It’s that time of year again, the first cool front of the fall blows through, the leaves on plants begin to change color, but most importantly it’s the beginning of fall outage season. Many facilities across the South choose to hold their turnarounds or outages in the fall months and spring as the weather is generally more pleasant than that of the brutal heat associated with the summer months.
Depending on the industry that you’re talking about, turnarounds may also be called outages or shutdowns; however, they all generally refer to the same thing. Essentially, a turnaround is a scheduled event where the facility shuts down to perform maintenance, repairs, overhauls, upgrades, or other construction-related activities during a specified time. In some cases, this can be as little as a few days, in others, it may be over a year. Regardless of the time frame or industry, outages are an important part of production, reliability, and safety.