Shutdowns, turnarounds, and outages are crucial events in the lifecycle of refineries, chemical plants, polymer facilities, and all major manufacturing facilities. These planned interruptions are undertaken to ensure the safety, reliability and efficiency of the facility. One of the key elements that can significantly impact the success of these events is materials management. A core aspect of the overall function of the supply chain, materials management involves planning, procurement, storage and distribution of materials essential for refinery operations. During STOs, efficient material management is imperative to prevent delays, cost overruns and operational disruptions. In this guide, we’ll teach you how to level up your materials management.
Think of your materials planning process. Do these questions sound familiar?
- Did I get a quote?
- Has it been ordered?
- When will the material get here?
- What quantities actually came in?
- Where is it located?
- Who touched it last?
How about these key challenges?
- Diverse Range of Materials:Refineries, chemical plants, polymer facilities, and all major manufacturing facilities require a wide variety of materials, from major equipment, spare parts and equipment to chemicals and consumables.
- Lead Time and Procurement: Long lead times for specialized equipment and the need for careful procurement planning add complexity to materials management.
- Inventory Control: Balancing the right amount of inventory is critical. Too much inventory ties up capital, while too little can lead to project delays.
- Supplier Management: Clear communication and coordination with reliable suppliers ensure that materials are delivered on time, meet quality standards and are priced accurately.
- Storage and Logistics: Proper storage facilities, both on-site and off-site, are crucial, as poor logistics around storage can result in bottlenecks and delays.
STO-Specific Solutions
As a professional in the oil and gas industry, you know better than anyone that downtime is unbelievably costly for any facility going through an STO. There are numerous best practices out there to mitigate these challenges, limit downtime and therefore save your company millions. These include comprehensive planning, effective communication, inventory optimization, technology integration and contingency planning. But the industry’s best way to execute these best practices? STOmaterial, a product within the STOlogix platform. STOmaterial is your robust material tracking tool, accessible in one place, at all times.Leaving no room for confusion, STOmaterial ensures you’ll always know how much material you have and where it’s located.
Features include:
- Configurable email notifications
- One cost, instead of cost per license seat
- Multiple kit tracking
- Varying user interfaces for workstreams
- Multilevel owner-defined dashboard with set KPIs