Client

A large chemical plant in Ontario, Canada.

Situation

The chemical plant had been using SAP to manage its turnarounds. The results were usually less than desirable: in one case, the turnaround finished a month behind schedule and spent $70M on a $25M budget.

A few years earlier, the same chemical plant had declared force majeure due to a delayed turnaround. Emerald started using this example as a lesson to teach others that scheduling should not be considered in legal terms as an "Act of God" or the French meaning of force majeure, a Superior Force. Unknown to the Emerald presenter, an employee of that company attended a presentation where this example was used. Emerald was hired to provide a solution.

Emerald’s Solution

Proper project planning in Oracle Primavera P6 was the key to success. Training and consulting provided by Emerald's experienced team helped to produce better than expected results. Emerald helped the chemical plant's turnaround by achieving:

• Real time information showing Scheduled versus Actual values
• Reporting on progress
• Determining critical activities
• Determining resource availability and assignments
• Control of staffing levels
• Managing found and removed work
• Generating management reports for daily review
• Integrating Primavera with the SAP system
• Successful integration through proper staff training

Success

In Q4 of 2009, Emerald successfully consulted and actively participated in the planning of this chemical plant's turnaround. At the end of the turnaround, the plant was able to start up 2 days earlier than planned while spending less than expected. This was a very successful initiative for the client.