“Our intent is to have one point of contact for owners, employers, and millwrights to address and resolve problems or concerns and streamline the process of getting proper manpower for outages during peak times of need.” –Wayne Jennings, SSMRC Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Those were the comments in June 2016 announcing the opening of the Southern States Millwright Regional Council Nuclear Office. Since, we have met the needs of our partnering contractors through open discussions and clearer communication, and our partnering contractors have been better able to serve the nuclear industry.
One question raised during those discussions was “how do we streamline communication” during the height of the season, when outage labor requests are at their peak? At that point in time, we depended on multiple daily phone conversations and emails. With an average of 11 outages a season, one can only imagine the numerous phone calls, emails, and confusion. It was overwhelming.
To address and streamline the communication process, EST Jennings and the SSMRC Nuclear Office made the decision to research, develop, and build a web-based program specifically designed for the nuclear industry.
In collaboration with our industry partners, the SSMRC implemented a new “real-time system” streamlining the process of meeting each outage’s labor needs. Contractors and the SSMRC can manage each outage separately, maintain a joint worker assignment spreadsheet, and view the training record and other relative information for each worker. Both contractors and the SSMRC can add, modify, remove, track, and view each outage independently and securely. By jointly developing and utilizing this system, we cut the emails, phone calls, and confusion to a minimum.
This is a prime example of how the Southern States Millwright Regional Council, in collaboration with our contractors, addresses the needs of an important industry millwrights serve. The new system illustrates teamwork at is finest.