedures finalized, Communications / alignment
meetings, Review or audit report.” (Rod Oliver, 2001).
This process has to be done three months before turnaround.
2.6.3.5. Turnaround execution:
The actual execution begins in this stage as the feed is reduced. The major activities
include; shutdown, schedule audits, cost tracking, tracking additional work and changes in
the scope, documentation of findings. The deliverables include turnaround execution,
meeting the objectives, safety reviews, start up, and release to operation. The two major
aspects in the execution include added work requests and the scope growth of the items in
the work list.
This scope growth of the work list plays a major role in the turnaround process.
The additional work requisition has to be approved and reviewed on a daily basis. In some
situations, all the scope growths have to be documented for the purpose of cost control but it
is not needed to go through the approval process. The daily schedule meetings of the core
members have to be short and needs to concentrate more on the changes in the work scope
and the ways to resolve them efficiently.
23
The time for completion of this turnaround execution, is on the start up of the
product production.
2.6.3.6. Post Turnaround:
This is the last phase in the plant turnaround process. The major activities include
the documentation, de–mobilization, preparation of cost reports, reports of the lessons learnt
from this turnaround and opportunities to improve. These activities would be highly useful
for the next turnaround. The other activities in this phase are post turnaround MOC
requirements, disposing the excess material, inspection of report history, updating the
history turnaround database, issuing the final cost report, freezing the turnaround accounts .
2.6.3.7. Measuring the success of the turnaround performance:
Measuring the turnaround performance has to be done by a defined set of metrics as
prescribed by Rod Oliver (2001), include
“Duration: oil out to on-specification product in days. Total costs: for both
turnaround shutdown and routine maintenance, Turnaround costs: both actual and
annualized by plant function, Frequency: run length in months, Predictability: actual
versus planned work hours, duration and cost, Safety: accident numbers and rates,
Startup incidents: days lost due rework, Unscheduled shutdown: days lost per year
during the run, Mechanical availability: time available as a percentage, Additional
work: actual versus contingency, Environmental incidents: impact of those
attributable to the shutdown, Savings: money saved resulting from changes to these
metrics.”
The success of the turnaround specifies that the tasks had been adhered to. Today
there are many web based computer software to plan and execute the multitude of tasks,
issues and data flow in the plant turnaround process.
24
2.7. Deviation between final and original scope of work:
As described above the effective execution of turnarounds in the stipulated short
span of time is highly essential. Also, it is important to note that the turnaround execution
depends greatly on the growth of the work scope. In actual practice, there may be many
variations in the original planned work scope. The reasons, impacts, practical solutions for
these scope variations have been discussed as follows.
2.7.1. Causes of big changes in turnarounds scope of work:
Though the plant turnaround process has been devised with great care, there may be
situations when the turnaround scope of work has to be changed. The reasons may be
unclear original scope, scope changes based on the ageing of the plant, sufficient details are
not provided in the existing scope, intermediate audits have proposed some changes in the
scope, end user does not agree with the final scope, scope change may be due to unclear
implementation cost of the proposed scope, scope is not defined fully, scope variations
based on type of the plant and type of the turnaround, proposed scope has hidden
assumptions, the proposed scope does not satisfy the objectives of the turnaround, defect in
plant equipment after the proposed scope but before the turnaround execution and lack of
clear purpose for the proposed scope.
2.7.2. Impacts of change in turnaround scope of work:
The change in scope of work in the plant turnaround process my have both positive
and negative impact on the turnaround process. The negative impacts may be due to
addition of scope in each phase of the turnaround process, removal of scope work from each
or any turnaround process. The factors that may be affected by the turnaround scope change
include turnaround cost, turnaround duration, turnaround safety, turnaround quality and
turnaround sequence control.
A few practical solutions to reduce the changes in the scope turnarounds would be
maintaining a good history of all the equipments, providing sufficient time for scope
25
development, well defined scope approval procedure, finding out the alternatives to do the
change.
2.7.3. Scope change management and control in turnarounds:
The greatest challenge in plant turnarounds is the management and control of scope.
The management of this scope change has to be done efficient scope change management
strategies. The major scope management strategies include scope planning, scope
definition, scope verification and scope change control. A simple scope management
procedure would include the following phases Change Request Form, Change Review and
Evaluation, Change Priority and Classification, Change Approval, Change communication
and Change implementation.
The concepts of the scope change management and control have been detailed in the
next chapter along with specific application to the turnaround scope of work.
2.8. Chapter summary:
This chapter has introduced the concepts related to the turnarounds, shutdowns and
outages in petrochemical plants. The different phases in the turnaround process have been
explained along with few discussions about the change in turnaround scope of work.
26
Chapter 3: Scope Change Management and Control
3.1. Chapter Introduction:
In any turnaround, scope defines the features that need to be included in the
turnaround and the features that are not a part of that turnaround. In the initial stage of the
turnaround, the turnaround management team has to describe the scope of the turnaround.
Managing the scope of the work is highly critical for any turnaround in terms of cost and
duration. Thus scope management and the related change processes need to be taken care of.
This chapter intends to detail the concepts related to scope management, scope
management plan, goals and purposes of scope management. Also the scope change
process, change requests, change tracking and change control are to be discussed in detail.
3.2. Defining the scope:
Defining the scope of the work forms the basis for any turnaround management. The
written scope statement becomes the agreement for all the turnaround related activities and
turnaround related decisions. The scope definition also prescribes the objectives of the
turnaround, supporting details for the turnaround, the scope management strategy and the
turnaround deliverables.
The requirements for a complete and an accurate scope definition would be,
Understanding the actual turnaround requirement.
Understanding and identifying the work processes and the flow of work.
Identifying the support processes,
Working out a detailed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), to know the gap
between the expected work and the actual work status.
The scope definition acts as the base for assessing the potential changes in the scope
and for measuring the performance of the turnaround.
27
3.3. Project Scope Management:
The major activities in the scope management plan include planning, definition,
work breakdown structure creation, verification and control. The planning of the activities
results in the creation of the turnaround scope management plan. As explained above, the
plan gives the definition of scope, its verification and control. It also describes the work
breakdown structure. The definition of scope forms the basis for all the decisions related to
the turnaround. The creation of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), divides the deliverables
of the turnaround into highly manageable work packages. The verification process creates
formal procedures for the acceptance of the turnaround deliverables. The control activity,
defines the way in which all projected changes would be processed. These include the
procedures of submitting the proposal, review of proposals and the subsequent approval.
Scope has to be defined clearly as part of the turnaround management plan. At the
starting stage of turnaround, the scope defines the turnaround in terms of the deliverables
and the way in which the turnaround will operate. At this stage, the turnaround manger has
to consider the factors that may cause the scope changes, the related effects due to the
changes and the potential costs due to the changes. The scope changes that may lead to
overall turnaround benefit need to be allowed. Also any change that is acceptable has to be
allowed in the earlier stage itself, any change at a later stage would lead to increased loss in
terms of duration, turnaround cost and other risks. Hence potential changes need to be
exercised at the earlier stage itself by the change control procedure.
3.4. Scope Management Plan:
The turnaround scope management plan is a part of the entire turnaround
management plan. The scope management plan is the main document that gives the
turnaround scope definition, method of managing, controlling and verifying the scope of the
turnaround. It also gives the entire work requirement for the turnaround, the work that is out
the work scope and those that are within the work scope of the turnaround. According to the
needs of the turnaround, the scope management plan could be either a formal or an informal
method of communicating the work scope of the turnaround amongst senior management
28
and the turnaround team. Thus the scope management plan is expected to define and
implement the scope changes in formal steps (PMBOK). The scope management plan and
implementation has to be under the control of the turnaround manager.
While devising the scope management plan, the following aspects need to be
foreseen.
1. The approach regarding change control:
The changes in the scope need to be authorized by the change control board or the
steering committee in case of a plant turnaround process. The change management consists
of different stages like the change request, clarification for change of scope, scope change
review and evaluation, response and consent for change.
2. The stability of the scope:
The possibility of the changes in the scope, the amount of scope change and the
nature of scope change (big or small) need to be considered during the scope management
plan. Also, the strategy for prioritizing the changes, need to be thought about.
3. The mechanism for change control:
The authoritative persons who could identify a change need to be defined, the
criteria for change control have to be based upon the severity and impact of that particular
change. Mechanism for change acceptance and change implementation .A sample template
for the scope management plan could be as shown in Table. 3.1. and Table 3.2.
Table 3.1. A sample template for the scope identification.
Scope Identification
Turnaround Name:
(an organizational
name for the
turnaround)
Turnaround Description:
(a brief description of
the turnaround)
Turnaround ID:
(an unique ID for the
turnaround)
Date:
(date on which the
scope doc was created)
Strategic goals:
(goals of the turnaround that support the goals of the organization)
29
Table 3.2. A sample template for the scope acceptance and changes.
Scope Acceptance
Role Turnaround Steering Committee:
(Senior Management)
Turnaround Manager:
(any authoritative
manager)
Date:
(date on which
scope management
plan was accepted)
Signature :
Change description
3.5. Scope Change Management and Control:
This section intends to discuss the concepts of change management in any
turnaround scope.
3.5.1. Scope Change:
In any turnaround or process, change happens to be inevitable. During the course of
the turnaround or process, there may be a need to change the scope both for reasons that are
good and bad. In many situations, scope change happens to be a defensive act to avoid any
fault conditions. In a few cases, the scope changes may be seen to have an aggressive
behavior, where the contractor may wish to expand the turnaround size and hence the time
with an intention to achieve cost benefit. There is also the practice of acquiring the
turnaround for a lower bid, and then the contractor may try to gain profit by going for many
scope changes. In all the situations, the management of the scope changes needs to be done
properly for efficient turnaround management.
3.5.2. Change Management:
In an organization, change management would refer to implementation of best
strategic plans that best deals with the business opportunities. With respect to any
turnaround or process, Change management is the process of ensuring that all the scope
changes in the turnaround or process are being carried out in an authorized and planned
30
manner. Change management could also be defined as the formal process of tracking and
documenting the scope changes in the process or turnaround. If the scope changes are not
tackled efficiently, then these changes would be a threat to the success of the turnaround or
process.
According to Colleen Mills (2008), every organization or turnaround needs a
specific plan and methodology for scope management. He adds a set of best practices that
could suit the scope change management in most of the situations, these are;
Involvement of the team members to encourage changes that is beneficial.
Timely and clear communication.
Training which emphasizes conflict management, stress management, priority
setting, systematic problem solving.
Inspection of the change progress and recognizing the change outcome.
3.5.3. Goals of scope change management:
The goal of scope change management is to identify the baseline for the scope and to
manage the changes. The other major goals of the scope change management include the
following:
To match the turnaround requirements and the organization‟s resources.
Handle the gap between the procedures of the institution and the procedures of
the turnaround under implementation.
Assist in limiting the scope changes to the baseline system.
Encouraging the scope changes before the turnaround implementation.
Adherence to the vendor requisitions, like changes in the order specifications.
Communicating the turnaround changes as and when appropriate.
31
3.5.4. Purpose of scope change management:
The purpose of the scope change management process is to identify the requested
changes that would change the turnaround deliverables. Apart from this the other major
purposes of scope change management include:
Efficient management and control of changes in the scope during the
implementation of the turnaround.
To ensure that the implementation of the turnaround is according to the
approved budget, time and scope.
Prioritize all the changes by evaluating them.
Prescribe a procedure for implementing the requested and approved changes in
the work scope.
3.6. Scope Change Management in Petrochemical plant Turnarounds:
In a plant turnaround process, there are chances that the scope may vary drastically.
For example, in an overhaul situation, when the equipment is opened for cleaning or
inspection, the amount of repair work needs to be planned. Every additional work has to be
defined with a procedure for approval after sufficient evaluation. As in all turnaround scope
management, turnaround scope management also follows the stages of scope planning,
scope definition, scope verification and scope change control.
Turnaround scope planning, definition and verification are quite different form the
EPC projects in that, the lead times for these turnarounds are not long and their scope may
be changing till the last minute. According to Bernard Ertl of Interplan systems
(http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/ApplyingPMBOKtoShutdowns.shtml), the
several reasons for the drastic changes in the turnaround scope could be
1. “Market conditions (plant profitability) can cause variability in considerations for the
budget (requiring scope adjustments), window (squeezing or relaxing the time frame
32
available for executing the turnaround) and start date which may affect the decisions
on what scope to include, the ability to plan the work, or material availability).
2. Planning input is usually derived with input from Operations, Inspection, Safety, etc.,
and Operations may continue to identify potential scope for the turnaround until the last
minute.
3. The availability of specialized tools, materials, equipment and/or resources may affect
decisions on how to approach portions of the scope (i.e. plans may need adjusting to
accommodate a different method or scenario to accomplish the same goal).”
Most of the turnaround budgets are based on the experience of the past turnarounds,
approximate estimations. Some budgets could be based on incompletely planned scopes. In
practice, it is highly essential to review the cost estimates and adjust the scope and the
budget so that there is alignment between the budget and the scope of work. Regarding
scope change control, Bernard adds that
“Operators and supervisors or superintendents must buy in to the add-on approval
procedure and field hands must be directed to work only on approved scope as
directed by their supervisors.”
Also the management has to take care that for changes in scope, that not critical, the
work scope could be accommodated within the available resources and time. When there is
a constraint in the resources, the additional or change in work scope could be balanced by
culling the original scope. This effort may give both safety and time gain. The general
practice is to classify the scheduled work scope or the progressing work scope into the
following categories, namely – Approved scope or Cancelled scope or unapproved scope or
Original scope or Add – On scope. Apart from this scope change management, the
turnaround procedures need to have efficient time management, cost management, risk
management, human resource management, quality management and communication
management. According to Kentz Engineers and Constructors, the prominently identified
field scopes in a petrochemical plant are as shown in Fig. 3.1.
33
Fig.3.1. The prominent scopes in a petrochemical plant turnaround process.
A well management turnaround scope management process should consider the
following.
The strategy for change approval.
The members who should be in the change control board (scope change
management team).
The procedure and the forms for eh change request, approval, etc.
The levels of approving authority.
Linking the change management procedure to other procedure like cost
management, time management.
Methods to communicate the scope change to all the participants.
Alignment
requirement s
Cleaning
requirement s
Field scope
identification
Carnage
requirement s
Scaffolding
requirement s
Insulation
requirement s
Painting
requirement s
NDT
requirement s
Equipment
requirement s
Torquing
requirement s
Offsite
requirement s
34
3.7. Primary Drivers in Plant Turnaround Scope Management:
There may be many reasons that instigate changes in work scope in plant turnaround
processes. Some of them are a need to adopt newer technologies in maintenance, the
changes in organizational policies, demand for new business or production needs, the
priorities of the organization have been changed, new standards need to be adopted, the
present scope affects the other projects, improper turnaround management plan,
insufficient history about the equipments in the plant, the original scope happens to be
unclear, the periodic reviews have proposed certain changes, change in needs, the demand in
change due to plant ageing and other factors.
3.8. Scope Change Requests and Change Process in plant turnarounds:
Any plant turnaround process needs to have a defined set of procedure like change
request form, request management procedure and change deployment management. Any
request for scope change has to be put up in a prescribed format. A sample change request
form as prescribed by http://www.epmbook.com/changeform.gif and is shown in Fig .3.1.
Turnaround Name : Change request no. :
Requestor Name :
Requestor designation :
Requestor department :
Equipment No. : Add Delete Modify
Scope change description :
Priority : High Medium Low
Fig. 3.2. Sample Change request form.
After receiving any change request, the turnaround manager, has to ensure that the
change request has been captured or identified and the change request has been reviewed
and appropriate action needs to be taken. The steering committee of the plant turnaround
process is the designated authority to review the change request and approve the same. The
35
examination of the change request and approval could be based upon the following, minor
changes could be approved by the turnaround manager, scope change that affects the
turnaround cost or duration need to be reviewed scope change management team and then
approved by steering committee. If the scope change will affects the external contractor, it
has to be discussed and reviewed with the consent of the contractor, and it should be finally
approved by the steering committee or any other authority as agreed authority level. The
turnaround or plant turnaround manager and the steering committee has to follow a set of
pre defined principles for the change decisions. An example of the process in a scope
change process has been shown as a sequential flow diagram in Fig.3.2.
Fig. 3.3. The Sequence diagram for a Scope Change Control Process.
36
Once the change request has been agreed, the work is assigned for scope change
action, controlled by the turnaround manager. The work in the scope change could be at any
stage of the turnaround process. It could be in the initial stages of the turnaround process, in
the mid of the process or even at the end stage. The turnaround manager has to be informed
of any uncontrolled changes. An article in http://www.epmbook.com/ states that
“In the Change Request there is more attention to the exact nature of the changes,
whether they are scope changes, where they lie in the turnaround lifecycle, which
specific document or deliverable references need attention, etc. Specific attention is
paid to the cost and implications, identifying where work will be required and what
its impact will be in terms of cost, risk and timescale. In particular, a benefit case
will be prepared to summarize why the change should be made. The Turnaround
Manager, Change Control Board or Steering Committee will use this Benefit Case in
making a decision, in line with the pre-established guiding principles”.
The change in work scope could be accepted by the steering committee, based on
certain change approving logic. These decision making criteria for the steering committee
could be listed as follows;
Can the change be avoided? or not.
Will the change lead to overall benefit in terms of cost, time and other risks?
Does the change need to be attended immediately?
Can the change be postponed to a later stage?
Is the change doable in the current turnaround?
Is there any different way to do the change, so it can be done outside the
turnaround?
3.8.1. Key Personnel and their Responsibilities:
The following are the key personal who are involved in the scope change
management process.
37
Team Leads: Is capable of originating the change requests by issuing the forms. Any
scope change requisition has to be discussed with the team leader.
Turnaround management team: This team includes Planner, Technician, Engineer
and Supervisor. They attend to and control the completion of the change request process.
Implementation team: This team receives the updates regarding the completed or
pending change requests.
Scope change management team: The responsibility of this team is to evaluate and
recommend approving the scope change request, communicating the message of the steering
committee to the turnaround management team.
Thus managing the change process is a crucial stage in the scope change
management process in any plant turnarounds.
3.9. Scope Change and Tracking form:
Once a scope change request has been approved and proper actions issued to the
turnaround process team, the progress has to be tracked and monitored. The tracking of
work scope change and its progress is generally assisted by the change request database,
data logs, management reports and others. Generally, the change control process is
continuous throughout the turnaround process and sometimes specific tracking or
verifications are done at the end of each phase of the turnaround process. This inspection at
the end of the ensures that change action has been accomplished in the specified time and
hence the impact on the following phase could be streamlined and regularized. In some
situations, the scope changes may be deferred, as that change implementation would lead to
overall delay of the turnaround process. Such deferred scope changes need to be carried to
the next phase of the turnaround process. It is the responsibility of the turnaround manager
to track and verify that the scope changes have been accomplished. These details have to be
documented along with the other deliverables. Scope change requests and their
38
management often become the basic lessons for the next turnaround processes. Table 3.1.
shows a sample template for scope change tracking.
Table 3.3. Sample Template for Scope change tracking log.
3.10. Template for Scope Change request, impact assessment and cost assessment:
The management and control of work scope change in plant turnarounds need to
have prescribed formats for scope change request, assessment of the scope change impact,
assessment of the cost, addition / deletion of work scope, scope status progress and the like.
A few of the sample templates for such scope assessment and control have been shown in
Table 3.2 to table 3.5.
39
Table 3.4. Sample Template for Scope Change Request.
Scope Change Request Form
Date of Submitting the request:
Investigator:
Focus Area:
Product or Process:
Department:
Turnaround or Organization Role:
Scope definition and impact on other projects and
programs
Benefit of the Scope change
Major scope change drivers
Possible Implications if the scope change is deferred
Possible Implications if the scope change is rejected
Cost estimate for the scope change
40
Table 3.5. Sample Template for Scope Change Request approval.
Scope Change Request and Approval Form
Date of Submitting the request:
Investigator:
Focus Area:
Product or Process:
Department:
Turnaround or Organization Role:
Scope definition and impact on other projects and
programs
Benefit of the Scope change
Major scope change drivers
Possible Implications if the scope change is deferred
Possible Implications if the scope change is rejected
Cost estimate for the scope change
Scope approval details
Is the Scope change approved? YES / NO
Who is the Team Manager?
Responsible Authority to approve:
Date of scope change request approval:
Specific comments:
41
Table 3.6. Sample Template for Scope Change Impact Assessment.
Sample for Scope Change Impact Assessment
Scope change submission date:
Investigator:
Specific issues:
Associated risks:
Specific Impact of this scope on other projects:
Skill set required:
Cost estimate:
Schedule impact:
Document that has been impacted: Cost plan:
Resource plan:
Time schedule:
Specifications:
Comments of the scope change management team:
Table 3.7. Sample Template for Scope Change Cost Assessment.
Scope Change Cost Assessment
Role of the turnaround:
Department:
Area of Focus:
Process or Product:
Task of the Scope change:
Labor cost:
Material cost:
Travel cost:
Miscellaneous cost:
Total cost:
42
Such a systematic method of scope change management and control would lead to
overall benefit of the turnaround or process turnaround.
3.11. Chapter summary:
This chapter has discussed the concepts related to turnaround scope management.
Specific emphasize has been given to scope change management and control for plant
turnaround process. The goals and purpose of the scope change has been explained along
with the sample templates for scope change request, scope change approval, scope change
impact assessment and cost assessment.
Chapter 4: Research Methodology
4.1. Chapter Introduction:
The aim of this chapter is to investigate the commonly used research methodologies.
The chosen research methodology has to aid in answering the defined research question in a
more relevant manner. The quantitative method and the case study method have been
chosen for this research work. Hence, this chapter deals with the research strategy, research
data collection, primary data representation, details of the questionnaires and a few sample
questions. Concepts concerning the validity and reliability of the data collected limitation of
the collected data and also about the reliability of the collected data.
4.2. Research Approaches:
According to Kumar. R. (1999), the basic purpose of any research work is to
understand and analyze the chosen research phenomenon. There are many methods of
communication research methodologies like qualitative research, quantitative research, case
studies and many more. These communication research methodologies try to acquire the
actual scenario of the research phenomenon by methods of interviews and surveys. The
qualitative methodology happens to be based on the interpretative paradigm, while the
quantitative methodology follows the positivist paradigm of knowledge. This research has
chosen the quantitative research methodology as one of the research approach. Another
43
research methodology chosen for this research includes the case study method. According to
McMurray et al. (2004), when these two methods are used together, provides triangulation,
which is expected to increase the validity and reliability of the research data collected.
4.3. Research Strategy:
The strategy chosen for this research work comes under the two approaches; they are
the quantitative method of data collection followed by statistical analysis and the case study
approach which follows an empirical inquiry of a research phenomenon in real life
situations.
The quantitative method of data collection seems to follow the positivist paradigm
that assumes that the participants are aware of the research concept and thus they intend to
answer a defined set of questions in a predetermined scale. Here, the questions and the
answers are defined by the researcher and the participant just chooses a specific option that
suits his opinion. Thus the opinion of the participant in the research is generally limited to
the set of answers and any other relative opinion of the participant seems to be suppressed.
The case study method of research is one, in which the case or the research event is
examined by an in – depth analysis. This provides a longitudinal analysis of the single or the
multiple cases chosen. This method provides a systematic way of looking at events,
processes that enable in effective data collection, analysis of the collected data and finally a
systematic approach for reporting the results. This provides the researchers with a more
sharpened understanding of the instance and situation. Thus the research strategy with a case
study approach leads to generating and analyzing the research hypotheses. Robert K. Yin.
(2009) states that case studies could be combined with quantitative research methodology to
give actual inferences of the research phenomenon.
4.4. Quantitative Data Collection:
This section intends to detail the concepts of the qualitative research approach and
principles.
44
4.4.1. The basics of the Quantitative research methodology:
As stated by Kumar. R. (Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide For
Beginners, 1999), any research work has to understand and analyze the chosen research
phenomenon. If the chosen phenomenon happens to be some social behavior, then the
chosen research approach is expected to give proper justification by collecting opinions of
real life situations. The collection of data for such social behaviors could be by interviews or
by means of a standard questionnaire. According to Mc Murray et al (Research: A
Commonsense Approach, 2004), the research methods involving data collection by opinions
based on survey questions or interviews are generally considered to have an anti – positivist
epistemology and a subjective paradigm. The most widely accepted method of data
collection and survey method happen to be the qualitative interviews and or the quantitative
surveys done by a set of questionnaire. This research proposes to adopt the quantitative
survey method for data collection and the relevant statistical analysis.
In general, the quantitative research methodology could be explained as
“A research technique in which scientific, concrete, and project able numerical data
that can be statistically analyzed is gathered, often from large samples; also called
hard data.”
(Marketing Research,
www.glencoe.com/sec/busadmin/marketing/dp/mktg_resrch/gloss.shtml ).
This quantitative method adopts the logic of positivist paradigm, while the other
social research method of qualitative method uses the interpretative paradigm. The positivist
paradigm that forms the basis for the quantitative research has been defined by Marshall, G
(The concise Oxford dictionary of sociology, 1994, p. 405–6.) as
“Positivism is, above all, a philosophy of science. As such, it stands squarely within
the empiricist tradition. Metaphysical speculation is rejected in favor of „positive‟
knowledge based on systematic observation and experiment. The methods of science
can give us knowledge of the laws of co-existence and succession of phenomena, but
45
can never penetrate to the inner „essences‟ or „natures‟ of things. As applied to the
human social world, the positive method yields a law of successive states through
which each branch of knowledge must pass: first theological, then metaphysical, and
finally positive (or scientific).”
The data collection methods in the quantitative research could be of different
categories. They fall under three categories, namely, the most popular survey method, the
tracking of data occurrence, collection of experimental data. According to Wimmer &
Dominick (Mass media research: an introduction, 2003), the experimental method of data
collection seems to be the most valid and accurate data regarding the true situation of the
research phenomenon. For researches that involve the behavioral studies and the social
studies, the method of mass opinions by survey method seems to be the most appropriate
and has been proved to be the best choice as it explains the chosen research scenario in the
best manner. In this method of survey, the chosen people have to be statistically suitable set
that is relevant to the research background and those who have sufficient knowledge and
experience about the research phenomenon and its variations. This chosen set of people
form the sample space for the research and are interviewed in person or questioned over by
telephone or are made to take up a same set of questions that are pre determined. This pre –
determined questions are said to be of structured nature as the same set of questions are
thrown to each participant. These questions have multiple choices for answers and the
participant is expected to answer only one question that seems more relevant to their view.
The questionnaire has to be prepared well before the conduct of the interview.
4.4.2. The Principles of Quantitative Research Method:
The characteristic features and the principles of the quantitative method of research
could be describes as follows. This method uses numerical data representation for mass
opinion; the quantitative survey methodology uses a sufficiently large size of sample space
so as to be valid and more accurate. This research method chooses to adopt the inductive
generalization of the data. For the analysis, this quantitative method uses statistical measures
and probability theories so that the data interpretation and evaluation would lead to more
46
accurate outcomes. This method seems to be less biased and hence is more reliable. The
choice of a large sample size leads to a confidence interval of about 90% - 95%. This
quantitative method could opt for different types of sampling techniques to identify the
sample space. This method facilitates the statistical analysis of the data by measures of
mean, median, correlation and other measures which would produce more accurate data
analysis. Also, the data collected could be subjected to some formal mathematical
procedures that are complex but highly reliable. The parameters chosen by this research are
measurable and fixed. This method could be slightly costly than the qualitative method, but
is more fast to complete and analyze. The time required to complete the research by this
quantitative method is seen to be very less and is dependent on the sampling technique used
to choose the sample space. The natures of the collected data are quantifiable and could be
made objective and as discrete data.
4.4.3. The Quantitative approach for this research work:
A research work needs to have a proper research design methodology and research
approach. The process of research design as stated by John. W. Creswell (Research Design
Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 2003, pp.7), could be defined as
“Research is the process of making claims and then refining or abandoning some of
them for other claims more strongly warranted”.
This research intends to analyze the causes and impact of the variation in turnaround
scope in SABIC petrochemicals plants. The research data collection starts with a
quantitative questionnaire design that has the survey questions related to the different
reasons and impact of scope variations in SABIC petrochemical plant turnarounds. These
questions have been framed for a quantitative survey and the data need to be collected form
specific sample group. The data collected needs to be statistically analyzed and some critical
factors need to be derived. According to the inferences from these critical factors, the
recommendations for the research are to be proposed. These recommendations are expected
to pave way for reduced changes in turnaround scope of work, reduced impact of scope
47
changes on the safety, duration, quality and cost of the turnaround processes in SABIC
Jubail.
4.4.4. The quantitative questionnaire:
The main tool for this quantitative survey happens to be the research questionnaire.
Ian Brace (Questionnaire design. How to Plan, Structure and Write Survey material for
Effective Market Research, 2004, p.4), describes this research tool as
“The medium of communication between the researcher and the subject, in the
questionnaire, the researcher articulates the questions to which he or she wants to
know the answers and, through the questionnaire, the subjects‟ answers are
conveyed back to the researcher.”
These questions need to be planned and designed before the survey and specific
rules need to be adopted while designing these questions. The questionnaire design, when
based on the following specific rules is considered to be highly valid. These questionnaire
guidelines could be stated as follows.
There must be multiple questions to focus on the various aspects of the research
phenomenon.
The questions need to be ordered or sequenced properly.
There need to be confined number of questions; the length of the questionnaire
has a direct impact on the response of eth participants.
The questions in the questionnaire need to have specific instructions.
The questions need to be as simple as possible and they need to be
understandable.
The questions need to be more relevant to the research context and thus would
lead to valid and reliable research outcome.
The choice of eth options have to be more relevant so that the opinion obtained
is exact.
The scale items need to be randomized properly.
48
The questionnaire needs to be structured in nature, such that the same set of
questions is answered by the participants. Ranjit Kumar (Research methodology – A Step by
Step Guide for beginners, 2005, p.126), explains the aspects of structure questionnaire as
“Structured interviews... in a structured interview the researcher asks a
predetermined... Note that an interview schedule is a research tool/instrument
for...One of the main advantages of structured interview is that it provides uniform
information, which assures the comparability of data”.
For this research, the questionnaire is proposed a structured one that asks the same
set of questions to all the participants.
4.4.5. The Sample space for the Quantitative research:
The selection of the sample size seems to be a crucial task as it highly influences the
quality of eth research. Sample size is the actual number of people who attend the survey.
Shein-Chung Chow, Jun Shao, Hansheng Wang, (Sample size calculations in clinical
research, 2003, p. 1) describe the sample size as
“How many subjects are needed in order to have a desired power for detecting a
clinically meaningful difference”?
And David. L. Morgan, (1997 Focus group as qualitative research, Qualitative research
Methods Series 16, 1997, p.2) explains the sample group as
“Focus groups are basically group interviews, although not in the sense of an
alternation between a researcher‟s questions and the research participants‟ responses.
Instead, the reliance is on interaction within the group, based on topics that are
supplied by the researcher who typically takes the role of a moderator.”
If the chosen sample group is not appropriate, then the analysis of the data may be
inaccurate and may go for many cycles. The requirements of the sample size may differ for
different sampling techniques in the quantitative research. For the common sampling
49
techniques like multi–stage sample, panel sample, cluster sample, area sample, multi –
phase sampling, simple random sample, the Confidence Interval required has to be 90% -
95%.
4.4.6. The interpretation of Quantitative data:
The quantitative method of data collection and analysis chooses to use variables that
are easily measurable. The variables involved in this method could also be termed as
parameters. The definition of these parameters or variables should be such that they support
the formulation of the research hypotheses. This demands that the responses to the
questionnaire need to be measurable and hence the common standard is to use a numerical
format for the data representation. Thus the objects or the research events could be
associated with some numbers that are measurable. The most commonly accepted and used
formats include the, Interval format, Nominal format, Ratio format and the Ordinal format.
These formats mostly differ from each other in various levels of complexities. The common
scales that are used to measure these quantitative variables include the Semantic Differential
Scale and the Likert Scale.
This research opts to use the Likert scale to measure the parameter responses.
Richard M. Perloff, (The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st
century, 2003, pp.103) describes this Likert scale as
“Series of opinion statements … individuals to indicate their agreement or
disagreement with each statement along a numerical scale ... assumes that each
item taps the same underlying attitude and there are significant interrelationships
among items”.
This Likert scale varies between the maximum extreme values possible to the most least
extreme value that is possible. Examples could be something like Does not influence, Slight
influence, Considerable influence, Strong influence, Very high influence. The most probable
Likert scale sequence for any quantitative research could be framed as shown in Fig. 4.1.
50
Fig. 4.1. The possible Likert scale.
4.4.7. Reliability and Validity of the data collected:
The chosen research methodology has to be valid and reliable to prove the research
work. Validity of the quantitative research method has been defined by Joppe, (The
Research Process, 2000, p.1) as
“Validity determines whether the research truly measures that which it was intended
to measure or how truthful the research results are. In other words, does the research
instrument allow you to hit "the bull‟s eye" of your research object? Researchers
generally determine validity by asking a series of questions, and will often look for
the answers in the research of others.”
The quantitative method cares for good sample selection and is based on the
positivist paradigm of knowledge, hence the data collected by this method could be
considered as valid. Reliability, of the quantitative research as defined by Joppe, (The
Research Process, 2000) is
“The extent to which results are consistent over time and an accurate representation
of the total population under study is referred to as reliability and if the results of a
study can be reproduced under a similar methodology, then the research instrument
is considered to be reliable.”
Since the data representation and analysis are in numerical format for the
quantitative research method, they could be claimed to be reliable. Also, the subsequent
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statistical analysis opted for the results seem to be reliable and consistent over time. As this
research work utilizes the quantitative methodology, it can be claimed that the reliability and
validity of the data collected are good.
4.5 Quantitative data collection for SABIC turnaround scope change analysis:
This section deals with the chosen sample group, the actual questions for survey and
the issues related to reliability and ethical considerations.
4.5.1. The survey questionnaire:
The structure survey questionnaire for this research consists of three parts. The first
part deals with the demographic details of the participants and their experience, their role
and involvement in the plant TA process. Part two of the questionnaire has been designed to
address the issues related to the reasons and causes for the TA scope change. The third part
addresses the issues related to impact of the TA scope change on TA quality, TA duration
and TA cost. Also opinions about the ways to reduce the scope change have also been
considered in the questionnaire. A few SAMPLE questions are as follows,
Part 1
Q1. Your experience in TA business
1. Less than 2 years
2. Between 2 years and 5 years
3. Between 5 years and 10 years
4. More than 10 years
Q2. How many TAs did you involve / participate
1. less than 2 TAs
2. between 3 and 5 TAs
3. between 6 and 10 TAs
4. more than 10 TAs
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Part 2
No. Question No
influence
at all
Slight
influence
Moderate
influence
Strong
influence
Very
strong
influence
1 Original scope is unclear
2 Scope is not detailed enough to avoid
changes
3 Final scope is not agreed by end user
4 Requirements and cost of
implementing proposed scope is not
clear for scope requester
5 Relation between plant type / process
and amount of change in the scope of
work
…
…
………
Part 3
Q1. What is the impact of TA scope change on TA cost?
1. Less than 5%
2. 5% •- 10%
3. 10% - 15%
4. 15 % – 20%
5. More than 20%
Q2. What is the impact of TA scope change on TA duration?
1. Less than 5%
2. 5% •- 10%
3. 10% •- 15%
4. 15 % –– 20%
5. More than 20%
……
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Q5. Does the scope change increase the overall benefit to the organization (taking in
account impact of cost?
1. Does not increase the benefit.
2. Slightly increases the benefit.
3. Moderately increases the benefit.
4. Highly increases the benefit.
…..
Q9. A well defined scope would lead to minimized scope change.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
Q10. Providing sufficient time for scope development would lead to minimized scope
change.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
…….
Q13. A well defined criteria for accepting scope change would minimize the impact of
changes in TA scope.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
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Q14. Considering if the change is doable in TA would minimize the impact of changes in TA
scope.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
………….
4.5.2. The sample space:
The focus group chosen for the data collection related to the SABIC plant TA
process involves the planners, technicians, engineers, executives and the team leaders and
TA mangers. The method of selecting the participants from a large sample space is called as
sampling. For quantitative survey, there are different types of sampling like simple random
sampling, systematic sampling, stratified random sampling, multi stage sampling, multi
phase sampling, cluster sampling, area sampling and other. For this research work, the
method of sampling chosen is the Cluster sampling. In this Cluster sampling method, the
sample participants are chosen from different groups. The chosen people are from various
categories like planners, technicians, engineers, executives and the team leaders and TA
mangers. Cluster sampling has the advantage that it has participants from a wide set of
group; hence the data collected may have opinion from all categories of participants.
The size of the focus group has to be chosen carefully based on statistical
calculations. James.E.B., Joe.W.K., Chadwick.C.H. (2001) have formulated a method for
determining the sample size for any survey research methodology. They propose a sample
size determination for both continuous and categorical data. This sample size determination
is based on the amount of risk that is acceptable by the researcher called as the margin of
error and the level of risk called as the true margin. After basing the discussion on error
estimation and variance estimation, they propose a table for sample size determination.
Generally, the sample size can be determined in terms of the margin of error, confidence
level, population size and response distribution. The formula for calculating the sample
space (n), based on normal distribution assumption, can be described as
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n = Nx/ ((N-1) E2 + x),
where x = Z(c/100) 2. R (100-r) is the critical value of confidence interval „c‟.
and E = sqrt [(N-n) x / n (N-1)] is the margin of error.
Now considering this research work, the following calculation would work out to
determine the sample size required. This research considers the margin of error (E) to be
10%, the confidence interval to be 90%, the population size is 2000 and the response
distribution as 30%. The corresponding value of sample size is 56. Thus the size of this
focus group was proposed to be more than 50 and the actual respondents were more than 50
in number. The actual sample space was 56. Most of the participants were engineers and TA
managers and hence the data collected form them could be claimed to be reliable and valid.
Also the identity of the participants have not been revealed and this accounts for the ethical
considerations of the data collected. The participants had been informed that their
participation is purely on a volunteer basis and none of them were forced to take up the
survey questionnaire.
4.6. Case Study as a research methodology:
Case study is one of the most common approach methods of research methodologies.
The key aspects that need attention in a case study research include the selection of the case
and the basic assumptions. Michael Patton, (Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods)
states that
“Case studies are particularly useful in depicting a holistic portrayal of a … program.
For example, to evaluate the effectiveness of a program's processes, including its
strengths and weaknesses, evaluators might develop cases studies on the program's
successes and failures. Case studies are used to organize a wide range of information
about a case and then analyze the contents by seeking patterns and themes in the
data, and by further analysis through cross comparison with other cases. A case can
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be individuals, programs, or any unit, depending on what the program evaluators
want to examine through in-depth analysis and comparison.”
The case selection could be based as a single subject study or multiple subject
study. The method of selecting the cases may be based on sampling techniques like random
sampling or information oriented sampling says Bent Flyvbjerg, (Five Misunderstandings
About Case Study Research, April 2006, pp. 219 – 245). The information oriented sampling
may be of three types namely, critical cases, extremely deviated cases and paradigmatic
cases. The sampling by random method leads to selection of average cases and the
information collected from these random cases seem to be of less value and is not rich. The
typical cases, when chosen for the study reveal more rich information, as they would
activate more actors and many basic mechanisms related to eth situation under study. The
choice of the case has to be more understanding oriented as well as action oriented. This
enables a deeper clarification of the causes and reasons behind the chosen research
phenomenon. This presents an in depth analysis of the situation rather than just providing
the symptoms and the frequency of the problem under consideration. Generally a case study
might go for some basic assumptions, explained as follows; Case selections are truly based
on depth and dimensions of the problem under consideration. The generalization of the
results does not go beyond a population that is similar to the one under study. Conclusions
are based on model elimination methods and not by model validation methods. There may
be many alternative theories that seem consistent with the data collected from the case under
study. The evaluations of the less probable casual paths in a chosen model are difficult with
case studies that fail to display such paths, even though such a path exists in a larger
potential case.
4.6.1. The Case Study approach:
The formal structure of a case study or the approach for a case study may involve the
following steps,
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All the data relevant to the case under study needs to be gathered. The methods
of data collection may include documented histories, records, applications,
interviews, questionnaire and observations.
The collected data need to be organized in a formal way to highlight the
research phenomenon that is under study. This organization of the data could be
in chronological order or in the order of a particular process or procedure.
A case study narrative needs to be developed. This narrative provides the key
information that is related to the case under study. The narrative is the main
description about the actual features of eth case being studied. This may include
geographic information, financial information, information related to the
procedures, etc.
Validation of the narrative. This may be done by experts or by the researcher
himself.
Cross comparison with related cases so as to isolate any strengths or weaknesses
in the chosen case.
The general template or the format that has to be followed for a case study
preparation could be detailed as follows. The background of the case under study that
includes the environmental, financial, technical and geographical background. Specific
project goals like metrics for success, requirements of end user, financial requirements,
service requirements, long term / short term commitment and the like. The time line of the
organization under study and the time line for the case study work. The business scenario,
technology used, competitors, partners, awareness and training and maintenance issues. The
long term and short term goals of the business, sustainability issues, scalability of the project
or process under study, future requirements and lessons learned form the case study.
4.7. Case Study data collection for SABIC turnaround scope change analysis:
This section concerns the data collection for the SABIC TA scope change analysis.
The proposed details under the study include the following, background of SABIC Jubail,
general turnaround procedures, turnaround scope identification like carnage requirements,
58
alignment requirements, scaffolding requirements, insulation requirements, equipment
requirements, torquing requirements, cleaning requirements, painting requirements, flange
management. The case study also plans to discuss the aspects related to TA estimating
format, quality control efforts, TA indicators, cost and manpower tracking, safety
management, scope change control, scope change management plan, scope change request
plan, scope change approval strategies, change impact and tracking strategies.
4.8. Chapter summary:
This chapter has dealt with the concepts of research methodologies like quantitative,
qualitative communication surveys and interviews and case studies. As the chosen research
design for this research work is quantitative survey and case study of SABIC, the principles
and characteristics of the quantitative research method and the case study approach have
been discussed in detail. The application of these research method in collecting data for this
research have been explained in detail with respect to the survey questionnaire, sample size,
focus group, ethical and validity aspects. The case study intends to analyze the parameters
relevant to the TA processes in petrochemical plants and more specifically the reasons and
impact of the scope changes in the turnaround in SABIC, Jubail united. The detailed data
analysis and detailed case study have been described in the next chapter.
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Chapter 5: Data Analysis
5.1. Chapter Introduction:
The aim of this chapter is to analyze the quantitative data by statistical methods and
to analyze the data collected from the case study. The statistical measures for the analysis of
quantitative data have been introduced, these include the descriptive statistics of the data,
mean calculation, frequency and percentage occurrence, histograms. Initially the chapter
presents the primary data representation in the Excel format and proceeds to analyze them
using the statistical analysis software, MINITAB, version 11.2. This statistical software is a
sophisticated tool for data analysis. Based on the results of the data analysis, the research
hypotheses and the research questions need to be discussed. Also a set of recommendations
for reducing the impact of TA scope changes in SABIC plant TA and the methods of
minimizing these changes are to be formulated. Apart from the statistical analysis of the
quantitative data, the analysis of the SABIC TA scope changes by the case study approach is
expected to support data analysis and the recommendations.
5.2. Analysis of the Quantitative survey data:
This section deals with the quantitative data interpretation and the relevant statistical
analysis.
5.2.1. Data Interpretation:
The first step in the quantitative data analysis is to represent the text data in the
EXCEL format that is in the suitable format for statistical analysis. This representation gives
the primary data in the form of numbers over which statistical methods could be used. Each
question in the quantitative questionnaire has multiple choices and these are represented in
the Likert scale format. This process of converting the text data into numerical format is
called as the data interpretation. The data interpretation of the quantitative questions of this
research has been shown in Fig. 5.1.
60
Fig. 5.1. Quantitative data interpretation in the Likert scale.
Here, the questions (p1q1, p1q2…) are taken along the columns and the participants
(S1, S2…) are taken along the rows. The options chosen by each participant for each
question are shown as numbers ranging form 1 to 5. The complete questionnaire showing
the options are shown in Appendix A. The questionnaire has three parts that has 32
questions in total.
5.2.2. TALLY statistics for Part 1 Questions:
As mentioned already, the statistical package called MINITAB has been used for
this research analysis. The most common statistical measures that are used for the analysis
of the quantitative survey data include the calculation of mean, standard deviation,
frequency plots and percentage counts. In MINITAB, the calculation of mean and standard
deviation are done by the descriptive statistics option.
The descriptive statistics for the part 1 questions has been shown in Fig. 5.2.
61
Fig. 5.2. The descriptive statistics of Part 1 questions.
This part has four questions that are related to the nature of the participants chosen.
Hence the analysis of this part describes the chosen sample space. The mean analysis shows
the extent to which that particular question has been answered in a positive sense.
Apart from the general descriptive statistics, the Tally statistics gives a good analysis
of the frequency and percentage of the participants who have chosen a particular option. The
first question is concerned about the experience of the participants in the TA processes. The
Tally statistics of this question has been shown in Fig. 5.3.
62
Fig. 5.3. Tally statistics for part 1 question 1.
From the Tally statistics for part 1 Question 1 (p1q1), it could be inferred that 38%
of the people have around 2 to 5 years experience and again another 38% of them have 5 to
10 years experience. Only 1 person (1.85%) has very less experience that is less than 2 years
and 20% of the participants have more than 10 years experience.
The second question is - How many TAs did you involve / participate, for this
question, the Tally statistics has been shown in Fig. 5.4.
Fig. 5.4. Tally statistics for part 1 question 2.
63
This shows that 40% of the participants have chosen option 3 which corresponds to 6
to 10 TAs. And 38% of the participants have chosen the second option that relates to 3 – 5
TAs.
The third question corresponds to the specific phase of TA in which the participant
had involved. The Tally statistics shows that 55% of the participants had chosen option 5
that corresponds to all phases of TA process. This has been shown in Fig. 5.5.
Fig. 5.5. Tally statistics for part 1 question 3.
It could be seen that most of them have involved in the TA execution phase and are
aware of the TA scope and TA management.
The fourth question relates to the role of the participant in the TA process. From the
Tally statistics in Fig. 5.6., it could be seen that 50% of the participants are managers, 25%
of them are planners and a few are supervisors and a very few of them were engineers.
64
Fig. 5.6. Tally statistics for part 1 question 4.
5.2.3. TALLY Analysis of Part 2 Questions:
The second part of the survey questions intends to obtain opinion about the reasons
for the TA scope change. The questionnaire prescribes certain reasons and collects the
opinion on a Likert scale varying from No influence at all, slight influence, moderate
influence, strong influence and very strong influence. This could be interpreted into a
numerical scale ranging from 1 to 5. There are 12 questions in this section, the analysis of
these are as follows,
The first question considers the reason as - Original scope is unclear – for this the
Tally statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.7.
65
Fig. 5.7. Tally statistics for part 2 question 1.
This shows that 41% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 30% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 23% of them
have said that this reason has moderate influence.
The second question considers the reason as - Scope is not detailed enough to avoid
changes – for this the Tally statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.8
. Fig. 5.8. Tally statistics for part 2 question 2.
This shows that 66% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 17.86% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 8.9% of
them have said that this reason has moderate influence.
The third question considers the reason as - Final scope is not agreed by end user –
for this the Tally statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.9.
66
Fig. 5.9. Tally statistics for part 2 question 3.
This shows that 23% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 23% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 37% of them
have said that this reason has moderate influence and 14% of them have said that this reason
has slight influence on the TA scope change.
The fourth question considers the reason as - Requirements and cost of
implementing proposed scope is not clear for scope requester – for this the Tally statistics is
as shown in Fig. 5.10.
Fig. 5.10. Tally statistics for part 2 question 4.
This shows that 39% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence, 53% of them have said that this reason has moderate influence and 7% of them
have said that this reason has slight influence on the TA scope change.
67
The fifth question considers the reason as - Relation between plant type/process and
amount of change in the scope of work – for this the Tally statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.11.
Fig. 5.11. Tally statistics for part 2 question 5.
This shows that 34% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence, 20% of them have said that this reason has moderate influence and 40% of them
have said that this reason has slight influence on the TA scope change.
The sixth question considers the reason as - Effectiveness of the existing change
management process – for this the Tally statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.12.
Fig. 5.12. Tally statistics for part 2 question 6.
This shows that 33% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence, 41% of them have said that this reason has moderate influence and 21% of them
have said that this reason has slight influence on the TA scope change.
68
The seventh question considers the reason as - Unavailability of historical
information about the equipments in each plant – for this the Tally statistics is as shown in
Fig. 5.13.
Fig. 5.13. Tally statistics for part 2 question 7.
This shows that 32% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 10% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 42% of them
have said that this reason has moderate influence and 14% of them have said that this reason
has slight influence on the TA scope change.
The eighth question considers the reason as - Unclear purpose of specific scope – for
this the Tally statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.14.
Fig. 5.14. Tally statistics for part 2 question 8.
This shows that 19% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 21% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 19% of them
69
have said that this reason has moderate influence and 35% of them have said that this reason
has slight influence on the TA scope change.
The ninth question considers the reason as - Unknown Inspection findings - for this
the Tally statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.15.
Fig. 5.15. Tally statistics for part 2 question 9.
This shows that 33 % of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 26% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 21% of them
have said that this reason has moderate influence and 16% of them have said that this reason
has slight influence on the TA scope change.
The tenth question considers the reason as – Failure and defect in plant equipment
between scope signoff and execution time - for this the Tally statistics is as shown in Fig.
5.16.
Fig. 5.16. Tally statistics for part 2 question 10.
70
This shows that 50% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 14% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 32% of them
have said that this reason has moderate influence and 1% of them have said that this reason
has slight influence on the TA scope change.
The eleventh question considers the reason as – The defined scope doesn‟t
adequately address the objectives of the TA or its expected benefits - for this the Tally
statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.17.
Fig. 5.17. Tally statistics for part 2 question 11.
This shows that 31% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 3% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 23% of them
have said that this reason has moderate influence and 37% of them have said that this reason
has slight influence on the TA scope change.
The twelfth question considers the reason as – Relationship between the age of plant
and amount of scope change - for this the Tally statistics is as shown in Fig. 5.18.
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Fig. 5.18. Tally statistics for part 2 question 12.
This shows that 10% of the participants have chosen option 4 that is Strong
influence. 16% of them have said that this reason has very strong influence, 17% of them
have said that this reason has moderate influence and 55% of them have said that this reason
has slight influence on the TA scope change.
5.2.4. TALLY Analysis of Part 3 Questions:
Question numbers 1 to 4 of part 3, intends to gather opinion about the negative
impact of TA scope change on all TA process. The options for the first four questions aims
to analyze the impact of scope change on a Likert scale of 5, with options as follows,
1. Less than 5%
2. 5% - 10%
3. 10% - 15%
4. 15 % – 20%
5. More than 20%
The first question of this section intends to analyze the impact of TA scope change
on TA cost. The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.19.
72
Fig. 5.19. Tally statistics for part 3 question 1.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 35% of the participants have chosen
option 3, 33% of them have chosen option 2, 16% of them had chosen option 4 and 14% of
them have chosen option 5 and none of them had chosen option 1.
This shows that the negative impact of the most of TA scope change on TA cost is
10% to 15%.
The second question of this section intends to analyze the impact of TA scope
change on TA duration. The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.20.
Fig. 5.20. Tally statistics for part 3 question 2.
73
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 37% of the participants have chosen
option 2, 23% of them have chosen option 4, 14% of them had chosen option 5 and 12% of
them have chosen option 1 and 7% of them had chosen option 3.
This shows that the negative impact of the TA scope change on the duration of TA is
5% to 10%.
The third question of this section intends to analyze the impact of TA scope change
on TA quality. The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.21.
Fig. 5.21. Tally statistics for part 3 question 3.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 39% of the participants have chosen
option 2, 26% of them have chosen option 1, 16% of them had chosen option 5 and 10% of
them have chosen option 3 and 7% of them had chosen option 4.
This shows that the negative impact of the TA scope change on the quality of TA
work is 5% to 10%.
The fourth question of this section intends to analyze the impact of TA scope change
on TA safety. The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.22.
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Fig. 5.22. Tally statistics for part 3 question 4.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 50% of the participants have chosen
option 1, 19% of them have chosen option 4, 16% of them had chosen option 2 and 10% of
them have chosen option 3 and 3% of them had chosen option 5.
This shows that the negative impact of the TA scope change on TA safety is less
than 5%.
Question numbers 5 to 8 of part 3 intends to analyze the impact of scope change in
increasing the overall benefit to the organization.
The fifth question intends to analyze the impact of scope change as - does the scope
change increase the overall benefit to the organization (taking in account impact of cost?).
The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.23.
Fig. 5.23. Tally statistics for part 3 question 5.
75
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 50% of the participants have chosen
option 2, 26% of them have chosen option 3, 18% of them had chosen option 4 and 3% of
them have chosen option 1.
This shows that TA scope change in increasing the overall benefit to the
organization in terms of cost is a slight increase in the benefit to the organization.
The sixth question intends to analyze the impact of scope change as - Does the scope
change increase the overall benefit to the organization in terms of risks? The Tally statistics
of this question is shown in Fig. 5.24.
Fig. 5.24. Tally statistics for part 3 question 6.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 45% of the participants have chosen
option 2, 33% of them have chosen option 3, 16% of them had chosen option 1 and 3% of
them have chosen option 4.
This shows that TA scope change in increasing the overall benefit to the
organization in terms of risk is a slight reduction in risk to the organization.
The seventh question intends to analyze the impact of scope change as - Will Scope
change cause a loss of control of the team‟s planned work? The Tally statistics of this
question is shown in Fig. 5.25.
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Fig. 5.25. Tally statistics for part 3 question 7.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 66% of the participants have chosen
option 3, 30% of them have chosen option 3, 3% of them had chosen option 1 and none of
them have been chosen option 4.
This shows that the impact of the TA scope change in the loss of control is a
considerable loss of control.
The eighth question intends to analyze the impact of scope change as - What is the
impact of the changes addressed in a later stage of TA process? The Tally statistics of this
question is shown in Fig. 5.26.
Fig. 5.26. Tally statistics for part 3 question 8.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 53% of the participants have chosen
option 4, 25% of them have chosen option 5, 21% of them had chosen option 3.
This shows that the impact of the TA scope change in the later stages of the TA
process has high impact.
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Questions 9 to 16 of part 3 intend to analyze ways of minimizing scope change. The
opinion are collected on a Likert scale of 4 as below,
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
The ninth question intends to analyze the ways of minimizing scope change as - A
well defined scope would lead to minimized scope change. The Tally statistics of this
question is shown in Fig. 5.27.
Fig. 5.27. Tally statistics for part 3 question 9.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 71% of the participants have chosen
option 3 and 28% of them have chosen option 3. The other options have not been chosen.
This shows that a well defined scope would lead to minimized scope change.
The tenth question intends to analyze the ways of minimizing scope change as -
Providing sufficient time for scope development would lead to minimized scope change.
The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.28
78
Fig. 5.28. Tally statistics for part 3 question 10.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 50% of the participants have chosen
option 4, 35% of them have chosen option 3 and 14% of them had chosen option 2. The
other options have not been chosen.
This shows that providing sufficient time for scope development would lead to
minimized scope change.
The eleventh question intends to analyze the ways of minimizing scope change as -
Maintaining a good history of all the equipments would lead to minimized scope change.
The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.29.
Fig. 5.29. Tally statistics for part 3 question 11.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 60% of the participants have chosen
option 4 and 39% of them have chosen option 3. The other options have not been chosen.
This shows that maintaining a good history of all the equipments would lead to
minimized scope change.
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The twelfth question intends to analyze the ways of minimizing scope change as -
Developing an effective process for scope challenge would minimize the scope change. The
Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.30.
Fig. 5.30. Tally statistics for part 3 question 12.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 67% of the participants have chosen
option 3 and 26% of them have chosen option 4. The other options have been opted by very
less people.
This shows that developing an effective process for scope challenge would minimize
the scope change.
The thirteenth question intends to analyze the ways of minimizing impact of scope
change on TA process as - A well defined criteria for accepting scope change would
minimize the impact of changes in TA scope. The Tally statistics of this question is shown
in Fig. 5.31.
Fig. 5.31. Tally statistics for part 3 question 13.
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From the tally statistics it could be seen that 64% of the participants have chosen
option 3, 32% of them have chosen option 4 and only 3% of them had chosen option 2.
This shows that well defined criteria for accepting scope change would minimize the
impact of changes in TA scope.
The fourteenth question intends to analyze the ways of minimizing impact of scope
change on TA process as - Considering if the change is doable in TA would minimize the
impact of changes in TA scope. The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.32.
Fig. 5.32. Tally statistics for part 3 question 14.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 60% of the participants have chosen
option 3, 10% of them have chosen option 4 and 14% of them had chosen option 2 and 1.
This shows that most people agree that - considering if the change is doable in TA
would minimize the impact of changes in TA scope.
The fifteenth question intends to analyze the ways of minimizing impact of scope
change on TA process as - Setting restrictive criteria for approval process would minimize
the impact of changes in TA scope. The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig.
5.33.
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Fig. 5.33. Tally statistics for part 3 question 15.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 53% of the participants have chosen
option 3, 25% of them have chosen option 4 and 14% of them had chosen option 1 and 7%
of them opted for option 2.
This shows that most people agree that setting restrictive criteria for approval
process would minimize the impact of changes in TA scope.
The sixteenth question intends to analyze the ways of minimizing impact of scope
change on TA process as - Studying the best alternatives to do the change would minimize
the impact of TA scope change. The Tally statistics of this question is shown in Fig. 5.34.
Fig. 5.34. Tally statistics for part 3 question 16.
From the tally statistics it could be seen that 48% of the participants have chosen
option 3, 28% of them have chosen option 4 and 23% of them had chosen option 2.
This shows that most people agree that studying the best alternatives to do the
change would minimize the impact of TA scope change.
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5.3. Discussion of the Results of Quantitative data analysis:
The discussion of the results of the statistical data analysis could be as follows. The
results of Part 1 questions reveal that
Most of them have 2 - 5 years experience and 5 – 10 years experience.
Most of them have involved in 3 – 6 and 6 – 10 TA processes.
Most of them have experience in all phases.
Most of them are in the role as team leaders or managers.
The results of Part 2 questions reveal the influence of reasons on the TA scope
change and are listed as below,
The reason - Original scope is unclear has a strong influence on the TA scope
change.
The reason - Scope is not detailed enough to avoid changes has strong influence.
The reason - Final scope is not agreed by end user has moderate influence on the TA
scope change.
The reason - Requirements and cost of implementing proposed scope is not clear for
scope requester has moderate influence.
The reason - Relation between plant type / process and amount of change in the
scope of work has slight influence on the TA scope change.
The reason - Effectiveness of the existing change management process has moderate
influence.
The reason - Unavailability of historical information about the equipments in each
plant has moderate influence on the TA scope change.
The reason - Unclear purpose of specific scope has slight influence.
The reason - Unknown inspection findings has a strong influence.
The reason - Failure and defect in plant equipments between scope singe off and the
execution time has a strong influence on the TA scope change.
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The reason - The defined scope doesn‟t adequately address the objectives of the TA
or it‟s expected benefits, has slight influence.
The reason - Relationship between the age of plant and amount of scope change has
slight influence on the TA scope change.
The results of Part 3 questions reveal the impact of the TA scope change on the
organization, and are listed as below,
The negative impact of the TA scope change on the cost of TA process is 10 % to 15
%.
The negative impact of the TA scope change on the duration of TA process is 5 % to
10%.
The negative impact of the TA scope change on the quality of TA process is 5 % to
10 %
The negative impact of the TA scope change on the cost of TA process is less than 5
%.
The impact of the TA scope change in increasing the overall benefit to the
organization in terms of cost is a slight increase in the benefit to the organization.
The impact of the TA scope change in increasing the overall benefit to the
organization in terms of risk is a slight reduction in risk to the organization.
The impact of the TA scope change in the loss of control is a considerable loss of
control.
The impact of the TA scope change in the later stages of the TA process has high
impact.
Most of the participants feel that a well defined scope would lead to minimized
scope change.
Most of the participants feel that providing sufficient time for scope development
would lead to minimized scope change.
Most of the participants feel that maintaining a good history of all the equipments
would lead to minimized scope change.
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Most of the participants feel that developing an effective process for scope challenge
would minimize the scope change.
Most of the participants feel that well defined criteria for accepting scope change
would minimize the impact of changes in TA scope.
Most of the participants feel that considering if the change is doable in TA would
minimize the impact of changes in TA scope.
Most people agree that setting restrictive criteria for approval process would
minimize the impact of changes in TA scope.
Most people agree that studying the best alternatives to do the change would
minimize the impact of TA scope change.
5.4. Chapter summary:
This chapter has dealt with the concepts related to statistical analysis of the
quantitative data. The statistical analysis includes the Tally table that gives the frequency
and or percentage of occurrences of the data under a specific question.
Chapter 6: Discussion of Results
6.1. Chapter Introduction:
This chapter exclusively deals with the case study of SABIC and the corresponding
scope change management and control procedures required. Initially the chapter deals with
the case study and later the change management procedure, recommended steps of
approving scope change, the recommended form that will be used to control and track scope
change, the recommended process or technique of requesting, reviewing, approving,
communicating and implementing any scope change have been discussed.
6.2. Case study of SABIC scope change management and control:
This section deals with the main case study of SABIC with respect to scope change
management and control in the plant turnarounds.
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6.2.1. Objectives of case study:
The objective of this case study is to evaluate and analyze the causes, impacts and
practical solutions for the work scope changes in petrochemical plant turnarounds in
SABIC. The study aims to find the causes of increase in scope turnaround work in plant
turnarounds. The impacts and some practical solutions for the changes in turnaround have to
be identified. Based on the identification of the work scope changes, an appropriate scope
change management has to be formulated along with the procedures and sample templates
for scope change management and control.
6.2.2. Company background:
SABIC was incorporated in the year 1976 to utilize and convert the Natural gas,
which is the by – product of oil extraction into useful petrochemical products. Today
SABIC is a global leader in petrochemical and steel products. With employee strength of
33000 in more than 100 countries, the net profit was SR 22 billion during the year 2008.
With the products ranging from innovative plastics, fertilizers, basic chemicals, metals,
polymers and intermediates, the corporate culture is based on dynamic growth and
collaborative management. With a consistent record of success, the major challenges as
stated by the annual report of SABIC include,
“There were major challenges too: creating a regular, dependable and uninterrupted
supply chain, maintaining reliability and performance of facilities and avoiding
delays in expansion turnaround s are all high priorities for our management.”
(Dynamic Growth through Collaboration, 2008).
SABIC is a founding member of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association and
has prominent operations in Jubail and Yanbu.
6.2.3 Executive synopsis of SABIC turnarounds:
There are different plants in SABIC and each of them has different stream to stream
duration. The stream to stream duration is calculated from the time when the product is
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switched from the product tank to the flare/off spec tank to the time till the product becomes
available for the customers/product tank. The methods of stream to stream TA duration
calculation are shown in Table 6.1. and the standard Turnaround stream to stream time
duration per plant unit based on the TA list and the maintenance list have been tabulated for
some plants in Table 6.2.
Table 6.1. Methods of stream to stream TA duration calculation.
Plant type Method of TA duration calculation
Styrene From the time when the feed is cut to the time when the feed is resumed
Ethylene Time when product is switched from product tank to flare, till the time when
product is back on spec.
MTBE Time when product is switched from product tank to off spec., till the time when
product is back on spec.
CIE Time between ethylene feed cut and resumption .
Table 6.2. The standard Turnaround stream to stream time duration (in Days) per plant unit based on the TA
list and the maintenance
Plant type Shutdown
duration
Maintenance
duration
Startup
duration
Total stream
to stream TA
duration
EDC 7 29 4 40
MTBE 7 34 7 48
SP MINING 1 12 1 14
SP BRINE 1 12 1 14
STY I 4 16 3 23
STY II 4 16 3 23
ETHYLEN
E
7 16 7 30
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The SABIC TA team has the following members, Planning team, Steering
committee team, Startup team, Execution team, Schedule, Network and Packages Review
team, Core team, Turnaround Leader, Problem solving team, Planning Supervisor, Planning
Group Leader, Material & Services Supervisor, Material & services Planner, Document
Controller, TA Planner, Stationary Equipment Inspector, Electrical Engineer/specialist,
Rotating Equipment Engineer/Specialist, Tools and Materials Coordinator, TA Technician,
Analyzer Engineer / specialist, Control System Engineer / specialist, Engineering & Project
Management Engineer, Health, Safety & Environmental Representative, Field outside
Services Coordinator (Inside SABIC works), Stationary Equipment Engineer, Operation
Representative, Mobile Equipment Coordinators, Project Development Department
Engineer, Field Safety Representatives, Warehouse Coordinator, TA Field Area
Maintenance Supervisor, Production Engineer/specialist, Cost Engineer / estimator /
Tracker, Shops superintendent, Major Special Engineer, Finance representative, SMO
representative, Maintenance superintendent, Shops out Side services Coordinator (Outside
SABIC works), LO&D rep (general services, IT, catering), Reliability Engineer – SABIC.
6.2.4. The strategies in SABIC turnarounds:
During the case study, it was observed that the SABIC turnaround process has the
following strategies,
The process units are shut down for catalyst change and repairs to ensure reliability
and regulatory requirements.
The TA steering committee is responsible for setting the premises for the TA
management, planning and implementation.
The TA planning team has members from all departments and is responsible for the
TA processes.
The success factors that measure the TA performance are HSE issues, effectiveness
of the PSSR, quality goals, cost within budget, schedule attainment.
The TA procedure is provided by the maintenance department.
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The aspects of maintenance, technical, project, reliability and operations have equal
importance in the TA.
The technical organization has the responsibility to integrate work related to rotating
equipment, stationary equipment, electrical equipment, analyzers, civil and structural
equipments, catalyst and desiccants.
The TA work list is limited to works related to plant shutdowns due to cost and man
power constraints.
The operations department has the responsibility to develop the work list, approve
the scopes of TA, preparing for maintenance, decommissioning and start up
procedures.
The planning and execution of the field work, plant change projects are under the
care of the maintenance department. This department also maintains the database for
planning, scheduling and tracking of the TA work.
6.2.5. Areas of Consideration in the case study:
In this part we will present and discuss the current activities in SABIC turnarounds
and scope management in SABIC turnarounds.
6.2.5.1. Current activities in SABIC turnarounds:
The major activities of the TA process go under the leadership of different departments
that has a leader who is highly knowledgeable about that activity. Accordingly, the
turnaround cycle is divided into 10 phases, as listed below,
1. Strategic and Business Planning Phase – The Planning, Logistics & Economics
Department (P, L&E) decides upon the duration, schedule, performance premises for
all SABIC‟s TA processes. It is also responsible for publishing and updating the
turnaround schedules. By taking inputs from different sources, the production
manager of the respective TA area, gives feedback to the PL and E about the due
date and duration.
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2. Initialization TA development Phase – This phase deals with the premises and
milestone. With the consultation of the production and maintenance mangers, the TA
leader develops the goals and premises in the areas like Safety, Environmental and
Health, Scope Sign-off date, Inspection Criteria, Shutdown and start dates, Unit
values for Planning, Productivity, Duration of run length cycle and reliability
expectations, Quality Performance, Work list due date, Scope Management &
Control, Contractors Performance, TA package due date, Cost Management. The
cycle for some production plant and the planning phase are shown in Table.6.3.
Table 6.3. The TA cycle and the Planning period.
Plant unit TA cycle Planning phase
EDC 2 years 18 months
Styrene I 2 years 18 months
Styrene II 2 years 18 months
Ethylene 6 years 30 months
CIE finishing 5 years 18 months
Salt Plant Brine 2 years 10 months
Salt Plant Mining 1 year 10 months
MTBE 2 years 18 months
According to this phase planning and TA cycle, the TA leader develops a TA
milestone.
3. Scope development and Freezing Phase - This phase of the TA process, has three
main activities, which are work list and scope of work development, scope
challenge, sign off - cut off date.
The work list scope is issued by the central planning team to all disciples, they in
turn develop the new TA work list and scopes based on the inspection requirement
data, manufacturers recommendations, past experiences, process efficiency and
approved enhancement RIK (replace in kind). Priorities are assigned based on the
shutdown requirement.
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The TA leader conducts a careful analysis of the and decides the challenges for a
scope. The SABIC has provided guidelines for the scope challenge processes; these
are utilized to meet the TA scope challenge approval and TA premises.
The sign off, cut off date are under the concerns of the respective production
managers. They hand over the approved scope challenge action list to the TA
manager.
4. Planning, Scheduling and Control Phase – This phase deals with the planning of
activities like HSE plan, readiness review, quality plan, etc. The major activities in
this phase are preparation plans, risk assessment, TA execution and scheduling
optimization, readiness review, familiar and awareness session. The key activities
under the preparation planning includes work plan that deals with initiation of
material requisitions, identifying the critical path schedules, identify the required
tools, initiate quality assurance plans, locating places for turnaround materials, safe
auditing plans, progress tracking plans, associate the decommissioning and
commissioning plans, detailed cost estimates and TA permit procedures.
5. Pre TA Phase – This phase prepares for the shut down phase. The key activities of
SABIC, in this phase include Fabrication and installation of all temporary piping,
moving materials to work spots, scaffolding, mobilize man power, ensure safety
preparations and installation of temporary shelters.
6. Shutdown (Decommissioning) Phase – This phase deals with the safe shut down of
the unit, safe disposal of the process material. The operations include shutdown
procedures, work permits, equipment decontamination, waste water disposal. The
key activities are implementation of the unit decommissioning plan, hydrocarbon
free systems, issuing safe work permits, preparing the equipment for maintenance.
7. Field Execution Phase – This phase is under the responsibility of the maintenance
department, this phase accounts for the actual implementation of the defined work
and additional work due to scope changes. This phase actually implements the work
scope changes, tracks them and ensures that they are completed in time. Also, this
phase involves the development of safe, healthy, cost effective work activities by the
central planning department. Other activities include updating the plan and tracking
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the progress, conduct review meetings, give the progress report, update daily work
schedule, resolve field problems, QC / QA audits, manage man hours.
8. Startup Phase - The production department holds the responsibility of the
commissioning phase or the start up phase. A Pre Startup Safety Review (PSSR) is
conducted according to operation procedures. The major activities include,
implementation of commission plan, conduct PSSR, ensure that all blinds are
removed, testing for oxygen free systems, stabilized operations, specifying the
manufacturing products.
9. Post TA Phase – The maintenance department is responsible for the post TA
activities. The major activities include demobilize man power, replace the insulation,
cleaning, remove scaffolds, supplying man power for start up. The central planning
group is responsible for ensuring the accountability of this phase.
10. Closeout and Documentation Phase – This phase is controlled by the Central
maintenance Department. The key activities include
Feedback (critique) about all phases from Planning Team members.
The closeout report by 3 months by the planning supervisor that tells about
critical path items, safety, critical success factors, major work scope, duration,
critiques and cost.
Look back session.
Technical reporting.
Documenting the details of the TA. The library folders at SABIC, include
history, TA approval schedule, TA work scope, critique, material order report,
service report, SAP Work Order, history data in SAP, RBI data update. The
Central planning group controls this phase of TA.
6.2.5.2. Scope management in SABIC turnarounds:
The turnaround work list is reviewed by the TA team for cost and duration and is approved
by the TA steering committee. This approved TA estimate is used for cost tracking and
control during the execution.
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To have control, any additional scope change after the work scope sign off, has to
get approvals from the required authority. The scope change requester has to fill out the
required forms to get the approval. If the change is a deletion, then the requester gets the
approval of eth TA leader alone. For additional work, the scope change process is based on
the following guidelines of SABIC,
1. If scope change is within TA budget and stream to stream duration, then the
approval from the TA leader is sufficient.
2. If the scope change is within budget but above the stream to stream duration, then
the requester has to get the approval of TA Leader, Production Manager,
Maintenance Manager, PL&E Manager, GM-Production, GM-Technical.
3. If scope change is above TA budget but within stream to stream duration, then the
approval of TA Leader, Production Manager, Maintenance Manager, Finance
Manager, GM-Production, GM-Technical, and President are needed.
4. If the scope change is above the budget as well as the stream to stream duration ,
then the requester has to get the approval of TA Leader, Production Manager,
Maintenance Manager, PL&E Manager, Finance Manager, GM-Production, GM-
Technical, and President .
These additional changes would be incorporated in the TA process, only after the
approval. The Planning supervisor has the responsibility to ensure that any addition, deletion
or change scope to the T/A scope meets the above requirements and he incorporates them
into the overall plan and cost.
The performance and success of the SABIC turnarounds are being measured against
certain critical factors. The weighting of these factors have been shown in the following
Table 6.4.
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Table 6.4. Performance assessment by critical success factors.
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR STANDARD %CONTRIBUTION
1. Safety T/A Premise 15
2. Environmental T/A Premise 10
3. Personal Exposure T/A Premise 10
4. PSSR Effectiveness T/A Premises 5
5. Schedule attainment T/A Plan 10
6. Estimated Hours Vs. Actual “Primavera”/SAP 5
7. Work Scope Completed Work list 5
8. Quality Goals S/U Delays 10
9. Productivity Goals T/A Premise 10
10. Cost Within Estimate Estimate 5
11. Cost within Budget Budget 5
12. Planning Accuracy Primavera 10
TOTAL 100
6.3. Statement of the problem observed in this case study:
Based on the available details of management strategies of SABIC, it could be seen
that the turnaround management is being managed only to a minimum satisfactory extent.
Thus any scope changes in the turnaround process could depend on the overall change
management program alone as there is no specific evidence that there is a separate
management strategy for turnaround scope changes. This leads to a variety of challenges for
the SABIC in terms of turnaround scope variations. The problems associated with the scope
variations include defining the scope or activities, differentiating critical activities and
deferrable activities, planning and developing a scope work list, issues related to safety and
quality, time keeping policies, emergency procedures and evacuation procedures, managing
cost variations due to scope change, technical fault management facilities, work scope
change request management, database management for enquiring previous experiences,
documentation or database records of equipment histories for quick references, scope
estimating formats, scope change approval procedures, scope change impact assessment
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procedures, time management in the turnaround process as the scope variations may lead to
extended duration for turnaround completion and finally a most effective communication
procedure between departments and personnel to speed up with the scope changes.
6.4. Identification of problem solution and Alternative course of action:
The requirements for an efficient turnaround management and the prescription of an
alternative course of action related to scope change management and control could be best
understood by considering a benchmark system. This benchmark system would act as the
basis for the recommendations to SABIC for effective scope change management in
turnaround processes. An excellent TA procedure accounting for scope changes needs to
have the following key features like
Planning: Based on work order, TA codes, scope change procedures and permits.
Schedule: Based on Critical Path activities, to prevent loop prevention.
Tracking: by updating every shift, earned value, lap books and productivity.
Control: Critical mass analysis, timely updates, objective updates, total visibility.
Planning scope changes: develop new scope ID, schedule the extra work, document or
report this extra work, record the increased man hours and its impact.
These processes need to be carried out in two phases, namely the planning phase and
the management phase. The activities under planning of an alternative solution has to
include, identifying work scope, identifying information resources, preparing turnaround
work order, estimating duration of activities, estimating repair work, planning for additional
scope of work, critical path schedule, shutdown schedule, daily scheduling, lap books for
recording events, documenting the turnaround. The management phase has to considers for
communication procedures, budget estimation, progress reporting, evaluating and setting
priorities, scheduling and balancing the man power, criteria for overtime and premium time
and time - cost tradeoff, measuring the performance, earned value or productivity analysis,
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accounting for extra work flow, scope change request formats, scope change approval
formats, scope change cost estimate procedures and change impact assessment procedures.
6.5. Recommended Scope change management solutions:
The scope change management has to follow a change procedure that may consist of
change activities like change request initiation, change request review, evaluation of change
request and change request approval. The request for change may arise due to additional
scope, modification of scope or deletion of scope.
6.5.1. Recommended SCM procedure for initiation of the scope change request:
The change in scope of turnaround may be initiated by any member of TA planning
team or steering committee, senior management personnel. The proposed change request
initiation has to have all change requests in a standard written format that specifies the need
for turnaround scope change, clear description of the scope change, name of the person
initiating the turnaround scope change, the materials related to the change. The change
request form is recommended to indicate the priority level of the change, which can be high
priority or low priority or medium priority. The TA manager has to give acceptance for the
initiation of the change request and then the central planning is recommended to estimate
the time, cost, resource requirement and other details. Finally these change request
specifications have to be authorized by a change request manager. Based on all these
concepts, the recommended change request format can be as shown in table 6.5.
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Table 6.5. Scope change request template.
6.5.2. Recommended SCM procedure for the scope change cost estimate:
In the TA scope change procedure, the major impact is expected to be from financial
aspects. Hence, the SABIC TA SCM is recommended to have a cost estimation and
assessment format as shown in Table 6.6.
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Table 6.6. Change cost estimation template .
6.5.3. Recommended SCM procedure for assessing the impact of the scope change
request:
The TA scope change requests have to be scrutinized for its impact on the overall time, cost,
duration of the TA process. It is recommended that impact assessment is also accompanied by the
analysis of alternatives. The assessment should also consider the risk of implementing or not
implementing the changes. Based on all these assessments the scope change may be recommended
for acceptance or rejection or deferred to a later time. All these have to be authorized by the scope
change management team leader. The recommended template for such a scope change impact
assessment is shown in Table. 6.7.
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Table 6.7. Impact assessment template.
6.5.4. Recommended SCM procedure for the scope change approval:
After the initiation of the scope changes, they need to be approved by the TA manger. There
has to be specific categories under which the changes can be classified. The authority to
approve the scope change may differ according to the type of change request. For example,
if it just a scope deletion, the approval of the TA leader is alone is sufficient. If the scope
change is more complex, then the approval from authorities like production manager, CMD
manager, finance manager, GM and the president may be required. Based on these criteria,
the recommended scope change approval form can be as shown in table.6.8.
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Table 6.8. Change Approval form.
6.5.5. Recommended SCM procedure for the scope change tracking:
Apart from the change initiation and change approval form, the SABIC turnaround has been
recommended to have a change tracking format to check the status of the change at any
stage in the SCM. One such recommended from has been shown in Table.6.9.
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Table 6.9. Scope change tracking form
6.6. Recommendations for SABIC TA SCM based on quantitative survey:
Based on the discussions of the results of the quantitative data, the following
recommendations could be formulated so that changes in turnaround scope of work could be
minimized in SABIC.
6.6.1. Recommendation for how to minimize the changes in turnaround scope of work:
1. Original scope has to be clear and defined properly.
2. Failure and defect in plant equipments between scope singe off and the execution
time has to be recorded immediately for immediate and necessary action.
3. Historical information and every turnaround experiences need to be documented for
future reference.
4. The strategy for accepting scope changes has to be appropriate so that number of
scope changes could be minimized.
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5. The TA scope objectives have to be addressed properly to reduce scope changes in
future.
6. A proper database system to store historical data would help in reducing the scope
changes.
6.6.2. Recommendation for how to minimize the impact of changes on safety, duration,
cost & quality:
The following recommendations could be formulated for SABIC so that the impact
of changes in turnaround scope of work on safety, cost, quality and duration could be
minimized.
1. The scope changes at later stage have to be attended immediately or deferred to next
TA if possible so that TA duration is not affected.
2. Sufficient time for TA scope development has to be given so that scope changes at
later stages could be avoided.
3. If a change could be done immediately, it has to be completed and not deferred so
that TA quality is not affected.
4. If the scope changes could be accomplished by alternative methods, it has to be
opted for so that additional costs could be reduced.
5. Pre defined formats for scope change requests and approval could reduce the
duration of processing.
6. A fine combination of these scope change principles and the existing change
management principles has to be adopted for reducing the impact of work scope
changes on the turnaround processes.
6.7. Chapter summary:
This chapter has dealt with the case study of SABIC TA process and many
recommendations have been made for scope change management and control.
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Chapter 7: Research Conclusion
Conclusion:
This research has discussed the depth and breadth of petrochemical plant
turnarounds and the related scope change of work in these processes. Every petrochemical
process is seen to be of unique nature as the technical approach and methodologies are
different. The issues related to shutdowns, turnarounds and outages in petrochemical plants
are crucial as they decide the plant performance and profit. Managing these petrochemical
processes and turnarounds demands is special care. The present day demands with regard to
turnaround and shutdowns in petrochemical plants are such that, the duration of turnaround
processes are chosen to be very less so that the production profit could be maximized,
thorough and detailed scope identification, realistic shutdown or turnaround plan, execution
of the activities in the critical path based on Risk Analysis Procedure, delay free start up,
innovative safety plans and reduction in scope variations based on risk inspection. Also the
situation becomes more complicated when there are work scope changes in these turnaround
processes. The scope change again demands special management techniques for overall
benefit in terms of cost, risks and time of the petrochemical plant turnaround processes.
This research work had chosen the SABIC Jubail plants for conducting the research
related to petrochemical plant turnarounds and the scope changes in this process. The
research had discussed the details of the SABIC as a petrochemical giant and also the
literature related to turnaround processes in the petrochemical plant. Apart from the
petrochemical plant turnarounds, the theory and principles of scope change management
have also been discussed in detail. The main part of the research was the data collection by
quantitative survey methodology and the case study. The questionnaire and the case study
were designed to collect information regarding the reasons for work scope changes in the
petrochemical turnarounds and the possible impact of these work scope changes on the
duration, cost, safety, quality and risks in these turnaround processes. The collected data
have been statistically analyzed for mean and frequency tables or tally tables using the
statistical package, Minitab.
103
From the results of the quantitative data analysis and the case study parameters, the
reasons and impact of work scope changes in SABIC plant turnaround processes have been
identified. Based on discussion of the results, a set of recommendations have been
formulated for SABIC. These recommendations include a fine combination of these scope
change principles and the existing change management principles has to be adopted for
reducing the impact of work scope changes on the turnaround processes, historical
information and every turnaround experiences need to be documented for future reference,
the TA scope objectives have to be addressed properly to reduce scope changes in future, a
proper database system to store historical data would help in reducing the scope changes,
the scope changes at later stage have to be attended immediately or deferred to next TA if
possible so that TA duration is not affected, if change could be done immediately then it
has to be completed and not deferred so that TA quality is not affected, if the scope changes
could be accomplished by alternative methods then it has to be opted for so that additional
costs could be reduced, pre defined formats for scope change requests and approval could
reduced the duration of processing and a few others. Also based on the benchmark chosen
for the case study, set of templates or formats for the implementation of the scope change
requests, change approvals, change impact assessment and change cost assessment have also
been recommended.
Thus the research design adopted by this research work has addressed the main research aim
and the research objectives. The research questions have been answered by the chosen
research methodology by the discussion of the research hypotheses.
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Appendix
Survey Questionnaire
Date and Time of Interview:
Name of Interviewee:
Location of Interview:
Position of Interviewee:
Company/Department/Section:
Years of Services:
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is ____________, and I am a student currently writing my Dissertation titled
“Variation between Original and Final Scope of work in SABIC Turnarounds, Causes,
impacts and practical solution”.
Therefore, I would very much appreciate if you would have the kindness to answer some
of my questions. It will not take a very long time.
Thank you very much for taking the time from your schedule to work on this questionnaire.
Part 1 - General information
Kindly choose the option that best describes you.
Q1. Your experience in TA business
1. Less than 2 years
2. Between 2 years and 5 years
3. Between 5 years and 10 years
4. More than 10 years
Q2. How many TAs did you involve / participate
1. Less than 2 TAs
2. Between 3 and 5 TAs
3. Between 6 and 10 TAs
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4. More than 10 TAs
Q 3. In which Phase of TA you usually involve
1. Initial phase
2. Planning phase
3. Execution phase
4. Post TA phase
Q 4. What is your role in TA?
1. Planner
2. Technician
3. QA/QC
4. Supervisor
5. Leader/Manager
109
Part 2 - Opinion about reasons for the TA Scope Change
Below are the reasons for the TA scope change (addition and/or deletion). Kindly
give your opinion (out a tick mark), about the influence of the reasons for the TA scope
change process.
Question
No.
Question No
influence
at all
Slight
influence
Moderate
influence
Strong
influence
Very
strong
influence
1 Original scope is unclear
2 Scope is not detailed enough to
avoid changes
3 Final scope is not agreed by end
user
4 Requirements and cost of
implementing proposed scope is
not clear for scope requester
5 Relation between plant type /
process and amount of change in
the scope of work
6 Effectiveness of the existing
change management process
7 Unavailability of historical
information about the equipments
in each plant
8 Unclear purpose of specific scope
9 Unknown Inspection findings
10 Frailer and defect in plant
equipments between scope singe
off and execution time
11 The defined scope doesn‟t
adequately address the objectives
of the TA or its expected benefits
12 Relationship between the age of
plant and amount of scope
change
110
Part 3 - Opinion about impact of TA Scope Change and some practical solutions
This part of the questionnaire intends to gather opinion about the negative impact of
TA scope change on all TA process. Kindly choose the opinion that best suits your opinion.
Q1. What is the impact of TA scope change on TA cost?
1. Less than 5%
2. 5% - 10%
3. 10% - 15%
4. 15 % – 20%
5. More than 20%
Q2. What is the impact of TA scope change on TA duration?
1. Less than 5%
2. 5% - 10%
3. 10% - 15%
4. 15 % – 20%
5. More than 20%
Q3. What is the impact of TA scope change on TA quality?
1. Less than 5%
2. 5% - 10%
3. 10% - 15%
4. 15 % – 20%
5. More than 20%
Q4. What is the impact of TA scope change on TA safety?
1. Less than 5%
2. 5% - 10%
3. 10% - 15%
4. 15 % – 20%
5. More than 20%
Q5. Does the scope change increase the overall cost benefit to the organization?
1. Does not increase the benefit.
2. Slightly increases the benefit.
3. Moderately increases the benefit.
4. Highly increases the benefit.
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Q6. Does the scope change increase the overall benefit to the organization in terms of risks?
1. Does not increase the benefit.
2. Slightly increases the benefit.
3. Moderately increases the benefit.
4. Highly increases the benefit.
Q7. Will Scope change cause a loss of control of the team’s planned work?
1. Does not cause loss of control.
2. Causes considerable loss of control.
3. Causes more loss of control.
Q8. What is the impact of the change address in a later stage of TA scope change process?
1. Low impact.
2. Moderate impact.
3. High impact.
4. Very high impact
What is your opinion about the ways of minimizing scope change? Kindly choose
the appropriate option.
Q9. A well defined scope would lead to minimized scope change.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
Q10. Providing sufficient time for scope development would lead to minimized scope
change.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
Q11. Maintaining a good history of all the equipments would lead to minimized scope
change.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
112
Q12. Developing an effective process for scope challenge would minimize the scope change.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree
Q13. Well defined criteria for scope change would minimize the scope change process.
1. Disagree.
2. Uncertain.
3. Agree.
4. Strongly agree.
Once again, thank you very much for your co-operation and patience.