Ebook: Delivering Safety Orientations for Shutdowns, Turnarounds and Outages (STOs)

Why a safety orientation is always vital for shutdown, turnarounds and outages (STOs) with a large increase in skilled workers who are still guests in an unknown location.

When the shutdown of a plant occurs for maintenance to be performed, often for quite a long period of time, sometimes weeks, a limited time frame should still be decided on. This is especially important with strangers entering the plant, although they may be skilled to carry out the work required.

A team who are familiar with the site and have been working there for a certain period, should still be prepared to perform a reliable safety orientation on shutdowns, turnarounds and outages. They are likely be aware of any past issues, common problems or past accidents at the plant. Perhaps, some unusual safety rules have been formed as a result. Specialists may also be important, to provide information, perhaps supervision on specific technical tasks.

This eBook goes into the four main phases of STO in more detail, which are:

1. Initiation: Information acquired on the process involved, objectives and methods of collecting and organizing data.
2. Preparation:  Setting technical and non-technical data into plans, deciding on the contractor work involved and forming a schedule.
3. Execution: Shutdown and opening up of the plant for this work to take place, planning a final inspection when this is finished.
4. Termination: Reviewing the work that has been done and recommending any changes that need to be made.

Challenges are also looked at, such as the vast number of activities which could be taking place after shutdown occurs, sometimes over a very short time, but advice on keeping this process safe is also included. One of the most important ways of doing this is the successful planning of these four phases, hopefully making the shutdown process as fast as possible to finish, while remaining safe.

Some of the overall benefits of a successful safety orientation are the minimization of injury and accidents occurring, along with a fall in costs and the amount of time lost.