Passion for Work

Almost a week from my last post....

This is the 4th day of a two-week shutdown of our plant and it would be the busiest weeks of our entire year. I am a maintenance guy (automation) and have to ensure that the systems' integrity should always be in placed. That means, total maintenance of the plant...total maintenance of the the system under my responsibility, all from hardware to software. Everyone has to do his share, his obligations, it is a division of labor.

Today.....I had made a shutdown to all system computers (PCs that automates the whole plant operation) since we had to cut the main power. We had replaced the all power cables (4160KV) that give us headaches due to its obsolesence...project cost is Php 13 M (would you believe that?). After restoration of the main power, I had to reboot the system but one server showed some problems, it won't boot (how could that be...it was shut-down properly?). So, the server had to be opened and after 4-long hours of tweaks, it came out that the culprit was the server's motherboard. I had to replace it (from a spare unit) but would you imagine, the spare motherboard's cost was 800 thou (damn, ano yun, ginto?). Yeah, it is not an ordinary piece (industrial server is a Vax800/60 from Digital Equipment, US made). These servers run 24 hours a day for 12 months, only once a year these are shut-down for maintenance, system files are checked for integrity, databases are purged and regenerated. But anyway, problem was solved, no questions asked.

Tomorrow....we will be commissioning our newly installed ABB Frequency Drive (+power transformer + 490 KW-motor) for the plant's kiln (a large heated chamber for calcining limestone). Would you imagine again...project cost is Php 11M...damn, the company has a lot money. "bagong sakit ng ulo na naman tong bagong instilasyon na 'to. Pag-aaralan mo, patatakbuhin mo, then i-maintain mo". Hay, nakakapagod na rin kung minsan!

On the bright side, it shows that the plant is growing (as evident on the plant's reliability=98%, man, that is an excellent record). People who work on this company really learned how to pay heed of the organization's objectives and aspirations, motivation is apparent...and that should be the right attitude of each. Passion for our work should not languish, instead amplify as time goes.