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AN EXTRAORDINARY DAY AT OFFICE
The Day
It was 17th June, 2002.
On that day I was to witness one of those moments that one never forgets in life. Moments that make that instant an extraordinary one and make us wonder about the human will, the will to make things happen defying all odds. The will that has been powerful enough to bring the civilization as far as today and, no wonder, will lead it to a better future.
The Job
I was a commissioning engineer in Rockwell Automation India Limited. Commissioning would include installation and execution of a project. The whole cycle would have the following phases:
1. The initial phase would be studying the functionality of the machine.
2. In the second phase the technology, equipment and devices would be decided upon.
3. In the third phase the simulation of the whole process would be done and after testing it the material would be dispatched to the customer site.
4. In the last phase commissioning would commence.
My project this time was a paper mill by the name Khanna Paper Mill in Amritsar in the state of Punjab. The project involved the automation of the paper machine which would take pulp as its input and churn out paper as its output. The commissioning was going on for the last 2 months.
The Machine
The machine was stretched over a length of 100 meters. It had all the heavy machinery installed in it. From the input side that machine had a wire mesh, sort of a very wide and thin mat. On it the pulp used to fall. It would be passes through vacuum pumps to suck the water out. This wet pulp is then passed though the dryer section which consists of huge cylinders whose central axes are arranged like the vertices of a triangle. The pulp gets dried by passing it in between the hot cylinders, and thus paper is formed. This paper is rolled at the other end of the machine. The structure of machine looks as below:
The Team
Now in a plant there are electrical, mechanical, chemical, civil and
process personnel. Since the beginning a lot of discussions, arguments ,blame
shifting problems happened. Many issues as per the scope of work were raised.
These issues were there all throughout the commissioning. Some personnel would delay their part of task and would give the excuse of lapse of people from another department. Many at times some fault would occur or some wrong estimation would be done. Then the buck passing would begin. Sometimes it would lead to uncomfortable arguments as to whose fault it was. Even if some one had manpower unutilized even then he would release them if some other department needed that manpower. A lot of ego would prevail.
The Drivers
For us the critical failures during trials, pressure from top, our own pressure to perform and a responsibility of executing the work perfectly were the driving forces. As the software and hardware integration would begin small problems would come up which would slow down the momentum of the project. Then we would have to work day and night to make up for the lost time.
The Talk
We had to communicate to people to all the various departments, make them understand our requirements. Initially a lot of friction would be there as we would be the outsiders to them. Some one not from their organization coming up to them and telling them how things work would definitely not be acceptable to them. Well gradually they got to know the relevance of our work and we got to know about them. It was one hell of an ice breaking experience. All the time being careful in what you say and what you accept, being professional to the core.
The Magic
The evening of 17th June 2002, the trails of that paper machine started, at about 7 pm. Each one and everyone associated with the project was there. This time the movers were the process people and all other personnel on stand-by. All of them on their toes, ready for any action. The process people doing their part and all the others keeping every other thing working, letting no failure creep in. Boy, it was one tremendous team work. The pulp was being poured on the wire mesh. All the water from the pulp was being sucked out by the vacuum pumps forming a wet strip of paper . The paper would not go smoothly in between the dryers and many at times it would break, spreading disappointment. Then the whole process of feeding the paper into huge and fast moving dryers would begin.
But hope never died. No one quit. Success cannot be denied under such situations. And it did come.
The formation of paper from pulp seemed incredible. It was happening just the way all of them had heard but never seen, except for a few. The amazement on everyone's face as the paper was being pressed and dried, and pressed and dried, between huge, heavy and tremendously hot dryers, moving at a speed of 350 meters per minute. Very often you would not see the paper cause of its great speed. A narrow strip of paper following the ropes in between the dryers just like a snake. It was magical. And it did finally come out at the other end of the machine, rolled out on a cylinder, at about 4 AM, 18th January... with the foundational months behind that finest hour.
The Heroes
There was joy, a sense of achievement...a sense of satisfaction on every one's face. All troubles forgotten, all arguments excused. Every one was hugging every one. It was an uproar. Never would have anybody shouted so loud for a long time. It seemed like one big family. It was just not the job that was driving everybody. I think it was a commitment of everybody to oneself, to become a hero for that one moment.
