Every successful plant turnaround has one key element: temporary housing facilities.
Being prepared with temporary facilities for your turnaround plan will save you a major headache before, during and after your turnaround or shutdown. By engaging early with suppliers to create the exact on-site workforce accommodations — often known as “man camps” — you are more likely to experience a successful turnaround, greatly increasing productivity and worker retention.
Securing an expert turnaround management team to help you with this ahead of time will give you:
- A prepared plan that significantly minimizes expected (and unexpected) challenges
- Lasting effects from spurring higher reliability and performance
- Standardized installations, practices and procedures across the board
Why Temporary Facilities for Your Turnaround
The better the living spaces for your workers, the better productivity you’ll experience from your crew. Without a man camp, it may be difficult (or even impossible) for them to commute to the worksite. By providing portable buildings as living arrangements for your employees, you’re showing them that you actually care for their wellbeing, which encourages them to stay longer.
Sometimes during a turnaround project, crews have had to resort to pitching their own tents or sleeping in their cars. This tends to cause negative relations with local communities as well as unhealthy living conditions and poor sleep quality for your personnel. With comfortable and safe living conditions and sleeping facilities, your crew can work efficiently and more productively.
Other benefits from including temporary facilities for your turnaround can be:
- Allowing your crew to easily come and go according to their shift schedules
- Each employee is able to sleep without being disturbed by those about to start their shift
Use Basic Essentials to Improve Turnaround Performance
Other solutions to consider for your base camp are lunch, shower, and laundry facilities for your crew. These solutions give workers the conveniences they need to perform their jobs well, benefiting your overall operations.
Lunch tents can be equipped with various amenities to help feed your crew. For example, you can add HVAC systems, lighting, and electricity to your tents. With necessities, like full-service laundry stations, you can ensure the essentials needed to boost the health and happiness of your crew — making it much easier to manage your shutdown or turnaround. This way, they won’t have to travel offsite to take care of things like laundry, and they will receive quality food that keeps them going strong, boosting your bottom line.
Where to Start
Getting the right structures for your turnaround service means first understanding what your needs are. Taking the time to scope and define your turnaround maintenance plan is the first crucial step to putting together the right preparations and the right team that will make your vision into a seamless reality.
Once you have the foundation for your initial plan and know your needs and budget, you’ll be able to research and gather the project management services you’ll need.
