APM Steam Services Crosses the Atlantic to Deliver Excellence at Cernavoda in Romania

“What helps you persevere is your resilience and commitment.” — Roy T. Bennett

Congratulations to APM Steam Services for a successful outage in Romania! APM, as part of the One GE Service solution, was originally scheduled to start preparation and work at Cernavoda in November 2020. Due to time requirements from the site, our crafts experts were needed on the job by June – five months sooner than originally expected.

Coordination of the travel plans, COVID-19 tests, shipment of all necessary tools, and planning of the entire outage filled many agendas during the month of May. Important preparatory calls and meetings took place, reviewing and working through possible travel restrictions and related concerns.

Restrictions on flight travel was in place until June 15th, so finding flights into the Southeastern country of Europe for over 60 people was no simple task. Some flights could cancel mid-booking, and there was potential for people to become stuck in cities connecting to Romania due to quarantine requirements in the region. Still, the customer was determined to partner in finding a way for APM experts to complete their outage.

After many thorough scenario discussions, chartered flights were approved and purchased. Sixty-seven employees were spread out among 230 seats to abide by social distancing rules. The flight carrying our APM Teams would not have happened without the help of Gary Orlando of Dixon Travel Consultants; he was instrumental to our travel success. APM is thankful for the excellent service to get our craftspeople to our customer site!

Click here to watch their flight to Romania in takeoff.

Payroll Clerk, Doug Devine, also expertly coordinated many tasks before, during, and after the crew was mobilized and demobilized.

“Doug was very essential in helping me with getting all the flights lined up, getting everyone paid, and basically herding the folks at all the airports. He helped keep me grounded; I couldn’t have done it without him,” said APM Service Manager, Michael Kehl.

Another critical job was to get all necessary tooling to the international site from the U.S. in a very short amount of time. Rene Gamez, Joe King, Michelle Bender, and many others from the APM Tool Center collaborated to get the tools delivered by the start date. Their support and delivery were outstanding.

Our APM Senior Leadership also rallied and aided in getting our full crew and tools to Romania. We would not have had success without the passionate involvement of Jake Locklear, Dan Reinhardt, Bruce Bever, Collin Warren, Marc Campo, and Dave Carrol. Every level of the APM Team was dedicated in fulfilling for this customer.

Fifty-six of our craftspeople led by Superintendents, Eric Finch and Jeff Henderson, performed two major rotor lifts in tandem, as well as a generator and major inspection. A total of 19,964 manhours were completed with zero significant events or recordables at Cernavoda.

Our customer reported being very satisfied with the quality of execution APM provided. They complimented on the great organization and collaboration between the teams.

In a setting where there were multiple languages in use, effectively communicating the prioritization of safety was vital to ensure this outage was injury and event free. Isaac Smith, Frank McKnight, James Orth, Charlie Joyner, Anthony Reed, Andy Vettel, Bill Ritchotte, and Jeff Mick were among the many key influencers who emphasized safety culture across the site every shift.

Several affiliate team members part of the One GE Service solution, including Frank Fortes, Frederick Harris, Marius Budea, and Nicolae Bobre among others, worked in coordination with our craft teams to deliver top-notch fulfillment, including safety and quality.

We are extraordinarily proud of the team members across the organization that took part in this success, and we commend the APM Steam Services site team for going above and beyond to deliver excellence to Cernavoda!