A conversation with Suncor's Jane Keast (director, maintenance at the Sarnia refinery) and Dean Wagner (turnaround execution superintendent at the Commerce City refinery)

Refinery maintenance turnarounds are big-ticket items. Suncor's Refining & Marketing is one example of our company aiming for "world-class" turnaround performance. Jane Keast (director, maintenance at the Sarnia refinery) and Dean Wagner (turnaround execution superintendent at the Commerce City refinery) provide more detail about our turnaround approach.

Jane: It means executing the least amount of work in the shortest amount of time, safely, on time and on budget. That means scrutinizing the work scope and executing only the work that requires a turnaround. At the heart of a world-class turnaround is superior planning and tight schedule and budget control.

Turnaround cycle times and minimizing scope are key to world-class success. When setting the 10-year turnaround plan, we consider what area(s) to shut down, the size and complexity of the work scope, catalyst life, equipment compliance and mechanical integrity.

Dean: 'World-class' is when the results exceed established industry benchmarks and those of pacesetter companies. The turnarounds must meet the company's business goals and operating values related to safety, environment, mechanical integrity, reliability and so on.

Some of the success factors are using a planning team; identifying work scope early; meeting timetables and milestones; and developing a contracting strategy that ensures a site commitment to our objectives. In the end, we meet the objectives and our target cost and successfully commission the unit, which then achieves the planned run length and operating conditions.

Dean: Commerce City has a shutdown or turnaround scheduled every year through 2018. Having a 10-year plan helps us budget, staff, build capital projects into turnarounds, arrange long-lead item deliveries and schedule oil movement.

Jane: It's unusual to have a year without a turnaround, and some years there are two. Sarnia has an average of one turnaround every year, typically lasting 20 to 35 maintenance days. At just about any time, we are scoping, planning, executing or closing out a turnaround. The lessons we learn help us drive improvements into all these phases.

Jane: The biggest one was to plan early and freeze the scope months in advance. When the work is planned and tightly integrated, adding or even taking out work has a domino effect on the entire job. Freezing the scope also allows us to get contractors involved early in detailed planning. We can look at the schedule and figure out if there's a better way to distribute the work force or do the work. It allows Supply Chain to buy the material in a planned manner. It allows us to define expectations and ensure consistency from one turnaround to the next.

Dean: Besides planning early and freezing the scope, we found it useful to have detailed preliminary budget meetings and scheduled maintenance activities. It's also important to include Maintenance and Operations in the planning process, and to identify IT issues.

Jane: Yes, in both Sarnia and Commerce City, we compare our refineries to others of similar size and complexity. Benchmarking against others sets the bar and helps us understand and realize what is achievable. We can always learn and improve from others that are seen as 'best in class' for executing turnarounds. We're on the cusp of being able to run world-class turnarounds!