An Engineering History
As a Project Engineer /Manager for more than 10 years, I managed 30-60 large to small projects and their funding at a time. While in my role as a project engineer, I spent more than 100 million dollars of government funds. I had final say as to funds, engineering quality of the equipment/ buildings & their installation, as well as schedule. I went wherever I had to go to get the information required to get the job done right , safely , and on time. I negotiated schedules for my projects that met management=s deadlines. I enforced those schedules with the specifications I wrote for the equipment /buildings that I engineered and helped procure. Usually I sat in on the buyer=s meetings during price negotiation at the vendor site to make sure the government was not getting overcharged.
In short, I kept the vendor honest with my knowledge of how to design , build, inspect, & deliver the goods /equipment that the government had contracted for. I got what I wanted, when I wanted it because of my common sense ability to help the vendor schedule his project through their plant from the ordering of the raw materials, to its manufacture, pre-inspection, packaging and delivery. I also went on vendor qualification trips to pre-qualify the vendors of government goods and services.
When Rockwell International, the DOE contractor, at the time, started getting funny with my bookkeeping, I caught them in the act and they put the money back into my accounts. I paid close attention to who and where the money was going to. I knew all the codes and the people who were the players. I was / am not afraid to play hard ball. My job was always on the line, from one aspect or another.
After the items of interest were procured, I followed up and made sure everything was on schedule with the delivery I negotiated. If a problem occurred, I went to the vendor's site, anywhere in the United States of America and helped them solve their problem so I could get what I wanted on time. I was in constant communication with the vendors and my project leads gathering information to regularly update management as to price and schedule. I inspected everything I bought and issued lists of possible problem areas to the vendors and the engineers on my projects. I also specified the packaging for the item(s) so it was delivered safely.
My main forte as a project manager/engineer was my ability to understand a project from the details on up to the big picture. I am an adept drawing checker and got very good at asking the simple questions that drive people up a wall if they don=t know what they are doing. I did all my own safety reviews, as well as the stage 1.2.&3 project /program reviews. I got and incorporated the detailed information I required to get the work done on time and on budget.
Since I love detail work, I worked with software programmers very well. The programmers either hated me or loved me because they found they could snow me with buzz words. On the other hand, I understand their plight and have more than a little sympathy for the way in which they can creatively work with abstract thought patterns.
Although my degree is electrical (I know the NEC well), I became very good at many disciplines. I go to the bottom-line very quickly. I read and understand P & I D’s very well. I have both book & field experience in most electrical, electronic, mechanical, chemical, welding, civil/architectural fields of expertise. I have designed welded structures and P&ID’s. I used my copy of Industrial Ventilation, it didn’t just sit on the shelf. I understand how gases and fluids flow through pipes and ducts. I worked with all kinds and types of materials to get a feel for the types of chemical reactions the materials were capable of. I know a fair amount about strength of materials. I designed Fire Protection Systems from scratch.
While the items were being delivered (some were years in the making), I concentrated my efforts on preparing the site for the equipment/buildings and went through the various reviews that management required to make sure that everything was proceeding as planned. I, often, designed the electrical and mechanical drawings for the installations, since I knew best what was required for the installation of the gear involved.
After a few years, I became a sort of troubleshooting project engineer/ manger, who management would bring in to help solve problems around the site. In that role, I excelled at setting my priorities on the specific issues that needed solving so that I could get what I wanted in a suitable time frame and for a realistic cost. I fixed a lot of serious engineering problems in a calm ,cool, methodical way.
Due to the nature of the Defense business, all the equipment I bought and installed had to be totally self-contained, including the source and object code of all the computers it contained. RFETS is a classified facility that is very difficult to enter and work in if you don’t hold a “Q” clearance. Not many people outside of DOE hold “Q” ‘s , so RFETS had all the people it required to understand, program and maintain the equipment I bought. RFETS signed a boat-load of Proprietary / Non-Disclosure Agreements.
As a System Engineer, I wrote the specific shutdown details for the outside contractors to shut down the major production building emergency generators and UPS. The outside contractors got paid very well to just turn over my instructions to a typist who would put them into their company format, word for word.
In my role as an STA, later in my career at RFETS, I concentrated on the safety issues which management thought were out of control at RFETS. I advised management on a course of action that would get things done in a safe manner. Practically 100% of the time, I found that I was the only one who knew all the safety rules involved to get a project done safely. To put it lightly, I was in demand.
Just prior to retiring, I was asked to inspect a large piece of equipment that was supposedly ready for delivery to RFETS. I issued an inspection letter to management that stopped that piece of equipment in its tracks and rerouted it to another building where it was eventually installed much later. This caused an international brouhaha and went straight to the top management of RFETS/ DOE. One of the best things I do is audit because I am so good with details. In the nuclear business, if you’re not safe, you’re dying a slow death, literally.
As I retired from RFETS, the STA position, which was often the only real safety position standing for safe operations in a building, was formally written out of the DOE contract. This allowed the government contractor to be more liberal with their use of resources.
RFETS was and still is a large part of the national defense structure. It was part of the DOE complex that built nuclear weapons. RFETS built the nuclear triggers for the weapons and was highly classified, so I had to get and keep a AQ@ clearance which is just one step above a secret clearance. This is all I can say specifically about the nature of RFETS business. I was part of a team that proved out laboratory ideas into a reproducible end result. It was / is a messy business at best, and can get away from you quite quickly if you are not paying attention to what you are doing. A lot of horror stories will die with me.
RFETS is now in shutdown mode and is being brought down according to all the safety rules and regulations that any and all of the governments having jurisdiction over RFETS have. I am proud to have played a significant role in that shutdown process.
In short, I kept the vendor honest with my knowledge of how to design , build, inspect, & deliver the goods /equipment that the government had contracted for. I got what I wanted, when I wanted it because of my common sense ability to help the vendor schedule his project through their plant from the ordering of the raw materials, to its manufacture, pre-inspection, packaging and delivery. I also went on vendor qualification trips to pre-qualify the vendors of government goods and services.
When Rockwell International, the DOE contractor, at the time, started getting funny with my bookkeeping, I caught them in the act and they put the money back into my accounts. I paid close attention to who and where the money was going to. I knew all the codes and the people who were the players. I was / am not afraid to play hard ball. My job was always on the line, from one aspect or another.
After the items of interest were procured, I followed up and made sure everything was on schedule with the delivery I negotiated. If a problem occurred, I went to the vendor's site, anywhere in the United States of America and helped them solve their problem so I could get what I wanted on time. I was in constant communication with the vendors and my project leads gathering information to regularly update management as to price and schedule. I inspected everything I bought and issued lists of possible problem areas to the vendors and the engineers on my projects. I also specified the packaging for the item(s) so it was delivered safely.
My main forte as a project manager/engineer was my ability to understand a project from the details on up to the big picture. I am an adept drawing checker and got very good at asking the simple questions that drive people up a wall if they don=t know what they are doing. I did all my own safety reviews, as well as the stage 1.2.&3 project /program reviews. I got and incorporated the detailed information I required to get the work done on time and on budget.
Since I love detail work, I worked with software programmers very well. The programmers either hated me or loved me because they found they could snow me with buzz words. On the other hand, I understand their plight and have more than a little sympathy for the way in which they can creatively work with abstract thought patterns.
Although my degree is electrical (I know the NEC well), I became very good at many disciplines. I go to the bottom-line very quickly. I read and understand P & I D’s very well. I have both book & field experience in most electrical, electronic, mechanical, chemical, welding, civil/architectural fields of expertise. I have designed welded structures and P&ID’s. I used my copy of Industrial Ventilation, it didn’t just sit on the shelf. I understand how gases and fluids flow through pipes and ducts. I worked with all kinds and types of materials to get a feel for the types of chemical reactions the materials were capable of. I know a fair amount about strength of materials. I designed Fire Protection Systems from scratch.
While the items were being delivered (some were years in the making), I concentrated my efforts on preparing the site for the equipment/buildings and went through the various reviews that management required to make sure that everything was proceeding as planned. I, often, designed the electrical and mechanical drawings for the installations, since I knew best what was required for the installation of the gear involved.
After a few years, I became a sort of troubleshooting project engineer/ manger, who management would bring in to help solve problems around the site. In that role, I excelled at setting my priorities on the specific issues that needed solving so that I could get what I wanted in a suitable time frame and for a realistic cost. I fixed a lot of serious engineering problems in a calm ,cool, methodical way.
Due to the nature of the Defense business, all the equipment I bought and installed had to be totally self-contained, including the source and object code of all the computers it contained. RFETS is a classified facility that is very difficult to enter and work in if you don’t hold a “Q” clearance. Not many people outside of DOE hold “Q” ‘s , so RFETS had all the people it required to understand, program and maintain the equipment I bought. RFETS signed a boat-load of Proprietary / Non-Disclosure Agreements.
As a System Engineer, I wrote the specific shutdown details for the outside contractors to shut down the major production building emergency generators and UPS. The outside contractors got paid very well to just turn over my instructions to a typist who would put them into their company format, word for word.
In my role as an STA, later in my career at RFETS, I concentrated on the safety issues which management thought were out of control at RFETS. I advised management on a course of action that would get things done in a safe manner. Practically 100% of the time, I found that I was the only one who knew all the safety rules involved to get a project done safely. To put it lightly, I was in demand.
Just prior to retiring, I was asked to inspect a large piece of equipment that was supposedly ready for delivery to RFETS. I issued an inspection letter to management that stopped that piece of equipment in its tracks and rerouted it to another building where it was eventually installed much later. This caused an international brouhaha and went straight to the top management of RFETS/ DOE. One of the best things I do is audit because I am so good with details. In the nuclear business, if you’re not safe, you’re dying a slow death, literally.
As I retired from RFETS, the STA position, which was often the only real safety position standing for safe operations in a building, was formally written out of the DOE contract. This allowed the government contractor to be more liberal with their use of resources.
RFETS was and still is a large part of the national defense structure. It was part of the DOE complex that built nuclear weapons. RFETS built the nuclear triggers for the weapons and was highly classified, so I had to get and keep a AQ@ clearance which is just one step above a secret clearance. This is all I can say specifically about the nature of RFETS business. I was part of a team that proved out laboratory ideas into a reproducible end result. It was / is a messy business at best, and can get away from you quite quickly if you are not paying attention to what you are doing. A lot of horror stories will die with me.
RFETS is now in shutdown mode and is being brought down according to all the safety rules and regulations that any and all of the governments having jurisdiction over RFETS have. I am proud to have played a significant role in that shutdown process.
posted by Mike Liesveld @ 6:18 PM
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