From the end of April to the end of May 2025, one of the largest operators at the Leuna chemical park carried out the largest turnaround in the recent history of its site: over 1,000 work hold points, a budget in the high single-digit millions of euros, and engineering, operations, planning and contractor companies in the plant at the same time. ep-cm managed the turnaround, and I was there as turnaround manager. The outcome: no accidents, schedule and budget met – despite rising prices.
A turnaround of this size is never routine. Even with a lot of experience, every one is unique. So this is not a success story, but a look at what made this shutdown plannable.
The starting point: the operator wanted to break new ground
The collaboration began in mid-2024 with a pilot project. The site’s head of engineering had brought us in for planning services on projects. This led to the contract for the turnaround – with a clear ambition: plan in more depth than before, coordinate the work across the whole site, reorganise contract awarding and step up safety once more.
Behind this lay a long-term goal. The plants ran in 18-month cycles. These cycles were to become longer – meaning fewer shutdowns and higher availability. An ambitious goal, but a realistic one. The 2025 turnaround was to lay the foundation for it.
What made the shutdown plannable
A reliable cost estimate from the start
It was the first turnaround at the site with a reliable cost estimate from the outset. That pays off twice: decisions about the scope are made on a firm basis, and deviations become visible while there is still time to take corrective action. This is also why the budget held in the end.
Fewer main contractors, more closely involved
Previous shutdowns involved a large number of partner companies. This time the operator bundled many tasks and worked with a few main contractors who were closely involved from the start. The contracting strategy determines how many interfaces there are in execution. Every interface fewer is one less coordination that has to succeed under time pressure. The main contractor brought calm and structure – the head of engineering described exactly that as a major gain.
A plan that reckons with reality
A job that normally takes one day often takes two and a half in a turnaround – purely because of coordination, mutual dependencies and work permits.
This friction can never be avoided entirely with so many trades. But it can be planned for. The basis was a detailed sequence plan: the jobs were prepared as work packages, scheduling mapped the dependencies – and the crew in the plant knew what mattered.
Safety and quality deliberately strengthened
The operator deliberately invested more in safety and quality. Everyone working on site went through “Safety Customs” – a check at the turnstile of whether all the necessary knowledge was in place or retraining was needed. For flanges there was newly introduced quality management aimed at conformity with standards: tightening torques, material selection and other quality parameters were systematically checked. On top of this came spot checks and regular site walks.
Two moments from execution
The largest single project was the renewal of the stack of the sulphuric acid plant: a lot of volume, a lot of technology and a real risk from wind loads during work at height. It went very well – an example of how even major interventions can be carried out in a controlled way.
The second example was not planned. A heat exchanger in the cumene plant had to be replaced at short notice. Good coordination and quick decisions resolved this safely. That too is part of a good plan: it leaves room for what only becomes visible during the shutdown.
The next step: longer cycles
During the shutdown, extensive photographic documentation of the equipment was produced. For the first time, this gave a clear view of its condition. From this it was possible to derive which components would still run properly in two years and which should be replaced earlier.
The next phase was to build on this: extending the maintenance cycles step by step. The path there is the same at every site: first the condition of the equipment must be known, then it is possible to decide what can wait until the next shutdown. This requires close alignment with production – early and with a joint plan. How well prepared an organisation already is for this can be determined in advance; that is why we developed the TAR-Check.
Thank you
A turnaround is never a foregone conclusion. It succeeds when everyone works together when it counts – engineering, operations, planning and contractor companies. That was evident everywhere in Leuna. My thanks go to everyone who contributed, from the first planning sketch to the last shift in the plant, and to the operator’s team for their trust.