In early 2019, a refining company approached one of our offices for resources to manage a sizable upcoming turnaround. A majority of the scope was to replace piping systems that presented reliability risks due to end of life corrosion and to upgrade relief valve systems by adding block valves and bypasses to allow work to be completed online in the future.
The client was not satisfied with their existing process for developing turnaround piping replacement packages. In previous turnarounds, they utilized an in-house design team, along with their in-house maintenance engineering team, to develop the packages. The in-house team identified the systems requiring replacement, pulled existing drawings, walked the systems to verify components and measurements, and issued “verified” design packages to the fabricator using 2D AutoCAD. The client then paid local contractors to field verify the fabrication drawings and finally supply fabricated spools. The client’s experience was that a significant number of fabricated spools failed to properly fit resulting in significant schedule and productivity impact and ultimately increased costs.
The team assessed the root cause of the poor piping performance and developed a new program.
Key components of the program included:
• An engineer lead focus to mitigate mechanical risk and improve reliability
• Design packages that considered the complexity of the design on the field installation and schedule
• Design packages that were organized in such a manner to maximize pre-turnaround work and minimize work
• within the turnaround window
• Design packages that employed laser scanning to field verify as-built conditions and 3D software to generate
• ISOs
• Weld closure provisions to eliminate field hydrotesting during winter conditions
• All NDE and hydrotesting was moved to the shop fabricator’s scope
While laser scanning and 3D ISOs addressed the adequacy of the design packages, it did not address any inadequacies of the fabrication process. The program went the extra step of performing laser scan verification of the shop fabrications. Essentially, every pipe spool was laser scanned at the fabrication shop, and dimensionally verified against the ISOs before release to the client site. To validate the effectiveness of the program, the team tracked fabrication and installation metrics in conjunction with the client cost personnel. While too extensive to share here, the new program resulted in significant savings to the client.
In the over 600 individual piping fabrication packages:
• More than 270 errors were caught and corrected in the pipe fabrication shop before release to the field
• All cold weather hydrotests were eliminated from the field
• The turnaround experienced ZERO delays related to design packages
• The client cost team valued the cost savings of the new program at 220% over the cost of the previous design and verification effort
This program provided tangible value-added services that improved quality and reduced costs for the client, a great example of Performance You Trust™.