Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

mise à disposition

English translation:

handover / decommissioning

Added to glossary by Tony M
Feb 27, 2009 12:43
15 yrs ago
24 viewers *
French term

mise à disposition

French to English Tech/Engineering Petroleum Eng/Sci large-scale major plant maintenance shutdowns
(used as a countable, so also occurs as 'mises...')

I am having terrible trouble finding a satisfactory and relatively neat solution for this term, which occurs scores of times in a document of nearly 200 pages! It is all about planning and organization of major shutdowns for maintenance etc., and this particular step crops up in loads of different circumstances.

I understand what it means: "the making available" — generally, of an item of plant that is released from production in order to be made available for maintenance work (in other words, it has been rendered safe, isolated, etc.)

But I have no earthly idea how to render that succinctly in EN! Normally, I would attempt to convert this noun group into an active verb, but in the vast majority of cases here, this is simply not possible; particularly, if this noun is used as one in a whole list of other nouns, where it is simply not viable to turn them all into verb expressions.

Here is just one tiny example of where it is used, there are far too many more for me to post them all:

"Ne pas oublier les [certain items of equipment] dans les mises à disposition pour travaux"

Needless to say, I have thoroughly searched the KudoZ archives, but none of the solutions so far proposed seem to me usable in the specific contexts I have. It is very clear that it is the actual act of making available that is being referred to specifically, so merely 'availability' etc. simply won't work.

I have just been toying with the idea of 'hand-over' — what do others think of that, and can anyone confirm whether this would be the right sort of jargon to use in the petrochemical industry?
Change log

Mar 13, 2009 12:52: Tony M changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/14723">Tony M's</a> old entry - "mise à disposition"" to ""handover""

Discussion

Mark Bossanyi Mar 13, 2009:
I see your problem In my book, decommissioning means final withdrawal from operation, not just temporary. Or have I got it completely wrong?
MatthewLaSon Mar 13, 2009:
I see your point ,Tony. I am really confused. There's another word used for "decommissioning" in French. But, I have never seen "mises à dispositions" to mean just that.
Tony M (asker) Mar 13, 2009:
Footnote...

Having carefully adopted 'handover' throughout my text (several scores of occurrences!), I have just heard back from the customer that their preferred term is 'decommissioning' — a term I was avoiding, since it also occurs in a list with 'mise à disposition'. It's their problem now, but I hate to think when they get to that point and find: "...decommissioning, and decommissioning..."
MatthewLaSon Mar 9, 2009:
I see your point, and it may well turn out that "handover" is best, but I'm just not totally convinced. To me, "handover" is more than just "mises à disposition", but again, this may be the closest way to express this *naturally* in English. Also, I don't how "handover" is a concrete step in a process. It requires a series of steps to make everything "available and ready"


I'm going to do more research later for fun. Have a nice day or evening!
Tony M (asker) Mar 9, 2009:
... Thanks, Alex, for your explanations.

I think in this particular type of technical context, 'handover' has become accepted as a technical term, with a meaning that is a lot more formal than in the everyday, layman's usage that Matthew seems to be more familiar with.
MatthewLaSon Mar 9, 2009:
Thanks. I see your point, but I'm still not real comfortable with it.
Bourth (X) Mar 9, 2009:
You could, Matthew, but it would be irresponsible for you to do so. "Handover" implies readiness and a fitness for purpose. You hand plant over for maintenance only when it is safe, and it is handed back only when it will work safely/for the expected time
MatthewLaSon Mar 9, 2009:
Thank you, but I still don't know how you get "handover" out of that. I can hand over something without it being readily available for maintenance work.
Tony M (asker) Mar 9, 2009:
200 pages later... I've just come across this helpful definition of the term, which rather confirms what has already been said here:

"La mise à disposition de l’unité consiste à réaliser toutes les opérations d’exploitation et de platinage nécessaires à l’obtention d’un état stable permettant les travaux d’arrêt avec un risque acceptable."
Celine Reau Feb 27, 2009:
une suggestion le sens de mettre à disposition est souvent de faire en sorte que les choses soient prêtes, disponibles.
Je pense qu'il faut tourner la phrase différemment.

Proposed translations

6 hrs
Selected

handover

This term, as well as pre-commissioning and commissioning, seem to be commonly used in the petrochemical industry, as shown by the two refs. below, the second one giving some explanation (in French) of these terms. However, I'm not familiar with this field and have no time to investigate further.
Note from asker:
Thanks, Dominique! I feel more and more inclined to go with this solution, and your refs. are most helpful.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks, Dominique! You have given me confidence in my original idea, also suggested earlier by Bourth within his answer; but I'm sure he won't mind my giving the points to you, especially as you were kind enough to dig out some useful refs. for me."
10 mins

disposal(s)

mettre (qch) à la disposition (de qn) = to place (sth) at (s.o.'s) disposal
I confess it is not easy to restore this precisely.
Note from asker:
That's just the problem! And sadly 'disposal' has far too much to do with 'toxic waste' etc. in my context to be advisable for use in this alternative context
Peer comment(s):

neutral MatthewLaSon : Oui, c'est bien l'idée. Il paraît qu'on parle des activités de préparation (nettoyages, vérifications, accès à tout ce qu'il faut dans l'usine pour réaliser ces travaux). Du coup, l'usine est rendue "disponsible", si on veut
1 day 6 hrs
Something went wrong...
17 mins

allocation?

suggestion
Note from asker:
Thanks, Mimi! I can see how that would work in many situations, though I think in my context it would tend to lead to confusion with other uses of the term 'allocation'
Something went wrong...
31 mins

to provide, to make available

in fact there are many ways to say it.
It depends on the context.

"L’horizon des besoins prévisionnels mis à disposition est compatible"
"The timeframe for the forecast requirements made available is compatible"
Note from asker:
Yes, but that's exactly my problem: I am looking specifically for a noun to express the very specific idea
Peer comment(s):

neutral MatthewLaSon : Oui, vous avez la bonne idée ici, mais ce n'est pas comme cela que je l'exprimerais en anglais. Àmha, c'est plus naturellement ce qu'on appelle "preparation activities". Sorry for all the comment changes (this is a tough one).
12 hrs
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1 hr

permit-to-work

In power generation plants, A permit-to-work is issued to maintenance staff to certify that the section of the installation on which they are to carry out maintenance work has been made safe (switched off, etc).
Note from asker:
Thanks, Mark! As it turns out, this is a quite different concept here; I also have 'permits to work' as a separate thing; this seems to encompass the whole activity of making the plant ready to be worked on.
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+1
1 hr

locking/tagging out, outage

Might any of these work?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2009-02-27 14:16:21 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Possibly qualified as work, system, or component outage, etc.

regardless of whether there was a scheduled "WORK OUTAGE" for maintenance because, as you said, they were already at a point of failure. ...
www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTE...

COMPONENT AND SYSTEM OUTAGES due to maintenance or testing are analysed and grouped in a number of basic events based on the similar impact on the system ...
www-ansn.iaea.org/File/IAEA/Training/.../IV%203_5%20Reliability%20Data%20Analysis(coment1).ppt

Or handover as you suggest
:
Supervision of plant SHUTDOWN / section of plant and HANDOVER for maintenance as per SOP. • To carry out “HAZOP” & “Job Safety Analysis” and to ensure that ...
www.gulfoilandgas.com/webpro1/Jobs/CV.asp?id=3045420

ISOLATE laboratory equipment PRIOR TO HANDOVER for maintenance to ensure that the MAINTENANCE WORK CAN BE CARRIED OUT SAFELY by a person(s) other than ...
www.uws.edu.au/download.php?file_id=10401&filename=UWSLabor...
Note from asker:
Thanks, Alex! In fact, the 'locking-out' is mentioned as being just one part of the process that is described overall as 'une mise à disposition' — it is very definitely being regarded as a specific step or action, not just a vague concept.
Peer comment(s):

agree B D Finch : Agree with "handover for maintenance" (your 4th bite of the cherry). Outage is too much about the negative aspect of it being unavailable for production.
2 hrs
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+2
40 mins

Release

How about this? It can be used as a noun or verb as necessary.

When releasing the facility for maintenence...
The release of the facility for maintenence...
Release the facility for maintenence...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2009-02-27 16:11:51 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

You can now see why I have all possible variant spellings of maintenance in my Word auto-correct spelling dictionary :)
Note from asker:
Thanks, Terry! This is a definite contender, but not the answer I eventually chose, since there were certain places where it sat rather awkwardly.
Peer comment(s):

agree Emma Paulay : I like this idea. It certainly covers the two different meanings of "misad" in the companies I've worked for.
53 mins
agree Hattie Hill : agree.
1 hr
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9 hrs

deactivation / shutdown (for maintenance)

"deactivated for maintenance" seems to be ubiquitous enough, and so is "maintenance shutdowns".
Note from asker:
Thanks, Francis! One of the problems I have is that 'shut down' is a distinct, other process, which comes before 'la mise à disposition'
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15 hrs
French term (edited): mises à disposition

accessible property (of the plant which includes rooms, equipment, etc)

Hello,

I think they are just talking about plant property made accessible to maintenance workers (rooms, equipment, etc).

In your example sentence, this equipment is included as part of the accessible property. They obviously don't have access to every place and thing in the plant ("property" is vague and includes rooms, equipment, certain materials, etc)

I have limited context before me, but "handover" sounds contextually inappropriate. I highly doubt we'd call it that. It implies that you are giving it to someone and not getting it back.

I hope this helps.
Note from asker:
It's not really talking about 'property' as such, I don't think, Matt — it's all about the ACTION of making this plant (whatever it is, though this is all big, industrial stuff!) available
However, so sorry, I rudely forgot to thank you for your contribution to our little brainstorming party! :-)
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16 hrs

requisition

Try it. Claiming a resource for some purpose is essentially the same as making it available for that purpose.
Note from asker:
Thanks, Bob! The problem I foresee is that this seems more than anything to be viewed from the position of the GIVER; i.e. the plant's operators have to perform this 'mise à disposition' to the contractors who will be doing the work (not the other way round).
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5 days

is included in the resource availability list (ensure availability of rooms, equipment)

Hello,

My try...
Note from asker:
a
(2nd attempt!) Again, thanks Matt, but I think we're getting too far away here from a concrete step in a process...
Something went wrong...
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