Preparing for a Successful Plant Shutdown

Posted June 29, 2018 & filed under Industry Insight, Productivity, Work

Gearing up for a plant-wide hiatus can be an exciting and nerve-wrecking time. While some folks take advantage of a likely upcoming holiday and choose to use up that PTO burning a hole in their pocket, other employees (usually maintenance professionals) are checking their task list – twice!) As a well-known employment consultant to primarily manufacturing plants, Omni One strives to provide solutions, in addition to top talent. During this time of plant shutdown, it is important to be well-prepared by running through the quick list below with your team.

What to Do to Prepare for Plant Shutdown:

• Make a Plan: Utilize tools available to you to outline a thorough plan of what needs to be accomplished during or before the plant shutdown, such as a scheduling software or even a spreadsheet.

• Organize Your Team: During a plant shutdown, roles often change. Maintenance professionals are often shifted to new areas of the plant or someone could be placed in charge of temporary contractor management. In the event that new folks will need hired on temporarily, Omni One can help!

• Prepare Your Equipment: Shutdown is a time for maintenance and preventative maintenance – this means testing, troubleshooting, and repair! Be sure that you have the right tools available to get the job done, before and during shutdown.

• Meet Regularly: Before shutdown begins, meet with your team to make sure that every employee is aware of what they will be doing over the next week or so. Meetings are recommended to touch base every single day, even more than once, to ensure that each task is completed.

• Document Everything: “The best inspection in the world will do you no good if you can’t prove it." (Hy-Lok). Make sure to dot the i’s and cross the t’s on all formal documents and be open to process improvement measures. You will thank your team come time for the next shutdown!

• Expect a Surprise: With any plan, something is bound to go wrong. A task might take longer than anticipated to complete, or additional work could present itself. These are things that can be avoided, but not entirely. Overcompensate for available staff and get all hands-on deck while there is still time.

Contact Omni One to find out how we can help you prepare for your own shutdown.

614.760.5799 | dublin@omnione.com

Sources:

https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/30641/manage-plant-shutdown

http://www.davis.com/blog/2016/11/18/plant-maintenance-shutdown-tips/

http://www.hylokusa.com/assets/docs/Key_Benefits_of_Planned_Shutdowns_and_How_to_Prepare_for_Them.pdf