Petrochemical Case Study
PROJECT
CONSULTANTS
CIVIL
ENGINEERS
YEARS OF
PARTNERSHIP
OVERVIEW
In June of 2016, a Global 500 company in the petrochemical industry began the process of constructing a major chemical plant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The project scope included an ethane cracker with approximately 3.3 billion pounds of ethylene capacity per year, three polyethylene units with a combined annual production capacity of approximately 3.5 billion pounds, power and steam generation, storage, logistics, cooling water, water treatment, flare, and associated buildings. The magnitude of the project scope brought significant and complex challenges of starting up and safely operating a large new process plant. These challenges led the customer to request assistance from PeopleCore to support the startup with the development and implementation of an operator training program, and specific operating procedures.
THE BRIEF
Starting up and operating the plant with safety and reliability in mind, the site’s Operations Team set out to find an all-encompassing training program that included both training materials and operating procedures. Thinking proactively, they asked PeopleCore for assistance in developing and implementing this program before operation began. PeopleCore’s training material developers and procedure writing team worked closely with the plant’s Production Unit Managers and Subject Matter Experts to accomplish this goal.
THE CHALLENGE
Many obstacles arose with the startup of the new facility. This included developing the new training materials and operating procedures required to maintain safe operations at the plant, as well as training the large number of new operators. In short, a new training program had to be developed and implemented before production began.
SOLUTION
The Petrochemical Operations Team was determined to have a well-rounded training program that captured all important and practical information operators would need on the job. With PeopleCore’s extensive background and experience across a wide range of industries and clients, their training material team was able to capture this information and develop a custom training program. The scope for this program included: unit overview, system, equipment, process technology and process control modules for all units site wide. In addition, PeopleCore developed training guides and assessments to lead training instructors through the course content and ensure learner retention.
PeopleCore’s experienced procedure development team wrote Standard Operating Procedures using their vast knowledge, site information, and federal/state/local government regulations and standards. On-site meetings and close interaction between the procedure writers and plant SME’s ensured an accurate, useful, high quality product. PeopleCore also created a procedure generator specific to the client’s needs that guaranteed the inclusion of all required information, as well as consistent procedure formatting plant-wide.
CONCLUSION
Starting up such a complex, large-scale facility requires an enormous amount of preparation to ensure that operations will be performed safely and reliably. PeopleCore’s experienced team of engineers and procedure writers met this new challenge head on. Working closely with the Petrochemical Operations Team, PeopleCore was successful in developing the necessary training materials and operating procedures for the new facility prior to the start of production.
