One of our new APM Boiler division Superintendents, Terry Royce, and the Boilermakers of local 40 took on a quick turnaround project in Kentucky last fall and hit a home run.

The APM Boiler team received a request from GE Gas Power to support the installation of a new blow off deflector inside of a gas turbine stack. The site had been on outage for several weeks, and they had pushed off this repair multiple times with concerns that the scope would become critical path and delay the gas turbine outage. Working with Dave Nadeau, FieldCore Outage Manager, Jimmy Robbins, FieldCore Service Manager and John Baierlein, APM Boiler Division Leader, an estimated duration was put together and submitted to site. The team then had several meetings with the site GE Customer Service Leader and the Gas Turbine Outage Team. The team came up with a plan that would finish the deflector scope one day prior to the Gas Turbine team needing full access to the machine. Our team assured all other groups that we would be able to execute in the time allotted.

The APM Boiler team ordered manpower on the Thursday prior to Thanksgiving. This only gave us four (4) working days to acquire manpower, place them through a 5-hour online site orientation, and process them through site-required screenings prior to mobilizing on November 29th. The local boilermaker hall responded with stainless steel welders and a crew of true professionals. These guys jumped through hoops and came to the site ready to tackle any challenge. They took on an unknown scope at a site that has not had boilermakers on it in quite some time, and they performed with excellence.

In a display of great teamwork among One Field Services - APM, FieldCore, and GE - drawing assistance from Todd Hardin and his site team’s support, Terry Royce and his crew were able to complete the repair in six (6) days, four (4) shifts faster than originally anticipated, by working efficiently. The potential for this cost and time saving was identified once the team began to lay out for the install. There was some nuisance piping that was originally thought to be a barrier that needed to be rerouted by design, but once onsite, Terry and Francis Limburger, FieldCore Construction Manager, were able to figure out a path to leave that piping untouched and saved two (2) shifts worth of work.

This was a relatively small project with huge impact. With the support of the FieldCore HRSG Team, our APM Boiler teams continue to respond and deliver for the GE Gas Power business, and successes like these will absolutely lead to more opportunities in the future!