F
STORAGE
Port equipment erection challenges in the time of COVID-19
T
by Neuero Industrietechnik, Germany
he ports and the construction industry are in an exceptional situation currently, due to worldwide working restrictions. The common feeling is that 80 percent of the news is now concerning COVID-19. Topics of discussion centre upon strategies on how to flatten infection curves and the numbers of ventilators. In a short time, we have gathered millions of specialists concerning pandemic infections. Virus specialists decide if we can or cannot work and there are discussions about horizontal or vertical protection strategies. In this situation, Neuero got caught in the middle of equipment assemblies taking place outside Germany. What do we do in such a case? Our first step was to keep calm, check the local situation with our clients and then discuss and find solutions with our colleagues that were abroad. We puzzled over what to do. Do we leave the site immediately and call everybody back? Or do we try to find a way to remain safe by carefully monitoring of the day-by-day situation, checking the country’s risk and health conditions and especially taking into consideration whether colleagues agreed to stay or not? The work takes more time and visas can expire; but it isn’t clear who is responsible for this.
Media depictions
We noted, however, that most uncertainty came from colleagues in our home country and not from those working on site. This is a result of the prediction of worse case scenarios shown in the media. The available information isn’t always helpful for planning because countries close borders and airlines stop flights or change their schedules. The foreign ministry is much involved 88 | July 2020 - Milling and Grain
with the thousands of tourists that want to return home. A planned return is not possible because only emergency flights are handled. The hope is a slow return to normal travel situations after 30 days. From our clients, we received a positive response towards keeping our people safe and continuing the work as planned with precautions to protect their health. Today, the complexity of our machines requires specialists for final setup and software adjusting. This is normally done by electricians with field and programming experience. Bringing supervisors back home is easier because most countries accept the return of their own citizens. However, it is not currently possible for foreigners to enter a different country. At the time of writing (April 1st, 2020) in Germany there are no (or very limited) inland flights and many international flights are cancelled. The best alternative is today’s new normal – working at a distance from the home office. The first experience we had of this was a project in Canada that started cold tests on April 13th and hot commissioning one week later. Instead of going on-site and doing the job it had to be done by describing in detail what to do and waiting for the result. A wrong (or no) signal of a limit switch is an easy fix for an experienced technician; however, it can take 15 minutes to a day for someone without experience to find the problem if it is not a simple fault.
Working remotely
A good point for us is that most of our machines are supplied with a router that will allow a connection to the PLC via a separate local Wi-Fi signal or through a SIM Card with the data package plan. This, however, was planned to be done on-site with our specialists for a future remote troubleshooting not for