CST022

Parallel Work vs SIMOPS Control

Business ContextPerforming activities simultaneously can reduce overall construction and shutdown duration. In operating facilities, however, concurrent lifting, hot work, testing, maintenance, commissioning, and production activities can create hazardous or operationally incompatible interactions.

Brown Field Industrial Projects TRIZ ResolutionConcurrency should be based on compatibility rather than physical possibility. Activities can be separated by zone, elevation, energy state, timing, or hazard type so that compatible work proceeds in parallel while conflicting activities remain isolated.

Applicable TRIZ Principles

Principle 1 – Segmentation: divides concurrent work into controlled zones and activity groups.

Principle 19 – Periodic Action: separates incompatible activities in time.

Principle 17 – Another Dimension: uses spatial and elevation separation to enable safe concurrency.

Expected Outcome

Greater safe concurrency

Shorter execution duration

Reduced SIMOPS conflicts

Better work-front utilization

Decision IndicatorsEarly indicators that this contradiction is limiting brownfield project performance include:

Concurrent activities frequently stop one another.

SIMOPS conflicts are identified only during daily execution.

Work is scheduled simultaneously without compatibility assessment.

Exclusion zones unexpectedly eliminate adjacent work fronts.

Increased concurrency produces more interruptions than progress.

Monitoring these indicators helps organizations use parallel execution where activities are compatible without creating uncontrolled interactions.