Sixth Engineering Project Department: The Overseas Growth Story of Young People

With the implementation of the "Belt and Road" initiative and the expansion of overseas business, in August 2022, based on the excellent achievements and valuable experience gained in the Nine Dragons Paper Industry Hubei project, the Sixth Engineering Project Department of Yunnan Construction Investment Second Installation Engineering Co., Ltd. undertook the Nine Dragons Paper Industry Malaysia Wentong Phase III wet pulp line project. A management team with an average age of no more than 26 years old was ordered to set out, and since then, the Malaysian project site has become a training ground for these "young people" to improve their management capabilities.

Since entering the site in September 2022, this young management team has given full play to the spirit of the plateau iron army, scientifically commanded, carefully planned, paid attention to refined management, and focused on quality and safety. They overcame unfavorable factors such as tight deadlines and heavy tasks, a young management team, great difficulties in epidemic prevention and control, difficulties in the allocation of personnel, materials, and equipment, and obstacles in cultural exchange. They completed one key task after another, greatly boosting the morale of the project team and ensuring the smooth implementation of the project.

"Young people" debut on the "big stage"

The Wentong project is the first overseas project undertaken by the Sixth Engineering Department. Although it is not the largest in terms of scale among the pulp and paper installation projects undertaken by the department, it was during the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with language barriers, poor logistics, and difficulties in personnel organization, making the project's launch extremely difficult.

After several discussions and studies, finally, one veteran and six "young people" set off.

At that time, we considered letting young people seize this opportunity for training. In terms of construction difficulty and process complexity, the Wentong project is incomparable to the Hubei project and the Beihai project, but organizing personnel, materials, and mechanical equipment across borders, communicating with the owner, and ensuring the successful completion of the project is still a considerable test for young people with less management experience. We adopted the method of old leading new, letting two members of the team, Chen Chunwen and Shi Yongji, who have rich experience in the industrial sector, take turns stationed at the project site to clarify the thinking and solve problems for the management team." said Zhao Sijun, the manager of the department.

Liu Min, the 27-year-old project manager, has served as a construction worker, documentarian, project chief engineer, and project manager in Jianglin Group's overhaul and new projects, Yuntong major overhaul projects, the No. 9 wastewater treatment plant upgrading project, and the Xuntian Fenghe demonstration farm since joining the company in 2018. In August 2022, he took on the heavy responsibility of project manager for the Nine Dragons Paper Industry Malaysia Wentong Phase III wet pulp line project. During his tenure, he comprehensively controlled the project's progress, quality, and cost, coordinated internal and external resources, and ultimately led this young team to successfully complete the task.

Pan Chunyu, the 27-year-old project technical leader, is mainly responsible for the on-site equipment professional installation work; Wang Dongwen, the 26-year-old material manager, always strictly demands himself in his work, diligently and promptly completing each task. He humbly asks his colleagues for advice when encountering problems he doesn't understand in professional and non-professional fields, constantly improving and enriching himself through continuous learning; Li Wenyuan, the 28-year-old construction worker, has participated in the Chenghai wastewater collection Phase II, Dali reclaimed water Phase I, and Hubei Nine Dragons Paper Industry projects, mainly responsible for the installation of process pipelines and steel structure platforms; in addition, there are 23-year-old Bai Weixiong and 24-year-old Zhao Xiong, who are the new forces in the team.

"Young people" overcome organizational challenges

The Wentong project mainly involves the installation of fixed equipment in the wet pulp workshop and the disintegration workshop, the manufacture and installation of non-standard equipment, pipeline installation, and electrical instrument installation. As soon as the project team was established, a large number of problems were presented to Liu Min, the project manager.

The first challenge was the entry of workers. At that time, both domestic and foreign countries were still shrouded in the shadow of the epidemic, and domestic workers could not go abroad for work. The project management team was in place, but the workers who did the work were not yet available, and the project was about to start. What should we do?

After a meeting, it was decided to hire local workers. Therefore, with the help of the company and the group's international department, the management team hired a group of foreign workers through an intermediary agency. Although the process was somewhat tortuous, it was finally successfully completed. Unexpectedly, new problems arose after the entry.

At first, we thought that there might be mostly Malaysians and local Chinese, and English and Chinese would basically be able to communicate. However, when the personnel entered, we looked at the workers' information and found that there were people from various countries, and the work efficiency of workers from different countries varied greatly. Moreover, local workers have an unwritten rule that they have an hour of "afternoon tea" time every day, from 10:00 to 10:30 am and from 3:00 to 3:30 pm. In China, this is the time when people are most energetic during the day." Pan Chunyu, the project's technical leader, expressed helplessness.

This is also a reflection of the particularity of overseas projects. Foreign workers come from multiple countries, and each country has different cultural customs. In order to quickly solve the problems caused by cultural differences between workers of different nationalities, the project department hired a local Chinese translator to help the management team make a detailed summary of local laws and regulations. On the premise of fully respecting the Malaysian labor system, workers of different nationalities were divided into different types of work according to their specific characteristics. In this way, everyone started to enter the production state according to their respective divisions of labor.

In order to be a good "leader" in the project site management, Pan Chunyu, combining the construction unit's requirements for project progress and quality, often discusses with the project team members how to make the best use of currently available materials and machinery to replace temporarily unavailable materials and machinery. Facing the wet pulp board machine installation work for the first time, in order to ensure the construction period and installation quality, he stayed at the wet pulp board machine site during the day and continued to familiarize himself with the drawings and communicate with the on-site construction personnel at night; Wang Dongwen continuously improved his understanding of the operation process, and by familiarizing himself with the operation of various links in the supply chain, he clarified the different characteristics and functions of procurement in various links. In the procurement process, he not only considered price and quality factors but also insisted on comparing prices from multiple sources to maximize cost savings; Li Wenyuan had to promptly negotiate with the owner to solve problems encountered during construction, determine construction schemes, strictly follow specifications and drawings for construction, conduct safety and technical briefings for teams, prepare construction plans, and count remaining engineering quantities, reasonably arrange construction, and ensure that the project proceeds in an orderly manner; Bai Weixiong and Zhao Xiong, although they have not been working for a long time, quickly became familiar with the on-site construction situation and requirements, actively participated in the work, and always adhered to the principle of "grasping both quality and efficiency, and both must be strong," constantly striving to improve construction efficiency, shorten construction time, and reduce construction costs...

"Young people" overcome key node challenges

The "young people" of the Wentong project always maintained a forward-looking attitude of "the battle begins at the start, and the sprint begins at the outset," seizing every second to grasp production. Due to the tight schedule, the project department has been working diligently since its entry. In addition, in order to improve work efficiency and save time for workers traveling back and forth between their living quarters and the project site, lunch was prepared and delivered to the site by the project department.

However, just as everything was proceeding in an orderly manner, the construction unit's product market demand increased sharply, and the production line urgently needed to be put into operation quickly, resulting in a significant adjustment of task nodes, and the construction period became even tighter. Under the leadership of the project manager, all personnel worked hard, working overtime to carry out construction, and did not take holidays or return home during the Spring Festival and holidays, always sticking to the front line abroad.

Recalling the scene of the entire project management team spending their first Spring Festival abroad, Zhao Xiong reminisced: “On New Year's Eve afternoon, after finishing work, we returned to the base and cooked, made dumplings, and set off firecrackers with the workers, celebrating the arrival of the Lunar New Year together. Local Chinese people organized lion dances in the village, and a large group of Chinese people from Yunnan, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, and Sichuan raised their glasses to celebrate. Everyone was completely immersed in joy until the dinner ended, and when we called our families to offer New Year's greetings, we suddenly realized that the New Year had arrived, but we were still in a foreign country...”

“On New Year's Day, the project had a day off. The previous day, during dinner, we agreed to go for a trip to the surrounding cities, but the next day, due to excessive fatigue, no one had the energy to go out. However, on the second day of the New Year, everyone had to be refreshed and head to the site again.” Liu Min smiled embarrassedly when talking about this short holiday time.

2023 In February, the number of construction personnel entering the Wendong project reached 170. To strengthen labor management, make rational use of construction tools, and further reduce construction costs, the project department arranged for teams to work in two shifts. During the construction process, the requirements of “four guarantees, one tree, and one control” were strictly implemented, and construction operations were carried out in a planned manner.

Hard work pays off. At the end of March 2023, after more than 150 days and nights of hard work, the Jiu Long Paper Industry Malaysia Wendong Phase III wet pulp line project was successfully energized; at the end of April, the wet pulp workshop was successfully debugged; and on July 6, the wet pulp workshop was successfully put into production, producing qualified products.

Young People Overcome Growth Challenges

The young people on the Wendong project frankly admitted that when they first received the task of going to Malaysia for project production management, everyone felt a little uneasy, especially project manager Liu Min. Although he had some management experience, this was the first time he had to independently lead a group of young people to complete a project across borders. He frankly admitted that he initially lacked confidence, but after sufficient training, he has made great progress in project management, project planning, construction management, and other aspects, especially gaining initial experience in overseas project management. In the future, when encountering similar situations, he will not be at a loss.

“There is an interesting phenomenon in Malaysia: whenever you enter a room from outdoors, you must take off your shoes or change into slippers. During the rush to complete the project, we held a project progress coordination meeting every afternoon to discuss and resolve problems encountered during production with the construction party and other participating units. Every day when we went to the owner's office for meetings, from the moment we went upstairs, everyone was either wearing slippers or barefoot until the meeting ended. After overtime work in the evening, the project management personnel would also review the day's production progress and key tasks in the dormitory while wearing slippers, so we called each other ‘comrades who wear slippers together.’ After returning to China, no matter which project we go to, I believe everyone will not forget this unforgettable experience.” Pan Chunyu said with a smile when recalling that period.

Young people, vigorous and thriving like a rising sun, even if the road is long and arduous, we will not fear the long journey. Thanks to the efforts of these young people, the Wendong project in Malaysia has now been fully completed.

Through this experience, the international project fulfillment capabilities of these young people have steadily improved and have been recognized by the owner. At the same time, a group of professional and technical personnel familiar with pulp and papermaking, industrial electromechanical installation international engineering conventions, standards, and engineering practices have been cultivated; a strong support team that understands language, is proficient in technology, is skilled in management, and is adept at business has been built; and a localized fulfillment team has been developed overseas, accumulating rich experience in international operations and overseas industrial electromechanical installation general contracting projects.

In recent years, the Engineering Department has closely followed the development strategy of “building a network, proactive operation, rapid response, and strengthening fulfillment,” fully rooted in the province, taken big steps outside the province, and now crossed overseas, achieving a breakthrough from zero to one in overseas projects and promoting the achievement of the goal of “rapid development and strengthening” of the pulp and paper business. From Jingzhou, Hubei to Beihai, Guangxi and then to Wendong, Malaysia, the Engineering Department's pulp and paper business has grown step by step, gradually creating new business patterns in “pulp and papermaking, municipal environmental protection, civil electromechanical, water conveyance and water conservancy, and industrial maintenance.” In the future, we will also make every effort to promote various tasks, strive to gain a foothold and take the initiative in the regional market, and use the sweat of our youth to write a new splendid chapter. [Sixth Engineering Project Department/Wang Yao, Li Wenyuan]