Project Development Procedures

Project Development Procedures

Our standardized processes, tested and honed over the many years of TGM’s experience, ensure short outage durations, completed cost-effectively with minimal workmanship issues. These are a few of the unique planning processes that give us an advantage once we are on-site to perform your outage:

The Critical Path Method schedule we create after our initial site visit breaks each part of your project down into individual tasks. Those tasks are then sequenced and resource-loaded, dependencies are identified, and the critical path calculated electronically—all to create a physical model of the project. The schedule is updated daily and used for continuous project monitoring to permit the most efficient project execution, to identify potential problem areas early in the process, and to communicate with you consistently.

Our planning starts even prior to the award and receipt of the purchase order, as we take the bidding process very seriously. For every Major Inspection, we convene a Pre-Proposal Review meeting prior to the finalization of the bid. In this meeting, we gather our operations team to review the workscope, your unit history, and any other pertinent information identified during the walk-down, including previous final report reviews (if available), current operating issues, or pre-bid meetings. The intent is to identify any possible issues to ensure that the most complete, detailed, and well thought-out proposal is delivered to you; when possible, we do this before we win the work so that when we do win the work we will minimize surprises and have a more predictable schedule. Of course, any unexpected repairs or issues found during the inspection are addressed immediately when identified and factored into the schedule, minimizing cost and schedule impact.

To ensure a smooth transition between sales and operations, after the award and receipt of a purchase order, TGM convenes a meeting of all the internal project stakeholders to review the outage and customer expectations. Though by this time the scope is well defined and a contract is in place, this meeting allows the Regional Account Manager to make sure that your expectations and other pertinent information is fully understood.

Although TGM has a vast library of work packages and inspection experience on many types of steam and gas turbine generators, very specific checklists are developed for your specific unit. A TGM checklist is designed to be “turbine mechanic friendly,” meaning that the paperwork is minimized so the project is not bogged down unnecessarily, and only critical activities are marked for “check off.” TGM has embraced the philosophy used by the airline industry, using highly trained personnel who know the equipment and checklists to verify critical activities.

After receipt of the purchase order and prior to mobilizing tools and personnel to the plant, the project team—the Technical Director/Project Manager, Foreman, and Project Coordinator—presents the final project plan to TGM senior management and stakeholders. This final review, the Project Readiness Review, assures that the project planning is complete and the team is ready to implement the contract.

Results of this meeting include:

• Safety plan
• Quality plan, including unit specific checklists
• Finalized schedule  
• Subcontractor review Contingency identification
• Special processes needed for execution
• Jobsite logistics finalization including tool staging, communication plans, and labor management

TGM firmly believes that ongoing and timely communications with you, our customer, are critical to the success of every project.

TGM provides detailed Daily Status Reports so that you have a breakdown of the work done on your unit every day we are on the job. We note safety meetings (including topics), schedule updates, work completed, work scheduled, unusual conditions noted / critical data taken, recommendations, customer actions required, and comments. The reports have a consistent format and are transmitted to you and TGM management at the same time so that communication is consistent.

Daily Customer Status Meetings are held to discuss the status of the outage as desired by the customer. TGM feels strongly that open communication is one of the keys to a successful project.

At the completion of each job, the Foreman will evaluate every Turbine Mechanic. Evaluations are used to record each mechanic’s performance and experience, and the results are used for training and job classification.

The following criteria are evaluated:

1. 1.Safety performance
2. 2.Team work
3. 3.Proper care and use of tools
4. 4.Proficiency in using precision instruments
5. 5. Ability to follow oral and written directions
6. 6.Willingness to request assistance when in doubt of direction or progress of assigned work task
7. 7.Documentation accuracy
8. 8.Housekeeping proficiency promptness
9. 9.Use of Job Safety Analysis (JSA) before starting work

As important as the inspection, repair, and reassembly of the turbine and generator is the Final Report. TGM prides itself on leaving the customer with a complete summary of the work that was performed. TGM leans toward providing more, rather than less, information than is normally offered by similar companies. Every photograph taken during the outage is provided because a photograph may be invaluable during the next outage to understand unit condition. In addition to a bound final report, an electronic version with the following elements is included: the outage summary, original contracted workscope, detailed component inspections including repairs performed, subcontractor reports, unit start-up data, detailed recommendations, data sheets, renewal parts recommendations, contract change orders, daily status reports, and photographs of the process from beginning to end. This comprehensive final report is not only documentation of the past, but a planning tool for future outages and/or projects. The report is assembled and provided in timely manner—within 30 days of project completion on the majority of our inspections.

After you receive the final report on your outage, you will receive a Customer Satisfaction Survey electronically. We ask for your comments on all of our processes and work—the quote and bid process, project planning, communication, on-site performance, and our final report—so that we can make improvements in the future. We take your comments and opinions seriously. And we track the quantitative results we receive and evaluate what each score is telling us in terms of our performance in each area. Our survey tool is vital for us in the process improvement phase. Additionally, a completed Customer Satisfaction Survey always results in an incentive bonus to the project team and is a valuable tool in improving their performance.

We take your comments, both positive and negative, seriously. Before demobilizing, the Technical Director holds a final meeting with the customer in an exit interview. Growth opportunities are identified by both customer and TGM personnel, and brought back later to our Post-Outage Review. The results of the Customer Satisfaction Surveys are reviewed by management with the project teams and evaluated to identify further improvement opportunities.           

We convene after the outage to transfer the customer from the operations group to the customer service group. We review everything that went well, things that could have been better, any open items, and any other information that is pertinent to future service. We make sure that the unit recommendations are in our database so that our service representative, the RAM (Regional Account Manager), will be able to follow up with you on a regular basis. We strive to be a continuous service provider – our expertise can assist in operational issues and anomalies, and phone calls become part of our permanent documentation which is used to prepare for the next outage opportunity.