The first time I realized I had some big ideas was when I was a relatively new Engineer working in a nuclear power plant. I was given a project to improve the testing program for our Diesel and Jet Fuel storage. The utility that I was working for had many types of power plants that burned, coal, diesel and jet fuel. My father was working in one of them. So I asked him what they did for testing. He said that there was a lab in West Springfield, Massachusetts that did all of the testings.
My dad also introduced me to Madhu Shah. Madhu was the lab supervisor in the West Springfield lab. I brought her the specifications that were needed (nuclear power specifications are very stringent). She said that they could perform about 75% of the tests. I asked what it would take to get the other 25% of the testing done and she said they would need to buy some testing rigs.
There was also the time and material for performing the tests. Who would be paying for this additional work being added? And how would the funds be transferred from the "nuclear side" of the company to the "fossil side" (they were called fossil because they burned fuels that came from fossils like oil and coal)?
In the end, it all worked out. After about 6 months of back and forth (this was 1986, so there was no email at this point it was all interoffice memos that were sent in these yellow envelopes with red string ties on them), the following happened:
- The West Springfield lab was expanded to include an additional lab technician
- The required lab equipment was purchased and new testing standards were put in place
- The lab was "certified" to perform the required nuclear-grade tests by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM)
- The accounting was figured out (the estimated savings was somewhere in the $100,000 per year range)
- The fossil side was able to take advantage of the new equipment and improved their fuel testing and storage techniques
- I received an award for the idea which included $300 in US Savings Bonds
What I Learned
- There are many ways to accomplish a task. Just because you have always done it one way, doesn't mean that someone else can't find a better way.
- Use your contacts. Having a father in the fossil group helped with making contact with Madhu.
- Things are going to take longer than you think. To me this was a no-brainer of a project. We had the materials and the procedures, we just needed to implement. Little did I realize that how the funds would be transferred between sections of the business would take the most time.
- Go to the experts. The people that deal with the testing of fossil fuels every day had more insight into the project than we did in the nuclear industry. While their need for testing tolerances was less than ours, they were able to make more progress in a 45-minute meeting on tightening the tolerances than I would have with our vendor.
- Step back and look at the forest. It would have been easy to just go to the vendor we were using and say that we wanted to add additional testing to our samples. But by stepping back and looking at the testing from a more global perspective, we were able to apply it to several other areas and save significant amounts of money.
