During my review of the evidence packs and oral examination of the candidates, it became clear that the site have not been operating in accordance with best practice. However, largely as a result of their learning and that of their manager on the BOAS courses, they are now committed to actively addressing the areas of concern. This is a great “win” and the Training Provider is to be congratulated on bringing these issues to light and helping the staff find a route to getting them fixed – exactly what we are all here for!
The candidates have all been employed in various engineering and plant operational roles for most of their careers since leaving school. They were all suffering somewhat from “groupthink” but this recent phase of BOAS training should result in staff working more in line with best practice in the future.
The following comments appear on each of the candidate’s assessment forms. A copy of these comments have been sent to the Training Provider with the suggestion that he might like to forward them to the engineering manager at the plant as an aide memoir of improvements to be made.
The candidates described their position on the organisation chart and explained that their role as a shift engineer covered boiler house operation as well as other areas of work on site. Some tasks within the boiler house (e.g. monitoring of water treatment) had, until recently, been undertaken by an in-house support services team but this department has been disbanded and the tasks allocated to shift engineers.
During the assessment, the candidates explained that recording of boiler house activities (daily tests, weekly tests, evaporation tests, water quality checks and noting of observations or actions taken etc.) have not been consistent with best practice. The candidates explained that a new system of carrying out and recording checks is currently being trialled. This new system uses a proprietary Log Book; consistent adoption of this new system should bring the site in line with industry best practice. The relatively sparse original log sheets the candidates provided have, however, been accepted as adequate evidence of their experience of operating boiler plant (Ref BOAS Handbook V7, Section 6.3.5. page 82).
The candidates explained that site does not carry out a safety audit as such but shift engineers do complete a “Workplace Inspection check sheet” periodically and that this covers some safety aspect comments. The candidates also explained that site management recently employed a third party to carry out a formal Boiler House Risk Assessment and that this is expected to be available soon.
The candidates explained that the site has one operational waste heat recovery boiler (WHRB) and three shell boilers. The site heat load can often be met with the WHRB and/or one shell boiler alone. One of the shell boilers has repeatedly had to have tubes replaced. As a result of learnings on this course, the management of ‘out of service’ boilers will be reviewed with the engineering manager.
