During my time with Corus I was employed by the Ironworks department as a Planning Engineer, responsible for planning asset maintenance and improvements, following the Corus Asset Management Framework. Initially I worked on a large-scale refurbishment project of a Blast Furnace, with business requirements later necessitating a move to a ‘live’ operational environment.
Mar 2009 – May 2010 Planning Engineer, Corus Strip Products (Granular Coal Injection Dept.)
In this role I planned & scheduled all engineering work carried out in the department, encompassing mechanical, electrical, instrumentation & civils. I also managed all frequency & emerging work, ensuring plant down-time was kept to a minimum and all statutory & mandatory requirements were met. I was also charged with identifying & maintaining appropriate critical spares levels.
- Whereas previously around 80% of the maintenance arose from faults or breakdowns, the opposite was true by the time of my departure, with around 70-80% of maintenance work being frequency based, thus reducing plant down-time, producing potential savings of £50,000/hr.
- Planned work on periodic ‘shut-downs’ for major maintenance and co-ordinated & managed the work of teams of contract labour on-site during these periods. This involved going out to tender for the work, reviewing Method Statements, issuing permits to work, ensuring site safety and reviewing standard of work.
- Used SAP as the maintenance management software system, which saw intensive training on various modules (including PM, MM, IM & BI). My ability saw me become the departmental ‘Super-User’.
- Co-ordinated & led the review and updating of all standard work instructions in job catalogue.
- Became first Functional Trainee to move directly into a management position in history of the scheme.
Oct 2008-March 2009 Planning Engineer, Corus Strip Products (Blast Furnaces Dept.)
I planned and co-ordinated refurbishment work on Blast Furnace, encompassing civil, mechanical, electrical & instrumentation disciplines.
- Seconded for short period to an RCM team, working alongside Reliability Engineers to produce asset management strategies for several plant areas. Such was my level of involvement, the project was forced to halt when this secondment ended. A change in business priorities meant the refurbishment of the furnace took precedence over the RCM project, hence my short involvement.
- Planning on No4 Blast Furnace, while undergoing a £11m refurbishment programme.
- Successfully oversaw plan enabling the Blast Furnace to be the first of four mothballed European furnaces to be re-commissioned, this allowed the company to move from a predicted operating loss of circa £250m to break-even in 2009/10.