How to Develop an Effective Shutdown Schedule

Creating an effective safety audit schedule is essential for managing high-risk tasks and improving safety processes during production shutdowns.

• By Olga Bodiagina
• Oct 22, 2024

An annual production shutdown or outage is a period for major equipment repairs, reconstruction and testing. One fire safety specialist discovered the beginning of a fire and extinguished it during his safety audits at least twice throughout his career. But those not skilled enough to find the right place for the safety audit certainly need a good safety audit schedule. An effective schedule of safety audits is the key to the successful completion of the shutdown and improvement of safety processes.

Developing a schedule of safety audits is a task that requires planning and coordination. If the shutdown is carried out nearby, then first of all identify the key work activities that are planned as part of the production shutdown. As a rule, such activities include high-risk work, such as work done up high, work in confined spaces, lockout/tagout (LOTO) procedure, and working with welding or electricity. The head of the safety department should request the engineering department to provide a list of work planned during the shutdown with remarks, whether or not it belongs to one or more categories of high-risk work. Also, the requested information should contain the start and end dates of each project.

Equally important is the establishment of a clear communication system between all participants in the process, which minimizes the risks of misunderstanding and loss of time. For example, in most companies, the start and end time of equipment repair work cannot be clearly estimated, especially if the work is carried out by third-party organizations. One contractor had to wait for 12 hours for work to start, because they didn’t have the proper work permit.

In this case, a schedule that strictly specifies the start and end dates for each audit will not be effective. The auditor will either not get to the right job on time or will be forced to deviate from the schedule. In this case, the environment, health and safety (EHS) coordinator must either make immediate changes to the schedule or use another common method. Or create schedules based on dividing the work area into zones.

Site owners or general contractors can move freely throughout the project area. Instead of auditing individual tasks, the auditors can check on all of the projects performed in the zone. 

The methods can be combined when drawing up a schedule for the zones. The coordinator will schedule an audit of a zone on those days when the most dangerous work is planned.

The situation is different for contractors who are not general contractors. In this case, the safety department must check the safety of its employees performing repairs and reconstruction on several sites scattered throughout the client's territory.

There is no doubt that the contractor's safety auditor walking through the client's territory and checking the work of other contractors is not allowed. First of all, this action may be perceived not as helping the client, but as an attempt to discredit their competitors. It should also be taken into account that free movement through hazardous production facilities is limited. In this case, the method of scheduling regarding supervisors can be applied. In that case, instead of checking each zone, the auditors check the work of the supervisors.

On one hand, there is a probability to include the minor work in the schedule, which otherwise would never have fallen into the sphere of safety concerns. On the other hand, jobs that are not perceived as dangerous by employees often become a source of injury due to employees underestimating the risks associated with them. During work at a repair and construction company, I once came across an audit of just such a job. At first glance, the calibration of pressure gauges would not be considered dangerous business. However, it turned out that they were carrying expensive glass appliances in boxes up steep stairs. This was also a health risk since the box in their hands blocked their view and did not allow them to hold on to the railing. This also raised the risk of breaking the expensive devices. Within a few days after this inspection, the management agreed with the arguments of the safety department and bought bags suitable for carrying pressure gauges for all related teams.

It is important to take into account not only the technical aspects but also the availability of necessary resources, both human and material. To do this, it helps to use software that tracks the progress of tasks and calculates the time for each check. The simplest way to track progress is a database in an Excel file, where all the auditors enter their data. Such a statistical function as COUNTIF in Excel takes into account how many times an inspection was carried out at each zone or the work of a particular supervisor.

Regular analysis and feedback after the shutdown provided by auditors as well as the audited will help identify the strengths and weaknesses of the created schedule. This will contribute to improving future activities.