co-op training report - industrial engineering

GE traces back to Thomas A.Edison who established Edison Electric Light Company in 1878. In 1892, a merger of Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company created General Electric Company. GE is the only company listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Index today that was also included in the original index in 1896. [1]

Today, GE is an advance technology, services and finance company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. And GE is taking the strengths that have made it an industry leader and putting them to work in the service of a new era of global business. [1]

GE Businesses

GE is an advance technology, services and finance company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. Dedicated to innovation in energy, health, transportation and infrastructure. GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. [1]

GE Energy

GE Energy segment is leading the field in the development, implementation and improvement of the products and technologies that harness our resources such as wind, oil gas and water. [1]

GE Energy Management

Energy Management is GE’s electrification business. Global teams design technology solutions for the transmission, distribution, management, conversion and optimization of electrical power across multiple energy-intensive industries. [1]

· Digital Energy

· Industrial Solutions

· Power Conversion

· Energy Consulting

GE Oil & Gas

GE Oil & Gas is a world leader in advanced technology equipment and services for all segments of the oil and gas industry, from exploration & production to downstream. [1]

· Drilling Solutions: Land and Offshore

· Offshore Solutions

· Subsea Solutions

· Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Solutions

· Unconventional Resources

· Full Range LNG Solutions

· Industrial Power Generation

· Refinery & Petrochemicals

· Gas Storage & Pipeline

GE Power & Water

GE Power & Water here to solve the most complex challenges across the globe. With a full array of advanced power generation and energy delivery technologies, they work collaboratively with customers to drive growth & progress, anticipate energy needs of the future, and power a cleaner, more productive world. [1]

· Aeroderivative Gas Turbines

· Gas Engines

· GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy

· Global Projects Operation & Engineering

· Power Generation Services

· Renewable Energy

· Thermal Products

· Water & Process Technologies

GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. GE expertise is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest. [1]

GE Aviation

GE Aviation is a world-leading provider of commercial and military jet engines and components as well as avionics, electric power and mechanical systems for aircraft with an extensive global services network to support these products. [1]

GE Transportation

GE Transportation is a global technology leader and supplier to the railroad, marine, drilling, wind and mining industries. GE provides locomotives, railway signaling and communications systems, information technology solutions, marine engines and motorized drive systems for mining. [1]

GE Capital

GE Capital offers an array of products and services aimed at enabling commercial loans, operating leases, fleet management, financial programs, home loans, insurance credit cards, personal loans and other financial services. [1]

GE Home & Business Solutions

GE Home & Business Solutions builds world-class solutions for customers, offering energy efficiencies and productivity solutions through innovative appliances, lighting, embedded control systems and software platforms

· GE Appliances & Lighting

· GE Intelligent Platforms

Saudi Arabia

From appliances in people’s homes to helping lead the oil discovery expedition in Saudi Arabia with the first refinery. GE has been a major player here since 1942. GE operations have since grown into the largest GE workforce in the Middle East – 720 employees striving in healthcare, transportation, energy, oil & gas, water and aviation. GE continues to partner with the government to realize the Kingdom’s vision for sustainable socio-economic growth. [1]

Kuwait

Since the early 1970s, GE has partnered with both the Kuwaiti Government as well as the private sector to support the infrastructure needs of the power, water, oil and gas as well as the aviation industries in the country. In addition to providing equipment for the world’s largest wastewater treatment plant located in Sulaibiya. GE also is providing fixed-bed reactors for a new project planned by the Kuwaiti National Petroleum Company in Al Zour, which will be the largest refinery in the Middle East. [1]

Bahrain

GE First set up operations in Bahrain through Middle East Engineering Ltd. In 1973 to help service the large inventory of GE gas turbines in the Middle East. The new three-storey office houses employees from the various capabilities from training growing young local talent through the Graduate Management Program. [1]

Qatar

With years of success in the Qatar market, GE’s multi-storey office building, located on the C-Ring Road, is home to the company’s wide range of businesses from energy, water, aviation to healthcare. Reiterating its commitment to Qatar’s infrastructure and industrial growth, GE has a major investment in the GE Oil & Gas Service Workshop in RasLaffan to better serve its customers in the country and region. GE is also strengthening industry and customer partnerships with the opening of the GE Advance Technology & Research Center in QSTP. [1]

UAE

With the regional headquarters of GE in Dubai, the company’s partnership with the United Arab Emirates spans over 70 years across business offerings such as energy, water, health, aviation and more. In addition to an ecomagination center in Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, GE’s partners in the UAE include Mubadala, ADAT, Etisalat, EMAL and GASCO among others. The UAE is also home to the Center of Excellence of GE Water & Process Technologies as well as the Learning Acceleration of Business, a new corporate learning development center modeled on GE’s Crotonville executive educative education program. [1]

Oman

GE has been operating in Oman since 1975 and it continues to provide solutions today. GE operates in Oman through its diverse businesses and is committed to further growth gfthrough focusing on technical leadership, customer partnerships and global competitiveness. [1]

GE Energy Manufacturing Technology Center (GEMTEC) is one of GE’s largest and most sophisticated energy technology centers in the world. It’s a 10,000 m2 Facility located in the second industrial city, Dammam, Saudi Arabia with an investment of $100 Million. GEMTEC consider as the biggest Gas Turbine repair shop in the region and with advanced technology equipment they will be able to do F-technology gas turbine component repair. GEMTEC will bring to the region the first F-technology turbine service and repair as well as the first Balance of Plant test and inspection. At GEMTEC, customer also gets genuine original equipment manufacturer-designed and manufactured parts that preserve the integrity of their asset.

GEMTEC facility has an administrative building, parking and a huge plant for repairing Gas Turbines which is divided into six main cells (divisions):

· Power Nozzle Cell

· Buckets Cell

· Fuel Nozzle Cell

· Combustion Cell

· Generator Cell

· Rotor Cell

Each cell is divided by:

· Cell leader: The person responsible for decision making and contacting with the upper executives about the cell.

· Operation leader: Supervise the work and making sure that the work is on schedule.

· Methods Engineer: Making sure that the process is followed as GE standards and that the standard plan is followed correctly.

· PQE (Process Quality Engineer): Makes sure that the work performed satisfies the customer and that it meets the quality standards.

· Planner: Plans for upcoming jobs and make plans for the worker’s vacations and attendance.

· Work leader: the leader of the group who makes the work (operators) and most experienced guy in his field.

· Operators: group of workers who perform the repair steps.

“The GE Energy Manufacturing Technology Center is GE’s largest commitment in the Kingdom to date. The center furthers GE’s localization efforts through expanding job creation and training programs. By 2015, it is planned that more than 60 percent of the center’s employees will be Saudi. The center also provides expanded on-the-job training; the advanced training center hosted within will also offer the latest energy technology and managerial training. All this will empower the next generation of Saudis to meet the Kingdom’s increasing power and water needs and support its expanding energy infrastructure” Hisham Bahkali President and CEO, GE Saudi Arabia & Bahrain

CHAPTER2:

Lean Six Sigma project:

Capture Cost of Quality

2.1 Introduction

Lean Six-Sigma is a breakthrough strategy and set of tools to reduce or eliminate waste, defects, waiting time or rework through systemic means to reduce process variation and adjust its performance to intended target.

SLB believes that their business needs to continuously drive improvements and growth by using a Lean Six Sigma approach to driving competitiveness. Applying the Lean Six Sigma toolset helps us solve important business problems, and performing better.

After we notice the weakness of the performance in the store, and after we received many complaints from workers. We implemented the six-sigma method to improve the performing of processes in the store.

We have three types of operations in the store:

· Issue out: it’s the process of preparing the order and submitting it to workers. This type is the most important one, and the majority of complaints we received was about it.

We have two types of issuing out :

1- Serves level issue out (common and known request).

2- Special request.

· Cycle count: a cycle count is an inventory auditing procedure, where a small subset of inventory, in a specific location, is counted on a specified day. In SLB we attempt to do it for the item at least once every 3 months.

Some problems in issue out process were caused by the boor cycle count.

· Put-away: we can define it as the process of goods receives (GR).

Define Phase:

Step A

Project Problem

The first problem workers complaint about is the time it takes to prepare the order, also store man complaint that the process of preparing orders is time consuming.

The other problem was the weakness of data accuracy in the OFS-store system. We faced a lot of mistakes there. We know in SLB that a small data mistake in the OFS-store system may stop an important and huge project.

After analyzing this problem we found that, mistakes in the data happened because the cycle count wasn't correct at the first place, or the store man did an issue out for an item and forgot to submit the request through the OFS-store system.

Project Objective

Setup a new processes for each of the issue out and cycle count that will grantee a better service time, more comfortable process for the store man and more accurate data in the OFS-store system.

Step B

Team

· Champion: Ismail khan

· Sponsor: Saeed bassahm, Mohammad diaa

· Team Members: Waleed alzahrani, Anas bin moshauah, abdulrahman shaheen.

Step C

High Level Process Map

COPIS [3] (Customer – Output – Process - Input - Supplier) is a tool that used to:

· Represent the high level process graphically.

· Identify customer requirements.

· Identify gaps in requirements for outputs or inputs.

· Identify who are our suppliers of the process inputs.

· Identify data collection needs.

· Verify team and resource information requirements.

· Target the right metrics to continuously verify customer requirements.

Issue-out process map:

Figure 4

Cycle count process map:

Figure 5

Measure Phase:

Collecting data:

We collected data for the issue-out process and the cycle count process in different week days, and we tried to analyzed and see if it follows any distribution.

Distribution for issue-out process:

The closest distribution for the issue-out process as shown in the graph is the normal distribution.

N=40, with mean = 129.1(seconds) ; StDev=46.19

Distribution for cycle count:

The average =113.97 (seconds)

As we can see, it takes about two minutes for each item.

We also noticed where the most time is consuming (bottleneck) of the process, we found that entering data manually is the most time consumer which can be improved.

Analyze Phase:

Cause & Effect Diagram:

The diagram arranged into different categories. In this project we arranged it as follows: Materials, Manpower, Method, Measurement, Machine and Environment.

This diagram [10] was agreed by all team members after a brainstorming session.

Figure 10

Classify potential causes

After we agreed on the Cause & Effect diagram[11], we classified them :

1- Easy effort and little impact.

2- Easy effort and big impact.

3- Hard effort and little impact.

4- Hard effort and big impact.

Figure 11

Improve Phase:

For the improve phase, we went back to the process map and Cause & Effect diagram and started have a meetings with material manager, D&M champion, tow supervisor in the lab, and two store men.

Easy effort and little impact (1):

These types hadn't that big impact, but as it appeared it didn't need that much effort to improve so we tried to improve them by:

· Explain the process to everyone involve to the store and show the importance of their jobs to the company and show how the little mistake may affect the whole picture by a presentation each three weeks.

· We reported the higher management that we need more than one supplier in the essential items (Type A).

Easy effort and big impact (2):

This is the most important case we should try to improve, as it appears it easy to improve, but have big impact on the process.

All of these issues (long procedure - shortage in PCs # - slow and old PCs – employee not trained - shortage of employee) could be solved in one project.

We found out that the bottleneck in processes which can be improved is "entering data in the OFS-store system", we can obtain from the fishbone diagram many things made this a real bottleneck. The shortage of the PCs, the slow network which stopped working many times, the skills of entering the data for workers, and the number of items which should be entered one by one, all of these made entering data in OFS-store system a bottleneck.

So we simply asked question how can we solve this issue and improve the process and reduce the waiting time for the orders?

We had some suggestions, some of them weren't feasible and the others weren't efficient enough, such as:

· Applying the RFID technology (Too expensive, not efficient).

· Serve yourself type store, where each person will collect his order by himself then he will confirm that in the OFS-store system (infeasible).

· Hire more people, buy a new and efficient PCs, and provide much faster network (expensive).

· Applying barcode system in the store, just like the one in the supermarket.

The manager and the store men liked this idea (barcode), we all agreed it's the most efficient solution we can apply.

We got a barcode's printer, barcode reader, and the application which merged with the OFS-store system from Motorola Company. We started printing the barcode first in D&M segment, which is the largest segment, there was 6000 items, so we printed for each item a barcode. After that we printed the barcode for Wire-Line, Testing, Geo-Services then the Completion segment.

Hard effort and little impact (3):

We didn't consider this type in our priority, because it needs a lot effort whereas it doesn't have that much of impact.

Hard effort and big impact (4):

This type is the second in our priority list, we are lucky because some issue here are connected to the issue in Type 2.

So we decided to solve this issue we will do the following:

· Buy an electronic scale, which will help to make the cycle count for the small items which have large quantity faster and more accurate. (less error and easier tasks)

· Print out the process map for each process in the store, so the store man and the workers will commit with it.

· The receiving area where in inside the store, we changed it next to the door of the store.(less crowd).

New process map for issue-out (After implementing Barcode project):

Figure 13

New process map for cycle count (After implementing Barcode project):

Figure 13

Collecting data after applying the improvement:

The average time for cycle count process was = 52.52 s/item

The average time for issue out process was = 51.06 s/item

New distribution for issue-out process:

New distribution for cycle count process:

Control Phase:

In control phase my goal is to ensure that the projects that have been implemented become embedded into the process, so the improvements will be sustained after the projects have been closed. , there was o training session done by the Ismail Khan, Muhammad Saleh and myself for all store men and worker around the store. We explained the importance of this project, and how much time and money it saved for us, then we explained how the new system will be and we answered some questions audience had.

In order to control this project we follow these steps:

ontrol

At the end of the 2012, the number of jobs reached 97 for the year where we had almost closed 75% of projects that we had generated. So for these 97 jobs we will see if the percentage of actual cost exceeding the target decreased, the sigma level got improved, the variation of frames is became acceptable or if the process became statically under control.

CHAPTER3:

Variable cost productivity projects

3.1 Introduction

3.2 VCP Projects:

With 45 VCP project [20], we were holding our meeting every Tuesday to discuss the improvements and the updates from every project owner.

Figure 20

We were focusing on the projects with the high savings. We come up with projects from the analysis that I present from the detailed cost report that I submit to my manager every week.

We focus on a frame every week. For that specific frame, I get all the details on all the jobs that we had on that quarter.

This data for the Transition peace frame 7E [21]. the data shows the cost per job compared with the target. Every job cost showed as labor cost, material cost and expense cost.

Figure 21

3.2.1 Material cost:

From these analysis we can see that highest materials is the floating seals. So in order to reduce the material cost we came with a project to reuse the flouting seal which has a huge saving.

3.2.1.1 Reuse flouting seals project

Problem:

· Long lead time of spare parts : 46 days.

· Long cycle time for the replacing process : 5 hour per set

Solution:

· Incoming inspection to identify if floating seals can be re-use

· Parts condition to be added in the Condition Report and SP.

· WI to be update including new inspection process for Floating Seals.

· ME to validate this information before job goes to WIP.

Conclusion / Benefits:

· Cost reduction

· 7 hours per set weld & Repair process in outer floating seals. Labor cost per set $364

· 30min per set for cleaning in grit blast. Labor cost per set $26Material cost per set $8

· (5 hours) per set for setting in fixture. Labor cost per set ($210)

· New parts cost ($21,000) per set

· Saving approx. $20,392 per set

· Reduce cycle time to meet CWD

· Project will affected all frames, but higher impact in 7F base in the capacity.

Potential Risks

· When a part was not inspected properly and can’t be repair, late ordering process can put in risk CWD.

· Wrong item # will cause unmatched diminutions.

Figure 22

3.2.1.2 Cross Fire Collar Coating in House

Problem:

· the cost of Cross fire collars we were procuring with coating is very high.

· GEMTEC B/E Liners Repair cost higher than the target cost

Solution:

· Procuring non coated cross fire collars and coating in house

· Change the vender from GEPII To another qualified cheaper vender

Conclusion / Benefits:

· Cost reduction

· 12hours per set for HVOF Coating. Labor cost per set $792

· 2hours per set for Lab analysis . Labor cost per set $112

· Material Cost =$3462

· Total cost for repair= $4,366

· Cost of new coated parts = $ 15.116 per set.

· Cost of non coated parts = $ 2680

· Saving: $ 10,750 per set

· Reduce cycle time to meet CWD

· Hit Rate: 50%

Figure 23

3.2.2 Labor cost:

Kronos system is a clock system to measure the time inside the shop. Operators should voucher correctly and must be accurate in time to sign in every morning and sing out at the end of the day to count for him a work day. In the stander plan provided in each component there are barcodes for each step in the plan the operator must voucher against the step before start working on it. Once he voucher on the any step the system start measure the time of repairing this job by the component number and the step number. With many steps and many components the total time measured in the system for repairing the job is taking by the vouchering of operators.

Figure 24

From the Employee labor vouchering [24] report that showing below, I can see how much time did the operator spend in every process on each component and from that I can determine the operator efficiency and who are the best operators so they can train the bad operators [25].

Figure 25

3.3 The Project Deck Analyzer output:

the project dick analyzer shows you the trend of job cost before and after implementing the projects. [26]

Figure 26

And in this table you see the significant savings specially in quarter 2 and 3 with a total savings of $132,537 on 45 VCP project [27]

Figure 27

3.4 Conclusion

CHAPTER4:

Facility Layout planning

(combustion incoming/inspection area)

4.1 Introduction

Facility layout planning includes decisions regarding the physical allocation of any entity occupying space in a facility. Facility layout techniques apply to the case where several physical means have to be located in a certain area, either industrial processes or services.

A team of five COOP students was assembled with the help of the combustion cell leader to complete this project.

Team members:

· Abdullah Al-Abbass (Combustion-cell leader)

· Mohammed Al-Bassam (ISE)

· Mansour Al-Assaf (ISE)

· Abdulaziz Al-Ruways (ISE)

· Saad Al-Masoud (ME)

· Ahmed Al-rawsa (EE)

4.2 Recognize the need

The project being done based on 3 types of changes

· Changes in production volumes.

· Changes in processes and technology.

· Changes in the product.

4.3 Problem definition

In this project we re-layout the combustion inspection area in GEMTEC due to the increasing in production volume.

4.4 Planning the tasks (Roles):

· Mansour Al-Assaf: Team leader. Transition Piece.

· Saad Masoud: Team member. Liner component + cross fire tube

· Abdulaziz Al Ruwais: Team member. Liner component

· Ahmed Alrawsa: Team member. Cap components + bullhorn + flow sleeve + retainer

4.5 Gathering informations

Current layout

Figure 28

Areas:

· Area1 : is the shipping area, where finished jobs are put to be moved to GEMTEC yard

· Area2 : receiving area, where jobs are received and held until work starts.

· Area3 : disassemble area, where jobs are taken to the booths to be disassembled to TP, liner, jackets and caps. This area is not only for disassembly but also for welding.

· Area4 : visual inspection area, after disassemble the parts are taken to this area to be visually inspected and determine the fixes it needs into a file attached to the part.[28]

Figure 29

· Area5 : hold area, when the visual inspection area is full parts are taken to this area to be held until there is a vacancy in the visual inspection area.

· Area6 : offices.

After receiving the parts, all the parts go to the disassemble area then it sent to visual inspection or hold area base on number of jobs at the visual inspection area.[30]

Figure 30

4.6 Collecting data

· disassembly and hold areas:

1. All parts have to go to the disassemble area which is far from both receiving and visual inspection areas.

2. The hold area is too big and jobs there only take half the space

· Receiving and shipping areas:

1. Safety issue: There is no forklift truck path in the current layout, so when the area is full of received and shipping part the forklift truck must go through the aisle where people walk.

2. Control issue: received and shipping parts aren’t organized and other cells use the combustion receiving and shipping area to put their parts.

· Visual inspection area:

1. Jobs in the visual inspection area are not organized and jammed, so the operators have to move the parts in order to inspect the

4.7 Suggested solutions

Our goals and Objectives for this layout are :

· Simplify and clarify the receiving, inspection and shipping process for the operators.

· To maximize the use of the area that is available for the combustion.

· Rearrange the layout of the process in order to minimize the wasted time of moving the components.

· Ensure that the new layout complies with safety requirements.

· Redesign the process path to fulfill the one single piece flow concept.

· Standardized the places of the components to be fixed.

So we had proposed 2 layouts that we share with the managements

1st layout

figure 30

2nd layout

figure 31

4.8 Implementing solutions

4.8.1 disassembly and hold areas:

In order to minimize the wasted time of moving the parts to the disassemble area which is too far, we suggested to add booths in the hold area for disassembly.

We used G-maflad, which is a tool that we learned from Facility Layout and Location course (ISE 422).

G-maflad is a software that generates best layouts and gives each layout a score,

The bigger score we got the better layout.

Current layout: [30]

figure 30 G-maflad current layout score 100.06

Suggested/new layout: [31]

figure 31

G-maflad suggested layout score 110.71

By comparing scores we see that the new layout is more efficient that the old one. We will also make an evaluating table in the end comparing the complete new layout vs. the current one.

4.8.2 Receiving and shipping areas:

To solve these issues we have to implement control standards, first we decided to impellent some lines on the floor to specify receiving and shipping areas [32]for combustion cell, second we added a forklift path (3.5 meters) and also assigned it with lines, lastly we contacted power nozzle cell to move their part and control it.[33]

Figure 32

Measuring and lining the shipping and receiving area

Figure 33

Labeling the area and forklift truck path

4.8.3 Visual inspection area:

We decided to label some lines on the floor to specify where each part goes and defining the inspection area with lines [34]. We also left a space between each line (70-75 cm ) so the operator can inspect the part freely and save time upon removing the part like before. We also limited the area for eight jobs only unlike before where more than 10 jobs were in the inspection area at the same time and not being worked on.

Figure 34

4.9 Conclusion :

In conclusion we will show theefull suggested layout and do an evaluating table for the old and new layouts using techniques learned from Facility Layout and Location course (ISE 422) and Industrial Engineering Design course (ISE 391). We will also do a simulation in arena program learned from Stochastic Systems Simulation course (ISE 405).

New layout sketch:

Figure 35

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, my co-op training was very successful. Working for a company as big as GE enhanced many of my personal skills such as leadership, team work, and communications skills by working with different teams of skills and experience engineers and leaders on many projects. Also, I learned how these big corporate running their businesses worldwide.

Having my co-op training in the quality department gave a unique chance to be a part of several of huge projects, like Capturing Cost of Quality, and getting a flavor of the project management field. Also, I had the chance to enroll in the Green Belt Lean Six-Sigma training that the company offers for their employees. This course enabled me to conduct my own projects and improved my level of expertise in quality, lean tools and statistics.

Coming from a university like KFUPM with the tools I learned in the courses of my major Industrial & System Engineering had the biggest weight on making this training experience be that huge successful.

5.2 References