Plant operation and maintenance
Plant operation and maintenance
(OP)
Hello,
In my opinion in plant operation and maintenance there are three set of engineering/technical personnel.
1.The engineering manager who never spent a day in the field/plant.
2.The engineering guys/engineer who engineer, plan,design,implement and commission the plant (electrical engineer/technician , mechanical engineer/technician,civil engineer and the plc programmers).
3.The guys who maintain the plant on a day to day basis.Do preventive maintenance and troubleshoot all the problem that the plant encounter.(electrical technician/engineer,mechanical engineer/technician).
Now I know a lot of you guys are senior in your field so you can answer my question professionally.
Do you think any of the above mention technical personnel is superior to another or everyone is superior in his/her own field?
In my opinion in plant operation and maintenance there are three set of engineering/technical personnel.
1.The engineering manager who never spent a day in the field/plant.
2.The engineering guys/engineer who engineer, plan,design,implement and commission the plant (electrical engineer/technician , mechanical engineer/technician,civil engineer and the plc programmers).
3.The guys who maintain the plant on a day to day basis.Do preventive maintenance and troubleshoot all the problem that the plant encounter.(electrical technician/engineer,mechanical engineer/technician).
Now I know a lot of you guys are senior in your field so you can answer my question professionally.
Do you think any of the above mention technical personnel is superior to another or everyone is superior in his/her own field?





RE: Plant operation and maintenance
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
That's why guys like you and me are so popular!
Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
I'm in position 3 and would consider this chain of command appropriate, however I have more respect for position 2 than 1. Managers have a tendency to be optimistic with timelines and unrealistic with budget, (kind of a pain in the assignment)
Chuck
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
"You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals" -- Booker T. Washington
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
I guess the ugly ones who had been holding number 1 makes your opinion unpopular! But an engineering manager doesn't need to be the know-it-all guy, IMHO. He just have to know how and whom to pull strings around him, being surrounded by Subject-Matter Experts! Let's say he's the conductor of an orchestra; it's chaos without him around! :D
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
Once had to operate a liming system for pH corection manually, since if the automatic lime feed was enabled it fed the lime in far too quickly for it to dissolve, and the whole sump would cake up solid - and I knew this would happen because somebody once enabled the auto feed and the whole thing caked up solid.
I found it caked up; the defect was reported; staff with the necessary chisels and acids went in and cleaned the system out, following which the sytem was returned to service on manual control.
Design defect was reported to engineeering; engineer came down, said there was nothing wrong with the system, and the operators didn't know diddly-squat. Operators were forced to again place system in service on auto, and the whole thing caked up...again.
Thankfully, only a very very few of the engineers I've encountered in the course of my career are like that.
CR
"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." [Proverbs 27:17, NIV]
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
In my opinion, all are necessary, but, as with everything else, there are good examples and bad examples of each. I've worked with some very top-level engineers who were extremely easy to get along with and effective in their position, and I've worked with some of the most ignorant, self-centered and self-absorbed people I've ever met. I've also worked alongside amazing technicians as well as people who have no business even being near a screwdriver.
I'll just add to your list that in my experience, there is a noticeable difference between engineers who have never done anything besides engineering, and those that spent a number of years in the trades before going back and getting their degrees.
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
RE: Plant operation and maintenance
But as such it wouldn't be often possible for an engineer to manage and an operator to engineer.
Normally in plants, the Engineers wont be the same engineers who built the plant, but would be efficient in calculated troubleshooting.
The operator gains his skill over time with experience may a time as much as the engineer.
But a managers job, if done properly, requires a lot of predictions and calculations. Something that should be acquired by one or be well trained into one.
I fall in the 2nd category.
I work with my operators and managers. Superiority would be there, but seldom practiced. Or seldom cared for.
That being said. I can't claim to know exactly how an operating company works , as i am in Engineering / Designing Plants, not just running them.