Planning for Startup
The importance of startup planning is evident given the challenging characteristics of today’s industrial business environment:
- Pressures to increase profits by reducing costs
- Reduction in owner project staff and increases in outsourcing of services
- Demand for shorter project cycle times
- Lack of planning capabilities and supportive tools.
These business challenges demand increases in organizational efficiency and management effectiveness. As a result, planning and training tools are in high demand.
Definition of Startup
Plant startup is defined as the transitional phase between plant construction completion and commercial operations, including all of the activities that bridge these two phases. Critical steps within the startup phase include system turnover, check-out of systems, commissioning of systems, introduction of feedstocks, and performance testing.
Project Success, Startup Success, and Planning for Startup
Project management and the perception of project success must be aligned with a new paradigm: mechanical completion is not the project objective; successful commercial operations is. Successful commercial operation requires a successful startup. The message is evident—if you want a successful project, you must plan for a successful startup.
Further analysis of startups indicates that there is a reasonably strong correlation between startup success and extent of startup planning. The message is again clear:effective startup planning requires that the right issues be addressed by the right people at the right time.
