Tracking site shutdown readiness in Jira instead of spreadsheets

The challenge

Talison Lithium has produced lithium at Greenbushes, in Western Australia, since 1983. It runs several site shutdowns a year and managed each one with its own Excel tracker. That worked, but it left room to improve.

Talison wanted to consolidate shutdown tracking into one scalable system: a single view of every shutdown, with collaborative planning, real-time updates and better audit tracking. The system also had to refine how shutdown readiness is calculated, and stay maintainable for current operations and future growth.

Our approach

We analysed Talison's shutdown processes, schedules and meetings and how the team used Excel, to find the areas that most needed improving. We worked through the many types of shutdown task and their effect on each project's critical path, so nothing was lost in the move from Excel to Jira.

We configured custom Jira projects and issue types for all the tasks involved in tracking a shutdown. The shutdown team is always busy, so ease of use was critical: Jira automation makes creating a shutdown and updating its status as simple as possible, and we balanced how much data people enter against the value the system gives back.

Review and approval gates and automated reporting run inside Jira, with printable reports for local planning. Third-party apps give the real-time, Excel-style graphs and charts the team was used to. Training was pitched at each group's technical skills so no one was left behind.

The outcome

Talison now plans its monthly shutdowns in Jira, with tracking and capacity planning across all its plants.

Real-time data and a single source of truth in Jira support better decisions for everyone on the team. The system shows bottlenecks and common issues, which feeds continuous improvement of the shutdown process.

The move to Jira has saved time and money, and shutdown teams find it easier to use.