Report on Technical Problems
1. SUMMARY
The BAC Power house plant is the only source of power generator in Gordontown. In the past two years there has been an increase in Fuel consumption use in the power plant. Ms Machon, the vice president of Baldur Agricultural Chemicals, a company with other manufacturing plants across Canada, has hired a consultant to evaluate the maintenance of the power plant so that she can determine if the existing senior shift engineer. The results of the evaluation pointed out that the power plant was not properly maintained by the chief engineer. Apart from that the boilers were neglected and maintenance logs books were improperly filled and not up to date, the place had not received any service for three years. The probable cause for the rise in production was the erroneousness flow of meters which caused an over reading. Given the ease in accessibility of the data required for the investigation, the findings that were reported shared an elevated level of assurance.
2. INTRODUCTION
The Town of Gordon has a power plant owned by Baldur Agricultural Chemicals (BAC). Ms Machon, the vice president of Baldur Agricultural Chemicals, a company with other manufacturing plants across Canada is concerned with the rising power house cost at Gordontown just when the world’s fertilizers price is decreasing. This rise in the power house cost is causing the BAC to be uncompetitive both nationally and internationally. Ms Machon has hinted that the problem may not only be technical. She has hired a consultant to evaluate the maintenance of power so as to know the causes of the rise in fuel consumption and numerous breakdowns that have interfered with the production, and also a sharp increase in production cost. Ms Machon has asked the consultants to talk with the staff at the power plant so as to know the underlying causes of the rising cost in production.
3. EVALUATION DETAILS
The evaluation will be used to review the strengths and weaknesses of the Power plant in generating power and to study the extent of the technical problem in the power house. The consultant will also talk with the staff so as to find the reasons behind the rise in power production cost. The evaluation report will assist in the argument of its effectiveness to be able to maintain its present activities in the future. The sustainability concern is particularly imperative given that it is the only power plant available for the whole of Gordon town.
a. Approach
To identify the power plant technical problem, the hired consultant from Pro Active Consultants Limited took a tour so as to study the hot water and power generating system in the power plant. During the tour, he engaged the staff in talks while taking notes so as to establish the causes of the rise of fuel consumption in the power plant. It was identified that the rise of fuel consumption in the power plant was brought about by negligence on the servicing of the power plant. The maintenance logs books were improperly filled and not up to date, the place had not received any service for three years. The probable cause for the rise in production was the erroneousness flow of meters which caused an over reading. Given the ease in accessibility of the data required for the investigation, the findings that were reported shared an elevated level of assurance.
b. Findings
The results of the evaluation pointed out that the power plant was not properly maintained by the chief engineer. Apart from that the boilers were neglected and maintenance logs books were improperly filled and not up to date, the place had not received any service for three years. The probable cause for the rise in production was the erroneousness flow of meters which caused an over reading. Given the ease in accessibility of the data required for the investigation, the findings that were reported shared an elevated level of assurance.
c. Ideas
The proposed ideas were a complete check and recalibration of the meters so as to avoid the inaccurate readings. The head office was asked to ensure a frequent clean-up of all the boilers and replacement of the ineffective ones. We also suggested that they ensure that they are up to date with the technical magazines. Another idea was to bring a new chief engineer from outside the company who would employs new measures of dealing with the technical problem.
4. CRITERIA
The evaluation collected suggested that, the criterion used was reachable. It included a selection of staff, especially junior engineers, who had worked in the power plant for long. Due to the nature of the criteria, it was possible to gather accurate information concerning the operations of the plant. The criteria for the power plant to be cost proactive in generating power depended on its undertaking to make changes in the power plant. For instance, the cost of production would probably decrease if a digital panel was set up. Another criterion to be considered was replacing the old worn out boilers and fixing the meters.
5. ANALYSIS
The analysis did not need a lot of time to do it because of easiness in getting information. It was easy to analyze in details the operational activities of the power plant. Changes needed to be implemented in all areas. As a result of poor management by the current chief engineer, it was clear that the power plant needed a new chief engineer from outside the company instead of promoting the existing senior engineer who had worked there for 15 years.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The section above shows the key conclusions of the evaluation that was performed for evaluating the cause of the rise of production cost in generating power. The evaluation was carried out to identify points of strengths and weaknesses of the Power plant management and propose alternatives. From this perspective, based on the gathered information what came out clear, there was the need to implement other ways of dealing with the issue at hand. The most significant attribute of this evaluation is that of management to deal with the ever-changing needs of such a field. It is imperative for the management to implement ways of making sure that they deal effectively with technical issues that arise so as to avoid losses and high cost of productivity.
7. RECOMMENDATIONS
We recommend that the management should implementing changes in the ways they carry out their managerial duties by proper filling and documenting records, changing the boilers when they are not functioning well, and servicing the meters so as to prevent inaccurate flows. We also recommend that they should use up to date technical implementations.
