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The Snark does Stockholm. 11/28/2005

There is a rather weird situation here at this particular facility I’m working on at the moment. The initial company hired by the client to perform the work on the medical equipment was summarily dismissed about a year ago. This resulted in negotiations being opened with the company I currently work with to continue where our predecessor left off. Unfortunately, and much to dismay of those of us being actually based on site, it took them a year before names started being put down on the dotted line, which resulted in us coming in a year late. This, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily the end of the world, but the main contractor responsible for construction said, in no uncertain terms, that holding the completion of certain rooms where major items of equipment are supposed to be installed, would result in a delay to the completion of the project which they would not be responsible for.

Certain items of equipment, notably imaging and sterilisation, have to be installed before the room is completed, i.e., the machine is assembled and installed, and the room built around it. This is not the case here, where we have a completed building, complete with services, fittings, furnishing and floors, and we are expected to install the equipment, and then bring everything back to as new condition. No big deal you think? Some of these machines weigh as much as a large pick-up truck, and are about the same weight to boot. They are not something you bring in on a trolley, that’s for sure. And there is the actual problem of gaining access to the rooms where some of these machines are supposed to be installed.

Many of the double doors on site are only 1800 mm wide. My problem is that there is a machine that is 2220 mm wide that has to be installed in C.S.S.D. At the request of the Head of Consultants, I made up a template of the machine, to determine, in real time, whether the machine could actually traverse all the corridors, and fit through the various openings, to get into the wash area in C.S.S.D. So I went down to the carpentry workshop, and got the carpenter to make me up a wooden box in the exact dimensions of this machine. I then carried the box over to the outside of the building, to determine the best route we could take. And my problem started there. The biggest door I could find was only 1800 mm wide, which meant that the machine couldn’t even enter the building, let alone get inside the building corridors.

So I sent a message to the HoC, and left the problem in his hands. And I thought nothing more of it. I didn’t care that the machine didn’t fit. I didn’t want to make it my problem in any way, shape or form. Until I got a return phone call from the HoC. He said he wanted me to fly out to the manufacturer’s facility, in Stockholm , Sweden, and meet with their engineers. The objective would have been to determine if there was a way the machine could be dismantled, or partially disassembled, to allow it to fit into the building openings. I swore like a drunken sailor when I heard this.

After much to-ing and fro-ing, the decision is still pending. Hence I don’t know if I’m supposed to be packing, or not. I’m leaving it till the very last minute. Simply because it’s fucking snowing in Europe at the moment, and the only reason I’m being sent there is because the HoC isn’t keen on going there himself. If this had been Sweden in summer he would have been the first person on the plane.

Comments»

1. buaya69 - 11/29/2005

i want “those” swedish mags, but DVDs better… :D