【Haichuan’s Best Practices】Controlling hot work at its source: Qilu Olefins Plant manages hot work to reduce production risks

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On September 5, Ding Wenyue, the deputy head of the Mechanical and Power Department at Qilu Petrochemical’s Olefins Plant, completed the weekly statistics on hot work activities on time; these statistics will be discussed during the safety meeting tomorrow. This is a routine task he carries out in order to reduce the number of hot work operations per week. Since the beginning of this year, in order to reduce the safety risks associated with hot work operations to production, the olefin plant has made it a top priority to cut back on such operations on site. New requirements have been established to limit and control hot work activities; strict controls are in place regarding the extent of equipment preparation as well as the number of hot work operations carried out within the plant. Statistics on hot work operations are kept under close review, and the number of such operations has been decreasing month by month. In August, the number of hot work operations dropped by 40% compared to the previous month, with the number of high-risk hot work operations falling by 60%. Controlting hot work at its source: As the leading olefin plant in Qilu Petrochemical, its production process involves flammable and explosive materials at every stage, and hot work poses potential safety risks to safe production. Given the large volume of construction work that needs to be carried out, it is no easy task to reduce the amount of hot work required This year, the olefin plant has 31 investment projects at the headquarters and company levels. Given the tight schedule and heavy workload, in order to reduce the number of welding operations, they pooled their ideas to find new ways to solve the problem. Eventually, they decided to control the amount of welding work at its source, that is, by addressing it from the beginning, before construction even starts. “Once the construction design drawings are ready, we will conduct on-site meetings with the construction party and the design party to go over them in detail. Any unreasonable aspects in the design will be corrected promptly, which helps to avoid an increase in the amount of work that needs to be done as well as a rise in the number of hot-work operations resulting from rework. ”said Hou Jun, a construction supervisor from the project management team of the Production Technology Department at the olefin plant. Before the construction of the gas pipeline, they conducted in-depth discussions with the contractors and designers in advance, analyzed all natural gas users in the area, and adjusted the design promptly by adding additional gas branches, taking into account the high natural gas consumption of the new gas boilers. “Thanks to the advance technical briefings, the construction proceeded smoothly, and the project was completed 2 months ahead of schedule, fulfilling the original intent of the project. This approach not only improved efficiency but also reduced the number of hot work operations at their source. ”Hou Jun said. Deep prefabrication outside the plant reduces the number of hot work tasks. The olefin plant currently has 15 cracking units, and maintenance work on these units is carried out on a daily basis; it’s an inevitable reality that there are many hot work tasks. To reduce the number of such tasks and thereby lower the safety risks associated with them, innovative thinking is necessary. Hot work in olefin plants is basically divided into two types: long-term hot work and temporary hot work. Temporary hot work is carried out when there are problems with the equipment and urgent repairs are needed, for which a hot work permit must be obtained; such hot work is difficult to control. After analysis, they decided that the focus should be placed on managing long-term construction-related hot work. The Mechanical and Power Department of the olefin plant oversees contractors who carry out long-term welding work by controlling both the total amount of work done on-site and the total amount of work done in advance; equipment that is prefabricated outside the plant is not allowed to be assembled inside the plant. They designated several prefabrication sites in the surrounding area and adopted a method of prefabricating outside the factory and constructing inside it. “This type of in-plant deep prefabrication is indeed an effective means to control the number of welding operations carried out on site. ”said Ding Wenyue, deputy head of the Mechanical Power Department at the olefin plant. In mid-July, during the renovation of the large quench standard pump area, the olefins plant discovered that on-site prefabrication was still taking place during inspections; it immediately ordered the work to be halted for corrective actions to be taken, and held the contractor and the responsible units accountable. The major emergency cooling maintenance was carried out strictly in accordance with the pre-determined depth outside the plant, completing five days ahead of the scheduled timeline – a result of their improved management of hot work and reduced volume of welding operations on site. To ensure the appropriate level of prefabrication outside the factory, they implement a \"dual-statistics\" system for tracking hot work activities; the local workshop and the contract contractor each conduct statistical analyses of such activities, identify the specific issues that affect the construction process, and take effective measures to resolve the problems that hinder various aspects of hot work. By improving the \"two rates\" and reducing the number of hot work operations, the olefin plant has managed to control such operations to some extent through source control and prefabrication outside the plant; however, new problems have arisen. In their statistics, they found that although the amount of prefabrication work carried out outside the construction sites by some contractors increased, the amount of on-site construction work decreased. The reason for this is that, in an effort to save effort, the construction party moved the workers from the site to carry out prefabrication work outside the factory. To address this issue, they conducted dual statistics on the prefabrication rate of equipment outside the factory and the construction efficiency, and held a regular safety meeting on Friday to share the findings, thereby ensuring an increase in both the prefabrication rate and construction efficiency. “Reducing hot work is not the responsibility of just one party; the logistics department, the safety and environmental protection team, as well as the local units must all carry out supervision and implementation without exception, so as to control the amount of fire use. ”Zhang Qiang, head of the Safety and Environmental Protection Department at the olefin plant, said. To improve work efficiency, a work plan is formulated before carrying out hot work, the volume of work to be done and the completion time are determined, and the workers are assigned appropriately. The Mechanical Department, project teams, and the Safety and Environment Department strengthen regular inspections and enforce accountability for any issues that arise. To reduce the volume of hot work, they implement strict assessment measures based on an average of the total amount of hot work carried out in May and June; reductions in hot work are applied according to three tiers of 5%, 10%, and 15%. Monthly assessments are conducted starting from July, with corresponding rewards and penalties given. Thanks to a series of measures taken to reduce hot work, the number of hot work operations carried out at the olefins plant in August decreased by 40% on a month-on-month basis, with the number of high-risk hot work operations dropping by 60%. (Sun Wanzhang)