Operations & Maintenance · Turnaround Excellence

Shutdowns reward planning.
They punish improvisation.

A turnaround overrun cannot be recovered. Every additional day offline is production revenue lost permanently. Optimal's structured shutdown management methodology — from scope freeze through execution to post-shutdown review — is built to prevent overruns before they start.

Discuss Your Next Turnaround Benchmark with GARPI™ →

Scope freeze

The single most important planning discipline — and the most frequently violated one in turnarounds that overrun

Critical path

The sequence of activities that determines shutdown duration — everything else is parallel and can absorb float

3 phases

Pre-shutdown planning · Execution management · Post-shutdown review — each requiring distinct discipline

The highest-stakes maintenance event

Every day over schedule
costs what you cannot recover.

Shutdowns and turnarounds are the most compressed, highest-cost and highest-risk maintenance events in any asset-intensive operation. The window is fixed. The scope tends to grow. The cost of overrun is immediate and unrecoverable lost production.

Optimal's Shutdown & Turnaround Management service provides the planning discipline, scope management and execution oversight that compress turnaround duration, control scope growth and return assets to service in the condition the production plan requires.

40%

of turnarounds exceed their planned duration — the primary driver of overrun cost

70%

of overruns are preventable through structured pre-shutdown planning and scope freeze discipline

12 weeks

Minimum pre-shutdown planning lead time for a structured major turnaround — most organisations start too late

3 phases

Pre-shutdown planning · Execution · Post-shutdown review — each phase with distinct management requirements

Full Scope of Service

Optimal's Shutdown & Turnaround
Management capability.

STO.01

Scope Development & Freeze

Structured scope development process — identifying mandatory, desirable and opportunity work with engineering justification for each item. Scope freeze protocol that prevents late additions from destroying the plan baseline.

STO.02

Critical Path Scheduling

Master schedule development on the critical path — identifying the sequence of activities that determines turnaround duration and the parallel workstreams that can be compressed without affecting the critical path.

STO.03

Resource & Contractor Planning

Resource levelling and contractor scope definition — matching workforce to critical path requirements, defining contractor interfaces and establishing the supervision structure for multi-contractor execution environments.

STO.04

Spares & Materials Readiness

Pre-shutdown materials management — ensuring all required spare parts, consumables, scaffolding, tooling and specialist equipment are confirmed, sourced and on-site before shutdown commences.

STO.05

Execution Management & Progress Tracking

Daily progress tracking against the critical path during execution — identifying emerging delays, managing scope changes, tracking cost against budget and escalating risks before they become overruns.

STO.06

Post-Shutdown Review & Lessons Learned

Structured post-shutdown review capturing what was planned, what was executed and what drove variance — producing the lessons learned register that improves the next turnaround.

Pre-Shutdown Planning

The shutdown is won
in the planning phase.

Every hour of overrun during execution can be traced to a planning decision made — or not made — in the weeks before shutdown. Optimal's pre-shutdown planning methodology is structured around the principle that execution should be free to focus on work execution, not problem solving.

Shutdown Scope Register

Compile all work requests — mandatory regulatory, condition-based, opportunity and deferred corrective — into a prioritised scope register with engineering sign-off on each item.

Job Card Development

Develop detailed job cards for every scope item — step-by-step task instructions, resource requirements, material lists, safety isolation requirements and estimated duration.

Critical Path Construction

Construct the network schedule — identifying dependencies, the critical path and float available in parallel workstreams. Stress-test the schedule against resource constraints.

Materials Confirmation

Confirm all materials on order and delivery-scheduled before the planning gate closes. Identify and escalate long-lead items. No shutdown commences with unconfirmed materials.

Readiness Review

Structured readiness review gate — confirming scope is frozen, schedule is approved, resources are confirmed, materials are on-site and all pre-work is complete before authorising commencement.

Your next shutdown should be your best one.

Optimal's Shutdown & Turnaround Management service can be deployed for a single turnaround or as part of a longer ARaaS® engagement that builds internal shutdown management capability over time. Start with a scoping conversation — we will assess your current approach and identify the planning gaps that are driving your overruns.

Start the conversation

Asset Maintenance Strategy → Spares & Inventory Optimisation → Root Cause Analysis → GARPI™ Benchmark Survey →

Shutdowns reward planning.They punish improvisation.

Every day over schedulecosts what you cannot recover.

Optimal's Shutdown & TurnaroundManagement capability.

The shutdown is wonin the planning phase.

Your next shutdown should be your best one.

Shutdowns reward planning.
They punish improvisation.

Every day over schedule
costs what you cannot recover.

Optimal's Shutdown & Turnaround
Management capability.

The shutdown is won
in the planning phase.