According to the American Petroleum Institute, delaying a turnaround could increase costs by 20-50%. The risk of unplanned downtime increases with delays, especially in refineries where the size and complexity of facilities add to the challenge. Proper planning and scheduling of maintenance activities are critical for safer and seamless operations. A mobile asset management solution that empowers maintenance planners and schedulers can increase efficiency, productivity, and safety.
Where a Mobile Asset Management Solution for Planning and Scheduling Can Help
A refinery turnaround, whether for a single processing unit like a fluid catalytic cracker or the entire site, is complex. Proper planning can take years to execute. A refinery turnaround utilizes thousands of personnel in many disciplines plus millions of dollars of parts and materials. It’s a tough task ensuring a turnaround’s myriad of moving components smoothly come together exactly when needed to ensure success and a positive return on investment.
Many turnaround planners still use binders, paper checklists, maps, and pens to complete their tasks. Paper-based processes are rigid and static. They rob planners of needed flexibility and agility. They also deny digital transformation’s numerous utilities, benefits, and advantages, such as greater visibility and speed. Planners are stuck with outdated processes that do more to hamper than help.
Using paper and other manual planning processes is no longer the way to go. There is a better way, one that harnesses the power of digital transformation, the flexibility of mobile devices, and the agility of the increasingly popular connected worker strategy. Innovapptive has introduced a digital maintenance and planning solution that helps refineries organize and chart future turnaround and equipment repair plans, and schedule and allocate needed resources for routine or emergency work orders.
Innovapptive Visual Planner: The Ultimate Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Suite
Innovapptive Visual Planner works in conjunction with Innovapptive’s flagship mWorkOrder to give planners and schedulers greater flexibility and control over this critical stage of the maintenance process. Visual Planner runs on tablet devices, smartphones, and desktops. The solution works in online and offline modes. It also integrates with SAP. This means planners can be productive whether in the office, while at a remote unit, or on the go at any time.
Visual Planner's four applications provide a visual calendar designed to help manage multi-week scheduling, from planning your long-term capacity to managing short-term scheduling and execution
- Visual Planner: It gives schedulers an at-a-glance view of the preventive maintenance workload for a given crew by year, month, and week.
- Visual Roster: It shows which craft personnel are available and allows for borrowing team members from other crews to match work requirements.
- Visual Scheduler: Drag and Drop functionality enables schedulers to easily swap work in the unscheduled backlog with the scheduled work section.
- Visual Assignment: It empowers supervisors to maximize the time they're spending with their crew and cut back on the hours they have to be in front of the computer.
The multi-week rolling schedule ensures the highest routine maintenance work priorities are completed on time every week while giving supervisors guidance for integrating last-minute work orders with day-to-day challenges.
Advantages of Visual Planner
Available on SAP PM, Visual Planner consists of graphical applications that help organizations implement the most efficient multi-week scheduling process, ensuring the maintenance required to prevent asset failure is always completed on time while maximizing labor productivity.
Visual Planner offers several distinguishing features compared to similar systems:
Ease in configuration: Configure screens to suit unique business needs.
Superior user interface: Intuitive and easy-to-use UI. The drag-and-drop interface makes planning and scheduling easier and faster.
Seamless ERP integration: Integrate with SAP and view updates in real-time.
Best practices incorporated: Only embedded SAP tool to have been designed to support EPRI best practice guidelines for maintenance planning and scheduling.
What Sets Innovapptive Apart
Here are the key attributes that differentiate Innovapptive’s Visual Planner solution from the rest of the market and make it a superior choice for your unique needs.
Customization – Innovapptive’s solutions rely on the proprietary, patented RACE™ (Rapid Application Configuration Engine) platform that enables no-code/low-code customization. Configure applications for site, role, user, and geographies. Quickly respond and adapt to changes, and better align the apps to your unique business requirements.
User interface/user experience – Innovapptive’s solutions are intuitive and easy to use with a minimum of training required to be productive. Satisfaction leads to high user adoption rates, resulting in a positive return on investment.
Online/offline modes – Utilities often operate assets in areas with poor or no Wi-Fi infrastructure. Innovapptive’s solutions have online/offline modes, allowing frontline workers and managers to be productive even when there’s no Wi-Fi signal. Take advantage of rapid synchronization after restoring a connection.
Integration with ERP systems – Innovapptive’s solutions seamlessly integrate with ERP systems, such as SAP and IBM Maximo. Managers and frontline workers gain quick access to key data and support.
Enterprise-grade security - Encrypted, stateless, single sign-on with consumer-grade experiences such as Face ID and Touch ID keep your data safe and out of the wrong hands.
Ready to deploy – Pre-packaged and reconfigurable connected maintenance execution connected work instructions, connected inventory, connected operator rounds, and connected fixed assets.
Looking To Improve Efficiency of Your Refinery Turnaround?
An industrial market research firm predicts that American and Canadian refiners will spend up to $15.5 billion (USD) on turnaround activities through the end of 2022. If you’re one of these refiners, Innovapptive’s Visual Planner solution, part of the company’s Connected Worker enterprise asset management platform, digitalizes maintenance turnaround planning and execution. Schedule a free demo to know how Visual Planner can optimize resource utilization, extend asset lifespans and reliability, minimize asset breakdowns, boost safety compliance, and improve profitability.
