Some Updates from an Engineer
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The past few days were very busy days for me. However, I tried to get a few minutes off from my hectic activities (event at night! after work...) to post something here. Let me just share few things that I did today and yesterday at work (and after work) not in particular order:
- Watching, witnessing, experiencing the civil, construction job performed at my work place. I learned interesting stuff about how the civil work to expand, upgrade and modify a plant is made. Instead of normal irritating noisy piling, I saw quite smooth hydraulic piling and the machinery involved in running the operation. It's impressive.
- Meeting with suppliers. Today and yesterday, I received a visit from two different suppliers from the same niche area (both of them are competitors...). Usually, we don't really entertain suppliers, but both that came were worth the time. We learned and discussed in order to improve our work. We exchanged informations and ideas as well as shared experiences. It were a fruitful discussion.
- My cooling tower fan was dismantled because it vibrates. A 20 tonne crane was used to lift the 7 bladed fan down to the maintenance workshop. It's a new experience looking and inspecting the fan closely. This is what we call "Preventive Maintenance".
- Supervising practical student. This is another area that I'm covering as well. I made a format/guideline for him to study, research and investigate. He work his way according to my guideline. Every end of the day, we shall sit together and discuss his work/progress. In order to develop his communication skill and improve his second language, I asked him to converse with me in English (he's a Malay). I hope he will learn as much as possible within these 2 months practical training period.
- New Heat Exchanger. I ordered a new set of heat exchanger and it would arrive from German in two months time. I'm checking on the perfect location to install the heat exchanger. I have to consider the piping work (civil work) and flow of oil. Parts and materials for the heat exchanger must also be finalized such as ball valve, temperature gauge, pressure gauge, pipes, expansion below, insulation, RTD, mass flow meters and others....It's challenging, interesting and fun....
- Managing/thinking about my manpower problems. This is a real head-ache. No wonder there's a saying, "It's easier to handle 100 cows compared to handle 1o peoples". Each of them have different behavior and attitudes. However, only very few of them continuously have disciplinary problems. The others are good. I'm calling for a meeting tomorrow to discuss and find a way to eliminate social and disciplinary problems within my down line staff.
- Report preparation. This is a daily routine activity. However, I have not yet completed the monthly report because I'm still waiting for the costing report from accounting departments.
- Supervising design project. I'm also supervising a final year design project from a local university (few months back, my colleague (a lecturer) asked me a favour to be an allied supervisor from industry....). I received the report just now and I'm checking it at home (at night after work). I'm going from line to line and page by page. I'm impress with the report. However, there are still few errors here and there. I just reached page 37 out of 78. Got 41 pages to go through.
- I received an email from a reader of this blog (you know who you are... :). He's currently working on his final year design project entitled "The production on hydrocarbon based methanol". I'm not really aware on this. However, I'll try and check it out. I'll get back to you as soon as I get some valuable informations related to the topic. By the way, anybody who knows and have expertise on the title can share ideas and information here. You can put something in the comment box. We can help each other here....
Well...there's more....but, I need to take a break and continue reading/checking the final year design report.
Enjoyed this post? Subscribe to CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WORLD by email.
Or you can also Subscribe to CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WORLD by RSS.
Want to switch link with this blog? Email me or drop a comment. Your blog/site should be related to Chemical Engineering.
Labels: Jobs, Learning Curve
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:17 PM,
4 Comments:
-
At Wednesday, May 16, 2007,
said...
-
Hi Mr Zaki. I am a third year chemical engineer student studying at the University of Melbourne (I am Malaysian). I have been reading your blog for quite a while and I found that it is interesting and informative. Really appreciate your effort to maintain the chemical engineering blog even though you are busy with your work. Hope that there will be more interesting experience and information to be shared with your readers.
-
At Wednesday, May 16, 2007,
Kipas Repair JB said...
-
Thanks Yong Chin,
It's good to know that what we are doing is benefiting the others. I'll do my best to keep on posting...Thanks for your support.
Maybe you can share your experience as well.... -
At Friday, May 18, 2007,
Webworm said...
-
Zaki / Yong Chin,
Lets share our experience and promote Chemical & Process Engineering...this is soemthing that i wanna to do since long time ago...
Webworm -
At Wednesday, May 23, 2007,
Kipas Repair JB said...
-
yeah,,,,Let's do it...
The Author
I’m Zaki. I used to be a project, process and chemical engineer. Few years ago I successfully became a Chartered Engineer (IChemE) and Professional Engineer (BEM). I'm now employed as a chemical engineering educator/researcher/consultant. Hope you like reading my blog. I welcome any feedback from you. My email: zaki.yz[alias]gmail.com. TQ!
