Innovation Success in the Oil Sands

Implementing jobsite innovations requires careful attention, as well as the utmost diligence from an entire crew. APM Canada recently completed a job at the Suncor Firebag Site in the Oil Sands of Northern Alberta, Canada. This 15.5-day work scope included a 7EA Gas Turbine Rotor-In Major Inspection (RIMI). This was the 2nd RIMI on a 7EA in the industry the first being done a couple months earlier by the same crew on this site as well. Accomplishing this feat required the cooperation of a Superintendent and eight-man crew for each of the two shifts. This larger than normal crew size was required due to extra work and a new process.   Superintendents for this job were Wes Heck and Derek Swayze. Because the RIMI process was new to this crew, they did a substantial amount of work on tool modification before and during the job. Successes like this remind us that the fruit of innovation is worth the attention to detail required. A big thank you to everyone involved in the success of this job! Thank you for accepting the challenge and then developing a new and better process to accomplish the work.