Conditions change very quickly during a turnaround. Sometimes schedules become obsolete almost as soon as they are issued (due to safety, equipment and manpower availability, inspections, etc.). Because of this, project scheduling should be an ongoing process every shift, and reissued to the field at least once every day.

You should examine your updated schedules for significant changes with respect to the previous (or original) schedule. A few questions you should ask:

• Has the mechanical completion (or start-up) date slipped?
• If yes, then by how much? Is the slippage significant?
• Can the slippage be averted (overcome)?
• Has the critical path changed?
• Did critical mass develop? If yes, in which area?
• Is the float / slack for all other activities realistic?
• Should other activities appear on the Shift Schedule?
• Is the overall work flow continuous, without major fluctuations in manpower?

Any major deviations from the schedule should be carefully analyzed, and the logic changed where necessary, to ensure that the desired time objectives can be met.

This updating / re-scheduling has to take place before the start of the next shift, so that any changes (in manpower or priority) can be made before the next shift begins. This means that reporting progress should start sometime before the end of the previous shift (usually about two hours before the shift end). This may provide enough time for disseminating all required and recommended reports at shift change.

A time gap between shifts is usually sufficient for complete manual distribution. If there is no gap between shifts (as is in the case of two twelve-hour shifts per day), then updating and reporting should start much earlier, perhaps three to four hours before shift end, depending on the volume of work and number of copies involved. The size of the schedule, and the number of Lap Books issued will usually determine how much time is needed for updating and reporting.