Unplanned downtime is no longer just a nuisance – it’s a serious threat to the business. For manufacturers, particularly in the process industry, every hour of idle time translates into lost revenue, operational inefficiencies, and safety risks, and these costs are only getting worse. According to a report from 2024, the world’s 500 largest industrial companies now lose $1.4 trillion annually due to unplanned downtime – that’s 11% of their revenue. In some sectors, a single hour of downtime costs over $2 million. In an industry where turnarounds and shutdowns are already costly, the stakes have never been higher. So how can manufacturing leaders reduce these losses and gain control over their operations?
The Challenge: Turnarounds That Drain Time, Money & Safety
Turnarounds and shutdowns are massive undertakings – complex, costly, and often risky. Plant managers in the process industry must manage aging infrastructure, high safety expectations, and tight deadlines, often with a shrinking, less experienced workforce.
Among the most pressing challenges:
- Safety, Health, and Environmental incidents – most incidents occur during shutdowns and start-ups
- Skill gaps due to retirements and turnover resulting in personnel performing infrequent procedures without any previous experience
- Costly waiting times caused by unclear procedures and inexperienced personnel
- Pressure to reduce downtime and costs while meeting all regulatory and compliance standards
Compounding these issues, recovery from downtime is taking longer. In 2019, the average time to restore production after a downtime incident was 49 minutes. Today, that figure has climbed to a staggering 81 minutes. Several factors are at play: the post-COVID ‘Great Resignation’ drained many organizations of experienced operations personnel, while global supply chain issues make it harder to quickly source replacement parts.
While many companies invest in predictive maintenance and condition monitoring, these tools don’t fully address one critical factor: the human element. Many manufacturing tasks are still highly manual and reliant on operators and maintenance personell. Plants often depend on just a handful of people who know how to respond to process upsets correctly. But without competent, confident operators, technology alone won’t eliminate the risk.
How Voovio helps streamline Maintenance
Voovio helps manufacturers minimize the risk, cost, and disruption of turnarounds and shutdowns by focusing on the people executing the work.
Response to unplanned downtime or executing Turnarounds on-time are often dependent on a few experienced individuals, Voovio’s Digital SME ecosystem offers a smarter, system-based approach to ensuring frontline personnel are knowledgeable. It captures and preserves the critical knowledge of subject matter experts, making it accessible to frontline workers anytime, anywhere. The result is a consistent, scalable way to prepare teams for complex shutdowns, regardless of workforce turnover or experience levels.
Here’s how Voovio helps:
Toolbox & Isolation Support: Voovio ensures proper isolation and clearing procedures are followed, helping prevent environmental spills and costly fines.
Refresher Training: Operators can train and re-train on shutdowns, isolations, and start-ups for complex or infrequent systems in a safe, virtual environment—reducing errors and mitigating SHE risks.
Competency Assessment: Supervisors can validate an operator’s readiness by assigning critical tasks, minimizing risk.
Step-by-Step Execution: Voovio’s Field Execution Tool (FET) provides clear, visual guidance in the field using real images of equipment, ensuring proper execution of tasks like lock-outs, confined space entries, and line breaks.
The Impact: Safer, Smarter, and More Efficient Maintenance
Customers using Voovio significantly raise workforce competency, expand the pool of qualified operators who can safely isolate equipment and execute shutdown and startup procedures, eliminating costly delays caused by waiting on a few experts.
They report clear, measurable improvements across maintenance operations, including:
- Fewer maintenance-related incidents during shutdowns and start-ups
- Shorter turnaround durations and fewer hours lost to unplanned downtime
- Greater confidence and consistency among operators performing critical tasks
- Reduced reliance on tribal knowledge and outdated paper-based SOPs
Adopted by leaders like Dow and Chevron Phillips, Voovio has proven to be more than just a training tool but a critical enabler for safer execution, lower operational risk, and faster return to productivity—helping you cut downtime, reduce costs, and protect both your people and your bottom line.
Case Study: Oil Refinery Fort McMurray – Alberta, Canada
Challenge
Operators struggled with emergency compressor startups, especially during turnarounds. Frequent shutdowns led to production cuts, and operators relied heavily on the Operations Coordinator due to limited procedure knowledge.
How Voovio helped
Voovio simulated 13 critical procedures for their compressor, enabling operators to review and practice startups independently using procedure simulators.
Impact
Following a turnaround, operators successfully restarted the compressor without Coordinator support, avoiding production loss and reducing downtime. The solution was funded through the site’s operating expense budget.
Ready to boost your maintenance performance?
Contact us today to learn more about our maintenance solutions and see how Voovio can help your team work smarter, safer, and more efficiently.
