Although shutdown maintenance can be a complex project, the idea behind it is simple. There are some maintenance inspections and tasks you can only do when your facility is shut down. Itโs like when youโre changing the engine oil or fixing a flat, where the first step is stopping the car. And even though youโre losing time on the road, youโre gaining a lot in efficiency, completeness, and safety.ย ย
What is shutdown maintenance?ย ย
Shutdown maintenance is the collection of inspections and tasks the maintenance team carries out when an entire facility is shut down specifically to facilitate this work.ย ย
Depending on the industry and location, other common names are โmaintenance turnaroundโ and โmaintenance stoppage.โ But the main idea is always the same: A facility is shut down specifically for the maintenance team to perform inspections and tasks they canโt do when the facility is up and running.ย ย
How can you plan shutdown maintenance?ย ย
To get the most maintenance out of the shortest possible turnaround, you need to invest in a lot of planning and preparation. Although thereโs no perfect formula for maintenance turnarounds, you can follow these five steps to get and stay organized.ย ย
Set scopeย
Here, youโre trying to answer a lot of โwhatโ questions, including which assets and equipment you need to cover. You also need to think about what you hope to do with each. For example, for some you might be testing and inspecting, while for others, repairing and replacing. Make sure to prioritize work that you can only do during a shutdown. If itโs something the team can close out during normal operations, it makes sense to leave it off the list.ย ย ย
Itโs critical that you match all these decisions to a defined set of organizational goals, including key performance indicators for:ย ย
- Safetyย ย
- Costย
- Reliabilityย ย
- Availabilityย ย
It often helps you start with your goals and work backwards from there, increasing the scope only as much as you need to meet them.ย
Plan workย
Now youโre looking at the โhowโ of the turnaround, which means youโre developing inspections and tasks, and making sure youโre set to have the parts and materials you need to close out the work properly. If youโre planning a lot of inspections, you need to confirm you have the right tools to do them.ย ย
When looking for inspections and tasks to include, make sure to reach out to the manufacturers of all your major assets and equipment to check for recalls and updates.ย
Schedule everythingย
Itโs important to also consider the order youโre scheduling the team to complete the work. You need to estimate how much time they need for each, and schedule accordingly. Make sure to add in time to review all the work, too.ย
One thing you can absolutely count on is the unexpected, so you need to add some time and resource padding into your scheduling.ย ย
Shut downย
Once you have it all scoped, planned, and scheduled, itโs time to do the actual work.ย ย
Make sure to keep track of all the times the team makes changes to your original plans. If something took longer than you had expected, or needed different parts and materials, make a note. You can leverage everything you learn from this shutdown to future projects.ย
Look backย
Turning mistakes into lessons requires a formal process. At the final stage, youโre looking back, but youโre doing it as a way of looking forward. Once youโve reviewed all the work the team did and gone over what went well and what didnโt, youโre in a better position to plan your next turnaround.ย
Start by asking yourself:ย
- Was the objective and scope of the shutdown clearly defined?ย ย
- Were there deviations in your schedule or budget? If so, why?ย ย
- Did you optimize your shutdown time? Were there other maintenance tasks you could have accomplished?ย
- Did the shutdown team communicate well with its members and others involved in the process?ย
- Were there any issues that occurred while bringing your equipment back online?ย
Honest answers truly help you be better prepared for future shutdowns.ย
How can you bring assets and equipment back online after a shutdown?ย
Just as important as the shutdown and maintenance work is getting everything back online. It can be stressful because of potential costs and safety concerns.ย
Check for hidden health and safety hazardsย
When a shutdown lasts for more than a few weeks, you need to consider additional safety measures before reopening. There could be microbial hazards, such as mold or unsafe water due to pipe corrosion or chemical by-products.ย
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, has issued guidelines for avoiding these hidden hazards, including:ย
- Maintaining low indoor humidity, not exceeding 50%, to prevent moldย
- Operating your HVAC system for at least 48 to 72 hours as a flush-out period before returning to serviceย
- Continuing to check your HVAC system, including air filters, after reopening to ensure itโs operating efficientlyย
Itโs important to consider other environmental conditions, including ambient temperatures, before restarting equipment.ย
Follow return-to-service inspection checklistsย
When bringing your equipment online again, you need to be clear on the sequence of steps to follow. Some systems may have tight dependencies and prerequisites. For instance, raw material production must start first before upstream production. And some systems require fixed environmental parameters. For instance, you need to verify the electrical and plumbing configurations meet all specifications.ย
Failing to follow the prescribed sequence for bringing equipment back online can lead to a series of failures that can be hard to recover from quickly, delaying your return to service. This is why having an inspection checklist is crucial.ย
Sometimes re-opening and servicing your equipment can inadvertently lead to misalignments or other issues. Your inspection list should be as detailed as possible, helping the team review every individual asset to ensure overall readiness. To create a practical and relevant inspection list, look for ways to combine the equipment manufacturerโs manual with your techniciansโ hands-on experience.ย
Ideally, your inspection checklist should be in a digital format technicians can access from anywhere. They should use it to check factors that could indicate a potential failure, such as noise, leaks, and unexpected changes in temperature.ย
How does asset management software help you with shutdown maintenance?ย
Modern asset and facility management solutions can help you at every step. The reason is because it has all your data in one safe spot, where itโs also secure and accessible.ย
When youโre first deciding which assets and equipment to include, you can look at the master asset list inside the software. From there, you can review all the associated work orders, giving you a sense of where you should focus your efforts. But reviewing historical work orders doesnโt mean clicking through them one at a time; instead, you can use the software to autogenerate reports for key insights into your operations.ย ย
From there, you can use the platform to set up and schedule all your inspections and tasks, the same way you would use it day-to-day for both preventive maintenance scheduling and on-demand work order generation.ย
By Jonathan Davis
As a content creator at Eptura, Jonathan Davis covers asset management, maintenance software, and SaaS solutions, delivering thought leadership with actionable insights across industries such as fleet, manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality. Jonathanโs writing focuses on topics to help enterprises optimize their operations, including building lifecycle management, digital twins, BIM for facility management, and preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. With a master's degree in journalism and a diverse background that includes writing textbooks, editing video game dialogue, and teaching English as a foreign language, Jonathan brings a versatile perspective to his content creation.
