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Top five tips to prepare for spring facility shutdown inspections

Seasonal shutdowns are the opportunity to inspect, fix, and prepare for a safe and reliable restart. Optimizing your inspection starts with evaluating your specific needs, taking into consideration staff, equipment, timeline, and budget. This article covers five tips to ensure the successful planning and preparation of your spring outage.

1. Plan well ahead

Start planning your spring inspection as soon as possible, so you can determine time, budget, staff resources, and equipment needed. The seasonal aspect of spring shutdowns puts a strain on equipment availability, especially rentals. By determining your equipment requirements early, you will ensure you get the equipment you need in a timely fashion.

2. Identify and prioritize known challenge areas

Take stock and make an inventory of known issues and needed repairs, and prioritize them in such a way that you start tackling the more challenging ones first. This will give you time to determine what equipment and resources you need, and if those are available in-house. If not, you can then explore outsourcing options for one, the other, or both.

3. Determine the right equipment for the job

When selecting equipment, ensure that it provides the industrial strength required when used in the field, so it doesn’t break down on your team in the middle of a much needed inspection. If purchasing or renting, inquire about the latest tools and equipment available on the market that will serve your specific needs and make the job easier.

4. Ensure you have the right experienced staff to use the tools

Having the right tools is one thing, knowing how to use them is another. If your team is not trained in the use of a particular piece of equipment, call upon outsourced professionals who use it regularly in the field, a handy alternative especially in an emergency situation. Not being well versed in the use of a particular piece of equipment could not only constitute a hazard, but could delay your inspection.

5. Rental vs. purchase: Evaluate your options

If your budget doesn’t allow the purchase of brand-new equipment, temporary rentals are a cost-effctive alternative to get the job done in a timely fashion without putting a strain on your budget. It also allows you to scale your inspection capabilities in order to gather large amounts of data in a short period of time. Make sure that when selecting providers, you consider not only pricing, but also customer service and responsiveness which could make a huge difference to your inspection timeline.