Shutdowns Turnarounds Superconference

Optimizing your contractor payment processes is critical for operational efficiency and cost control. Join our subject matter expert as he shares his real- world experience. Learn how to:

• Digitize vendor payments
• Get real-time visibility into contractor spend on labor, equipment, and material spend
• Improve forecasting for better decision-making
• Empower supervisors to focus on safe execution of work vs. cost
• Prevent overruns and ensure contract alignment with PO controls

Space is limited at this complimentary, informal Operators-Only Breakfast Briefing. Attendance is open to industry owner/operators only.

Join us for an exciting keynote interview with professional chuckwagon driver, Layne Flad. We will explore his inspiring journey from apprentice to professional driver on the World Professional Chuckwagon racing circuit. This conversation will highlight the experiential learning, deep-rooted traditions, and personal mentorship that define the path to success in this high-stakes sport. We’ll also discuss Layne’s debut at the 2024 Calgary Stampede Cowboys Rangeland Derby as one of the two Chuckwagon 101 Drivers.

Gain insights into the parallels that shape the career of a professional chuckwagon racer and of turnaround management professionals.

• Discussion of trends in the construction and maintenance labour sector in Alberta and across Canada
• Highlighting areas of growth and regions where activity is expected to increase or recede

In today’s competitive market, turnaround managers face increasing pressure to optimize operations while minimizing costs. This session will delve into innovative, cost-driven strategies for executing successful turnarounds.

• Assess strategies of a cost-driven turnaround approach versus a schedule-driven approach
• Techniques to optimize budgets effectively
• Best practices for allocating resources to ensure maximum efficiency and minimal downtime
• Identify and mitigate risks to avoid costly overruns and delays
• Leverage the latest technologies to streamline processes and enhance productivity
• Real-world examples of successful cost-driven turnarounds, highlighting key lessons learned and best practices

This session will discuss lessons learned after the turnaround at Pembina’s Redwater Fractionation & Storage Facility.

• Gain insight into what worked, what didn’t and get key takeaways from this turnaround post-mortem

This session will discuss IAMTech’s STO software project delivery experience:
The ‘Must Haves’ required to ensure the successful implementation, management of change and usage of any STO software tool including:

• Glossary of terms, agreed vision, strong leadership, representation from all stakeholder groups as early as possible
• Affording stakeholders time away from their existing roles & responsibilities and empowering them to make choices
• Running an effective change management process, determine the differences and build tools and process to address these differences

Using a refinery case study, we will discuss steps to ensure you have an optimal plan for both planned and unplanned outages. We will cover:

• Pre-turnaround meeting
• collaboration with key individuals, items for review and why
• on-site contractors, internal/external contacts, qualifications, requirements
• Execution
• Safety story- cost vs safety example
• determine frequency and escalations
• discovery back up plans, revisions, revised end-date, and updated data collection
• Post outage/turnaround review
• logistics data collection, volume, risk aversion/safety management, on-time performance
• efficiencies identified, and those that did not work, lean and share for future outages
• cost, recommended changes

The session will delve into real-world scenarios, drawing on the Sturgeon Refinery’s first major Turnaround in 2022. Discover how IH practices were leveraged to drive safety, optimize decision-making, and enhance overall project efficiencies. We will discuss lessons learned and approaches for the scheduled spring 2025 turnaround.

• Discover how IH practices can seamlessly integrate with the planning processes, for crucial support to planners and supervision
• Examine tools that can be used to leverage technology for a safer and more efficient turnaround
• Address logistical issues such as confined space ventilation requirements, worker decontamination, PPE use, and gas detection plans
• Balancing risks and hazards without compromising safety

• Boost productivity from pre-turnaround planning to post-turnaround review through digitalization and automation
• Preventing contract leakage with real-time visibility, ensuring you’re not paying for more than you’re getting
• Improving contract compliance and enforcing T&C’s through system-enforced tools
• Centralizing real-time data, providing STO leaders with actionable insights for faster decision-making
• Prevent HSE risks using dashboards to view labor allocations and worker fatigue
• Strengthening vendor partnerships

Managing scope creep reduces the risk of delayed schedules and cost overruns. Using real-world examples this session will discuss common pitfalls and the essential steps to manage these:

• Establishing organizational engagement to ensure scope does not fall through the cracks
• Developing a comprehensive plan that outlines the goals of the turnaround and identifies all necessary tasks, including a detailed schedule, budget, and resource allocation
• Establishing firm deadlines for scope freeze, and a formal process to make changes
• Dealing with inevitable scope changes while still maintaining control
• Managing addendums to the work list and minimizing the ‘forgotten’ work
• Developing a planning strategy using risk-based scope reviews
• Identifying and mitigating risks that could impact scope
• Maintaining clear and consistent communication to minimize potential misunderstandings
• Ensuring detailed records and decisions and changes related to scope

This session will discuss strategies to align your work scope with available labour for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

• Assessing priorities and optimizing your turnaround complexity and risk
• Using data analytics to identify low ROI tasks to focus on high impact activities
• Engaging cross-functional teams to identify risks, minimize discovery work and ensure task alignment
• Evaluating turnaround intervals and adjusting accordingly
• Determining if some tasks can be performed while the plant is still operational, rather than during the turnaround

Take advantage of this attendee-favourite opportunity to relax, unwind and join your colleagues with a drink and casino games. Continue to build on the invaluable connections made during the day and take your shot at some great prizes that will be up for grabs!

A labour crunch is expected in 2025 for Alberta’s oil sands projects as Dow’s new hydrogen facility gets underway. Additionally as more than 25% of Canada’s skilled labour workforce retires, many younger workers de-select trades in favour of high tech jobs.

This panel will discuss where industry will find people to fill all the necessary roles in the coming years, and strategies to attract new people to skilled trades.

Setting clear expectations and reaching agreements on scope, costs, hours, safety, quality, and control of subcontractors

• Enlisting contractor buy-in to engage all parties and render accountabilities
• Maintaining consistency of contractors throughout the project
• Reaching agreed contract terms and render accountabilities

Turnaround planning and execution is focused almost solely inside the fenceline, yet the impact is most certainly felt well beyond the facility site. Managing public engagement effectively requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. Building awareness and understanding among community stakeholders leading up to, during, and following the execution window can greatly influence the reputation of your company. This session will discuss:

• Approaches to ensure the community is adequately informed of changes to expect in traffic patterns, operational sights/sounds, employment opportunities, and any potential business disruptions
• Successful examples of communicating with transparency and seeking input from the community through public meetings, social media and other means

In today’s fast-paced and diverse world, maintaining team connections can be challenging. I’ll explore how to strengthen these connections and the direct benefits of doing so. Building better relationships boosts group participation and reduces training costs. In this informative and interactive session, we will discuss:

• First impressions
• How to Steer into the fear
• Leadership styles
• Evaluating an interview
• Group Exercise

Fatigue poses a significant safety risk in high-stakes work environments like turnarounds. It impairs decision-making, reaction times, and physical coordination, leading to a higher risk of accidents and injuries. Recognizing this, Nova Chemicals undertook a journey to enhance their fatigue risk management (FRM) program.

In this compelling case study, we will discuss how we used an AI-based fatigue management assessment technology.

• Best practices to ensure lessons are captured post-turnaround
• Capturing lessons learned and employee grievances in the moment for immediate improvements
• What are the key lessons learned from the summary report?
• Defining the opportunities to improve the shutdown for next time
• Incorporating documentation to ensure the quality of the start-up procedure