Mechanical and Utility Engineering
Mechanical Practice
Advanced Shutdown and Turnaround Management
Delivering a turnaround to its duration, where the damage is done in the months before it starts.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Advanced
- Fee from
- On enquiry
Overview
Turnarounds overrun for reasons established long before the plant comes down. The work list was never frozen, scope arrived after the materials were ordered, long lead items were identified late, and the contractor was appointed without a realistic schedule to price. Once the plant is down the cost of every decision multiplies, so execution management is largely about having removed the decisions in advance. This week runs the cycle from work list development and freeze through to start up and close out, with the emphasis on the preparation phase.
Who should attend
Turnaround and shutdown managers and coordinators, maintenance and project engineers, planners, and operations and HSE staff with turnaround responsibilities.
What you will be able to do
- Develop and freeze a work list, and hold the freeze against late scope.
- Identify long lead items early enough for the date to survive.
- Build a schedule a contractor can price and be held to.
- Manage discovery work without losing the critical path.
- Close out so the next turnaround starts from evidence rather than memory.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
Why turnarounds overrun
- Decisions deferred into the execution window
- Scope that arrives after the materials were ordered
- Optimism in the duration, and where it enters
- What the plant being down actually costs per day
Day 2
Work list and freeze
- Developing a list from inspection, defect and statutory need
- Challenging scope, and the authority to decline it
- The freeze, and the process for an exception
- Scope change control once the list is fixed
Day 3
Preparation
- Long lead items, identified against the critical path
- Materials, kitting and staging
- Contract strategy, and what the contractor can price
- Resource, accommodation and the logistics around the site
Day 4
Execution
- Daily control, and the meeting that actually decides
- Discovery work, assessed without stopping the path
- Permit and isolation throughput as a constraint
- Progress measurement that is not self reported
Day 5
Start up and close out
- Reinstatement, testing and the handback sequence
- Start up, and the defects that appear in the first week
- Cost reconciliation against the estimate
- Lessons recorded in a form the next turnaround can use
What you leave with
- A work list development and freeze procedure with the gates defined.
- A long lead and materials readiness plan for one turnaround.
- A discovery work process that protects the critical path.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Gaborone, Botswana | Classroom | R15,000 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Kampala, Uganda | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Durban, South Africa | Classroom | R15,000 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Accra, Ghana | Classroom | US$1,500 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.