P 14 Baroda second innings ending

P 14

Baroda second innings ending
The continued understanding and mutual  co-operation enhanced the relationship amongst all concerned.That extended Alkan's presence in handling M/S Kirloskar's ASU package execution,
ACF (Acrylic Fibre) insulation and ACN instrumentation. Our ACN instrumentation was independently handled by my assistant Mr S Kannan and the execution went smooth with Mr BS Dalal of EIL co-operation and work challenge understanding. The end result was both Mr Dalal and Mr S Kannan shifted to  GNFC Bharuch to represent their respective companies- EIL and Alkan.
To establish the Bharuch site,I used to travel from Baroda to Bharuch (110Kms one way) daily, organised the site establishment  and handed over the charge to Kannan.

At that time (Jan.'80) there was a surprise to me! M/S Toyo Engg. Japan wanted Alkan's services for executing the field instrumentation job for the 3M MT /Annum refinery at Schwedt,GDR (East Germany),48Kms. from Berlin wall! Through Alkan Bombay office, they asked for my interview/ discussions for undertaking the said job. I was called to reach Bombay and meet Mr Nakamura, Toyo Engineering  chief instrument engineer, which I did.

Rest is history.That opened the gate for my first foreign travel ! Though that was a pleasant surprise, it had its own  impediments. Leaving the family-wife and 4 year old son with my parents at Madras ,getting exposed to Communist regime at GDR and fighting bitter cold etc. were the misgivings to face.
Shall continue GDR exposure in next.....

Key Aspects:- Delegation, Human relations, Surprise& shock

P 13 Second Innings at Baroda contd....

P  13

Second Innings at Baroda contd.
Considering multi plant requirement &seeing Alkan's establishment and cooperation at IPCL site EIL/IPCL considered Alkan as one of the best bet to award multi discipline tasks as contract. the jobs awarded pertain to both above ground and underground piping,  insulation -hot and cold and other plants instrumentation. Alkan management (both Mr JK Shivdasani and Mr S Syamsundar) thought I am the best  suitable person to handle all these contracts and gave me full back-up. I could use three  sub contractors- M/S Kunju Mohammed, Jacob and Bhaskar for different areas, ably managed by my lieutenant Sh Sridhar. He was a force by himself and can tackle any challenge. So Sridhar managed the field front , leaving the job distribution task to me and establish a strong working relationship with EIL site management. From EIL side, Mr PR Balasubramaniam(who became MD of NLC later) was the manager,under whom M/S Patel, Jitendra Desai,  Malhotra,  Bhavsar were the area engineers.
In this context i have two memorable incidence to narrate:
1.  As Alkan's manager  I used to attend daily EIL meetings to track the progress and analyse the involved issues-either in terms of drawing discrepancy, their IFC availability or materials issue.From EIL side whole team used to be present.
True to professionalism, each team used to take stand and sides to protect their company interests; there used to be literal arguments and challenges to defend. But during breaks, as if nothing has happened the whole group used to join for tea/snacks or lunch etc. We used to share the food brought from home. The outsiders (other than listed above) of both EIL and IPCL were feeling that things are not under control , they can interfere and take advantage ! On one fine day,Mr Anand, that time EIL RCM (resident construction manager, boss of PRB) called me to his cabin and advised me to break away from PRB &come to him for job instruction and execution. He added another question- how come you two are fighting tooth and nail in the day and in evenings go together in the same jeep- either EIL or Alkan's? Rather, he has even observed that on Tuesday evenings, both the families also join and go to Siddhi Vinayak temple in Baroda city. His motive was to take advantage of differences/ arguments between AR/PRB! When the matter came to open,  all involved members of execution- both EIL and Alkan refused to listen to Sh Anand and said we are happy with the present system  and will continue to address our functions!!They literally ignored him and his presence in the office. All the three Alkan's sub contractor were also happy with the team spirit and gave their full cooperation during execution.
2.  A freak incident of EIL inspector overruling Alkan supervisor's explanation and reasoning during pressure hydro test of 6 Kms.  of 6" Dia. naphtha service line becoming snake! This is the naphtha feed line originating from IOCL Bajwa to GOP plant area and Jacob was the sub contractor and Sridhar was on the job supervision. That was a hot summer noon  and pipe length involved being 6 Kms.it called for electrical pump to boost the test pressure.  Here  the inspection test procedure call for at least 20mts. pressure hold but pressure was falling due to sun heat resulting in pipe expansion, Sridhar suggested to Sh AJ Vyas-EIL inspector (who is in Reliance now) to defer the inspection to evening when Sun radiation reduce and carry out the check. But Vyas overruled and gave stern instructions to operate the pump to boost the pressure. In matter of minutes, the line pressure boosted beyond the pipe yield value and jumped out of rail forming a snake!
Then came the responsibility/ accountability factor! for the labour and material loss. Though the ultimate customer IPCL assessed the situation rightly,EIL as execution contractor have to defend themselves that too this being Govt. contract.They tried all means- Sama,Dhana,Beda and Dhandam to fix it on Alkan and expected to bear the entire loss. To rescue the involved EIL personnel from this desperate condition, Alkan management was magnanimous to agree to bear some expenses and managed the situation.Then the re-execution was completed in 6 weeks flat.

Key Aspects :- Accountable, Delegation, Faith, Human relations, Leadership, Motivation, Opportunity,Recognition, Responsible, Incident analysis

P 12 Baroda Second Innings contd....

P  12
Baroda Secoind Innings Contd....

Myself &Baig stood on the job overnight.We ensured to cut the line flow and water fill level in header to be lowered..As Baig's team members were multi-skill specialists,Ilyas not only completed the root run  and finish weld but also ensured to carry out Dye penetrant test to check cracks in weld,ensuring clean joints.Both the two tasks were completed by him by 4.30AM or so.Then self and Baig  installed the respective pitot tube elements in position and boxed them up/ back filled the earth before leaving the site. Next morning when GM Patel and my assistant Kannan came to site, they were surprised to see the instrument functioning.

3.In BBH plant,EIL Supdt.Mr Khanna was pestering that non installation of thermowell in hydro tested piping headers were holding their system test and box-up of loops.I called one of my Asst. fitter Sh Rawal and assigned him the task to be carried out on SOS basis.The work was assigned to him at his lunch break start.He completed the installation of all 112 thermowells in flat 2 1/2 hours and left for home (as he was exhausted and tired).I gave him a bonus of one day wages as OT.

4.I used to observe a peculiar work understanding between Baig and Hassan  when it comes to cable pulling/multi tube pulling in trenches or overhead trays. Though Baig was the sub contractor to Alkan, he used to sublet the same to Hassan to carry out and supervise.

5. Scrap allowance
When EIL contract cell  drafted the contract conditions at Delhi, nobody had an iota of idea addressing the scrap issue! The terms were written as 0.5% as unaccountable scrap and 1% as accountable scrap( <1 M of the cable/multi tube/copper tube). But GOP being a very large complex, the accountable scrap quantity became very large. Though both IPCL and EIL contract management team were convinced and ready to accept the explanations/ reasoning of Alkan,Mr Aurora put his foot down  and punished Alkan heavily.

6.Special recognition of AR
As both Lummus and IPCL  commissioning team were tracking the field instrumentation work progress, they enlisted my name as one of the very few- numbering 12 only (only contract person) to be present inside the complex when Propylene was taken in. They had high confidence on me  and my capability to tackle emergency situation if any arise. This was from the angle of safety and disaster management.
I hold that Honour for my life time.

All the above are exclusively as instrumentation  contract of GOP. But to tell the truth, how my management of site and PR exercise with EIL and IPCLteam have widened Alkan's presence in IPCL Baroda are by itself a big  story!  My influence led to mature as contracts in piping/plant equipment erection/package execution/insulation execution and ACN instrumentation etc.


                                                            Baroda second innings  shall Continue............

Key Aspects:-  Accountable, Critical challenge, Faith, Recognition, Responsible

P 11 Second innings at Baroda contd.....

P  11
Second innings at Baroda contd....

Here I would like to highlight six important instances during implementation of cracker/BBH instrumentation:
1. EIL missing out to include LPG bullet and vaporiser instrumentation scope under Alkan

2. EIL missing out the provision of tapping for in-line flow meters(Pitot tube nozzles) Anubar in underground CW lines

3, Installation of all 112 Thermowells in BBH by a single fitter during lunch break in one day

4.Cable pulling management by Hassan & how single handedly completed the core termination in all panels; exhibiting confidence about his workmanship to convince GMP to energise and charge each one of them.

5.Sh Aurora making Alkan poor by his own interpretation of contract for cables/ muliti tubes/ copper tubing scraps

6. With extreme confidence how M/S Lummus and IPCL had faith on me during first commissioing of Cryogenics taken in

If one attempts to analyse and narrate, each item by itself will become a story!But I will attempt to project them very briefly.

1.EIL missing out LPG bullet instrumentation
As the overall contract for Alkan was only Rs 6 lakhs in those days, operating the missed out items under unit rate or man hour base was not economical to any contractor. Though I was conscious that it is Alkan only who has to undertake that&execute,I was taking the stand that since it was not included in main contract,we cannot undertake to execute that.Ultimate client Mr YR Trivedi of IPCL was jumping and blamed EIL for missing out as well as mismanagement.
When my director Syamsundar visited site,JR took up that matter with him in my presence. When SS looked at me,I frankly explained the situation.Immediately JR understood the catch; promised me that EIL will not punish Alkan for their mistake&will compensate suitably.He called Mr Rawat and issued special instructions and cautioned that Aurora should not poke in this matter. With that promise,Alkan took up the task  including field engineering and executed the job in flat 28 days.

2.EIL Missing out tapping for flow nozzles in underground CW lines
In GOP there were two flow transmitters to measure the CW flow through underground mains. As instrument contractor Alkan executed the stanchion mounting, fixing the Xr and gave a punch list for the missing nozzles to mount Anubar elements in Under ground lines. This was a fundamental error in piping engg. interface! M/S ECC(L&T) as piping contractor completed their scope as per IFC  dwg. and the lines were charged with CW. Mr Sathyanandam,construction supdt, was in a fix and started following it up with me at 3PM on that day. I, as instrument contractor, flatly refused to take the call of provisioning 2 X 6" nozzle in a charged header that too underground. He ran to JR and asked him to get involved. Typical of JR, he called me & Baig and pleaded us to undertake this challenging task at our terms. Baig lined up an ace welder Md Ilyas at 7.30PM.                       Contd........

Key Aspects :-  Faith, Planning& Scheduling, Technical issue, Recognition, Reputation 

P 10 Second Innings at Baroda

P  10

My second innings at Baroda

This time I landed in Baroda along with family(my wife and first son Raja) and straightaway
occupied 4B Shreyas appt.,Fatehganj, that time the tallest building in Baroda.As I was the manager for Alkan at Baroda,a Ambassador car was provided with driver Mr George. George was a good driver with utmost discipline, polite and punctual while in service. He used to report at 7.30Hrs in the morning and leave the duty from Shreyas at 11.30PM average. This continued until I left Baroda.

To begin with, my job responsibility was to manage instrumentation erection of GOP(that time biggest Olefin plant in India) in IPCL under EIL Overall supervision. though Mr BL Kalra was the overall RCM of EIL at IPCL site,Mr J Rangachari , that time Senior construction superintendent(who became CMD of EIL before his retirement) had exclusive control in managing the cracker complex.Under him he had two construction supdt. -one for cracker and the other for BBH. Alkan's scope in GOP was limited to instrumentation only. As good practice, Alkan engaged the services of Mr AM Baig for all skilled workmen requirements and given as packages for execution.All supervision was under Alkan engineers. Though Mr Hassan was an Alkan Foreman for all electrical related items, he had a working understanding with Baig.

From IPCL side, for contract management M/S Dewaji and Jariwala were the responsible personnel.
From EIL side, M/S MS Rawat and AK Aurora were the instrumentation members to supervise Alkan job  performance & progress.

As my classmate Sh R Narayanan initiated this site activity, I had ready made establishment to start with.As luck would have it, a young team of DMITs-M/S Viswakumar, Jagannathan,Muralidharan, Kannan,TG Mohan, D Bhaskaran, Chandrasekharan were core members of my execution team.
Additionally M/S Tiwary, Hassan, N Madhu were the foreman and supervisors. Later M/S Krishna Reddy, Rafiuddin,Ganesh and Bhaktavatsalu joined to reinforce the team. All the DMIT engineers were accomodated in Nandanvan Society at Race course road, Alkapuri and they had a well managed mess to take care of their needs. Mr Viswakumar was my number one deputy and by virtue of his leadership quality, he used to lead the working team both in work front as well as social welfare of the team and work force. Since he has relieved me of day today work tension,I used to focus my time on management, keep liasion with EIL and IPCL folks and oversee Baig's manpower reinforcement issues.Of course Tiwary and Hassan's day today tussles kept me occupied fully.
On the work front I had excellent relation with JR and Rawat but Aurora had complex all the while and thought that a contractor should always be treated as third party.He never showed any respect or value for any of the contract personnel including me and my workmen. But from IPCL side I commanded highest respect from M/S GM Patel and Sashisekharan, the two lead engineers. Sashi, a DMIT, evinced keen interest in handling analyser packages and chromotographs; he took care of all Beckmann packages(remember as 12)all around the complex.He used to directly interface with my team and take care of complete erection/testing and commissioning including the cylinder cabinet/building. Rather Sashi became an analyser expert in his career and later moved to Venezeula.
Sh GM Patel though was reporting to Sh BV Vaishnav, took the virtual control of instrumentation in GOP. Though his tone used to be demanding, he showed highest mutual respect in the job execution.
Understand that he retired from IPCL as the plant manager of cracker complex.    
                                                                                                                        Contd........

Key Aspects :- Delegation, Human Relations, Leadership, Responsible, Team building,