19th Outage Management for Power Plants

August 4-6, 2020  | New Orleans, LA, USA

For Registration Details or More Information, Please Contact:

Jeremy Wise
jeremywi@marcusevansch.com

© Copyright 2019 marcus evans conferences

LOCATION

New Orleans, LA, USA

ABOUT THE INTERVIEW

Prior to our 19th Outage Management for Power Plants Conference, we held an exclusive interview with John Clapacs , Generation Outage Services Manager, at Tennessee Valley Authority.

As a speaker at the 19th Annual Outage Management for Power Plants Conference, you will be speaking on Contractor Workforce Management. How has your plant been successful in managing contractors?

Our success has been attributed to following an established process for Contractor Workforce Management and Contractor Safety Management.  I plan to share specific points inside of those procedures that are the most value to others.  Specific areas entail Contractor Training and Hire in, Contractor Specific Safety and Health Plans, Contractor Technical Stewards (CTS) oversight, Development of Scoping documents and Procurement Management processes.

What strategies do you implement to ensure the highest level of safety?

There are several key aspects of conducting a safe outage.  It is mostly driven by the development and support of an interdependent safety culture.  TVA emphasizes 4 vital behaviors that relate to the culture we strive to achieve. 

1. Identify Hazards before every job.   

2.  Take actions to remove/mitigate those hazards and reduce risk.  

3.   Protect yourself and others, intervene when necessary.  

4.  Take Pride in safety and be involved.

We also ask for employee engagement which requires supervisors to be out in the field and performing interactive observations.  We conduct safety focus events such as a group safety messages and outage safety kick offs.  We have numerous other Human Performance (HU) tools that we practice such as pre-job briefs, stop when unsure, 3 way communication etc…  

How do you utilize SME’s to strengthen contractor oversight?

Inside our Contractor Workforce Management procedure, we have guidelines for our CTS (SME) that help ensure proper engagement.  We assign those CTS to specific contractors to participate in scope reviews, safety plan review, Clearance training and Holding those clearances (LOTO), Constructability Reviews, Lessons Learned, Invoice review, Quality Management and Procurement policy adherence.

What are the main challenges with contractor management? How do you overcome these challenges?   

The main challenge we face is contractor resource availability.  We struggle to acquire the necessary resources with adequate training.  There have been situations where the local halls have recruited resources directly from local restaurants without field experience.  The crafts struggle to support our resource demands.  Quality of work is another issue and some of that is due to poor succession planning and training.  We have been working directly with the local and international halls to identify resource needs as far out in long range outage planning as possible.  We are also working to solidify outyear projects and O&M outage funding so that we can better define resource curves.

What are you most excited about for the 19th Annual Outage Management for Power Plants Conference? 

The ability to share experiences and successful techniques in outage management with similar utility companies who share the same issues as our company.  This will generate continuous improvement plans to incorporate into our own organization that resemble best practices.

Tell us one interesting fact about yourself that may not be found in your professional biography.

I am an avid fisherman and would like to pursue a career as a professional level tournament fisherman.

 

JOHN WILL BE ONE OF OUR MANY EXPERT SPEAKERS

Optimizing Contractor Workforce Management to Improve Production and Safety

  • Highlighting the importance of scope of work clarity
  • Strengthening contractor oversight by utilizing subject matter experts (SME’s)
  • Evaluating methods for managing litigation in non-compliance situations
  • Integrating safety planning into required training



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