Challenge

The objective was to drive significant improvements in maintenance efficiency by optimizing preventive maintenance (PM) strategies, transitioning to a condition-based maintenance approach, and strengthening core work processes. The goal was to create a more proactive, sustainable maintenance program that minimizes unplanned downtime and supports long-term asset reliability.

Solution

Members of the Valdes Architecture & Engineering staff worked with the planning and scheduling team to prioritize planning tasks, clear backlogs, and establish a routine to conduct this clean-up every six months. The goal was to reduce and maintain backlogs to a range of six to eight weeks as per industry standard practice. This project also included training planners to validate job packs in the field and generate a rolling ten-year look-ahead to ensure that there were no overdue inspections or preventive maintenance orders while minimizing the frequency of equipment shutdowns outside of turnaround (TAR) and outages. The team also helped strengthen the validation of corrective work; identify where to eliminate, add, or extend the frequency of PMs, and move the site to a condition-based maintenance approach; address inefficiencies in the permit process, access to the job, materials delivery and staging; and identify and deliver training for the core crew to replace vendor mobilization. Additionally, the site was guided through a reorganization to include all execution resources under one roof, which improved the utilization of resources by minimizing stand-by time.

Impact

Within three years the site became more efficient and predictable. The number of PM hours reduced by 31% per year; the number of days from work generation to completion reduced from 223 to 47; the number of overdue work orders reduced from 805 to 92; and the contractor headcount reduced by over 50%.

Services

Maintenance, Reliability & Asset Integrity