During the relocation of one of General Electric’s plants, we worked for the sector manufacturing components for the power industry, namely, emergency power systems. The entire production park was transferred from three different locations to be under one roof. The strategic management of the project and all experience-intensive transfer processes were commissioned to our company. It is worth adding that the above included the relocation of a plant characterized by complex production process; the relocation of the processes itself was extremely complex and diverse. This is best reflected in the fact that it took almost a year and a half to prepare for this project. In addition, assuming that the whole relocation process was to be carried out under full production conditions, the whole task had to be divided into three main stages.
Stage I
The first stage involved preparing a plan for the implementation of the relocation with the decisive assumption that it would constitute relocation during production. In short, this meant the continuous operation of the plant at the old location while facilitating the start-up of production at the new location. With this assumption in mind, we divided the entire transfer process into individual sections and components, and listed individual operations with an accuracy of 1 h. This was necessary for two reasons – the plant was characterized by a complex production process, which required coordination on many technological and logistic levels, and additionally – this production was meant to continuously secure planned deliveries so that our client's customer would not even feel that the plant was being moved. That is why the plan was the key issue here.
Stage II
The second milestone of the relocation was the physical relocation itself – stopping the production of a particular area, preparing for the transfer, dedicated protection, transportation, and then moving and setting up the machines in the new location and connecting the supply media. It should be noted that the execution of the utility connections at the destination was also entrusted to our company.
We took 100% responsibility for the functioning of the production line – the client entrusted us with the operating process line and our task was to move it, install it and hand it over as fully operational in the new location. So little and yet so much.
Stage III
The third stage of work included the design and delivery of a completely new area – a test zone for finished products, the so-called UPS – uninterruptible power supply. The test area in the previous location was assessed as inefficient; our engineering team recommended an optimal solution – a completely new test area, using only a few old elements. The client made the decision, and thus, our company faced the most difficult part of the project, both in terms of its scale (size of the task) and complexity. Our tasks included preparing the design of a new test area, comprehensive execution of the installation and its start-up. This stage of the contract was particularly appreciated by General Electric – in recognition of our concept and implementation, we received a special award.
In order to launch the entire plant, we performed the following:
Installation of US machinery
In the course of the relocation process, we were entrusted with the installation of several devices, which were imported from various parts of the world, including the United States. In order for their installation to be possible, it was necessary to prepare corresponding documentation required by European standards, and also to physically adapt the equipment to the regulations in force in the country and the European Union.
Cooperation with our client's maintenance department was crucial throughout the whole task. Since our previous experience with the American branch of General Electric allowed us to learn the specifics of production and the culture of the company's organization, our cooperation with the Production Maintenance department was efficient and to-the-point, which resulted in the smooth implementation of the entire task. It is worth adding that the execution of such a significant project for General Electric has brought us several new contracts for the energy sector, among others for Hitachi and Energa.
Project in numbers: