Nuclear Plant Journal Outage Management ... - Digital Versions

Benchmarking to High Standards
By Margie P. Jepson, Entergy Nuclear.
Planning and
Performance
Ask James Hoffpauir what outage
management means after nearly 30 years
with Entergy and he will pause, lean back
in his chair and say, “It all starts with
benchmarking your performance to the
very best in the industry.”
Hoffpauir, director of outage and
work management for Entergy’s fleet
of 12 reactors that they operate, has a
veteran’s eye for outage performance.
“We look at the industry’s best marks
per segment of an outage and then look
at the plant’s best performance. The delta
– the difference between those marks
– is where we focus,” he stated. “We
have high impact teams that meet often,
identify issues, develop action plans and
know that execution depends on a well
prepared and detailed plan. That includes
contingency planning.”
The other part of benchmarking
for Entergy facilities comes in sharing
information at the peer group level.
This has been a critical element of the
company’s success and is a valued
resource for outage managers. “We learn
a lot from each other and support each
site in various ways. It is the Entergy
management philosophy that we better
ourselves through active learning from
peers,” Hoffpauir comments. That’s where
the Entergy Continuous Improvement
program comes into play.
The Entergy Continuous Improvement
program has a high level of involvement
across all staff levels and is
constantly evaluating work processes and
asking questions – how can we do this
better, more efficiently or eliminate unneeded
work.
Staffing Gets the Focus
The significant improvement across
the fleet, from Entergy’s perspective,
has been the focus on in-processing of
personnel for outages. Entergy Vice
President for Operations Support, Russ
William Russell Brian
William Russell Brian is vice president
of operations support for Entergy
Nuclear serving in this role since
April 2008. Brian is responsible for
providing strategic direction and
oversight to Entergy’s nuclear safety and
licensing, training, security, information
technology, human performance and
industrial safety and the outage and
work management functions.
Brian obtained a senior reactor operator
certifi cation at River Bend Station
and completed the plant management
certifi cation course at Waterford-3. He
received his bachelor’s degree in nuclear
engineering from the University of
Missouri-Rolla.
Brian has been a member of the
American Nuclear Society since 1976.
Brian, led an effort to improve inprocessing
and scheduling of contractors
noting the challenges of those new-tonuclear.
In working with Brian, Hoffpauir
reported that the new to nuclear people
now come in earlier to ensure they are
security-cleared and trained so that in
processing is executed to match resource
needs more efficiently. This change
and the new attention to this aspect of
outage management have made a big
difference.”
James G. Hoffpauir
James G. Hoffpauir is the director of
outage and workforce management.
He reviews preparations and works
with site outage managers across
the Entergy Nuclear fl eet. He has
been in this role since 2001. Prior to
serving in the fl eet role, Hoffpauir has
worked as operations manager, outage
manager and maintenance manager
at Entergy’s Waterford 3 facility in
Killona, Louisiana, for 21 years and at
the Arkansas Nuclear One facility in
Russellville, Ark., for more than nine
years.
As with all nuclear plants, it is
important to work with vendors to put a
priority on getting returning workers to
your site during an outage. With craft
and other workers this is always not
possible and puts additional emphasis on
managing and monitoring performance
levels of personnel.
The Fleet Advantage –
Teamwork
In over 20 years at Entergy’s
Waterford 3 plant and more than nine
26 www.nuclearplantjournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2009