We take pride at APM in our ability to deliver safe, productive outages. APM Boiler, in conjunction with GE, did just that this Spring. We were asked to plan and execute a large-scale inspection and repair outage for TransAlta Centralia. This type of outage presented schedule and resource challenges as the scope is not clearly defined prior to the outage.

Recognizing the challenges that would be present on this site, the management team was carefully selected.

• Jim Ridings, APM Superintendent, had intimate knowledge of this unit and the workings of the plant, so he was able to keep the lines of communication with the customer and GE teams open and flowing.

• Tommy Tucker, APM Quality Lead, maintained the quality program, assisted with coaching duties, and aided Jim as an “extra” Superintendent.

• Rick Bertram, APM Site Safety Representative, maintained the site safety program, while assisting with mentoring and coaching. Rick also championed APM’s CBS philosophy with the crew and the customer.

• Hermes Coutin, GE’s assigned Outage Manager was an asset in the coordination and efforts to meet the team’s needs. Hermes made sure the team had everything they needed to be successful.

This management team collaborated with the customer to develop work, safety, and quality plans, ultimately reducing a potential 60-day outage on two shifts to a single shift job working under 50 days. Throughout the outage, TransAlta demonstrated a strong safety partnership through their daily participation in STA’s and weekly safety meetings.

Ultimately, this management team, in conjunction with the members of Boilermakers Local 502 and Laborers Local 252, worked over 30,000 manhours with 100% safety and quality – that’s zero safety incidents and zero quality defects on the over 1,400 welds performed. This team went above and beyond to deliver a safe, quality product to a great customer by working as One Field Service team.