Field System Machining recently completed two additional portable machining work scopes at the same mill where we completed the 25,000 horsepower motor pedestal field machining project (see blog post "Motor Pedestal On-Site Machining Steel Mill Outage").
The first project required over boring seventy-five existing flange holes to 1-5/8" OD,
approximately 6" deep. FSM provided four men working continuously for fifteen hours to complete the scope on time.
Drill Baby, Drill! We were allowed up to one fifteen hour day to oversize these holes using portable boring machines.
After oversizing the holes we were required to machine the 97" OD x 90" ID flange, removing enough stock to true up the surface.
Field System Machining completed these two small on-site machining projects on time and on budget, making for a very happy customer. Regardless of whether your project requires six machines and twelve men per shift, around the clock, or one machine and two men working twelve hour weekdays only, Field System Machining can handle your portable machining, on-site machining, field machining, in-place machining or in-situ machining project.
Field System Machining has exceed outage manager expectations for over thirty-three years. Send us your work scope, drawings and photographs and we will quote your project. Don't know where to begin? Download "The Top Ten Things to Know Before Calling the Field Machining Company."
September is National Manufacturing On-Site Machinery Outage Repair Month--How do I know this? I don't--it's just a theory. We have been bombarded by portable on-site machining outage requests for September--we have turned down six jobs for September, thus far. Why is September the new May? (Every field machining company turns down on-site outage repair work in May--there are never enough skilled outside machinists to go around during the peak Spring power plant outage season which tries to close its units and bring them back on before Memorial Day or, worse case scenario, before Father's Day.)
I believe September is the new May because the best maintenance outage planners take vacation the second half of June and the month of July, return to work in August just before school resumes, and suddenly the soonest anyone can get work scopes approved and scheduled is in September. Now, I am obviously not speaking about major turbine overhauls--nor am I speaking about major steel mill machinery repairs. Major turbine and steel mill outages are planned out years in advance. The types of portable machining projects constantly popping up along side the major scheduled outages are smaller projects in the $35,000 to $95,000 range. But what happens when all of us turn down the September "pop-up" work, as we already turn down May work?
I always make follow up calls to work we do not win and work we are forced to no-bid because we are already sold out for the dates in question. There are three outcomes: 1) The work is completed by the plant staff--out of pure desperation the plant develops the inspiration and pulls off with improvisation the work they were going to sub-contractification; 2) The on-site machining waits until one of us field machining service companies are available; or, 3) Although the caller insisted the work must take place in September, when I call back in December to see how it went for them, the work has still not taken place--sometimes two years after the initial call, the work has still not taken place.
Which brings us back to one of my very first blog posts, written about a Plant Manager I nicknamed Mr. Integrity, who truly knows when something needs to be accomplished immediately, and when something can wait.