Prepare

Purpose

Convert the approved plan into verified execution readiness by securing people, materials, facilities, permits, isolations, logistics and organisational acceptance.

Scope

Procurement and material readiness control
Workforce, contractor, competency and mobilisation readiness
Work fronts, laydown, access and site logistics
Isolation and permit plan finalisation
Work-pack readiness review and schedule/resource simulation
Communication and control routines, final go/no-go review

Phase Gate

Every phase closes at a formal phase gate. Work may proceed to the next phase only when the accountable authority accepts the required outputs, the outstanding conditions and the residual risks. The gate is a decision, not a formality — an unaccepted gate means the event is not ready to move on.

Process Steps

01
Control Procurement and Material Readiness
Intent
Ensure every required material is correct, available, protected and associated with its work order before execution.
Inputs
- Materials Requirement Register
- Purchase and repair commitments
- Approved Work Packs
- Required-on-site dates
- Warehouse and preservation standards
Actions
- Track orders, repairs and fabrication against required dates
- Verify receipt against specification and quantity
- Inspect for damage, certification and shelf-life compliance
- Resolve shortages, discrepancies and substitutions
- Reserve material against work orders
- Kit materials by job or work front
- Preserve and store items correctly
- Identify contingency and insurance spares
- Stage material at controlled locations
- Report material readiness using verified status
People
Materials Coordinator is responsible. Planner, Warehouse, Procurement, Engineering, Quality and Vendors support verification and issue resolution.
Process
Material readiness is achieved only when the item is physically available, verified, reserved and accessible.
Technology
Inventory system, CMMS, barcode or RFID tracking, procurement system and readiness dashboard.
What Good Looks Like
- Kits are complete and clearly identified
- Certifications and preservation are controlled
- Material shortages are escalated before execution
- Field teams can locate required items immediately
What Bad Looks Like
- “Purchase order placed” is reported as ready
- Parts are issued to the wrong work order
- Materials deteriorate in uncontrolled storage
- Crews queue at the warehouse during the event
Outputs
- Verified Material Readiness Register
- Completed job kits
- Shortage and substitution register
- Staging-location plan
- Material readiness approval
02
Confirm Workforce and Contractor Readiness
Intent
Ensure sufficient competent people are available, inducted, rostered and authorised to execute and supervise the work.
Inputs
- Resource-loaded schedule
- Competency requirements
- Contractor agreements
- Site access requirements
- Fatigue-management rules
- Supervision ratios and organisational plan
Actions
- Confirm personnel numbers by trade, skill and shift
- Verify licences, competencies and statutory appointments
- Confirm supervisors and span of control
- Validate contractor mobilisation plans
- Complete site, task and emergency inductions
- Confirm medical, fatigue and fitness-for-work requirements
- Establish rosters, transport and accommodation
- Identify language, literacy or accessibility support needs
- Confirm specialist and backup resources
- Resolve gaps before the readiness gate
- Publish controlled mobilisation and contact lists
People
Resource Coordinator and Contractor Manager control readiness. Supervisors verify competence. HSE, Human Resources, Security and Training support mobilisation.
Process
A person is not ready solely because a name appears on a roster. Readiness requires verified competence, access, induction, roster and assignment.
Technology
Contractor management system, learning management system, access-control system, rostering platform and competency register.
What Good Looks Like
- Every scheduled role has a competent assigned person
- Supervisory coverage is appropriate
- Access and induction are completed before mobilisation
- Fatigue risks are managed in the roster
What Bad Looks Like
- Competencies are checked at the gate on the first shift
- Supervisors are overloaded
- Unplanned substitutions arrive without verification
- Contractor workforce numbers are assumed rather than confirmed
Outputs
- Workforce Readiness Register
- Approved rosters
- Competency and access verification
- Contractor mobilisation approval
- Resource-gap action register
03
Prepare Work Fronts and Site Logistics
Intent
Establish safe and efficient physical conditions for executing the scheduled work.
Inputs
- Work-front plan
- Integrated Master Schedule
- Walk-down findings
- Material and equipment requirements
- Temporary facility requirements
- Traffic and emergency arrangements
Actions
- Define work-front boundaries and access routes
- Establish laydown, staging and waste areas
- Install temporary lighting, power, ventilation and utilities
- Prepare scaffold, lifting zones and crane access
- Establish amenities, offices and communication facilities
- Install barriers, signs and exclusion-zone controls
- Define vehicle, pedestrian and emergency routes
- Coordinate shared access and congestion controls
- Verify environmental containment and waste arrangements
- Inspect work fronts before release
- Record unresolved physical constraints
People
Logistics Coordinator is responsible. HSE, Operations, Maintenance, Security, Emergency Response, Contractors and Facilities participate.
Process
Logistics are scheduled work, not informal support. Temporary installations must be inspected, approved and included in removal planning.
Technology
Site logistics model, scheduling software, digital maps, access systems and inspection applications.
What Good Looks Like
- Work fronts are clean, accessible and clearly controlled
- Materials and equipment follow defined movement routes
- Temporary services are installed before required dates
- Emergency access remains protected
What Bad Looks Like
- Laydown areas obstruct access
- Crews wait for scaffold or lighting
- Temporary leads and hoses create uncontrolled hazards
- Waste accumulates at work fronts
Outputs
- Approved Site Logistics Plan
- Prepared work fronts
- Temporary services register
- Traffic and access plan
- Work-front constraint register
04
Finalise Isolation and Permit Plans
Intent
Ensure plant can be safely shut down, isolated, accessed, worked on, tested and returned to service.
Inputs
- Approved Work Packs
- Plant drawings and isolation procedures
- Energy-source information
- Integrated Master Schedule
- Simultaneous-operations requirements
- Commissioning sequence
Actions
- Define isolation boundaries and energy sources
- Develop shutdown and isolation sequences
- Validate isolation points in the field
- Identify common, nested and cross-boundary isolations
- Define lock, tag and permit ownership
- Define zero-energy verification methods
- Define permit types and issue sequence
- Coordinate confined-space, hot-work, excavation and electrical permits
- Define isolation modifications for testing and commissioning
- Develop controlled de-isolation sequence
- Conduct cross-functional isolation review
- Approve and issue controlled isolation plans
People
Operations owns plant isolation. Authorised isolators, Permit Officers, Maintenance, Electrical, Engineering, HSE and Commissioning validate the plan.
Process
Isolation plans must be independent of individual memory. Any change to an approved isolation is risk assessed, authorised and recorded.
Technology
Electronic permit-to-work system, isolation management system, controlled drawings and lock/tag register.
What Good Looks Like
- Isolation boundaries are verified before the event
- Permit demand and issue sequence are understood
- Testing and commissioning needs are incorporated
- Common isolations are centrally controlled
What Bad Looks Like
- Isolation points are first located during shutdown
- Different crews assume ownership of the same isolation
- Testing requires unsafe or unplanned isolation changes
- Permits become a first-shift bottleneck
Outputs
- Approved Isolation Plan
- Permit Strategy
- Isolation and permit schedule
- Zero-energy verification requirements
- De-isolation plan
05
Conduct Work-Pack Readiness Review
Intent
Verify that every scheduled job has complete, current and executable documentation and supporting resources.
Inputs
- Approved Work Packs
- Current schedule
- Materials and resource status
- Isolation and permit plans
- Engineering and vendor deliverables
- Quality and commissioning documentation
Actions
- Confirm scope and task instructions are complete
- Confirm approved drawings and specifications are attached
- Confirm materials, tools and services are available
- Confirm labour and competencies are assigned
- Confirm permits and isolations are defined
- Confirm quality records and acceptance criteria are included
- Confirm access, lifting and scaffold arrangements
- Confirm commissioning and handback requirements
- Identify packs not meeting readiness criteria
- Remove, replan or conditionally manage unready work
- Approve ready packs for controlled issue
People
Planning Lead coordinates review. Supervisors, Operations, Engineering, HSE, Quality, Materials and Commissioning confirm applicable requirements.
Process
A scheduled activity must not be declared ready based on planning percentage alone. Readiness requires evidence against every applicable criterion.
Technology
Digital work-pack system, CMMS readiness workflow, document control and readiness dashboard.
What Good Looks Like
- Supervisors can review work before mobilisation
- Readiness status is evidence based
- Unready work is visible and actively managed
- Packs contain current controlled documents
What Bad Looks Like
- Packs are printed before final review
- Missing information is expected to be resolved in the field
- Readiness is self-declared by the planner
- Unready jobs remain hidden in the schedule
Outputs
- Work-Pack Readiness Register
- Approved execution packs
- Readiness exception list
- Removed or replanned work list
- Pack issue authorisation
06
Conduct Schedule and Resource Simulation
Intent
Test whether the planned sequence, resources, work fronts and control routines can operate under realistic event conditions.
Inputs
- Integrated Master Schedule
- Approved rosters
- Work-front plan
- Isolation and permit schedule
- Logistics plan
- Critical-path report
- Contingency plan
Actions
- Walk through the event from shutdown to handback
- Test critical and near-critical path logic
- Test first-shift and shift-change requirements
- Test permit and work-front release volumes
- Test supervision, crane, scaffold and specialist-resource demand
- Test simultaneous-operations interfaces
- Test discovery and contingency response scenarios
- Test material movement and waste removal
- Test reporting cut-off and decision times
- Adjust sequence, resources and controls where weaknesses are found
- Rebaseline only through authorised change control
People
Shutdown Manager leads the simulation. Scheduler, Supervisors, Operations, HSE, Logistics, Contractors, Materials and Commissioning participate.
Process
The simulation is a structured operational review, not a presentation. Participants challenge how the schedule will work at shift level.
Technology
Scheduling software, resource dashboards, digital site maps and scenario-planning tools.
What Good Looks Like
- Bottlenecks are discovered before shutdown
- Supervisors understand sequence and interfaces
- First-shift activities are thoroughly prepared
- Contingency responses have been rehearsed
What Bad Looks Like
- Schedule review focuses only on finish date
- Resource histograms are accepted without field challenge
- Permit demand is not tested
- Shift handovers are omitted from the schedule
Outputs
- Schedule Simulation Report
- Resolved resource conflicts
- Revised control routines
- Confirmed first-shift plan
- Simulation action register
07
Finalise Communication and Control Routines
Intent
Establish how information, decisions, progress, risks and changes will be communicated during the event.
Inputs
- Governance structure
- Integrated Master Schedule
- Reporting requirements
- Stakeholder register
- Escalation pathways
- Emergency arrangements
- Shift structure
Actions
- Define daily and shift meeting cadence
- Define meeting purpose, attendees, inputs and outputs
- Define progress status and reporting cut-off times
- Define schedule update and forecast routines
- Define field escalation pathways
- Define scope-change and emergent-work workflow
- Define communications with production, leadership and external stakeholders
- Prepare standard report and handover templates
- Verify communication equipment and channels
- Brief all event leaders on control routines
- Test reporting and escalation processes
People
Shutdown Manager owns controls. Planning and Controls Lead administers reporting. Supervisors, Operations, HSE, Contractors and Communication representatives participate.
Process
Meetings exist to make decisions and remove constraints. Information must move from work front to decision authority within an established control cycle.
Technology
Event dashboard, scheduling system, collaboration platform, radios, digital forms and electronic change workflow.
What Good Looks Like
- Everyone knows when and how to report progress
- Escalations reach the correct authority quickly
- Shift handovers use one standard
- Reports use a single approved data source
What Bad Looks Like
- Multiple meetings request the same information
- Field status is based on rumours
- Decisions are made but not recorded
- Night-shift issues are lost at handover
Outputs
- Event Control Plan
- Meeting and reporting calendar
- Shift-handover standard
- Communication matrix
- Approved report templates
08
Conduct the Final Readiness and Go/No-Go Review
Intent
Make an evidence-based decision to proceed, proceed with conditions, defer or cancel the event.
Inputs
- Scope and work-pack readiness
- Material and contract readiness
- Workforce and competency readiness
- Isolation and permit readiness
- Logistics and emergency readiness
- Schedule and resource simulation
- Outstanding risks and actions
- Production and plant condition
Actions
- Review every readiness criterion
- Verify evidence supporting reported status
- Review unready work and proposed dispositions
- Review critical materials, contracts and resources
- Review plant condition and production readiness
- Review emergency, isolation and permit preparedness
- Review high and unacceptable residual risks
- Confirm authority for outstanding conditional actions
- Decide go, conditional go, defer or cancel
- Record decision, conditions, owners and due times
- Communicate the approved decision
- Authorise controlled issue of the execution baseline
People
Event Sponsor makes the business decision. Operations authorises plant shutdown. Shutdown Manager recommends event readiness. Functional leads attest to their areas.
Process
Readiness percentages do not replace judgement. Any unmet mandatory criterion must be explicitly resolved or accepted by the authorised risk owner.
Technology
Readiness dashboard, electronic approval system, risk platform, document control and event communication system.
What Good Looks Like
- Decision evidence is visible and traceable
- Conditions have owners and deadlines
- Unready scope is removed rather than hidden
- Operations and event leadership agree on readiness
What Bad Looks Like
- The event proceeds because cancellation is inconvenient
- Readiness reports are based on optimistic assumptions
- Mandatory controls remain incomplete
- Conditional actions have no owner
Outputs
- Go/No-Go Decision
- Approved conditional-action register
- Execution baseline
- Shutdown commencement authorisation
- Phase 03 Gate Approval

Key Performance Indicators

KPI	Why It Matters	How To Measure	World Class	Benchmark	Typical
Material readiness at T-4 weeks	Materials arriving during the event are the most common cause of idle crews.	Items received, inspected and kitted ÷ items required by the schedule.	>99%	>98% of scheduled items	85%
Permits and isolation plans pre-prepared	Permits written on the day queue the whole workforce at the permit office.	Pre-written permits and isolation certificates ÷ planned work fronts.	—	100% of planned work	—
Contractor mobilisation and inductions complete at T-1 week	Inducting people on day one converts execution time into administration time.	Inducted, verified personnel ÷ contracted personnel required at start.	—	100%	—
Go/No-Go review completed with documented conditions	Starting without a formal readiness verdict means unresolved gaps are discovered under time pressure.	Signed go/no-go record with actions, owners and residual risks.	—	100% of events	—