Case 3: Vyacheslav Pochep, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Department Head, Capital Construction Department
Company profile
-The number of employees in 2001 was 13.
This group, which is charged with the maintenance and construction of industrial boilers, was organized in 1997. In 2000, it was renamed the Construction Maintenance Section. The enterprise is a subdivision of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. The Section manages construction of one unit – the ChNPP industrial boiler. In summer the enterprise conducts 60 % of its operations; in winter – 40 %.
Their market share in 2001 was 20 %.
In the course of boiler construction the enterprise orders equipment and personnel training from the following companies: “Schneider Electric” (France), “Computel Inc” (France), “Exportronic” (Germany), “Berkefeld” (Germany), “Tyco Electronics Raychem GmbH” (Germany), “Promotex Electronic” (Germany), “Honeywell Controls International LTD” (Cyprus), “Benning GmbH” (Germany).
Vyacheslav Pochep presentation
I have seen a lot of very interesting things here in the United States and a lot of them can be implemented in Ukraine, but the major obstacle in this process is lack of capital. If we had the funds we could implement a lot of the interesting things we saw here.
I represent a customer organization contracting for different types of construction work. As a customer, I would like very much to have construction companies such as those I saw in America. These are companies who use advanced construction technologies. I will contact these members of this U.S. contractor group; they are desirable contractors for my organization. After I go back we will try to organize production in accordance with the construction methods that I saw here and I will try to support them.
Each business enterprise in Ukraine has two main duties. The first to manufacture products and the second is to obtain construction equipment in order to construct the necessary facilities. I am the head of the Department of Capital Construction. This department provides project management, approves the contractors and sub-contractors, and conducts the purchasing for the project. We will try to use companies who use more advanced technologies.
We will be able to use at least 20 – 25% of all the construction information we saw here.
This U.S. information will impact the quality of our work, but this will depend on the type of construction. The quality control requirements which are applied in the United States are a bit higher than in Ukraine. I would say the quality of work performed in the United States is much higher but we have different codes. For example, there are different codes for fire safety; the codes for safety are much stricter in Ukraine. The architectural design work which is done in Ukraine is also of lower quality than the same work in the United States from what I saw when I visited different construction sites here. I think design is done much better here. I would be very pleased to implement such projects and designs in Ukraine but unfortunately we don’t have sufficient companies and sufficient technologies to make it possible. Each customer wants to have the work done at a high quality level.
American design is much more detailed; each of the smallest elements is described. For example, in American design, if a brick wall is specified, the designer specifies each detail of the wall and which type of brick can be used. For example, he will specify which bricks are to go in the middle of the wall, in the corner of the wall, and he will tell where to place the plumbing. In our country blueprints are also made by sections. For example, one blueprint is for the overall construction, another part is for the electrical design, and another part is for the plumbing design. When you try to put all these designs together sometimes conflicts occur. Besides, materials which are used in the United States are much more flexible. For example, in the materials in the United States if you have some mistakes in the design you can more easily correct this mistake during construction, using of course the highly technical abilities of your materials. In Ukraine, if a project is made with big bricks or blocks of concrete, this cannot be done. Our design work is not done by computer.
From my experience of working in corporations and with different general design institutes, I have never faced such complete usage of computer designs as in the U.S. In our country computing is usually done by hand. The problem is that in our country computers are expensive and design software is even more expensive. In order to pay back its cost, each company needs to work a very long time. Large design institutes have recently begun to collapse into small private companies, small private enterprises.
In our town we have perhaps a couple of design companies and they are in competition with each other. So I don’t know if this process of extensive computer use can be possible in our town although I am sure that the future is with computer technology. Despite the fact that we are much behind the United States we wish to develop because without it our people cannot achieve anything.
Dissemination
In Slavutich we have town meetings each Tuesday and all the heads, all the directors, all the managers of the construction companies are present at each meeting. At these meetings I will disseminate the information I obtained to all the construction companies in Slavutich and the surrounding regions. I have already collected a lot of different materials and brochures, so they will see what technology they might like to take out of the United States. All of these contractors will see these materials. I will probably talk to representatives of about 40 companies.
Our group has three video cameras and after I come back we will try to make one video film and I plan to submit this video film to the Ministry of Energy policy of Ukraine. They have a department of capital construction so maybe through them we will be able to disseminate this video film and this information to many companies all over Ukraine.