Life Cycle Engineering Expands Education and Services for Planning and Managing Industrial Shutdowns

March 10, 2015 | By Business Wire News

CHARLESTON, S.C.

Life Cycle Engineering, Inc. (LCE) today announced that LCE’s Reliability Consulting Group has expanded its education and service offerings to help industrial customers manage shutdowns, turnarounds and outages more effectively. Managing shutdowns more effectively results in shorter downtime, shorter start-up time, less waste, and uncompromised quality, safety and compliance.

Shutdowns, turnarounds and outages (STOs) are scheduled events when part of or all of an industrial plant is taken off line to complete maintenance and repair work. They are complex events that require significant financial investment and can impact everyone from shareholders and board members to front-line maintenance workers. STOs that are not well planned and managed can create huge problems: safety risks, unplanned downtime, cost overruns (which can easily run into the millions), and reduced profitability resulting form not returning to full operating capacity on schedule.

LCE’s new Shutdown, Turnaround and Outage Competency Improvement Program is a three-week, best-practices program developed by Joel Levitt and the Life Cycle Institute. The Institute provides an STO subject matter expert for three weeks to help an organization implement new processes and behaviors. The program applies the Institute’s proprietary 3A Learning® process to create sustained behavior change by establishing clear alignment on expectations, delivering active classroom learning experiences, and providing hands-on coaching. The competency improvement program includes an assessment, process development, coaching on implementing best practices, and training for shutdown leaders and practitioners in how to plan for, schedule and manage STOs.

For organizations that schedule week or longer shutdowns that are highly complex, LCE’s Reliability Consulting Group offers a more intensive, three-phase approach that includes training and business case development, diagnosing problem areas and implementing a master plan to close gaps between current operations and best practices. In helping clients implement best practices, the shutdown consultants zero in on specific cost and performance drivers so that process improvements deliver repeatable results.

“LCE is committed to helping our customers achieve transformational change that results in sustained, best-in-class operating performance,” said Bill Wilder, director of the Life Cycle Institute. “Without implementing best practices in planning and managing shutdowns, plants and refineries cannot achieve Reliability Excellence®.”

For more information about the Shutdown, Turnaround and Outage Competency Improvement Program, please contact the Life Cycle Institute at 800-556-9589 or education@LCE.com.

Click here to view a video introduction to the STO competency improvement program.