Background
One of the world’s largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, located in Pasadena, Texas has been partnering with Swagelok Southeast Texas since 2012. They are a leading producer of chemicals including, but not limited to, ethylene, propylene, tertiary butyl alcohol, methanol, and acetic acid. Intermediates and derivatives from this company find use in numerous everyday applications including fuels, automotive fluids, furniture and household goods, coatings, adhesives, cleaners, and even cosmetics and personal care products.
As a partner, we understand when maintenance is required, time and cost are key factors involved. That’s why Scott Breaux, a Technical Advisor with Swagelok Southeast Texas, began conversations early with the company about how turnaround projects had typically been done in the past; the challenges involved and started working diligently on developing a plan to address their challenges.
Challenge
The one thing that can cost a customer money is not having the right material on-site says, Scott. He would consistently hear from the guys that were most affected, “when it comes time to do the work, we are always scrambling to source what we need, and it cost us a lot of time and money to go get the right components.” This in turn meant more work for procurement. Each requisition required procurement to process a purchase order and this means they spend hundreds of dollars each time it’s done.
The company knew turnarounds were a challenging time for them and they were looking for a solution. One that would ensure they had the quality parts they need, when they needed them, but would not increase their inventory or procurement cost.
Solution / Benefit
A solution was developed in partnership with the ground force, the turnaround superintendent and coordinator as well as management in the mechanical, rotating equipment, instrumentation and analytical departments and millwrights departments. Scott worked with each of them to analyze what materials were used previously during a shutdown, gained an understanding of the job packets and scope of work that was going to take place during the next one and then proposed bringing the needed materials on-site as a consignment. This enabled the company to significantly minimize the sourcing process and immediately realize the savings by not having to process multiple purchase orders.
Material shortages and multiple purchase orders issues have been completely mitigated compared to prior years, enabling the project to run more efficiently leading to an on-time start up and on budget turnaround.