Managing a shutdown-a longitudinal study

Prior to 1979, the annual maintenance shutdowns at the Sundance Thermal Generating Plant were handled entirely by external specialized contractors. In 1980, however, the plant staff assumed project management control of the shutdowns, using the contractors as subcontractors. Initially working with a training consultant, the plant crew started with short planning sessions and manually updated critical path method (CPM) networks. Over the next four years, the project management methods quickly advanced to a simple computer critical path on a time-share system, and then to a complex resource balanced program on a dedicated VAX. By this time, most of the contractors had been replaced by locally hired tradespeople who were directly managed by the plant staff. The consultant left the project in 1984 and the maintenance staff took over the training and development tasks. Seven years later, in 1992, the project management system was observed, evaluated, and compared against the original 1979 objectives. The lessons learned are presented.<>