August 15, 2006

Profiling your plant engineering staff

James Patrick, Ameren; Robert Oldani, DTE Energy; and Daryl Von Behren, Kansas City Power & Light and EUCG Inc., Fossil Productivity Committee

New plant order

The survey results also imply that the lines between engineer and technologist have blurred. Roughly 23% of respondents noted that they actively recruit degreed engineers for nontraditional plant positions such as O&M supervisor or I&C foreman. The path to becoming a plant engineer also seems to favor on-the-job performance over formal education. Two examples make that clear: Only 3% of responding plant engineers said they were required to obtain a Professional Engineer's license, and only 2% of plant technicians said they have some sort of professional certification.

When it comes to managing overhauls and long-term work planning, one-fifth of responding plants get little or no outside support. That's consistent with the number of respondents who noted the scarcity of central or regional E&T assistance available to help them solve problems and execute plant projects.

Almost one-third of those surveyed said that inside- and outside-the-plant support are equally responsible for long-term planning for major inspections and overhaul outages; one-half said they "do it themselves" with minor outside support. Two-thirds of respondents reported that either the plant engineer, the plant maintenance supervisor, or a member of the plant's senior staff oversees management of planned outages; for forced outages, the number rises slightly, to 71%. Those speaking for just over one-half (54%) of the reporting plants say they have a full-time person with the title of outage manager.