Maintenance software for industry: turnarounds, inspections and downtime in one system.
In the process industries, the next shutdown and the inspection deadlines shape the maintenance year. TimeQeeper puts turnaround planning, statutory inspections, permits to work and drawings on the same assets, so you can see well ahead of the shutdown what is coming and what is still open.
Where maintenance gets tight in the process industries.
A plant runs for months or years at a stretch, and much of the work can only be done once it is down. Whatever you failed to record along the way lands on the table in those few weeks.
The work list keeps growing until the shutdown
Work for the turnaround comes from notifications, inspections, statutory examinations, projects and the punch list from last time, often each in its own spreadsheet. A job that turns up late usually has no work pack, materials or crew yet. That is where the overrun starts.
Inspection dates that come into view too late
Re-inspecting a pressure vessel often means an internal examination, and so downtime, cleaning and scaffolding. If the final date sits only on the last certificate or in one colleague's diary, it no longer fits the shutdown that has just been fixed.
Findings left lying after start-up
After start-up, reports trickle in from the inspector, the inspection body and the contractors, often into one person's inbox. By then the plant is running again. Whatever does not become a notification straight away, you will read again at the next shutdown.
Turnaround planning, inspections and permits that connect.
Each part also works on its own. In a process plant the gain is in how they connect: the inspection is on the schedule, the permit with the work order and the drawing with the asset.
Turnaround planning on the critical path
Put the turnaround work in a project and plan it on a project board, between the first and last day of the shutdown. With dependencies between work orders you see the critical path and the slack. Capacity per crew sits below the timeline, and the S-curve sets earned hours against the plan.
Explore the planning moduleInspections as a round on the asset
An inspection becomes a calendar round on the pressure vessel, the crane or the main switchboard, with the interval that applies to it. For each round you set how many days ahead the work order is ready, and its status shows on schedule, due soon or overdue. The certificate goes on the asset as a document.
See PM plans and roundsPermits with gas measurements and signatures
The permit is attached to the work order and records what has to be made safe: LOTOC, gas measurements, a fire watch or manhole watch. Requester, issuer, provider and holder each sign for their part. You can require a task risk assessment and a co-signer for high-risk work, and hold back work that needs a permit until that permit is valid.
About permits to workTag numbers on P&IDs linked to assets
TimeQeeper recognises KKS codes or your own tag numbers on drawings and P&IDs and links them to the asset. The work order lists the asset's drawings, and each opens in the right place. When a new revision arrives, you see which codes moved or changed and which open work orders that touches.
See document managementSeeing what stops when a utility fails
The plant flow shows which asset feeds which, for example with steam, compressed air or cooling water, so you can follow the chain behind a compressor or cooling water pump. Every notification carries a stop impact: no stop, machine stopped or line stopped. That feeds into the assessment.
See asset managementInspection reports turned into action points
Have an inspection report read in, scans included. AI proposes action points, each with its severity, where it was found and the quote from the report, and you accept or reject each one. An accepted point can become a notification straight away, and anything that was also in an earlier report gets a marker.
See contractor reportsA turnaround, from first work list to start-up.
An example of a three-week shutdown. On a short shutdown, everything moves closer to the start date.
- 1
A year out: collecting the work
You create a project for the shutdown and a project board to go with it. The backlog shows the open work orders that have no project yet; anything that needs the plant down, you drag into the project. Inspections due in that period go in from the start.
- 2
Six months out: freezing the scope
You challenge each job: does it have to be in this shutdown, and can it be ready in time? Parts go on the work order as components. Anything with a long lead time has already been requested through Purchasing, and the delivery is received against the order.
- 3
The final weeks: sequence and permits
On the board you link the work orders in the order they run: shut down, scaffold, inspect, repair, close up, test. The critical path shows where there is no room and the capacity panel where a crew is overbooked. Permits are prepared per work order.
- 4
During the shutdown: where things stand each day
Whatever is found comes in as a notification and, once decided, becomes a work order in the project. The S-curve shows how far execution is ahead or behind, and the critical path whether that needs action today.
- 5
After start-up: closing out and recording
The inspector's report is read in and you assess the proposed points next to the quote. The certificate goes on the asset, and completing the work order moves the inspection round on to the next cycle.
The open points from this shutdown are then already there when you start the work list for the next one.
Questions from industry
Which statutory inspections come up most in a process plant?
In the Netherlands, designated pressure equipment falls under the Pressure Equipment Decree 2016 and goes to a designated conformity assessment body or an approved user inspectorate. A crane with a working load from 2 tonnes goes to a competent person every year. Other work equipment falls under article 7.4a of the Working Conditions Decree, which sets no fixed interval: the inspection has to safeguard its condition. There is an overview in statutory inspections.
How often must a pressure vessel be re-inspected, and what if that does not fit the shutdown?
The Dutch pressure equipment regulation sets 4 years for pressure vessels and 2 years for fired or heated equipment with a risk of overheating; under certain conditions it can be longer. The period for your equipment is on its latest certificate. If the re-inspection does not fit the shutdown, the inspection body can, for special reasons, let the re-inspection year run over by at most 6 months. So put the date on the asset as a round, and have that conversation in good time.
Our site falls under the Seveso rules. How does this fit our safety management system?
Annex III of the Seveso Directive lists, among other things, maintenance procedures, managing the risks of ageing equipment and corrosion, and an inventory of equipment. In the Netherlands, article 4.11 of the Environmental Activities Decree (Bal) refers to that annex; the former Brzo 2015 lapsed on 1 January 2024. The asset register, condition classes and preventive rounds supply the records for this. The safety management system itself remains your organisation's own.
Can we plan the shutdown if our work orders live in another maintenance system?
Yes. The planning module then runs next to your current system. You load the export, an Excel or CSV file of at most 100,000 rows, and get a separate planning board per shutdown with hold points for permits, inspections and materials. With a new export you see first what has changed, and what you planned yourself stays in place. You then export the plan back in the same columns as your source file.
Does this also work for sites in Belgium?
The setup does; the rules differ. In Belgium an employer must in certain cases use an approved external technical inspection service, for example for lifts, aerial work platforms, electrical installations and steam equipment. You record per round which interval applies and who carries out the inspection, so you work to the rules of your own site.
Where do you start in an existing plant?
With whatever stops or falls due for inspection first: one process unit, the assets subject to inspection and the spare parts that go with them. We take over your existing asset list from Excel during setup. The rest of the site follows unit by unit, and for the next shutdown the planning module can already run on the export from your current system.
Ready for more control over your maintenance?
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