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Turnaround Emergent Work Management

Turnaround emergent work management that sorts each finding from the field, prices it against float and contingency, and puts it in front of the one person who must decide.

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Follow one finding from 2:40 a.m. to 2:49 a.m. ↓
The problem

Turnaround emergent work gets called on the radio and sorted weeks later

Once equipment is open, it keeps showing what the plan did not expect. A technician on the pad finds more than the pack allowed and stops until someone makes the call. The facts sit in four places: the job pack, past findings, the schedule and the warehouse.

So the call happens on the radio at night, the money gets booked later, and nobody records whether the work was discovery, growth or new scope. Afterward the next estimate cannot tell what the allowance should have been, and an auditor cannot tell who agreed to what, or what they looked at first.

Built forEmergent work coordinatorsNight and day superintendentsTurnaround managersCost controllersTurnaround schedulersInternal auditors

The Problem Today

Field findings pile up through the night, and each needs a decision before the crew can move.

Pulled together by hand today

  • Job pack
  • Findings
  • Schedule
  • Warehouse
  • Calls made on the radioThe decision outruns the record of who made it
  • Buckets sorted afterwardDiscovery and growth blur once memory fades

The Solution

  1. From the pad to a requestPhoto and voice note matched to the tag and its job pack
  2. Sorted into a bucketDiscovery, growth or new scope, with reasons and sources
  3. Float and money checkedHours against the path, dollars against the right line
  4. One person decidesThe limit names who signs, and the clock starts

Built-in controls

  • The decider opens the sources before signing
  • Agents never approve, reject or defer
  • Limits by shift and role, set by two people

What You Get

Each finding gets a bucket, a price and a named decision inside the shift, and the next estimate learns from it.

  • Decided while the job is openThe crew waits minutes, with the record kept
  • Money drawn from the right lineDiscovery, growth and new scope kept apart
  • Allowances that learnProposed changes for the next estimate, by equipment
Night shift, day 19 of 38

Turnaround emergent work at 2:40 a.m.: one exchanger, nine minutes

Nineteen days into a 38-day turnaround, 287 requests have reached the desk. At 2:40 a.m. the eddy current test on the hydrocracker’s reactor effluent exchanger comes back worse than the pack allowed, and the crew on the bundle pad stops.

demoThe plant, its night crew and every number shown here are sample data.

  1. 012:41 a.m.

    31 more tubes below the limit, and the pack allowed 16

    Emergent work coordinator

    The voice note and photo are already a written request on the shift desk. The agents matched the tag, opened its job pack and past findings, and sorted it as discovery: 15 tubes past the allowance. Beside it sit the hours to the critical path, the contingency left, and the one person who must decide, with his clock running.

  2. 022:41 a.m.

    Pitting at the outlet ends again, and 31 more tubes below 0.060 in

    Emergent work coordinator

    Before confirming the sort, the coordinator opens the eddy current tube map behind the finding: 31 more tubes below 0.060 in, the thinnest at 0.059 in, against 27 already plugged through the last turnaround. Opening is recorded, because each checker downstream has to see what they confirm. The same pitting at the outlet ends was reported two turnarounds back.

  3. 032:41 a.m.

    The pack allows 16 plugs; one tube more and it becomes a request

    Emergent work coordinator

    The job pack page settles the bucket. The plan counted this job right, so this is no growth; only the test could show which tubes failed. Fifteen tubes past the allowance are discovery, and the money comes from that line. The coordinator confirms the sort, and the request moves to the inspector, the engineer, the cost controller and the scheduler.

  4. 042:45 a.m.

    14 hours of work against 22 hours of float leaves 8

    Turnaround scheduler

    Each checker opened their source before confirming: the inspector the tube map, the engineer the plugging limit, the cost controller the job pack and the tensioner kit order. Now the scheduler has the schedule update open. Fourteen hours on this path leaves eight hours of float, off the critical path. Galled channel cover studs cost 11 hours two turnarounds back, so the studs go on watch.

  5. 052:47 a.m.

    Approve stays grey until the tube map, the pack and the float are open

    Night superintendent

    The superintendent signs up to $100,000 a request, and this one asks $61,000. Three chips must turn on before the button works: the tube map, the job pack page and the schedule update. He opens each one, then picks the reason, integrity, must be fixed before restart. Agents never approve, and the button reads the amount he is about to move.

  6. 062:49 a.m.

    Approved at 2:49 a.m., nine minutes after the report

    Night superintendent

    Approving raises the work order and books the crew. On the dials, float drops to 8 hours and contingency left falls from $7.50M to $7.44M. Because the retube cannot happen in this window, it goes on the deferral ledger. The scheduler gets the 14 hours to add to the schedule, and the desk moves on to the next request.

  7. 072:50 a.m.

    The hydrocracker’s path drops from 22 hours of float to 8

    Turnaround scheduler

    The critical path view ranks each unit’s tightest path by float. On this exchanger’s path, the plugging step now carries the added hours, and the watch on the channel cover studs sits under it: with 8 hours left, a repeat of the galled studs at stud make-up would reach the critical path. The fix goes to crew and materials.

  8. 082:50 a.m.

    The retube goes on the ledger with a condition and an owner

    Night superintendent

    The ledger holds each line deferred during this event. The exchanger’s line reads: retube or replace the bundle at the next turnaround, because alloy tubes are long-lead and 58 of 1,180 tubes plugged sits inside the limit. Its condition is a tube-side test at every outage. The turnaround manager’s countersignature waits for the morning review.

  9. 09Morning

    Each event plugged more tubes, so the agents propose a retube next time

    Cost controller

    Every request was sorted when it came in, so money used by equipment class, split by bucket, is ready for the next estimate. The agents propose allowance changes: for this exchanger, a retube in the scope instead of more plugs, and a spare stud and nut set. The cost controller accepts or declines, and the turnaround manager countersigns.

Where the $61,000 for 15 extra tubes comes from

The cost and crew estimator’s lines for this request, as the cost controller confirmed them.

Craft84 hours at $118$9,912
Crane and extractor standby at the bundle pad14 hours at $1,650$23,100
Alloy plugs30 plugs at $616, both ends of 15 tubes$18,480
Dye penetrant and material check$9,508
Asked from discovery contingency$61,000

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Around the desk

Requests, crew, contingency and the trail of who opened what

Five more screens the night desk, the cost controller and auditors use.

RequestsAll 287 requests by bucket and state, each with its money and hours, searchable and exportable.
Crew and materialsCrafts on shift against what open requests ask, and each request’s crew and parts, with late deliveries named.
ContingencyMoney used by day against the lines it draws from, and the largest decisions with who agreed to each.
Job pack and past findingsThe pack page with its allowance marked, beside findings from past turnarounds and what the agents took from them.
Audit trailEach source opened, each confirmation and the approval, by person or agent, minute by minute.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Five confirm, one decides, and the limit says who

The decision router applies the limits by shift and role. Nobody decides a request they raised.

Emergent work coordinator
Sees
The request, its sources and the agents’ sort
Signs
Confirms the bucket or picks another, with a reason
Unit inspector
Sees
The reading and the tube map
Signs
Confirms what was truly found
Turnaround engineer
Sees
The plugging limit and the tube count
Signs
Confirms the limit, or calls for a rerate
Cost controller
Sees
The estimate lines, the pack and orders
Signs
Confirms estimates from $25,000 up
Turnaround scheduler
Sees
The schedule update and the path
Signs
Confirms hours on tight paths
Night superintendent
Sees
Tube map, pack page and float, opened before signing
Signs
Decides up to $100,000 a request

demoSample data, from the working solution.

The agents

Seven agents listen, sort and price, and none approves a dollar

What each does at night, and where it stops.

Field listener

Turns a photo and voice note into a written request and reads the tag.

  • Never guesses a tag from a blurry photo
Pack reader

Finds the job pack, its allowance and past findings, and cites each passage.

  • Never quotes a pack it has not matched by tag and turnaround
Bucket sorter

Sorts into discovery, growth or new scope, with reasons and how sure it is.

  • Never closes a request
  • Never overrides a person’s choice
Float checker

Checks added hours against the live schedule and warns when the data is old.

  • Never changes the schedule
Cost and crew estimator

Prices hours, crew, equipment and materials, and checks the warehouse and crew plan.

  • Never books money
  • Never holds stock
Decision router

Applies the limits, names who must decide, starts the clock and escalates.

  • Never approves, rejects or defers
Estimate feeder

Compares allowance with actual and proposes new allowances.

  • Never changes an estimate or a pack

What turnaround managers ask about emergent work

What is turnaround emergent work management?

Turnaround emergent work management handles the findings that appear once equipment is opened during execution. Here agents turn each field report into a request, sort it as discovery, growth or new scope, check it against float and contingency, and route it to the one person who must decide, inside the shift.

How do you tell discovery work from scope growth?

Discovery is something only opening the equipment could show, past what the pack allowed. Growth is more of the planned work the plan should have held. The bucket sorter gives its reasons and sources, and the coordinator confirms or changes it with a reason.

Who approves emergent work, and up to what amount?

Limits are set by shift and role. In the sample, a night superintendent decides up to a set amount, the turnaround manager above it and on anything reaching the critical path, and the sponsor signs second on the largest. Changing a limit takes two people.

How does this fit our turnaround change control?

Each request carries its bucket, price, hours, sources and every signature, and the decision is on the audit trail with what the decider opened first. New scope goes to the turnaround manager. A finding that cannot be done in this window goes on the deferral ledger with a condition.

Does it help with turnaround contingency management?

Yes. Each approval draws from the line that matches its bucket, so the contingency screen shows what is used and left on each line and which open requests would pass a line.

Do the agents approve anything?

No. They listen, match, sort, price and route. People confirm, send back, approve, reject or defer.

What does the next estimate get?

Money used by equipment class and bucket, and proposed allowance changes, such as a retube in place of more plugs. The cost controller accepts each, and the turnaround manager countersigns before it reaches the estimate.

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Bring last turnaround’s
night-shift findings.

We’ll sort them with you and show where each dollar of contingency should have come from.

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