Often, when people think of a silo, they think of the large cylindrical tube-like structures that dot the countryside and typically hold grain produced by farmers.
But a silo in the context of a turnaround can be something less pristine and, in fact, detrimental to the execution and function of a turnaround.
When sharing concepts to help managers increase their awareness of the need to avoid siloing, Stephanie Phipps, inspection supervisor for CITGO Petroleum, suggested adopting a slogan and producing a logo.
"Our mantra should be something like 'together for turnaround excellence' or 'one turnaround, one team' - something that really shows everyone that you want to be one team and do not want siloing," she said. "Put that on your slide presentations, at the top of your meeting notes, or on a turnaround sticker and remind everyone often that is the vision for your turnaround group."
This mantra would apply to the entire team, Phipps said.
"This is one team, and nobody's a silo. I think it can really make an impact to remind everyone that they're all here for one customer - it's about working safely, on time and on budget," she said.
Phipps reiterated that she believes this anti-siloing effort must be adopted by everyone from the front-line workforce to C-suite executives "or even higher."
"That top-down, unified vision or goal should be something that is shared consistently and applies to everyone, from your in-house people, to all of the departments that are involved in the team, all the way down to contractors you bring on-site for a few weeks," she said.
Megan Bleckinger, turnaround manager for Chevron, shared that her teams have adopted "Competitive. Predictable. Together." as their slogan to accentuate the "one team" mentality.
"Another key message to keep in mind when we're thinking about silos is ownership," Bleckinger said. "We have a turnaround team to make sure that they are fully engaged, understand the risk, own the resources, own the readiness and own the scope of the turnaround. That drives the culture you need to build in the refinery in order to break down silos."
Another point, Bleckinger recommended, is building business plans that are truly aligned, with everyone working toward the same goal.
"Strategy, execution, tactical, alignment - these are so important," she said. "For example, we have ideas that come from the center that are great and well-intentioned ideas, but the timing is questionable and there's no budget. So, you have to get to the point where your business plans are all pointing in the same direction."
Have fun
Heith Robey, turnaround leader for Celanese, said the "turnaround mindset" must be shifted toward understanding that the turnaround is the top business priority.
"It's important to every single aspect of the business," he said. "We involve the supply chain and all the different functions that are typically not directly involved in the turnaround to make sure we engage both the production and economic drivers of why we do some of the stuff we do."
That helps ensure, Robey said, each of the teams is interacting and integrating all the way up through the entire organization. As a turnaround manager, he said the ability to measure turnaround performance and results is essential.
"When we go through planning and everything else, perception is your opinion," Robey said. "If you don't have the numbers to back it up, [perception] doesn't mean much."
At Celanese, Robey explained that part of the elimination of a silos strategy is being able to measure in the planning, scheduling, execution and post aspects - "how our performance is, where we are at and knowing where we are."
Robey referred to a message posted on a board in his conference room that says, "It's not a funeral; it's a turnaround."
"Have fun. Enjoy what you do, because if you're not enjoying it, you're not going to do it well," Robey said.
