Such project supervision
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The supervision team at Ninghai Power Plant in Zhejiang Province comes from a supervision company in Hebei. Wang Ziquan, the supervisor in charge of thermal control, required welders to ensure that the welding of instrument pipes was done in such a way that the surface was as smooth as that of gold rings; otherwise, fines and rework would be imposed. The crew tried their best, but they were not able to meet this standard, so they turned to me. I spoke with Supervisor Wang and asked him to provide the relevant technical standards, but he had none to offer. Yet he refused to compromise.During on-site inspections of the panel cabinets, the crew provided him with data showing the verticality of the cabinets, but Supervisor Wang insisted that the crew use a level to measure the verticality, as he believed the crew did not know how to do it properly. Due to deformation of the cabinets manufactured by the supplier, the gaps between them were larger than the allowed 2 mm limit. As a result, the supervisor forced the crew to install shock-absorbing rubber elements between the cabinets. I reported these issues to the project owner, but the owner said they would follow the supervisor’s instructions. With no other choice, I asked the project manager from my own company to negotiate with the supervisor’s boss. The boss immediately sent a welding supervisor to conduct an on-site inspection, and the welding quality met all the required standards.
These incidents illustrate the chaos in the current engineering supervision sector – many supervisors don’t even have the necessary qualifications. One of my colleagues, who worked in thermal control and is now retired, managed to get a job as a civil engineering supervisor at a construction site in Shanghai through connections. I still don’t know which department is responsible for overseeing these supervisors
Engineering supervisors must earnestly fulfill their supervisory duties and improve the quality of supervision work. During the entire construction process of a building project, supervision companies and the project supervision agencies at the construction site are required to carry out supervision over construction quality, work safety, project progress, cost control, and contract management in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, as well as relevant technical standards, the approved design documents, the construction contract, and the supervision contract. They are also responsible for assuming oversight duties for their actions. The housing and urban-rural development administrative departments in various regions must strictly implement the \"Management Measures for Supervision Activities at Construction Sites\", enforce the supervision responsibility system, standardize supervision practices, improve the quality of supervision work, and ensure the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of construction projects.
The owner needs to manage the supervision company; remember that supervision cannot replace management.
In China, most professional supervision work is carried out by those at the lower levels in that field. The supervision fees are not high either, so it’s inevitable that such problems arise. Here, in our case of installation supervision, we encountered situations where the contractors responsible for installing the process pipelines did not have the necessary qualifications for working on pressure pipelines, and this was discovered during inspections by the quality supervision agency. . .
Most supervision companies these days hire retired employees; those who are more responsible will help manage matters such as safety and hygiene on site. If something bad happens, just ignore it.
Speaking of supervisors, it reminds me of a supervisor I met when I was working on projects. After retiring from my previous employer, I was hired by a supervision company; I worked as a site engineer there. We spent time together every day and quickly became familiar with each other. The topics we discussed were mostly related to the projects he had worked on. Coincidentally, we were both familiar with one particular project, and most of the technical personnel involved in that project were people I knew. The project itself is just a piece of paper – clear and straightforward, though some people can understand it while others struggle. There are standards and regulations, and every project inevitably encounters various problems; many of these problems are simply complex issues made simpler, or simple issues made more complex. Through my interactions with that senior supervisor, I learned a lot as well. When dealing with problems on site, it’s important to be flexible and not too rigid; for example, I noticed that the drainage pipe of the water ring vacuum pump was installed incorrectly, and there were also issues with the connections between certain control valves and process pipelines. Such problems shouldn’t be reported to the company’s engineering department. If they are reported, it’s fine if management pays attention to them, but if someone has ulterior motives, I will share responsibility along with the relevant personnel. I communicated directly with the supervisors and asked them to come up with solutions, which helped resolve the problems more quickly. I still remember that supervisor who could smoke two packs of Bai Jiangjun per day; sometimes he even smoked Double Horse, a cigarette strain that even heavy smokers find hard to handle.