“A good plan implemented today is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow." - George Patton

A successful outage was completed at W.A. Parish in early June while navigating the perplexities of COVID-19. In collaboration with FieldCore and GE, our highly skilled APM Boiler team led by Mike Bush, sought ways to improve the experience for our customer. The driving factors in this large of a success were lean initiatives in productivity, cost savings, and the prioritization of health for all at NRG.

In a discussion with FieldCore representatives, a decision was made to reinspect all scaffolding to ensure the safety of our employees and determine which areas required fall protection gear. With some elbow grease applied, the team inspected and tagged all scaffolding on the unit. This concentration of detail reduced the need for all employees to put on the gear, in turn saving time, and reallocating that time to achieve work in other areas. Requiring the fall protection equipment only on the scaffolding that needed it saved the project approximately $192,000 in cost.

At the jump of the project, it was estimated that more work would be done at the sixth and seventh level of the establishment. Due to COVID-19, the site and APM teams mandated a policy which involved the emphasis of social distancing and face covering requirements. To adjust on site, no more than eight people with face coverings or four people without them, were allowed on the unit elevator at once. To cut down on craftspeople leaving the unit entirely during breaks, break shacks, port-a-johns, and a tool room were assembled to save travel time to and from the work area, and to keep elevator lines at a minimum. Total cost savings from these adaptations rounded to nearly $216,000.

All crews devoted themselves to maintaining hazard-free work areas as well as focusing on a high-level of cleanliness that is pertinent during this time.

With a great foundational plan, our dedicated team fixated on a much larger task at hand, the management and delivery of thousands of parts critical to the unit. The site team developed a material crew that handled all material and tooling on site.

The material crew was responsible for offload, inspection, inventory, and fabrication of all necessary instruments. They also controlled all material flown onto the unit via crane in a timely manner to guarantee both morning and night groups had all the materials needed for the task being performed at that time, and to consolidate crane use.

Materials that were manufactured incorrectly were reworked and fabricated to ensure installation was carried out accurately by the same keen crew on site. The completion of the receiving inspection reports and the care for keeping all parts and pieces organized was impeccable in detail. Creating this sharp team and reducing the use of crane movement produced a sum of around $257,000 in cost savings for the customer.

NRG was complimentary of the execution excellence throughout the planned outage. They were also impressed with the site-level communication on status, action plans, and constant follow-up. 

The leadership and field teams contributed their extraordinary care for improving the customer experience. Our APM team had great collaboration with FieldCore and GE to identify innovative ways to deliver success on this project. The reflection of our APM culture pillars – Accountability, Candor, Transparency, and Collaboration – shines brightly at W.A Parish. The pride we take in grounding safety, quality, and integrity on every site we set foot upon, distinguishes APM as the cardinal solutions provider within our industry. We extend a deep appreciation for the performance of this entire team!