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My 1st Method 9!
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I mentioned in my last entry that I was looking forward to an upcoming opportunity to conduct my first EPA certified Method 9 visible emission (VE) performance test. Well, I completed the test on May 06. I started preparing the day before by reviewing the previous years test, then left the office around 4:30 to pick up a rental car. I headed out first thing in the morning for Sedalia, MO, about 1.5 hours southeast from KC. This is old territory for me, as Sedalia is about 30 miles northeast of Warrensburg, MO, my alma mater of Central Missouri State University. But it's been a good 10 years since I had reason to be in the area. I arrived at the client site, met the client contact & was taken through the plant to the roof access where the client & I discussed which stacks were running. He left me to do my work, which only took about 1.5 hours. There wer 26 emission points, but 8 of them were not running that day. Only one had visible emissions, the rest were clear. The result was everything passed. (This plant produces wheels for car manufacturers & they use propane to burn off the emissions from their spray booths)
On the way back to the office I stopped in Warrensburg for lunch. I'd liked to have stopped at the university to see some of the old professors, but didn't want to waste time. What I really wanted was to see if Perry Foster's Georgia Style BBQ was still in business. This was my lucky day - he was still in business & the food was as good as I'd hoped - awesome BBQ pork sandwich & BBQ beans. The place looks like a dive, but Perry is very friendly, the food is excellent, & due to the proximity to Whiteman Air Force Base his walls are decorated with pictures of fighter squadrans who appreciate his cooking. The walls are covered in pictures of pilots & a few Generals who have written him letters of thanks, and one wall is dedicated to Hank Williams, Jr. - Hoo Ahh!
Satisfied that the world is still a good place with Perry's smoke still churning, I headed back to the office & started preparing my documents for the client's binder. Once everything was updated I handed it off to our Administrative Assitant to put the binders together. Today I took the binders to a Senior Consultant to review & quality check my work before we mail them to the client. He had me create a QC document for his review in our Project Management Database for our ISO9001 certification. The project was quick, billable, & a nice break from the office. I'll do more of these anytime!
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Pocket Solutions Client-Site Implementation
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On Wednesday, 4/30/08, I traveled 1.5 hours southwest of KC to one of our client's cement plants to upgrade their pocket solutions software from version 3 to 5.54. This was my first time being on-site for a client and my first time at a cement plant. I was expecting it to be a dirty/dusty environment, but the corporate offices were very elegant & clean & even the plant operating offices were very clean. The people were very friendly & easy to work with (I grew up in a relatively small rural town in Missouri, so I think I relate to small-town people pretty well) - it helps that they have been using our Pocket Solutions product since 2002 & they love it.
We loaded the desktop software on a supervisor's PC soon after arriving, then had to work out a database issue. We didn't receive the authorization to upgrade their database until the day before we were due on site, because their IT department was taking over control of these types of processes (from the plant supervisor) & didn't realize that this was another piece that required approval since it was billable work. We worked on fixing the database issues while we trained two supervisors on the new version features, then loaded the new database on the PDAs. We loaded the desktop software on the second supervisor's PC then headed back to KC.
Overall, it was a great field experience. Each installation/implementation is a little different, so it's a great learning opportunity when you get to do it on-site & work out the bugs in real-time. I'm the type of person who learns by driving the PC/doing rather than watching/listening, so this hands-on experience was very worthwhile.
I think my next field opportunity is coming up next week in Sedalia, MO. A client needs some Visible Emissions monitoring conducted & I'm going to handle this for another consultant who will be out of the office. This will be my first opportunity to use the "smoke school" certification I received last month. Looking forward to it!
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