Harvey hit our refinery in Corpus Christi as a Category 4 hurricane. Following the storm, we set up an Emergency Operating Center, and began the process of damage assessment, repair, walk downs, and restart.
Each of our 70 process units required a methodical set of steps to determine that it was safe to restart. We then had to manage the restart itself, which included landing 15 megawatts of temporary generator power.
Based on concepts learned from you, we employed Visual Management in a way we had never done before. We set up a “War Room” where we had routine update meetings, and had several visual boards so that we could easily see the status of various activities and the current constraints.
I’m convinced that without the employment of visual management, it would have taken us significantly longer to restart the refinery. As it turned out, we were the first gulf coast refinery that had been shut down as a result of the hurricane to be back up and serving the needs of the community.
