In many seasonal industrial plants, the asset does not behave like it does in a traditional continuous operation. For just over three months, the facility enters an extreme operating regime: 24/7 operation, high thermal loads, rapid decision-making, and zero tolerance for failure. Then, almost without transition, everything stops. The plant falls silent and another cycle begins, just as critical, though far less visible: preventive maintenance, deep inspections, and lay-up.
The key question is not how to produce during those 100 days. That is usually already solved.
The real question is how the asset’s value is protected when it is not producing, and how we ensure that, once restarted, the plant responds as if it had never stopped.
In this type of operation, maintenance is not a support function for production; it is a business enabler. Every off-season decision defines the reliability of the next campaign. The cost of a poor decision made during this period does not appear immediately, it is paid later through lost hours, energy overruns, operational instability, and elevated risk when the plant is already at full load.
Here, lay-up stops being a checklist and becomes a strategic discipline. It is not only about draining, cleaning, or corrosion protection. It is about managing asset aging, controlling silent degradation, and sustaining operational knowledge, even while the plant is shut down.
Organizations that mature in this model shift their focus. They move from “preparing the plant to start” toward leading the full asset lifecycle, designing the next season from the very last day of operation. They evolve from generic maintenance plans to strategies based on risk, criticality, and real intervention windows. And they stop looking only at availability to focus on protecting the CAPEX already invested and the future OPEX.
Seasonality, when well managed, is not a disadvantage. It is an opportunity. Few operations can fully stop and open their assets with time, method, and perspective. But that space only creates value when there is discipline, reliable data, and clear asset governance.
Because in short-season plants, asset management is not decided during the 100 days of continuous production.
It is defined by what we do when the plant is shut down, when no one is watching, and when every decision either builds or erodes the next campaign.
Managing seasonal assets is not just about maintaining equipment.
It is about leading systems that must perform under pressure, year after year, and ensuring that the plant does not simply restart, but restarts better than the time before.
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Joaquin Baeza V.
Maintenance, Reliability and Project Manager
Sugal Group
Chile
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