temporary shelter

API 756 suggests updated guidelines for tent siting evaluations: Blast, toxin, and weather-resistant

April 28, 2014 by Turnaround Logistics Leave a Comment

There had been speculation that the American Petroleum Institute (API) was evaluating existing practices for tent siting evaluations, and this was confirmed when the API Process Safety Committee released a draft report titled, “Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Tents,” at the end of 2013. This recommended practice (RP 756) provides guidance for managing risk from explosions, fires, and toxic material releases to on-site personnel located in tents.

The API Committee’s draft report evaluates recommended practices concerning five different types of tents utilized, including air-inflated structures.

Tents included in the tent siting evaluation study are intended for occupancy and may be used for breaks or meals, weather shelters, change houses, orientation, training, meetings, tool stations, offices, laboratories, or equipment assembly, just to name a few. API 756 suggests tents for these uses and others will be required to meet the owner/operator’s tent siting evaluation criteria, and mitigate consequences or risk where required. [i] Air-inflated structures, or Dynamic Air Shelters (DAS), are considered to be the solution to minimize these risks and comply with API’s newly recommended practices.

It is unknown as to the exact date that API 756 will be approved and begin to be recommended, but industrial plants are already beginning to purchase DAS ahead of the recommendation of these practices and ahead of the rush. As the leading distributor of DAS and a turnkey logistics services provider, Turnaround Logistics, Inc. is currently helping turnaround managers and logistical planners comply with API 756 through supplying DAS, while increasing wrench time in the process.

Turnaround Logistics’ unique product pairing of premier blast-resistant, DAS and diverse logistical planning services is catching the attention of turnaround management and executives responsible for maximizing wrench time, transportation of personnel during turnarounds, workforce accommodations, and safety compliance.

Customer, Don Francis, Material Planning and Logistics Lead at BP, says, “Turnaround Logistics provided us shelters and support that enabled us to work inside the blast zones during the 2013 FCC turnaround event. This brought personnel closer to the event, and minimized delays in travel time with each trip to the shelter.”

Turnaround Logistics is one of just a few providers for DAS, but the only provider with innovative logistical solutions both in and outside of DAS, and where you might least suspect it. The company creates logistical efficiencies where others do not through complementary custom services and products, including on-site catering, all types of lunch and break tents, specialty rentals, parking lot management and transportation, premium hygienic facilities, utility vehicles, generators, ice makers, cool down huts, and alternatives to troublesome busses.

Turnaround Logistics’ experienced team prides themselves on being able to use their extensive industrial experience and premier workforce accommodation products to work with customers to not only comply with the approaching API 756 recommended practices, but to create innovative logistics solutions that help the customer maximize their resources as their “turnkey solution partner.”

Shawn McGee, CEO and General Manager of Turnaround Logistics, says, “It is very rewarding having a team that recognizes the needs of the petrochemical industry. We value our long-term relationships with our customers and enjoy being with them in the field learning first-hand what their daily challenges are. Our goal is not to just sell a product, but to solve problems for our customers and create the best solutions for them, some of which may not have even been done before.”

View this article published in BIC Magazine (March 2014).

More information regarding API 756 can be found at www.api.org.

[i] Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Tents. Rep. American Petroleum Institute, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014. http://ballots.api.org/ProcessSafety/RP756Draft11.pdf.

Top 3 Tips for Industrial Operations Planning a Turnaround

April 10, 2013 by Turnaround Logistics Leave a Comment

Experience is the best teacher of all, and if you do something long enough, you’ll eventually get good at it. So we’ve learned a thing or two over the years from working with our customers.

We have a policy that our customers are always right, and there’s nothing we won’t try to do to satisfy their requests — within reason, of course. But sometimes, we’ve found, a customer will get a little confused about how to best proceed with a company offering logistics services. So here are a few tips to help guide you in meeting the logistical needs of your plant turnaround.

Whoever you use as a supplier, make sure they are basically capable of whatever product or service you are looking for. Check out the supplier’s website and follow up on the phone with a customer service rep.
Plan ahead for whatever services or equipment you need. Don’t wait till the last day to place an order. Typically, it will take a supplier a day to round up the people and equipment you need for a function and another day to set everything up.
You should always take into consideration the placement of temporary facilities, whether they are tents or office trailers or sanitation units. If you situate temporary equipment in a place where it will interfere with another business activity in the interim, you’ll have to add an additional cost to your invoice by asking the supplier to come back and move the temporary equipment. Try to know exactly where things should go beforehand.

The best piece of advice we can give you when it comes to your turnaround needs is: Think things through and plan ahead. (That holds true for a lot of problems.) And please feel free to contact us for any other questions you have when you’re doing your planning. That’s what we’re here for.

New Year, New Website…Same Great Service

March 21, 2013 by Turnaround Logistics Leave a Comment

If you’ve visited our website recently, you may have noticed something different about it: a complete makeover. We’re a modern company offering some of the most highly respected clients in the country complete, state-of-the-art workforce accommodations, and we decided our website should better reflect that. We officially launched it in October, and so far, it’s gotten a wonderful response.

One of the first things you’ll notice on the home page is that it’s sleeker and more visually appealing. Beyond that, though, are many changes that are built to make your experience on our site better. It’s much more user-friendly than our old website, and includes a lot more valuable information on our services. Click on any of the links and you’ll find full descriptions and informative areas of information, all of it as easy to navigate as it is useful.

You’ll also notice we’ve added a “Request a Quote” function that allows you to easily receive a quote through our website. This added feature has not only proven helpful to our site visitors, but to us as well; we’ve gained many new contacts through this link. And did you know we are very active on social media? Now you can reach our Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn pages, as well as our blog, directly through our website. Want to check out examples of our past work? They’re right there on our home page.

We’re very excited about our new and improved website, and encourage you to check it out. We think it better represents who we are, what we do, and how we’re constantly evolving and moving forward. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Case Study: Turnaround Logistics for the BP Refinery

February 18, 2013 by Turnaround Logistics Leave a Comment

As you probably know all too well, planning for and operating a large turnaround project can be overwhelming. There are so many details and logistics to work out, and not a single one can be overlooked. That is why Turnaround Solutions has become such a trusted source of logistical planning for so many petrochemical and power generation clients. They realize that it’s too much to plan on their own, and that we have the experience and know-how to get it done for them, and get it done right.

One example of a current client for whom we are presently offering turnaround solutions is the BP Refinery in Carson, California. We first began the conversation with them back in the summer of 2012, and they were very impressed with what we had to offer. We started shipping equipment to them in October, by January we were in full swing, and it’s been going great.

Currently, the BP refinery has 95 of our lunch/break/permitting tents, a Dynamic Air Shelter provided by us (complete with heating and AC), 200 picnic tables, 10 personnel, and a variety of our equipment serving all of their logistical needs. We’re so pleased with how it’s going, and happy to know they can get through their quick turnaround without having to worry about all the details that we are experts at.

At Turnaround Solutions, we can accommodate everything from those aforementioned picnic tables and tents, to services such as on-site catering and hygienic facilities. To learn more about what we can do for you, visit our website.

New Year, New Offerings

February 11, 2013 by Turnaround Logistics Leave a Comment

As many of our clients and readers may know by now, we at Turnaround Logistics have been providing turnkey services, including logistical planning, tents, Dynamic Air Shelters, personnel, and equipment, for years. While it could seem that our success in those areas would be enough to keep us content, we have recently decided to offer additional services.

After some time having our satisfied customers ask if we could provide them with bus rentals, we’ve decided to go for it, and we’ve begun 2013 by adding that to our list of capabilities. We are now running transportation buses for turnaround projects, ensuring yet another aspect of logistical services is taken care of. Offering bus service that is manned and maintained, we officially launched the new offering in December 2012, and so far it is off to a great start.

Many old and new petrochemical clients are eager to take advantage of our new bus service, including the Shell Refinery in Deer Park, Texas. We are beyond pleased to know that our loyal customers—as well as plenty of new ones—are trusting us with all of their needs, and are highly satisfied with the bus transportation services we are now providing. As a company that is on the cutting edge of the industry, with our finger on the pulse of what companies need and want for their workforce and logistical solutions, we’re delighted to keep adding to our company and growing as the need arises.

We look forward to 2013 and what it brings, and especially to building and maintaining our relationships with our customers.

Turnaround Logistics: Recent Work

October 11, 2012 by Turnaround Logistics Leave a Comment

By now, you know that we offer a wide variety of logistical services to our clients and recently, we have offered a few more.

When Bayer Aspirin Chemical scheduled their outages (which normally happens in the forth quarter of the year), they turned to us to provide temporary shelter and workspace. During the scheduled outages, the plant is shut down and maintenance is done, to make sure that things continue to run smoothly. Many times, contract personnel is brought in and they will come to the plant to perform work during the turnaround. We provided an 80 by 120 pole tent to provide shelter from the elements, so that everyone would have a place to go for lunch or during a much needed quick break.

Another recent job was for Shell Refinery in Deerpark, Texas. We provided them with 3 tents (40 by 60, 40 by 80 & 40 by 100) for their scheduled turnaround that began in September. We were sure to have these tents sent up well in advanced so that things were set up perfectly when the work began.

Lastly, we supplied a 40 by 40 tent for Turner Industries at TPC that will be used for 10 to 12 months during a construction job. Within that tent, we also provided the picnic tables and the lighting. We will continue to go to their job site every month to check that that the anchoring has not loosened and to provide any necessary maintenance.

As you can see, we take pride in our work, here at Turnaround Logistics and we will take every action to make sure that our products and services are up to top standards. Visit our site for more information.

Logistical Planning Made Simple:

September 7, 2012 by Turnaround Logistics Leave a Comment

Often times in logistical planning and coordination, we get the question “What exactly are your capabilities? What can you provide for us?”

And often times, our answer is “Just about everything!” We start out every prospective job with a site visit and ask the general question like, will you need help with transportation? What about parking? Will you need extra turnstiles? How about tents, coolers, ice, furniture? The options are almost endless.

We just worked on a project for Asco Freight Management that took place on the Greensport ship channel in Houston that entailed 2 tents for lunches, 2 vans for transport of 15 people each from the laydown yard to the port dock and all of the barricades around the worksite. We provided 4 meals per day, which equated to catering for about 80 people. We also supplied ice, water and Gatorade day and night. An additional media 40×50 media tent was set up with stage flooring, stage, PA system, 4 microphones and an overhead projector with air conditioning and a generator.

We have all the resources to make your event or job site run smoothly, so let us take care of all the planning so you can concentrate on what it is you do!

Providing Personal Solutions to Your Needs

July 18, 2012 by Turnaround Logistics Leave a Comment

As many of our loyal customers have come to find, Turnaround Logistics offers all of the best equipment, management, planning, and coordination for all your workforce/personnel needs. Our services include (but are not limited to) logistical planning, tents & accessories, lights, generators, parking areas—we are your complete one-stop-shop. What you might not know, however, is that we offer a range of secondary services that match the quality of our primary services.

We do a large amount of onsite presentations, and regularly visit our clients on location. With our extensive close relationships with customers, we are often contacted to visit refineries and other facilities to determine precisely what their needs are. Rather than simply receiving an inquiry and assessing it, we will actually go to your premises to see what exactly you need. This means your requirements are not “guesstimated”—they are carefully established. We evaluate, ask questions, and thoroughly seek out your problems and solutions. This translates to an immediate cost savings to you, as well as peace of mind. We realize how valuable your time and money are, and by going straight to the source, and pointing out everything that will help you and your business, we at Turnaround Logistics will help keep things running smoothly. We realize that this is not common practice in the industry, but we are happy to do what it takes to provide you with the best solutions available.

Please visit our website at www.turnaroundlogisticsinc.com to contact us with any questions.