My career running factories – part 1

I have known George since he was 14 years old. Nurtured and groomed by an electrical engineer, he has a passion for anything associated with electricity. While in school, it was very obvious that he would turn out to be an electrical engineer just like his father. Fate had other plans; George graduated from university with a Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

The Builders’ Garage approached him to share some of his experiences running factories. In this article, we profile George’s personal experience in a sugar factory, a cement processing factory and in two beer factories. We shall also try to understand how he overcame the challenges faced and the lessons learnt thereafter.

“George, after all these years practicing, do you regret having studied mechanical engineering?”

No. I do not think that I would have acquired the wealth of knowledge that I currently have if I had held on to my wish of becoming an electrical engineer. I have never lost my electrical engineering touch. In fact, I am able to interact with both disciplines because of the nature of my job.

Cyrus, I am sure you have heard or read about some of the great artists that ever lived. I do not think some of them even went to school. You see, many people go to art school to perfect their craft by reading literature about certain artists who have no clue what an art classroom is like. I say perfect because some of them are already artists from birth.

Provided you have some basic foundation knowledge; in my case physics, mathematics and chemistry, the ability to comprehend the functionality of electromechanical systems is in my opinion simply raw talent that God blesses you with.

Provided you have some basic foundation knowledge; in my case physics, mathematics and chemistry, the ability to comprehend the functionality of electromechanical systems is in my opinion simply raw talent that God blesses you with

Therefore, in retrospect, I think I would have just satisfied my ego if I had graduated from university with a degree in electrical engineering.

In October this year, it will be about 12 years since I graduated from university. I have since then had a 3 months’ stint in a sugar processing factory, 3 years in a cement factory and a total of approximately 8 years in two breweries. The people I have worked with often ask me what course I studied because they have noted that I can’t easily be taken for a ride with anything electrical in nature, even though I am a mechanical engineer.

Working in factories is a tough job. Quite often everyone in the factory is chasing various activities to satisfy one process equation.

You see, let’s take alcohol for example. I could put you or anyone else with some basic technical knowledge in a laboratory, give you a number of ingredients to mix and tell you to produce alcohol. You will do that with ease. The thing about factories is that the products in there are being produced for mass consumption by people like you and I. This triggers a host of issues related to quality control because the product has to be consistent and safe for consumption.

In a factory, you are not only looking at the consistency and quality of the final product but a number of other variables such as:

1. The overall cost of production.
2. The profitability of the manufacturing process.
3. The reliability of the machines. Any down time registered is in effect a cost to the manufacturing process. The machinery in the factory should at the very least be able to live through its life cycle as determined by the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). In several cases I have witnessed, good maintenance and asset care practices have given equipment life spans far beyond what the OEM could ever anticipate.

With a number of separate specialised teams chasing all these different variables, achieving the final result of the process equation can be very challenging and I will tell you why.

My short stint in a sugar processing factory

Fresh out of university, I joined this factory in an internship capacity. When I first walked into the factory, I was overwhelmed at the sheer amount of pipework before my eyes (see Figure 1). My brain could not figure out where these pipes were coming from nor heading. I remember seeing very huge motors and gigantic boilers. The factory and its facilities were so huge that the propensity of something going wrong was extremely high.

When I first walked into the factory, I was overwhelmed at the sheer amount of pipework before my eyes (see Figure 1). My brain could not figure out where these pipes were coming from nor heading. I remember seeing very huge motors and gigantic boilers. The factory and its facilities were so huge that the propensity of something going wrong was extremely high

Figure 1: Pipework and cabling in one of the factory locations

Our superiors told us that from past experience, it would take about two years for a fresh graduate engineer to become confident at factory operations. It is probably true but I would like to believe that work experience is also gained with the number of challenging scenarios you are exposed to while at any workplace. Certain times you feel that the experiences are not coming up as frequently as you expect them to. You then start to consider other job opportunities hoping that you will get the much needed experience at a new station.

My salary at this job was approximately US $250. My package also included accommodation and free utilities. Fortunately, a better opportunity came calling and I exited the sugar processing factory for the cement industry.

The cement factory

At the cement factory we were recruited as part of a routine graduate management trainee programme. The idea was to rotate the new recruits through the whole value chain of the cement business. After this rotation, each recruit would be required to spend a little more time in an area where they had been assessed to have the best competence.

What I learnt about such graduate management trainee programmes is that if they are well managed, it is possible for someone to rise from the ranks of a Graduate Management Trainee to Chief Executive Officer. Most of these programmes collapse along the way and are very difficult to sustain because of a host of other reasons which I will share with you.

We (the new recruits) noticed that there were existing employees who had acquired a lot of experience and were literally on their way out once an opportunity came knocking. It dawned on us that that we had been recruited to wait in line to fill up these positions once they became vacant. Surprisingly, there were also a number of vacant positions which were not filled. This resulted in a work overload on the senior employees, some of whom were not being remunerated fairly.

One fine day, one of the department heads demanded that certain vacancies at the plant be filled up with immediate effect in order to improve the plant efficiency as requested by our parent company. Immediately, we were assigned new roles even though our trainee programme was not yet complete. For a couple of my colleagues, I noticed that the “promotion” was abit premature but not a train smash. I figured that we were all brilliant people and could cope quickly. I was assigned the role of mechanical planning engineer and took this as an opportunity to demonstrate my personal ability.

A couple of months later, it turned out that the factory mill was due for refurbishment i.e. requiring a complete liner replacement.

A couple of months later, it turned out that the factory mill was due for refurbishment i.e. requiring a complete liner replacement

What is a factory mill and why must it be refurbished on schedule?

A mill is the equipment used to grind the hard, nodular clinker from the cement kiln into the fine grey powder that is cement. Refurbishment (maintenance) is important for all machinery because it keeps them in good shape and enables them to successfully last their design life with minimum or no breakdown at all.

For the mechanical engineers out there currently working or have worked in factories before, you might never experience the refurbishment of certain equipment because it is usually due for overhaul or replacement may be once in 3 – 5 years depending on usage rate.

The options before our boss were;

1. Do the refurbishment internally or
2. Source for seasoned expertise from the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)

The risks associated with the first option were that because of our inexperience, there was a possibility that we would be defeated by the task, damaging the mill shell in the process. This would eventually require the factory to order for an emergency shipment of a new one because such components for major factory machinery are not readily available. Usually you have to make an order before hand and it can take about 6 months before it arrives at the factory. An emergency shipment would cost almost six times as much.

Proceeding with option two was also risky because it would take over a month or two to source an expert from the OEM because they usually have a very busy schedule. The mill could fail anytime since its refurbishment was already long overdue. Failure would mean down time and lost income to the company. In addition, damage to the mill shell due to delayed refurbishment meant that a quick fix would have to be done to keep the plant running but would imply the mill is modified and therefore the OEM spares will not be suitable anymore.

An unsuccessful refurbishment also meant that we would have to buy a completely new mill shell which is very expensive.

An unsuccessful refurbishment also meant that we would have to buy a completely new mill shell which is very expensive

A decision was taken to refurbish the mill locally. We were told that we had one week to complete the job which ideally takes 2 to 3 weeks to complete at normal pace. The job required a lot of precision, attention to detail and a lot of pre-planning.

I requested for reinforcements i.e. 8 welders and 6 technicians. Refreshments for the workers were to be provided on site in order not to lose a lot of time during the lunch breaks. All the major works were scheduled to take place during the day because the mill is a confined space and working at night would result in a lot of error plus a whole host of safety issues pertaining to working in confined spaces such as insufficient lighting, and low oxygen levels just to mention but a few.

To assist me with planning, the mill had a chart that showed the profiles of the liners from the feeding end to the discharge ends giving me the type of liners and their orientation – which could be left or right. The chart also helped me to separate the liners according to their profiles. After comprehending the mill chart and making all the necessary preparations, we were given a green light to commence the refurbishment.

I co-supervised the job with one of my colleagues. As the works progressed, I noticed that there were some imperfections in the foundry works on the liners. We had to manually grind some of the liners to remove these imperfections. One liner can weigh up to 15 kilos so the task had to be done very patiently. Such imperfections just come up owing to the tolerances in foundry works and you can’t plan for them.

Midway the job, I was told that the liners were insufficient – pointing to the fact that I might have gotten my planning all wrong. I must admit that I was worried I had messed up. After looking into this, I realised that the technicians were not implementing the plan that had been drafted with the required accuracy and precision. We had to undo an entire zone and redo the work.

The job was completed in six days. My colleague and I had to perform a quality check to ensure that all the liners had been inserted correctly and locked firmly in position. We switched on the mill and after two days of planned start and stop checks, the mill eventually functioned normally. I was relieved that we had done the job right but had it gone wrong, it would have dented my confidence. At the cement factory, I was able to build sufficient experience within a very short span of time.

George, the cement factory seems to have been a very good experience for you, why did you leave?

A lot more roles and responsibilities were added to my job but the pay did not improve commensurately. I felt that I had acquired sufficient factory experience and the location of the cement factory kept me far away from my loved ones. My social life was not being fulfilled satisfactorily.

A lot more roles and responsibilities were added to my job but the pay did not improve commensurately. I felt that I had acquired sufficient factory experience and the location of the cement factory kept me far away from my loved ones. My social life was not being fulfilled satisfactorily

Did you voice your concerns to your superiors?

Yes, I did. The company actually responded by introducing a flexi time work model but this became very difficult for them to administer. They also provided us with free transport to travel and be with our loved ones twice a week but the pay never improved. I became disgruntled and somewhat disillusioned.

The pay was eventually adjusted upwards but it came in too late to prevent the exodus of staff that followed thereafter. Some of the colleagues I joined with left seeking solace elsewhere.

Another opportunity came up at a beer processing factory and I moved on.

……..Continue to part 2.