Channelview Site Claims Top Honor

“For a large industrial facility like ours, a major accomplishment is avoiding downtime,” said Christopher Ryan, reliability engineering manager of the award-winning facility. “On an annual basis, we are able to avoid unplanned downtime by about 3 to 5 percent on average. Because we perform major scheduled maintenance in the form of turnarounds on a set schedule, we need to operate safely and reliably between these turnarounds.”  

Channelview joined 84 companies in submitting entries. Each company received a one day, on site assessment visit from the Emerson team before the final four companies were chosen. Finalists were judged on an integrated maintenance philosophy, documented return on investment, effective work process flows, effective use of technologies and good communications.

“We have 2,000 acres, more than 600 employees and over 77,000 pieces of equipment,” said Ryan. “Our mission is to provide engineering and maintenance to the site and to proactively maintain all of the assets to achieve equipment reliability. We don’t treat reliability as just our department. It’s a team function with operations, maintenance and reliability all involved.”

Reliability has continued to increase at the plant with one unit rising from 93.26 percent in 2011 to 99.49 percent in 2013. The Channelview Complex also saved operations and maintenance 5 to 10 percent over the past three years while producing more than 15 percent savings.

Media Contact: Scott Buchman O: 281-862-4485 C: 281-660-6856 - Scott.Buchman@lyondellbasell.com