P 123 J3 Portable gas Detector system

P 123

J3 Portable gas detector system

As said, none had any clear picture of how to proceed forward! The crux of the issue was , that people could not distinguish the difference between sourcing only portables, what they used to do in original refineries  with that of having a  system where  regular bump test can be executed and data gathering for the last six months of each portable device  is feasible and one can ensure to transfer them to central server for data history and track. People concerned could not appreciate its value  but I alone had different ideas.

So, with a statistical data analysis of number of personnel associated with each PIB/Control room, we arrived at the requirement of 4X portables(Personnel protection) with quadgas  for each building.and with operation/s inputs, arrived at the requirement of all other multi gas detectors meant for area check and  work permit clearance etc.. When it came for 4X , with the vendor input data of 30-40 secs for each portable bump test time taken and no. of 4X bump modules, we  calculated the number of Galaxy module requirement, taking max. of 10 portables to be bump tested in each galaxy at every shift beginning. That means approx. 3 -4  min.time slot to take for 10 personnel to have their respective bump tested device in possession to move into field at their shift beginning. Once we could arrive at the Galaxy requirement and portables both personnel (4X) and other multi gas portables requirement  for each building , we could freeze the corresponding gas canister type(quadgas and other specific gas for respective building) requirement and portable  power chargers easily.

With that, the project could give the PR to procurement to commit the order. As usual, there was confusion for the codification of each item in SAP database. Added to the mess, since these were all new in nature and SAP codification responsibility was with COE-HSE group for these safety devices, we were forced to exert more efforts to sort out. But ultimately we could complete this task by mid-November 2015.

Thereafter the vendor indicated that the production will take place in first week of December and he would like to complete the order before that year X-Mas holidays (before 22nd Dec.2015) and clear for shipment. When the project and procurement lead took up the matter for factory inspection schedule and identify the team for deployment, two issues arose.

1. Somehow the local rep. of the vendor did not have any idea about the vendor data submission/approval process and he was furnishing only standard sales catalogue for review/approval.  It forced me to take up the matter directly with their Dubai office and HQ factory since the  person concerned was not technically qualified and could not understand the matter.

2. Sh.B Narayan  felt there was no necessity for any factory acceptance at all since we have placed the order on one of the world's reputed firm and their internal quality assurance must be excellent.
Over&above, considering  internal personality differences and potential capability issues, he concluded that nobody need to make the travel to USA.

So it became a No-GO situation! At that time only, RPMG management issued a circular that all employees have to necessarily take that year PL before 31st Dec. failing which they will forego their earned PL for that year. As I was also one in that listing, it forced me to avail my leave. As I did not have any plan at all, it was utter confusion then.  All of sudden I decided that I will go to USA alone and spend some time with my two sons at New Jersey; as my aged in-laws are permanently staying with us, my wife could not accompany me. As I could get very cheap to&fro ticket through my travel agent, I planned to leave immediately by Nov. end itself.
                                                                                                               Contd.....
Key Aspects :-  Incident analysis,  Lack of experience, Responsible, Technical issue

P 122 J3 Sourcing Gas Detector portables

P  122

J3 Sourcing Gas Detector Portables

After freezing the various combination of multi gas type and quadgas type, the issue cropped up that from which factory of M/S MSA they have to be sourced by Reliance. None in the entire set-up, be it MSA management, or Reliance end user or procurement group looked into the aspect of  Country of origin, not having the actual manufacturing facility for these devices at their German establishment, issue of multiple transfers for these sensitive equipment and corresponding gas canisters etc.
The vendor be it their India office or Dubai/Germany office could not even understand the implied
constraints and were going with Reliance's procurement dictates! Reliance procurement team had only the sole objective of European Credit facility  ignoring the country of Origin issue and multiple transits.  As usual I became a bad boy while putting my condition that these have to be sourced only from their original manufacturing establishment, here it is Pittsburgh,USA. Finally, on my sole insistence on technical grounds, they were forced to look into sourcing them directly from their factory at USA,their HQ. But on prestige, they retained to go with Euro order instead of US $.Since that did not affect the technical aspects, I allowed it to go.

How we arrived at the initial qty. requirement ?
After successfully scuttling all the controversies, I shifted the scene to Jamnagar to associate the field team- ultimate stake holder/s to identify and arrive at the quantity requirement of various types. As help I had the services of Ms Leena Thomas and Sandesh Tikhe. Though both of them did not have
any back ground knowledge on the specifics, they applied themselves to extract the input from respective plant/PIB in-charge  to identify the quantum requirement of quadgas personal safety device. When I created such an atmosphere of interest to participants, they did their homework as far as opertional team members and volunteered to present/justify their requirements. There were meaningful hot discussions where to keep the bump test modules  and how many such modules required etc. So with meaningful deliberations, we arrived at identifying locations not only in PIBs but also in control rooms and some common places. There the arugument arose, when a person report for duty from home, how safe he can be until he reach his point of reporting for duty to pick up his safety device. Discussions on those three days at Jamnagar made everyone aware and conscious about the impact by the treacherous toxic gases in the field.

During that stage, they came out with 850 numbers of quadgas detectors and about 250 numbers of all other combinations having 5 gases /2 gases sensor.  For gases like Cl2,Ammonia, we opted for 2 gas combination.

The funniest thing was , nobody could arrive at the final number of Galaxy bump modules and corresponding gas canister combination.to be placed in any of the PIBs or control rooms. Even the vendor reps. did not have an iota of the picture, since their company did not have any experience in
handling such a big project order. So, when I assumed that responsibility to work out the same with my team members, people in RCP felt that I am exceeding my limits of authority and helping the vendor out of the way. During that stage of my career, several camps got formed in RCP  to disgrace me. Without analyzing, some people raised the bogey  that I have gone ahead in accepting Zone'1' certified devices and it should have been only zone'0' approved! All of them were carried away by M/S Honeywell/s claim of Zone '0' certification requirement. It forced me to go deep in reviewing the requirements and also look at all Honeywell Test certificates for those family of detectors. Honeywell was claiming that they are the only party in India who has got Zone'0' approval from PESO department. Funnily I noticed then, that even they do not have Zone'0' ATEX certification for the detectors with IR sensor! and they have misrepresented the case to statutory authorities and got certification.. As I have to save my repute and being the person who was a party in drafting the Statutory Rules for the country, I took up the matter with that time CCE and got their certification reversed then. That made many people unhappy in the house.
Even at that stage, we could not freeze the order since galaxy bump modules and gas canister quantity were not frozen.  Then came the twist!
                                                                                                                               Contd......
KeyAspects :-  Accountable, Communicate, Conviction, Critical challenge, Human relations,
Incident analysis, Initiative, Leadership, Reputation, Technical issue, Team building