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Customer: BP Acetyls Saltend UK
Solution: iPlan (Engineering Manager)

BP converted to using iPlan to help plan for and manage their shutdown events at Saltend in 2006 (subsequently, the system was then reused in 2007 by the site again to support the management of its shutdown programme).

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Background

The Saltend site is located in Humberside, Northern England and is recognized as one of the leading Chemical sites in Europe with class leading maintenance practices in many areas. The site is the biggest Acetic acid manufacturing facility in the world.

The Problem

The 2006 shutdown programme represented arguably the biggest and most complex maintenance event in the site’s history. Although they had invested significant time and resources in developing their own methodology and associated systems they were frustrated by standard of central shutdown management systems on the market.

• These were commonly incompatible with other site systems
• They had to be operated by specialists planners provided by the system supplier
• They were based around a system developed in the 1980’s and an operating platform that had not been developed much since the original prototype.  As a consequence the systems were difficult to modify and inflexible
• All of the data contained in them was effectively locked in and only accessible through the supplier’s specialists.

This represented a major risk to the 2006 events so BP.  Alex Curry comments

"managing shutdowns is all about managing information.  If you can’t access all of your data or you can’t manipulate it effectively then you are likely to fail. 
As a consequence BP decided to move to the new event management tool iPlan"

Their challenge to the iPlan team was to establish a management system which would not only raise the standard of planning but also be controlled by BP and their site managing contractor Interserve.  It had to be easy to access so that all departments could use it and able to interface effectively with other site systems such as Primavera and the new QA control system (the Tracker).

The Solution

iPlan was established on site in December 2005 and BP as an effective operator set the challenge to develop iPlan into the ultimate shutdown management system.  To do this we established a development steering team with representatives from BP, CPD, Interserve and their preferred maintenance consultant Carcharodon Ltd.  This brought together the right range of experience we thought necessary to meet the challenge:

• Operating experience from the asset owner BP
• Software engineering from CPD who were familiar with the physical environment in which iPlan would be used
• Engineering planning and hands on delivery experience from Interserve
• Knowledge of global best practice and efficient work processes from Carcharodon.

Our project manager and programmer met weekly with this team to identify key improvements to the tool and how it could be used on site.

The Result

iPlan has met all of BP’s challenges.

• It is fully compatible with all key site systems.  We have also enabled additional functions which had previously not even been thought of such as automatic real time plan updating during the event.
• It is fully operated by BP and Interserve teams putting them fully in control of their event. Shortcuts and iPlan’s intuitive design mean plans can be detailed faster with less need for technical knowledge reducing dependency on scarce planning resources and allowing the lead planners to use their time more effectively. 
• iPlan was built by professional programmers on a modern platform with flexibility and future development in mind.  We were able to accommodate all of the requests from the steering team and intend to continue to develop the tool into the future. 
• Data on iPlan belongs to the customer.  BP and Interserve have the control over access rights so everyone who needs access to view or modify data gets it.  Since iPlan is accessed over the internet staff can do this whether they are at their own desk or not.

Not only did this mean a major leap forward in the quality of planning but also reduced resource levels and costs within the team by an estimated 25%. 

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