A planned outage for a single piece of High-Value Critical Equipment may be scheduled years in advance and take 12-24 months’ preparation time for an overhaul. It’s a costly process requiring advance planning and technical expertise of planners, unit managers, equipment specialists, and others.

In this instance, a Co-Gen Unit Frame 6 Gas Turbine overhaul turnaround had been scheduled 3 years prior. The Turnaround Event Manager in charge had been involved in a similar overhaul 3 years earlier and was determined to improve the process this time.

The goal was to have a professional, well-organized turnaround in a tight and congested area, as well as a labor expectation to work safely and efficiently. Everything ready for skilled technicians and maintenance team leaders to bring the unit down and back up quickly, safely, and cost-effectively.

Speaking from experience, the client said “While there’s tons of flexibility in the planning stage there’s much less during execution.”

Planning began 12 months before and the team had been working on the schedule and logistics to ensure all materials, especially long-lead items, were on hand. High-Value Critical Equipment, like a turbine, compressor, or charge pumps may consist of hundreds, and often thousands, of individual components. Parts are ordered via the Asset Manager from an OEM and many specialty equipment vendors. Warehouse and procurement personnel, who may not be experts on the equipment, often know parts by numbers, not how they are used. Each component is inventoried and kept with “like” items stored on shelves, bins, and containers spread over acres of warehouses: gaskets stored with gaskets, lubricants with lubricants, special tools, seals, bushings, etc.
The repairs can’t be implemented until everything needed to do the job is on hand: damage of a long-lead item in storage, unavailability, or loss of a single piece can significantly impact the turnaround.

The Compressor Maintenance Team had been using specialized and reusable Hunter Hawk Parts-in-Place SMART Boxes for a number of years. The Turnaround Team had seen them in use and requested a customized Parts-in-Place SMART Box for the Gas Turbine. Not only would it safeguard all components for the unit, whether used for planned or unplanned outages, everything would be on hand and ready to get up and go. The SMART Box system and its’ parts logistics map would expedite the T/A process and ensure high value QA/QC technicians were used to their best advantage, rather than running down parts or expediting materials at the last minute

The Parts-in-Place SMART Box system increased efficiency and reduced downtime, team time, and costs by making 100% of all parts available and in good repair. No delays or surprises this time, just pure execution.

The overhaul increased overall T/A efficiency by 5-10% with the first usage. Reusable and refillable, the Parts-in-Place SMART Box helps elevate outage turnarounds to a higher standard.