Internet Case Study: Shale Oil Company The Shale Oil Company contains several operating units that comprise its Aston, Ohio, manufactuning complex. These units process the crude oil that is pumped through and transform it into a multitude of hydrocarbon products. The units run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and must be shut down for maintenance on a pre-determined schedule. One such unit is Distillation Unit No. 5, or DU5. Studies have shown that DU 5 can operate only 3.5 years without major equipment breakdowns and excessive loss of efficiency. Therefore, DUS is shut down every 3.5 years for cleaning, inspection, and repairs. DU5 is the only distillation unit for crude oil in the Aston complex, and its shut down severely affects all other operating units. Some of the production can be compensated by Shale refineries in other locations, but the rest must be processed before the shutdown and stored. Without proper planning, a nationwide shortage of Shale gasoline could occur. The timing of DUS's shutdown is critical, and the length of time the unit is down must be kept to a minimum to limit production loss. Shale uses PERT as a planning and controlling tool to minimize shut-down time. The preventive maintenance for DU5 is as follows. Determ ine the expected shutdown time and the probability the shutdown can be completed one day, two days, three days, four days, five days, six days, or seven days earlier? Shale oil is considering increasing the budget to shorten the shutdown. How do you suggest the company proceed? 7. Inspect instrumentation 8. Irspect vessels and columns 9. Inspect heat exchanger shells 10. Inspect tube bundles 11. Inspect furnaces 12. Retube fumaces 13. Inspect mecharical equipment 14. Install new pump mecharical seals 15. Repair instrumentation 16. Ropair vessels and columins 17. Repair heat exchanger shelle 18. Reprir tube bundles, retube 19. Repir fumaces 20. Repuir mecharical equipment 21. Test and close vessels and columus 22. Install tube bundles into heat exchanger shells 23. Test and close heat exchangers 24. Test and close fumaces 25. Test aud close mecharical equipensit 2 1 1 1 2 15 1 \\( \\frac{1}{3} \\) 3 14 2 5 10 4 1 \\( \\div 1 \\) i 4 5 2 15 15 25 20 1.5 5 8 21 5 5 10 15 5 2. 2 3 2 3 2 4 2 4 5 5 6 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 16 18 17,22 12,19 14.20 26. Test instrumentabon 27. Pull binde 28. Purge all equipentent with steam 29. Stat up unit \\( \\begin{array}{cccc}2 & 4 & 6 & 15 \\\\ 15 & 2 & 25 & 21,23,24,25 \\\\ 1 & 3 & 5 & 27 \\\\ 3 & 5 & 10 & 28\\end{array} \\)