A turnaround or planned shutdown is one of the most demanding periods in industrial maintenance. In a few weeks you have to complete a scope of work that otherwise takes months — with a large crew of certified welders and fitters available at exactly the right time. Staffing is therefore often the biggest bottleneck. Below we explain how to plan it.
Why manpower is the turnaround bottleneck
A turnaround has a fixed window: the start-up date is set and every day of delay is expensive. Within that window you need far more people than usual — but only for a few weeks. Certified welders for pressure and pipe work are scarce on the market, so fielding the right crew in time is often a bigger challenge than the work itself.
Define scope and profiles early
From the scope of work, derive how many people and which profiles you need per discipline. For each estimate, confirm a buffer for contingencies too.
- Certified welders (pipe and structural; processes 111, 141/TIG and others)
- Fitters for piping and mechanical work
- Static equipment work (heat exchangers, columns, reactors, vessels)
- Inspection and NDT support where required
Certification and safety the site requires
Petrochemical and energy sites have strict requirements. Check them in advance so the crew can go straight to work.
- Valid EN ISO 9606 welder certificates for the right processes and positions
- SCC/VCA safety certificates and medical certificates
- Site inductions and work permits
Shifts and the critical path
Turnarounds often run in day and night shifts so the critical path never stops. When planning manpower, account for coverage of both shifts, rotations and the availability of key profiles across the whole window — not just at the start.
Posting as leverage for peak manpower
Peak turnaround needs are hard to cover with permanent hires. Posting workers from the EU (with A1 certificates) lets you scale the crew up for exactly the duration of the turnaround and then back down — without long-term commitments. The key is that the posting is handled end-to-end, otherwise the client carries risk too.
At Save Consulting we provide certified welding and assembly crews for turnarounds and shutdowns — mobilized on short notice, fully EU-posted and ready for day and night shifts.