Customer Story
Efficiencies Gained by Consolidating Resources Under One Vendor
Historically, this chemical plant managed its own outages and hired individual contractors for each specialty area. Outages were considered adequate but inefficient. The entire process was not well-planned or coordinated, and they lacked an overall ‘big picture’ perspective.
As one of this plant’s go-to contractors, Proconex was receiving purchase orders and service requests piecemeal—there were 72 different purchase orders and the number was growing. Proconex identified this pattern as an ‘outage event’ and recognized the opportunity to improve outcomes. Once Proconex started asking for schedules, staffing plans, and other information, it became clear that they could provide more support, coordinate efforts, and improve efficiencies.
As Part of Its Management Process, Proconex Helped Plan:
- How to address different areas of the plant during the phased shutdown
- Which areas were available when
- How to reroute the technical assignments at the daily shift level
In essence, Proconex took all of the details out of the customer’s hands, giving them peace of mind and a single source to address any issues.
Proconex assigned an executive sponsor to attend all of the meetings and build a close relationship with both purchasing and the people within the plant. Once work started, all concerns and problems went through one person—who had the authority to apply whatever resources were needed.
According to Proconex, “Some outages are so large, that you can’t do everything in a single outage. Plus, we work on a lot of smaller outages where the valves are removed, picked up, and replaced. With valve servicing operations in Royersford, PA, NEPA, and Swedesboro, NJ, we can repair and replace any pressure relief, safety, or isolation valve. We can also do diagnostics and signatures to help determine when a valve is going to fail—saving customers time, money, and the unpredictable nature of some valves.”