Tis the Season (for Outage Season)
How many things can you cram into one season? We’re talking of course about Spring, the time for blue skies, birds chirping, and more time outdoors. However, if you’re in the industrial sector, then you know that Spring brings with it one giant pain point; outage season.
It can be a time for improving the productivity and quality of your plant or it can be a time of starting and stopping the line, continual frustration, and running in place. You might be in either camp right now and think you have no choice in the matter; things will shake out however they’re going to shake out. However, what if we were to tell you that you could actually make your life easier and control the quality and consistency of your outage maintenance while planning it down to the letter?
Understanding the Purpose of Outage Season
Just like how the end of Spring heralds the start of “construction season” when road crews are out in force to begin fixing our roads, outage season is that time of year where power companies, pulp and paper mills, and process facilities have decided to perform their regular maintenance, whether it’s minor or major. Both situations bring headaches; roads close to get milled and repaved, causing huge traffic delays, and these plants can only perform their maintenance once they’ve powered everything down.
Yet, it’s not good enough to simply know when an outage will occur. Sure, you can expect it and go with the flow, accepting the loss in productivity while your power is out. However, some outages can last several days or weeks (or more). How do you plan for that scenario? Simply accept that you’ll lose money and/or productivity?
Worse yet, there’s nothing worse than planning an outage only for it to be uneventful; maybe the work you thought you were going to do couldn’t get done, or something ended up being a bigger job than you initially thought. Either way, failing to be productive during a maintenance outage can be a nightmare.
How We Make Your Next Planned Outage Worth it
At Millennium Power Services we offer “outage planning.” Our expertise is in the proactive planning of scheduled outages and the quick and seamless recovery from unplanned ones. You know you’ll need to shut down for maintenance, so why not make it as painless as possible? That’s where we shine. Our outage planning includes the following:
- Outage planning & strategy: our goal is to get the most out of an outage. That means we plan an outage ahead of time, strategize repairs, and ensure the work done in that time is meaningful and long-lasting.
- Expert-level collaboration: we work with operations and maintenance to ensure we understand your needs, so when the time comes, maintenance is prioritized. We don’t believe in wasting anyone’s time.
- Execute, follow up, & monitor: we understand that plant maintenance is an ongoing thing. That means we will continue to work with you, follow up on our quality of service, and monitor our impact. As soon as we’re finished with a planned outage, we’ll be planning for the next one.
It’s Going to Happen Anyway, So Make the Most of it
Outages are a natural part of plant life. You need to keep equipment and facilities in good repair for the sake of your production as well as for the health and safety of your crew. If you know it has to happen, why not get in front of it rather than constantly playing catch up?
As they say, you have to take the bull by the horns. When you contract with us for outage planning, you’ll never face downtime wondering if your planned maintenance will even be finished. We’ll get it done, and give you the confidence to plan for the future. We understand that, in plant time, every minute matters. Why not make the most of it?
