Fire safety in Construction Industry #2

Fire Safety Steps

 Fire safety management involves five steps that begin with identification.

Identify Source of Fire

Identify ignition source

• Smoking material: Cigarettes, matches, lighters
• Bonfire
• Electrical (faulty electronic equipment, light fitting, poor electrical installations and poor practice)
• Hot work (welding)
• Heat generated by friction (disc cutter, grinder)
• Arson / sabotage

Identify fuel source

Anything that burns is fuel. Reduce material quantity on site, do not stockpile. For stock with fire hazard, balance between production need and risk of fire exposure.

Look for things that is in enough quantity to become threat (timber, rubbish, paint, thinner, LPG, acetylene)

Identify oxygen source

Construction tends to be open space so the oxygen source is abundant, but special attention must be given to oxidizing agent like oxygen used in welding process.

Identify people at Risk

We must be aware who’s working on site that day. This includes employee, contractor, visiting personnel or public in nearby premise. Pay special attention to:

• Person who work alone (security staff, heavy machinery operator)
• Person who are unfamiliar with staff and premise eg. subcontractor or visitor
• Person with language difficulties
• Pregnant or disabled employee

Evaluate, remove, and reduce risk

There are three cause of fire: accident, deliberate act, and act or omission. The first two are self explanatory. The third one, act/omission is a failure to act, sometime deliberately in the full acknowledgement of the hazard. Examples:

• Storing LPG near electrical installment
• Neglecting inspection / maintenance of high voltage electrical installation
• Piling of rubbish too close to structure

The first two categories (accident & deliberate act) can not be eliminated but proper action can greatly reduce the probability of accident and sabotage. By identifying hazard, we reduce the risk of accident waiting to happen.

Reduce source of ignition

• Provide safe smoking environment and prohibit smoking outside this environment
• Build and control fire resistant environment for hot work process (eg: field weld)
• Control electric ignition hazard (eg: temporary lighting)
• Turn off equipment when unattended

Reduce source of fuel

• When possible introduce new substance to replace flammable material.
• Don’t stock flammable material on site. Keep it at minimum level just right to support operation. Protect with a secured cage in open space.
• Control waste and rubbish to prevent built up. Clean them periodically.

Reduce source of oxygen

• In refurbished compound, close door, window, and any other openings especially outside working hour.
• Control any form of oxidizing material, oxygen cylinder, etc and keep them well ventilated.

Fire is spread by three methods. Convection is the most dangerous way fire can spread. When fire start in enclose space, the smoke gets trapped by ceiling and spread in all direction and through any hole or gaps in the wall and floor. Conduction by structural steel, pipe and any other heat conductor can cause fire when heated conductor makes contact with combustible material. Fire can also spread by radiation. Any material close to radiation source can absorb the heat and burn.

Following precautions helps increase probability of survival:

• Availability of escape route and muster point. Exit routes must be free of obstruction and properly marked.
• Fire detection and alarm
• Fire-extinguisher on site. OSHA requires educational program to familiarize workers with general principle to use fire extinguisher. Hands-on training in using the equipment must be provided.
• Fire-fighting team

OSHA’s Fire Prevention Standard of Welding and Cutting

When practical, objects to be welded, cut, or heated shall be moved to a designated safe location or, if the objects to be welded, cut, or heated cannot be readily moved, all movable fire hazards in the vicinity shall be taken to a safe place, or otherwise protected. 1926.352(a)

If the object to be welded, cut, or heated cannot be moved and if all the fire hazards cannot be removed, positive means shall be taken to confine the heat, sparks, and slag, and to protect the immovable fire hazards from them. 1926.352(b)

No welding, cutting, or heating shall be done where the application of flammable paints, or the presence of other flammable compounds, or heavy dust concentrations creates a hazard. 1926.352(c)

Suitable fire extinguishing equipment shall be immediately available in the work area and shall be maintained in a state of readiness for instant use. 1926.352(d)

When the welding, cutting, or heating operation is such that normal fire prevention precautions are not sufficient, additional personnel shall be assigned to guard against fire while the actual welding, cutting, or heating operation is being performed, and for a sufficient period of time after completion of the work to ensure that no possibility of fire exists. Such personnel shall be instructed as to the specific anticipated fire hazards and how the firefighting equipment provided is to be used. 1926.352(e)

When welding, cutting, or heating is performed on walls, floors, and ceilings, since direct penetration of sparks or heat transfer may introduce a fire hazard to an adjacent area, the same precautions shall be taken on the opposite side as are taken on the side on which the welding is being performed. 1926.352(f)

For the elimination of possible fire in enclosed spaces as a result of gas escaping through leaking or improperly closed torch valves, the gas supply to the torch shall be positively shut off at some point outside the enclosed space whenever the torch is not to be used or whenever the torch is left unattended for a substantial period of time, such as during the lunch period. Overnight and at the change of shifts, the torch and hose shall be removed from the confined space. Open end fuel gas and oxygen hoses shall be immediately removed from enclosed spaces when they are disconnected from the torch or other gas-consuming device. 1926.352(g)

Except when the contents are being removed or transferred, drums, pails, and other containers which contain or have contained flammable liquids shall be kept closed. Empty containers shall be removed to a safe area apart from hot work operations or open flames. 1926.352(h)

Drums containers, or hollow structures which have contained toxic or flammable substances shall, before welding, cutting, or heating is undertaken on them, either be filled with water or thoroughly cleaned of such substances and ventilated and tested. For welding, cutting and heating on steel pipelines containing natural gas, the pertinent portions of regulations issued by the Department of Transportation, Office of Pipeline Safety, 49 CFR Part 192, Minimum Federal Safety Standards for Gas Pipelines, shall apply. 1926.352(i)

Before heat is applied to a drum, container, or hollow structure, a vent or opening shall be provided for the release of any built-up pressure during the application of heat. 1926.352(j)

To be continued to Fire safety in Construction Industry #3

Link and References

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg168.htm

http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/FireSafetyN.pdf

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10698

Fire safety in Construction Industry #1

Fire safety refers to precautions that are taken to prevent or reduce possibility of uncontrolled and unwanted fire that may result in death, injury, or property damage. Threats to fire safety referred to as fire hazards.

Components of Fire

Fire Triangle

Heat

Heat is required to begin fire.

Fuel

Fuel is necessary to maintain fire. Fire that is started without sufficient fuel will stop.

Oxygen

Without sufficient oxygen, a fire can not begin. Combustion process slows with decreased oxygen concentration.

Fire class

According to American standard, fires are classified as:

• Class A: Fire involving combustibles such as wood, cloth, paper and similar material.
• Class B: Fire involving flammable gasses (LNG / LPG, hydrogen, acetylene) and liquid (kerosene, gasoline, propane)
• Class C: Fire involving electrical equipment
• Class D: Fire involving combustible metal, such as sodium, titanium, and magnesium.
• Class K: Fire involving combustible cooking media (vegetable or animal fat)

Product of Fire

• Excessive Heat
• Smoke
• Poisonous gasses

Fire Safety in the Office

• Know where you are, know your escape route.
• Test the door with back of your hand. If it is hot, it is not safe, do not open it. Opening the door will supply more oxygen to the raging fire. Block the gap at the bottom of the door with cloth or similar material when available.
• In situation where smoke fill the room, crawl to escape route. Remember: Smoke is lighter than air.
• Activate fire alarm when it is not yet activated.

What you should do when you hear fire alarm

• Doesn’t matter if the alarm is for a drill, or for real, stop what you are doing.
• Look at your fire warden, wait for their instruction, and get ready to move.
• If they are not available, walk through escape route quickly and quietly. Do not run. Remember: Get out and stay out until emergency team declares safety.

How to handle the extinguisher

Remember: Portable fire extinguisher is only to put off small fire. It is designed to be operated by one person for easy carry.

Pull the pin and test the first shot. You don’t want to run into fire only to find out that your extinguisher fails.

Aim the nozzle to the fuel source, not the flame. Wave it left and right to spread it out.

Fire Safety in Construction Site

High risk activities such as hot work are frequently combined with circumstances where fire can spread quickly and escape can be difficult.

Fire safety in construction industry starts from procurement (example: rejecting proposal for material or method that is not safe), warehousing (placement / safekeeping of material in a specific location) and obviously until all construction phases completed.

Fire incident in construction industry has dire commercial consequences with regards to loss of life, material and penalty associated with delay. This will also demonstrate poor safety standard which make company difficult to arrange insurance coverage.

Fire Safety Steps

Fire safety management involves five steps that begin with identification.

Identify ignition source

• Smoking material: Cigarettes, matches, lighters
• Bonfire
• Electrical (faulty electronic equipment, light fitting, poor electrical installations and poor practice)
• Hot work (welding)
• Heat generated by friction (disc cutter, grinder)
• Arson / sabotage

Identify fuel source

Anything that burns is fuel. Reduce material quantity on site, do not stockpile. For stock with fire hazard, balance between production need and risk of fire exposure.

Look for things that is in enough quantity to become threat (timber, rubbish, paint, thinner, LPG, acetylene)

Identify oxygen source

Construction tends to be open space so the source is abundant, but special attention must be given to oxidizing agent like oxygen used in welding process.

To be continued to Fire safety in Construction Industry #2

Link and References

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg168.htm

http://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/kids/learn/firetriangle.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_safety

http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/pdf/evacuation.pdf

Fabrication Work Package

As an aid in construction project, work package must be set in a fashion that it will simplify project management. It must be arranged so that its activities or components are of the same type and milestones, and carried out at the same place. This will make progress update easier.

The number of activities or piece mark must be regulated so that the job is not excessive. Normally, project management would want a work package to be closed in 2 – 3 weeks time.

A work package must at least contain following sections:

Cover Page

Elements that must be available in a cover page:

• Work Package identity. This element contains work package number, project information, description and if required job code. Basically this section explains what this work package is all about.
• Schedule. At least plan start date needs to be present.
• Attachment. A work package needs to attach drawing, instruction, procedure, or any documentation or clearance required to carry out the job correctly.
• Revision History. This helps user to find out whether the last revision affect their current job or not. Normally work package is released only after the engineer makes sure that the design of its components will not be changed. But in a rare occasion, the job started with few drawing waiting for its final revision.
• Acknowledgement.
  

  Cover Page

Note: Since the work package will go to the crew who will execute the job, it is not always a good idea to let them know how many hours allocated for the job. It can be beneficial or disastrous to productivity depending on the culture of the corporate. So use it according to your organization guideline.

Material

In a fabrication work package it is very important to list all the material. You don’t want to pull wrong material for fabricated piece mark. Steel is very expensive, and wasting material can disrupt the whole project if you don’t have replacement in stock. The quantity of the material must be just right to avoid delay that can turn into inefficiency.

Piece Mark List

Piece mark number, piece mark drawing number, revision, and material specification must be in the same row to ensure that correct material is used. When applicable, put nested drawing reference in the remark. This may help shop crew assign order of piece mark fabrication.

This is also a place where shop crew can record their daily progress for clerk to save the progress into system later on.

Punch List

Work package punch list is a pending task that will be carried out in later stage, most probably in site before construction takes place. This situation is acceptable because in a busy shop, some piece mark has to be moved outside so that the area can be used for other piece mark fabrication. In some cases client has to agree with this movement.

Fabrication Work Package Sample

Minimum work package should look like ACME_ALPHA_WorkPackage_Sample.

Project Risk Management

 

I’ve got a bad feeling about this …

from “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull”

The above statement is what a project manager will probably say somewhere in the middle of a project if there is no risk management in his plan. While the quotation is entertaining on wide screen, the same thing can’t be equally applied in a project, especially when the project manager is you. A risk plays important role on project resolution and risk management determines whether the project is going to be a big hit or be drowned like Titanic.

What is risk? What is risk management?

Risk is occurrence that comes with negative impact that has a probability to happen. Risk is not a certain occurrence.  There are three elements of risk: potential loss, uncertainty, choice / decision than can be done to address that uncertainty and potential loss.

There is reward in every risk. Otherwise the job containing the risk should not be done in the first place. To cope with risks inherent in every project, a manager must manage them. Risk management is a process of identifying risk, assessing risk, and taking steps to reduce risk to an acceptable level.

Risk Management Steps

• Identify the risks.
• Analyze. This is done by estimating probability of occurrence and the impact of every risk.

Risk exposure is product of probability of occurrence and impact. For example, given 0.5% chance of a million dollar house caught on fire, the risk exposure is $ 5,000 (0.005 X $ 1,000,000). When it is required, ballpark approach of probability estimation can be employed to produce metric. Statistic can be a good source.

• Rank (prioritize) the risks by probability and impact. Calculate the exposure.
• Develop risk mitigation and contingency plan for risks with high exposure.

Ways to resolve risk

Risk Avoidance

Completely avoid potential event by reducing the chance to zero. Example: A fabrication yard wants to replace the old maintenance software with new one. The new software provides GPS capability as optional package to provide the yard with greater control. However, since majority of crew are not technologically prepared, at the moment the GPS module is removed from the scope.

Risk Reduction

Reduce risk though mitigation, anticipation, or contingency plan.

Risk Investigation

Investigation is an effort to improve our knowledge about the risk. This can be done through simulation or prototyping.

Risk Transfer

Transfer the risk to other party that is more prepared. Example: After a structure is constructed, it needs to be delivered to installation site. To protect the company from financial loss, this process is insured or outsourced to specialized vendor.

Risk Acceptance

Some risks are within acceptable limit. Acceptance can only be used when dealing with risk that is highly likely to happen but has low impact.

Study Case: ACME ALPHA CMMS Implementation

ACME ALPHA is a fabrication yard, a branch of ACME Inc. which headquarter is in US. 2 years ago, ACME Inc initiated a program to replace their out of date maintenance software. Out of 10 yards globally, ACME ALPHA was the only one who still use legacy system, maintained by local software vendor. ACME ALPHA’s operation manager had so far succeeded in delaying the implementation of globally adopted CMMS due to “uniqueness” of the yard in terms of significantly lower manpower cost and cultural as well as technological barrier, and repeatedly asked more time for internal consolidation. As the pressure from auditor increased, global operation manager decided to force the implementation of new CMMS in ACME ALPHA.

Risk	Probability (Scale 1 – 10)	Impact
Due to technological barrier and IT proficiency issue, the user can not fully use the new application.Mitigation: Prepare the user with basic in operating the software. Train them as much as necessary to build acceptance, confidence and familiarity.	2	medium
There are variations of maintenance plan even for same equipment depending on the maintenance period. There is risk that only some of the maintenance plans are migrated.Mitigation:  Create query to compare the number of maintenance plan in the legacy system (equipment by equipment) versus maintenance plans migrated to new system for both UAT and Production.	3	Medium
Due to periodic nature of maintenance plan, jobs that fired outside testing period will not be verified during UAT. Example: some job is fired every 6 month while UAT will be conducted for 1 month (max). There if risk that even if the plans successfully migrated to new system, it won’t fire work order because it is not verified during UAT. If this happen, expensive yard equipment and construction project utilizing the equipment will be at risk.Mitigation: Setup monitoring scheme for maintenance plans scheduled to fire work order (plan with period greater than 1 month). This monitoring scheme is designed to be carried out by end user to make sure that every preventive job in master plan fires work order properly.	4	High
Local management may develop gold plating, a phobia that leads to layers of requirements that may not be necessary.Mitigation: Cost benefit should be able to address it.	2	medium
User’s lack of enthusiasm to fully utilize the application due to the fact that the implementation has been forced.Mitigation: This is very likely to happen, but according to past experience the negative mood will disappear in just few months.	7	Low

After risks are all identified, special monitoring will be focused for those with high exposure. This topic will be covered in the future article.

Link and References

Risk Management Framework – Software Engineering Institute http://www.sei.cmu.edu/reports/10tr017.pdf

Risk Management Guide for Information Technology System – National Institute of Standards and Technology http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-30/sp800-30.pdf

The Future of Oil

2007 – 2008 financial crisis is an episode when world saw oil price shot to all time high $147 per barrel. The official reason of the price hike was demand associated with robust economic growth primarily from emerging markets. Steady growth of economy catalyzed demand for oil and metals. There were other significant economic reasons: the depreciation of US dollar relative to pre-crisis level and oil speculation. Aside from economic, geopolitical reason further jacked up the already high price. Tension in Middle East and North Africa sparked questions about supply disruption, although Saudi’s official commitment to compensate supply shortfall was at certain extent able to calm the market.

Unfavorable weather condition during 2007 led to bad harvest in many countries. This condition was further worsened by high oil price since oil contributes directly to production cost of fertilizer used for crop cultivation. Rise of biofuel production – in response to higher oil price further boosted food demand. Inflation and economic growth was severely affected by combination of these two factors, particularly in emerging and low income countries. Countries which economy relies on government fuel subsidy to stimulate growth took double hit. So we can say that oil price hike exacerbated the situation.

At the height of oil price, there were discussions around the world on how oil need to be substituted. Alternative form of energy (other than fossil): bio fuel, hydrogen, algae, wind, geothermal, etc gained popularity. In fact, renewable energy is the fastest growing group and expected to supply 14% of total energy consumption in 2035 from 10% in 2008. So, can petroleum maintain their market share as per today?

The Fact

Now let’s look at the fact. Petroleum is used in the production of almost everything in the vicinity of modern life: asphalt, fertilizer, feedstock, plastics, polyurethane, insecticide, antiseptics and even cosmetics. It is basically existed in products from concrete to toothpaste, from key economic infrastructure component to personal grooming product.

EIA, in their 2011 release of annual report, stated that fossil fuels are expected to continue supplying much of the energy used worldwide. Liquid fuels consumption (majority are petroleum based) was estimated to grow from 85.7 million barrels / day to 112.2 million barrels / day in 2035. Liquid fuel is mainly used in transportation and industrial sector. Due to the absence of significant technological advances in this form of energy, it will remain so for long period.

Picture 1 – World Liquid Consumption by Sector (million barrels / day)

The graphics shows how big the influence of these two sectors is to the liquid fuel consumption. Transportation makes economic activity possible, and is a facilitator of international trade. Even though the complexity of its relationship with economy is poorly understood, most experts agree that its contribution is significant. In fact it can be used as economic indicator. Industrial activity depends on machineries, most of which are dependent to liquid fuel. Industry as a matter of fact is a direct response to demand. So, liquid fuel is important to facilitate economic activities.

Energy	+	–	Remark
Coal	Cheaper	Dirty (contain more greenhouse gas than oil)	It is already the most widely used energy for electricity generation
Wind / Hydro	Renewable, clean, relatively cheap	Dependent to feasible geographic location	May have environmental impact (ex: dam construction)
Solar	Unlimited source of energy	High setup cost
Nuclear	Cheap	High risk	Decommissioning cost associated only to nuclear power plant

Table 1 – Comparison of petroleum versus other form of energy

Summary

1. Oil exists in every aspect of modern life. Even if petroleum’s substitute as energy is discovered, the world still needs oil for other reason.
2. Cheapest substitute to replace oil as energy is coal. But coal is not a clean fuel, it releases more CO2 to air than oil.
3. Biggest sectors that use oil as energy: transportation and industry are mandatory for the world economy. When there is economic activity, petroleum contribution is mandatory.
4. Without good management, substituting oil with bio fuel will affect the food supply (both directly and indirectly). This substitution is risky and economically costly.

The world is addicted to oil, and it will remain so for a long time.

Notes

1. EIA stands for Energy information Administration, a statistical and analytical agency of US Department of Energy.

Link and References

US Energy Information Administration publication: International energy Outlook 2011 http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/pdf/0484(2011).pdf

IMF publication: “Food and Fuel Price – Recent Developments, Macroeconomic Impact, and Policy responses” June 30 2008 http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2008/063008.pdf

OECD publication: OECD 2011, “The Effects of Oil Price Hikes on Economic Activity and Inflation”, OECD Economics Department Policy Notes, No. 4 http://www.oecd.org/eco/monetaryandfinancialissues/47332660.pdf

http://nuclearfissionary.com/2010/04/02/comparing-energy-costs-of-nuclear-coal-gas-wind-and-solar/

Introduction to Project Management #1

Introduction to Project Management #1

Every project manager has their own understanding of what project is based on their experience. 10 project managers will probably give 10 different definitions of what project means. Referring to PMBOK Guide (Project Management Body of Knowledge) from Project Management Institute, project is defined as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service”. Project management is defined as “Application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements”.

Project Resolution Statistic

Standish Group 1995 report mentions that only 16.2% of project successfully completed on time and on budget. 52.7% executed with substantially higher cost, and disturbingly 31.1% project cancelled before they get completed. Surprisingly, still in the same report, large companies perform worse performance compared to their smaller counterparts. In average, only 9% of project successfully executed on time and on budget (as opposed to 16.2%).

Disregarding controversy surrounding Standish group report’s validity, this number is chilling. What makes it so difficult for a project to be successful? Project execution depends on the following success factors:

Involvement from business users and executive management

Clarity of business objective

Quality of business resources and project management team

Tools and infrastructure

Managing Project

One can define Project Manager as person who manages project constraints in a process to meet project objectives. PMI’s definition of project management gives the first constraint: time. The other constraints are scope and cost. Time, scope, and cost are widely recognized as triple constraints. It is difficult if not impossible to change one of the constraints without affecting the other. There is a direct logic in it, the longer the project the bigger the effort to manage it. The bigger the scope of a project, the longer it tends to run and consequently the costlier it will become.

What else does Project Manager manage?

Scope, time, cost, quality

Human resource, communication, risk, procurement

Phases of project management

Initiation: During initiation a project is defined and authorized

Planning: Objective and benefit are stated as project justification. The in scope and out of scope must be clearly stated for clarity. Risk planning and schedule defined in this stage.

Execution: Carry out the plan. It starts with requirement, followed up by design, testing, and development.

Monitoring: Regular measurement and progress monitoring. This phase is important to identify deviation from project plan. Corrective action and steering activities is included in this phase.

Closing: Formalizing acceptance and project closure.

 

Study Case: ACME ALPHA CMMS Implementation

ACME ALPHA is a fabrication yard, a branch of ACME Inc. which headquarter is in US. 2 years ago, ACME Inc initiated a program to replace their out of date maintenance software. Out of 10 yards globally, ACME ALPHA was the only one who still use legacy system, maintained by local software vendor. ACME ALPHA’s operation manager had so far succeeded in delaying the implementation of globally adopted CMMS due to “uniqueness” of the yard in terms of significantly lower manpower cost and cultural as well as technological barrier, and repeatedly asked more time for internal consolidation. As the pressure from auditor increased, global operation manager decided to force the implementation of new CMMS in ACME ALPHA.

Initiation

Global Project Committee decided that for the ACME ALPHA project, a 10 month duration from standard 6 month would be used. In a rare occasion global operation manager visited the yard to demonstrate the importance of the CMMS project.

Planning

Project manager built a project plan with more emphasize to socialization plan, risk management and mitigation. More time allocated to socialization effort and data migration to address user’s concern on historical data. The scope was limited to preventive maintenance of large mobile equipment and any other equipment which purchased asset value exceeds USD 50,000.

Execution

The requirement documentation was built addressing business user’s concern. A data conversion module was designed so that the user would find their historical data in the new system without having to worry about reformatting their existing data to fit into new CMMS. Business user would have flexibility to repeat UAT as many as they like as long as it is conducted within 2 months frame.

Monitoring

Project manager, local business sponsor, and business user as well IT resources attended bi-weekly meeting. Global sponsor followed up every red flag raised in status report. He made it a requirement that every red flag must be closed or at least upgraded to yellow flag in the next progress report.

Closing

A small meeting was held by project manager attended by core team member and business representatives. In that meeting, milestone, accomplishment, punch lists, as well as subsequent application support plan were highlighted. Global operation manager congratulated project management team and business representatives for the successful project.

Note:

1. PMI® and PMBOK® are registered trademarks of Project Management Institute, Inc.
2. Study case in this article is a fictional. It does not represent an actual fact in any companies.

Link and References

Project Management Institute http://www.pmi.org/

Standish Group http://www.standishgroup.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9k0yBMYlhQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLrnJc2Tz44

 

Work Package in Construction Industry

Work Package in Construction Industry

There are many ways to describe work package. According to Wikipedia (as of October 10, 2012), work package is a subset of a project that can be assigned to a specific part for execution. The keyword here is specific. In construction business work breakdown structure, this is translated to level 3 or 4 job execution.

Why work package?

In the construction business, “Where are we now? How far are we from completion? How many percent complete is this project?” are common questions typically asked by construction manager or project director. In a project of 10 million man hours, those questions are not easy ones.

The logical response to that challenge is to create a divide and conquer approach. A big project is divided into sub project / job codes, job codes divided into activity codes, and finally activity codes into work packages. Division can be by discipline (structural, piping, mechanical, electric), nature of job type (fabrication, construction, material handling), or simply follows modular engineering design.

Study Case

ACME fabrication yard is constructing a pipe rack module deck.

Step #1: Identify the construction sequence

#1: Fabricating piece mark (individual part)

Job description: cut stiffeners, cut primary beam, cut secondary beam

End product: stiffeners, beams

#2: Assembling piece marks

Job description: Fabricate frame components

End product: beams with stiffeners welded

#3: Site Assembly

Job description: Site installation (install frame components on site)

End product: deck frame installed

Step #2: Assign (estimate) man hour into each work package

To establish work package’s function as progress tracking, planner must put weight into each work package. This is where the dilemma lies. Exact calculation of man hour allocation as per fabrication drawing requires extensive resources, while careless estimation may give false representation of the actual. Generally, approach that fit somewhere in between those two options are chosen. Package to package tonnage comparison approach can be utilized.

The breakdown of activity codes M07_B99 (Fabrication and installation of module 7 deck structure) into work packages may look like this:

Work Package No	Work Package Description	Man Hour
M07_B99_001	Cut Stiffener	MH1
M07_B99_002	Cut Primary Beam	MH2
M07_B99_003	Cut Secondary Beam	MH3
M07_B99_101	Fabricate Deck Frame Component	MH4
M07_B99_201	M07 Site Installation	MH5

Step #3: Execute work package, update status, and roll up progress

Once the numbers (MH₁ – MH₅) defined, shop / production engineer can start to update the work package status as per actual progress. For example work package M07_B99_001 (Cut Primary Beam) progress status may looks like this:

Piece mark	Cut (50%)	Grind (40%)	QC inspection (10%)
Beam_B1	√	√	√
Beam_B21	√	√	√
Beam_B22	√	√
Beam_B3	√
Beam_B41
Beam_B42

Assuming that each beam has same amount of man hour allocation, this work package is 56.7% complete.

(4 X 0.5 + 3 X 0.4 + 2 X 0.1) / 6 = 56.7 %

Consequently, contribution of this work package to job code M07_B99 is

(MH₂ / ΣMH) X 56.7%

This job code progress will then be rolled up to subsequent higher level up to project code.

Tips

1. Work package should be planned in such a way that can be closed in few weeks. Do not leave it open for months otherwise it will require extra time to maintain and become unmanageable.
2. Work package arrangement is always depends to yard resources. Jobs of the same types are not necessarily to be done in the same work package. In certain situation, it may be beneficial to share the load into two shops (two work packages).
3. There is no fix guideline on how the yard planners must arrange the work package register. My recommendation is: yard planner must fit their arrangement to their 3 – 4 weeks foreseeable future. In cases with material availability problem, same job can be delivered into two work packages.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_package

What pipe rack looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBMDRh9NIM

Preventive Maintenance and CMMS

Preventive Maintenance and CMMS

The importance of preventive maintenance

Every industry has ample evident and cases of how an equipment can cause millions of dollar of loss when it failed during critical job. In competitive business like aviation, plane accident or even simpler engine delay may cause fortune to the airline. In oil and gas construction facility, a snapped wire rope during critical lifting may cause millions of dollar for direct loss of material and man hour and penalty associated with delay. This is not to mention loss of future business opportunity due to the damage reputation.

Sample Case

ACME is a middle size construction yard that employs 2,000 employees. It has various equipments in its inventory and following are the biggest types of heavy equipment with corresponding maintenance frequencies:

Equipment Type	Qty	Capacity	Typical Maintenance (time-based)	Annual Maintenance (period)
Crawler Crane	10	100 – 1,000 T	7, 30, 180, 365 day	10 X 48 = 480
Hydraulic Crane	10	30 – 70 T	7, 30, 180, 365 day	10 X 48 = 480
Overhead Crane	40	10 – 50 T	7, 90, 180, 365 day	40 X 48 = 1920
Forklift	15	1 – 50 T	7, 90,365 day	15 X 48 = 720

 

With only time-based maintenance taken into account, ACME yard makes 3,600 maintenance job annually, which translates into 300 job / month. Note that normally mobile equipment has two types of maintenance frequencies: period (time-based) and meter hour. For example, a 600 ton Liebherr crane requires maintenance every 7, 30, 365 days and every 125, 250, 500, 1000, 1500 meter hours. A 40 ton Caterpillar forklift requires maintenance every 7, 30, 365 days and every 200, 400, 600, 1000, 1200, 1500 meter hours.

The number displayed in the above table highlights only ACME’s major equipment. In fact a middle sized yard also utilizes man lift, dozer, grader, excavator, tower crane, compressor, generator, and various mobile transporters. Rigging equipments like chain block, lever hoist, shackle and sling normally numbered in thousands. For comparison, yard that I currently worked for is substantially bigger than the ACME case. It receives between 400 and 700 work orders of various mechanical equipments (excludes rigging equipment inspection) per week. With this scale of job, it is mandatory to have CMMS that can kick a work order days before the maintenance date is due.

In short the following explains why we need CMMS:

Manage complexity

Big number of equipments and specific instruction tied with each type of maintenance job represent complexity of routine, spare part, resources and consumable used.

Lead time

Lead time spares crews enough time to prepare maintenance job. When spare part is not currently available, lead time should provide window for procurement activity. The same thing applies when third party involvement (servicing vendor) is necessary.

Scheduling

With the sheer number of maintenance volume and different type of resources required for each job, scheduling can be almost impossibly done with regular spreadsheet. A good CMMS enable user to see several weeks / months look-ahead maintenance job.

Productivity

If you believe that implementation of accounting software helps a company manage cash flow, provides reliable data for quick and better strategic decision and in turn increasing productivity and decrease man hour loss, exactly same benefit can also be gained for implementing CMMS. Decrease in operating cost and downtime, and productivity improvement are few examples of short term expectation of CMMS deployment.

Longer lifetime

With proper maintenance, substantial extension of equipment life time is expected.

 

Links

http://www.maintenanceassistant.com/blog/poor-maintenance-cost-lives/

http://articles.uptimemagazine.com/uptime/2008/09/why-preventive.html

 

My Project Resume

Construction Project Information Center

Timeframe

June 2012 – now

Background

The company is in the early phase of construction project that hold historical record value. Due to the size and long term nature of the project, there is a need to manage the way the company runs its business. Amongst them are correspondence, company-client and company-sub contractor agreement, risk-opportunity, and offshore document control system. There is also a requirement to automate approval system, logistic commitment and HR functions. In the past, construction projects were successfully handled using combinations of legacy document control system, third party software and spreadsheets across company file system. In this project, the risk is simply too high for the company to handle it the same way.

Sharepoint, an already established corporate standard, had been chosen as collaborative framework for the IT project. This framework will act as integrated information center for construction project and expected to increase productivity as well as to decrease cost related to correctional activity. Given the criticality and limited time, the most logical option for the IT project team is to engage consultant specialized in Sharepoint to speed up the implementation curve.

Job Role

Project Coordinator (primary)

Business Analyst (secondary)

Scope of Project (proposed)

• Corporate correspondence and client agreement
• Action tracking
• Risk and opportunity
• Online approval system for administrative task and logistic commitment
• Offshore document control system for marine fleet
• Employee performance appraisal for HR

Project Summary

Project plan and business requirement document has been formulated. The requirements have been reviewed by consultant. Common understanding about what and how the company wants the IT project to be delivered and collaboration framework between internal and external resources (consultant) has been approved.

Given the short term to deliver result, the project needs to be split in two phases. In the near future, both parties will be involved in the discussion to select the priority of the deliverables.

Status

IN PROGRESS.

Pipe Tracking System

Timeframe

June – December 2011

Background

Though raw materials and purchased components are tracked using existing material management system, fabricated components are tracked differently using combination of paper based documents and semi automatic spreadsheets. The volume of the fabrication process outpaces the speed of data volume that can be handled by that semi automatic process. More often than not, a relatively simple calculation like productivity can only be retrieved after hours of manual and semi automatic process.

This project is to provide a timely, accurate, and detail info of progress status and location of pipe component for a ready-to-access information system. The system must enable pipe shop to capture component life stages from raw material to installation site. Additionally, it must recognize components that undergone abnormal workflow for tracing and early recovery.

It is worth to note that the yard adopts various systems from engineering design software, material management system, progressing system, and up to completion system. The project is to act as a hub that interconnect those silos as much as possible to minimize human interfaces required to put those system works as integrated system.

Job Role

Business Analyst

Scope of Project

• Automation of work centers in Carbon Steel and Exotic Pipe Shop
• Develop interfaces to interconnect PDMS, MMS, PIMS, Primavera and Kronos
• Implementation of Global Shop to statistical analysis
• Location and status tracking from raw material until site installation

Project Summary

The initial proof of concept as part of this project feasibility as pipe spool location tracking has been successfully tested. It met yard’s requirement as spool tracker within acceptable error tolerance.

Given the initial success, the project sponsor sought to expand the scope to realize it as an information system hub. Project plan, business requirement, and system design had been approved. Unfortunately, at roughly the same time the approval committee reviewed the budget, a global initiative had been launched to assess the corporate information system. One of the recommendations of the assessment was to replace the material management system, one of the vital elements within the project’s scope. The sponsor decided to review the project again in 2014 after the implementation of new MMS takes place.

Status

PENDING. To be reviewed in 2014.

CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) implementation

Timeframe

January – September 2011

Background

My yard is a yard which typically constructs topside, a structure that weighs over 10,000 tons. Its heavy equipment inventory comprised of machineries with lifting capacity varies from 10 tons up to 1,200 tons. With this scale, a robust maintenance system is critical to ensure that preventive maintenance work order is properly executed so that the equipment does not fail during critical lifting.

Legacy system is deemed outdated and Global E&M department has chosen Assetpoint’s Tabware as replacement. The project must deploy the new system without losing valuable historical data it already contained. Additionally, inventory module must be configured to enable yard monitor material consumption.

Job Role

Business Analyst

Scope of Project

• Preventive maintenance  for relevant equipment
• Equipment and tool registry
• Inventory list of spare part and lubricant
• Historical data migration from legacy system and relevant data sources

Project Summary

The business must define equipment category to be uploaded, preparing spare part and consumable list to be monitored in maintenance warehouse and defining desired report (KPI, downtime, material consumption report). Some ground work must be performed to examine data in granular level, separate relevant data from garbage, and program conversion script before data migration can be performed. Equally important is to pick a date that has minimum impact to the busy schedule.

Status

DEPLOYED