The Ten Commandments
Like Moses coming down from the mountain top I have been gone for 40 day and 40 nights.
My measurement of 40 days and 40 nights is more in line with Clarence Darrow’s
Portrayed by Spencer Tracy in “Inherit the Wind”
In reality, just a fancy way of saying a long time. Now back to my allegory:
I have descended from the mount with the ten commandments of a great outage.
Honor thy Outage, it’s different treat it as such
Thou shall be safe
Thou shall realize nothing is easy, you must make everything as easy as possible
There shall be only one Boss, pick one
Thou shall not talk about what thee has not seen
Thou shall inspect once, completely, quickly and mark everything consistently
Thou shall not complain, either shoot em’ or make the girl feel pretty
Thou shall track the money every day
Thou shall order on Thursday what thee needs over the weekend
Honor the close out, is different than the rest of the outage
Sounds impressive doesn’t it?
Well I’m no Moses.
In reality I was just trying to create a clear concise list of what to do and not to do. When I started to make the list I thought of the Ten Commandments and I got all Charlton Heston on myself. I had visions of people printing it up like posters and hanging these pithy rules all over the place.
But I’m just a guy from Jersey with a bunch of stories (some funny, some horrible) that people call experience. Below is my list, I reserve to right to update it and change it from time to time. I didn’t come up with all this stuff in a vacuum. It’s the result of interactions that have taken place over the 250 outages that I’ve had the honor to be a part of.
Please forward me any feedback to make the list better
My list looks like this:
1. Outages Are Different
An analogy that I often use is a plant is like a NASCAR race and most of the time the car is on the track going round and round. This is the plant running when the car comes in for a PIT stop this is the plant in the outage. How odd would it be if the car pulled in the PIT and then the driver goes out to change the tires? In the end for a car to win, somebody drives the car and somebody else runs the PIT stop.
Blogs that pertain to this are:
Money Ball
You’re not Dorothy and this Aint OZ
Outages 101 Don’t Be Penny Wise and Dollar Foolish
The Magic Finger
2. Safety is about focus, not forms.
Look somebody in the eyes and if you see crazy don’t put that guy on the crane. Sounds simple right? That’s because it is, in today’s world we have all sorts of certifications, training and licenses. That’s all well and good but it’s been my horrific experience that the fatal accidents all happen when someone has a problem of a personal nature that has their attention elsewhere while they are on the job. It’s all of our jobs to realize that in each other and say something.
Blogs that pertain to this are
It’s Not A FKing Ice Cream Parlor
Common Sense Safety
The Things That Don’t Work Don’t Get Used
3. The easier you make something, the easier it is
Straight from the Yogi Berra archives. Outages affect the plants bottom line in three ways, downtime, material costs and contractor costs. All of these items can be significantly affected with just some
Questions…How do we do this faster?
Thought…Well if we bought three impact guns it would go faster
Planning…Get three impact guns by the next outage
Observation…Well that worked better next time we should stage the plates before the outage
Change…Whatever you need to, to get better
Blogs that pertain to this are
Now Row in the Same Direction
Get in the FKing Boat
The Art of War, Six Sigma and a Guy from Jersey
Sit Down Shut Up and Do What I Say
4. The chain of command is there for a reason
Be clear on who reports to who and who’s the boss. Contractors get told what to do by everybody…not good. Engineers generally feel that they report to nobody…not good.
“The story about four people: Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it.
Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when actually Nobody asked Anybody.”
Blogs that pertain to this are
Every Ship Needs A Captain
5. If you didn’t see it or touch it shut the fuck up!!!!
That’s right 4 exclamation points (I still think I need more but let’s move on). Let’s go back to the PIT stop shall we. Imagine the guy changing the tire on the right front stops in mid PIT stop and walks over to the PIT boss and says “I heard the gas guy say that the gas can is too heavy”(just writing this makes me get my “angry eyes” out). A great outage has very little talking during it. Prior to the outage you should be exhausted with how much you talk but once the bell rings it’s time to shut up.
Blogs that pertain to this are
The Magic Finger
The Only Way to Find a Leak, Stick the Magic Finger in the Hole
6. Get the engineers in and out
It takes a lot of conversation and planning to get all you can during the inspection of the unit. To get the inspection done completely you need to sit down and identify all the things you need to see during the outage including how you are going to measure and mark what you see. You need to develop tracking systems to record the as found conditions. You need to agree on what color paint means what. As found work is the major variable of any outage. The faster you inspect everything the more time you have to react and manage the emerging work scopes.
Blogs that pertain to this are
Engineers, Engineers Everywhere and Not a Scope to Execute
Your Outages iPod
7. Never complain about under-performance…do something!!!!
Yes more exclamation points. If someone or some company is under performing you only have two choices, change them out or live with it. If you can change them out, do it. If you can’t, live with it and please just shut up about it. Constantly berating someone is never, I repeat never, a good idea. It makes the berated feel like shit (do you do your best when you feel like shit?) and it implies that the boss (the berator) has no balls (My jersey coming out) which weakens the boss’s authority over the entire project. Not to mention that everyone is watching and you are training everyone in your plant how to act. The last contractor that fell down on the job, I got them tea (to keep them healthy) food brought in (to keep them feed and on the job) and thanked them for all their efforts everyday…because we had no other choice.
Blogs that pertain to this are
Always Make the Girl Feel Pretty
8. You have to know where the money is every day, cost to date and cost to complete
If your daily planning meeting reviews a schedule that’s 24 to 36 hours old and you go over costs as a percent complete of each project…let me save you some time, it’s never going to work. You need to close the books every shift from a dollar stand point and to do that the schedule has to be accurate as well. If it takes a department to get management these numbers then stop, It’s never going to be correct or worth it. You system should be simple and accurate. We have developed a system that will tell you cost to date and cost to finish with 5% 4 hours after the end of each shift. It’s not a sale plug it’s just to let you know it’s possible and to set the mark to be beat.
9. Stock the air and gas rack on Friday like you aren’t getting a delivery for a week
A bottle of Argon cost $65 (In 1996 dollars, That’s when I first gave this speech)
That same bottle of Argon can cost $16,200 on a Sunday
10 contractors @ $120/hr: $1,200
Delay scaffold coming down: $5,000
Loss of revenue: $5,000
Employee OT: $5,000
The same bottle of Argon after the outage is $65. Argon doesn’t go bad.
10. Every outage starts out asses and elbows but somewhere near the end it changes
At some point during the outage you have to get everyone’s focus to shift from production to close out. During production everything is about “how much got done?” . During close out everything is about “Is everything complete and signed off? ”. These are two vastly different ways of operation and the outage manager has to signal that team needs to change focuses. Back in the day I used to do this during one of the daily outage meetings I a speech I titled “It’s been lovely having you all here, now get the fuck out!”
11. You need to have two meetings a day during outages
Wait there’s more than ten? What’s going on? Rule #1 outages are different. Outages are a team sport. What team do you see in any sport that doesn’t huddle up in some fashion? The meetings should not be long; however every contractor Foreman should be there. Cover safety first, then production and then schedule. Here’s a secret – no one likes to finish last. The contractors will compete with each other to not to be last.
