Citec attitude 1 2014

CITEC

1•2014

A new future for oil & gas PAGE 6

Developing efficient software PAGE 16

Constructor at work and at home PAGE 22

IMPRESSED WITH CITEC MINISTER ALEXANDER STUBB MET WITH CITEC INDIA. PAGE 10

EDITORIAL

CITEC

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OIL & GAS – two powerful words

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ur cover story in this issue of Citec Attitude is about oil & gas, which is a new focus area of ours. Despite all the talk about energy efficiency and renewables, oil & gas will remain an important source of energy for a long time to come, not least due to the growing world population and increasing demand for energy.

One country substantially contributing to this demand is India. The country has experienced a tremendous surge in the number of vehicles on its roads, as well as an ever growing demand for power and fertilisers.

Today, oil & gas account for more than 45 per cent of India’s total energy consumption and the sector has been instrumental in bringing India onto the world stage. According to industry experts, India is on its way to becoming the third largest energy consumer in the world by 2020. At present India is the sixth largest crude oil consumer in the world and the ninth largest crude oil importer. The country is also increasing its share in the global refining market.

These figures mean that the oil & gas sector is very promising for Citec India too. There is huge untapped potential, since India possesses many large offshore blocks that are still unexplored.

The country’s total hydrocarbon reserves are projected to be equivalent to 2 billion metric tonnes of oil. Also, the reserves-to-production ratio for the country works out to be 25 years with the current oil production level of around 815,000 barrels per day and estimated reserves of 1.2 billion metric tonnes. Analysts foresee a bright future for the gas sector as well, where the reserves are predicted to last for over 30 years. As such, there lies a great opportunity for international and domestic companies to participate in the industry’s growth.

Citec India has the domestic market as one important focus area for the oil & gas sector, although the Middle East remains the key region. We have already gained positive experiences from clients like Aramco, SABIC and MARAFIQ. Our goal for the future is to develop a strong team that would operate locally in the region, supported by the competent resources available in our Indian and European offices.

NASIR MULANI MANAGING DIRECTOR CITEC INDIA

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PUBLISHER Citec, P.O. Box 109, FI-65101 Vaasa +358 (0)6 324 0700 attitude@citec.com EDITORIAL BOARD Katarina Westerén-Hagnäs, Isa Ågren, Michael Smirnoff, Lars Rosenblad, Ralf Petell, Anna Jeanne Söderlund EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Smirnoff PROJECT MANAGEMENT, EDITING Anna Jeanne Söderlund PRODUCTION Mantra Communications and Citec LAYOUT Studio PAP COVER PHOTO Pekka Mustonen PRINT Forsberg 2014 COMPANY KEY FACTS Citec offers multi-discipline engineering and consulting, and provides services related to information management.

The total number of employees is 1,100 and the turnover for 2013 was approximately 74 million euros.

Citec is headquartered in Vaasa, Finland and has offices in Finland, Sweden, the UK, France, Germany, Norway, Russia and India.

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CONTENTS

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“ I was extremely nervous before the meeting, but the Minister is a relaxed guy, and everything went really well.”

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PAGE 11

22 6

“ It is self-evident that it is the daily work that teaches you the most, even though attending courses can be useful from time to time.”

PAGE 12

“Nicklas Holmqvist hasn’t only built his house himself; he has also been the architect, construction planner, developer and master builder of the project.” PAGE 22

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AROUND THE WORLD Svetlana Gryankina

Around rld the wo c ite with C

5 QUESTIONS

GLASS DOME. The Reichstag building with its glass dome is one of the main tourist attractions in Berlin.

Welcoming each new day with a smile Stéphane Lokrou works as a business engineer in the oil & gas segment in France.

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Where do you work?

“Currently I work for Akilea Engineering, which was acquired

by Citec in spring 2013. We assist our customers with the design, optimization and reliability of both their products and production facilities. In particular we make use of our expertise in process implementation within the energy sector. We also provide key staff for Engineering Procurement

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Construction (EPC) turnkey projects.”

What are your main duties?

“As a business engineer my main duty is to develop the client’s service portfolio. This comprises, for instance, the detection of customer needs, development of service offerings and direct negotiation, as well as active

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NEWS

BERLIN

Happy birthday, Citec!

■ What is the best thing about your home city, Martin Höls, CFO at Citec Germany?

“Berlin is more than a city, it’s like an attitude to life. It’s significantly different compared to all other German cities and has its heart in the right place. Berlin is multicultural and cosmopolitan and has a fascinating history. It’s a city of both politics and culture.”

What is your relationship to Berlin?

“I must say I love this city. I grew up here on the West side and was 16 years old in November 1989 when the wall fell. I remember standing on top of the wall together with hundreds of thousands of other euphoric citizens, and that was the moment when I fell in love with this city. As an adult, I lived in Britain for a few years, but I longed for Berlin and wanted to move back. Today it’s hard to understand that this city was divided for such a long time.”

What is the best time of the year to visit Berlin?

“There are many exciting events all year around. In January and July for example, the museums are open all night long and in October we have a festival of lights where buildings are illuminated in a spectacular way.”

What are the must-sees for a first time visitor?

“When I have guests I always take them on a tour that starts on Kurfürstendamm, old West Berlin’s most fashionable shopping street. From there we go to Siegessäule, where you can have a fantastic view over the city. Next in line is the Brandenburg Gate and the government district. The walk continues to the legendary parts of old East Berlin, such as Unter den Linden, Friedrichstrasse and Checkpoint Charlie. Then we end up at Friedrichshain which has hundreds of cafés, restaurants and bars.”

Which restaurants do you recommend?

“When you want to eat well I suggest you reserve a table at Solar. It’s located in a skyscraper, so you will have a perfect view over the city, in addition to good food and wine.”

participation in the recruitment of new consultants.”

What makes your job interesting?

“For me the main challenge is to get an understanding of the different businesses of our clients in order to meet their needs in the best way possible. The most fascinating aspect in my job covers all the professional relationships

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ICH BIN EIN BERLINER. Martin Höls, CFO at Citec Germany, loves Berlin.

■ The year 2014 will mark the 30th anniversary since Citec was founded. The history of Citec goes back to 1984 when two young engineers started a company called TriTechnic in Vaasa. The headquarters was first located in a single-room apartment and later in a summer cottage.

The founders Rune Westergård and Rolf Berg could hardly have imagined what the company would look like 30 years later. Today, Citec has grown into a global group with 1,100 employees and offices in nine countries. Since the start, Citec has designed more than 1,000 power plants and has exported services to more than 150 countries.

FACTS • Berlin is the capital of Germany and has a population of 3.3 million people.

• East and West Berlin were divided by the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989.

• Citec’s office in Berlin was established in 2011, when Citec acquired a German company.

that are created in the interaction with our clients. It’s a question of meeting the different clients’ specific needs, while utilizing the expertise we have developed.”

breakfast that gives me energy for the whole day. I also try to meet the people around me with a smile – both at home and at work among the colleagues.”

How do you maintain a good energy level throughout the work day?

“I go to bed early enough to wake up well rested and in good shape.

I always have a nutritious

How do you spend your spare time?

“When I’m not working I enjoy spending time with my family and friends: I go to the cinema, play different ball games, for example

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football and basketball. I also like to listen to music. In future, I hope to continue developing at a professional level and carry on working with different interesting projects within oil and gas.”

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COVER STORY: OIL & GAS

A NEW FUTURE Global demand for energy continues to grow as a result of human population growth and increasing living standards, especially in developing countries.

According to energy outlook projections, oil & gas will continue to be vital energy sources for many decades to come. Increasingly, oil & gas are found in challenging areas, such as deep water, arctic regions and politically unstable parts of the world. What was earlier the oil industry is known today as the oil & gas industry.

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COVER STORY: OIL & GAS

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E FOR OIL & GAS T

he population of the world is estimated to grow by 1.3 billion people by the year 2030. Of this figure, 90 % of the growth will take place in non-OECD countries, where development is strong, living standards are rising and industry is growing. It goes without saying that there will be a huge demand for energy to meet these needs.

Therefore, oil & gas will continue to be important sources of energy in the years and decades to come.

“It takes many decades for a new energy generation technology to really catch on”, says Sakari Koivuniemi, Director, Oil & Gas industry area.

“The major change is that natural gas will assume a more important role as a source of energy.”

The focus of global energy politics in the 21st century has been on curbing global warming.

Measures taken for this purpose have been to enhance energy efficiency, as well as to invest in renewable energy sources and nuclear power. The results of this work are now beginning to show in the form of more energy efficient industries, houses and cars. The relative shares of renewable energy sources and nuclear power are growing; however, due to the increased energy demand following the population growth, we will not see any major revolutions in the field of energy production. Oil & gas will maintain its position for decades to come.

Although some of the new oil & gas resources, such as shale gas in the USA, are not very expensive to exploit, most of the new resources are located

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COVER STORY: OIL & GAS

Gas is becoming increasingly significant deep below sea level, or in the Arctic region. Exploiting oil in these areas is both challenging and expensive.

“The world’s largest offshore markets today are found within the so-called Golden Triangle, consisting of the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and West Africa, as well as in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. In the future, investments are expected to increase particularly in West Africa and Brazil.

Asia and Australia are also interesting markets, where offshore production and investments are forecast to increase significantly towards the end of the decade”, says Koivuniemi.

“Traditionally Norway and the United States have invested heavily in offshore production and oil & gas industry expertise. As a result of their investments, both countries now play increasingly central roles within the world’s offshore technology. However, a large part of the manufacturing of drill ships, offshore vessels, platforms etc. has

moved to Asia. As offshore projects are usually technologically challenging with massive investments and huge risks, the oil & gas companies are willing to buy technology and services from where they get the best capability, reliability, capacity and quality”, says Koivuniemi.

There are a number of different scenarios available regarding the development of oil & gas prices. The most likely scenario is that there will be a stable but moderate rise in prices until 2030. A plausible assessment, based on current information, is that the price of Brent Crude will increase from 100 dollars a barrel to almost 150 dollars.

However, if the price was to fall much below 100 dollars a barrel, there is a risk that several offshore projects would be discontinued due to low profitability.

ESTIMATED ENERGY CONSUMPTION Billion TOE 20

RENEW. HYDRO 15

NUCLEAR

COAL

10

GAS 5

OIL

Year

0 1990

2010

2030 SOURCE: BP ENERGY OUTLOOK

CITEC’S SERVICES COVER THE COMPLETE VALUE CHAIN PROJECT EXECUTION PHASES

Feasibility study

Pre-Feed / Feed study

Concept design

Engineering and design Procurement

Detailed Engineering Supplier eng. & fab.

UPSTREAM (Exploration & Production)

MIDSTREAM (Transportation)

DOWNSTREAM (Refining & Marketing)

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Manufacturing

Logistics

Installation & commissioning

COVER STORY: OIL & GAS

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CUTTING-EDGE SKILLS REQUIRED Jessica Lindgren

The acquisitions of Akilea Engineering and M7 Offshore gives Citec more than one hundred specialists in oil & gas.

■ The oil & gas industry investments in 2013 are estimated to be about 650 to 690 billion euro annually for exploration and production.

Investments by oil & gas companies may rise as much as 8 percent in 2014. Thus even a small share of a fraction of a percent of that market means tens of millions in turnover.

Citec has made a significant investment in the oil & gas industry by acquiring the engineering companies Akilea Engineering in France and M7 Offshore in Norway and Singapore. Through these acquisitions Citec today has more than 100 specialized experts in the oil & gas industry.

The technological development in the industry benefits Citec.

“Oil & gas are being exploited in increasingly challenging environments, and this creates a demand for advanced engineering competence, which we can provide”, says Sakari Koivuniemi.

Citec sees growth opportunities in different types of offshore vessels (FPSOs, FSUs, FRSUs), other topsides, LNG and pressure vessels, all of which are areas where Citec holds a high level of competence. The oil & gas production is divided into three main areas: upstream, midstream and downstream. Upstream refers to the exploitation and production of oil & gas, midstream deals with transportation and downstream covers the refining and trading of the refined products. Thanks to the acquisitions of Akilea Engineering and M7 Offshore, Citec now has a strong expertise in all of these areas.

Citec’s customers are oil companies, contractors, ship owners, suppliers and engineering companies.

“What’s typical for the industry is that the projects are of the engineering-to-order type, which means that everything is planned and designed from scratch. This is precisely our area of expertise”, says Sakari Koivuniemi.

CITEC’S STRONG POINTS IN THE OIL & GAS OFFERING • One stop shop – complete oil & gas service provider within multi-discipline engineering, information and project management services • Modularisation – design experience from large scale offshore modules up to 1,300 ton RECKONS WITH OIL & GAS. Sakari Koivuniemi was appointed Director of Citec’s new industry area Oil & Gas in October 2013.

• Close to customer – Local presence and global resourcing • Proof of concept – competence, experience and solid references • E xperience – in the global engineering industry since 1984

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CITEC INDIA: MINISTER VISIT

HIGH FIVE FROM THE The Finnish Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade, Alexander Stubb, visited India last autumn. Citec India got the chance to meet with him during his

EXCITED MINISTER. Alexander Stubb and Pentti Itkonen got along very well.

T

he Minister regularly undertakes export promotion trips and in October 2013 the destination was India. One of the companies that had the privilege to meet the Finnish delegation was Citec. Meeting Citec was an obvious choice, since it is one of the Finnish companies that has fared very well in India.

“As the Minister for Foreign Trade I find it very inspiring that a Finnish company has managed to successfully establish itself abroad.

I’ve learned that Citec has some 500 employees in Finland and more than 400 here in India. This is music to my ears”, said Minister Stubb.

During the hour long meeting Stubb talked a lot about the energy cluster in Vaasa, which Citec is a central part of.

“30 percent of the Finnish energy technology export comes from the companies in the Vaasa region. Other regions should follow their example”, Stubb said.

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Besides Citec’s representatives, the Vaasa region’s Energy Ambassador Pentti Itkonen also attended the meeting with the Minister’s delegation.

Itkonen also met India’s leading energy journalists. Itkonen travelled the world during the autumn of 2013 to meet the international cleantech companies from the Vaasa region and promoted them in social media. He related his experiences to the Minister who was genuinely interested.

“I was excited when I heard about the ambassador project. It is great that Vaasa is branding itself in this way. I can simply high five Pentti and the entire Vaasa region”, Stubb proclaimed.

CITEC INDIA: MINISTER VISIT

MINISTER stay.

THE GREAT GANG. Attending the meeting (from the left) Annika Wallin, Martin Strand, the Energy Ambassador Pentti Itkonen, Alexander Stubb, Nasir Mulani and Arun Thiagarajan.

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Incredible India ■ Of all the places I visited on my round-the-world trip, India was one of the most fascinating. The crowds, the scents and the humidity – it was all so overwhelming. The warm welcome by my hosts at Citec certainly added to the experience.

Besides sightseeing and dinners, the week was also full of real work. It was very interesting to get an insight into just how globally Citec’s engineers operate. I took part in a video conference in Mumbai, where the other participants sat in Pietarsaari, Vaasa and Helsinki respectively. In real-time they twisted and turned the 3D-models and discussed how to install the piping. To me it was simply incredible that one could, with the aid of technology, work with someone on the other side of the globe and still get the feeling of being in the same room!

The topic of the video conference was a current power plant project that Citec is working on, a waste-to-energy plant that is scheduled to be completed in 2015. The project is representative of Citec’s global way of working: The client is a Swiss business, the project management is handled by Citec in Finland, the engineering by Citec in India and the construction of the plant will take place in England.

At times, people may argue that work opportunities are lost in Finland when Finnish companies outsource their operations to so-called low-cost countries. The example of Citec, however, shows that the opposite can be true – thanks to Citec’s growth in India, the employees in Finland now have more work. The project management is mostly done in Finland, whilst the basic engineering is done in India. Large capacity, knowledge and competitive pricing are thus important cornerstones in providing cost-efficient services to global customers. Without the capacity in India, Citec could clearly not undertake as many nor as big projects as they currently do. Global resources and local presence are winning factors for both Citec and its customers.

One of the highlights of the week in India was of course meeting Minister Alexander Stubb. I was extremely nervous before the meeting, but the Minister is a relaxed guy, and everything went really well. Stubb seemed very impressed by Citec as well as by the companies from the Vaasa region in general. And I must say, I find it very easy to be just as impressed as he was.

PENTTI ITKONEN

Met our Energy Ambassador @EnergyVaasa and folks from an excellent Finnish consultancy, Citec.

Great gang.

Energy Ambassador Pentti Itkonen travelled the world in the autumn of 2013 to promote the global energy technology companies from the Vaasa region. Videos and blog posts from his journey can be accessed at www.energialahettilas.fi

Mr Stubb on Twitter October 16 th 2013

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LEARNING BY DOING

LEARNING SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY It is easy to believe that one does not learn anything without attending a training course. But as a matter of fact, we constantly learn from our colleagues, from customers, as well as by taking on new tasks or new roles.

That’s why Citec is systematically integrating learning into the daily work.

H

R Director, Katarina Westerén-Hagnäs would previously hear employees commenting that they did not get the opportunity to develop their skills as they were not attending training sessions often enough.

“In the management we realized that we needed to improve the competence development by incorporating it into our daily work. It is self-evident that it is the daily work that teaches you the most, even though attending courses can be useful from time to time.”

Since a few years back, Citec works according to a model in which only ten percent of the competence development is done through training. Twenty percent is done through learning from others or colleagues, and the remaining seventy percent in the day-to-day work; i.e. learning by doing.

Another example is the chosen strategic development

How this is done in practice varies.

win-win situation: It is rewarding for the employees to get opportunities and take on new challenges, whilst Citec as a company benefits from a more competent staff. The employee satisfaction surveys conducted by Citec show a clear correlation between workplace satisfaction and the degree of participation in learning by doing activities.

“For an expert organization it is natural to constantly develop. And it is absolutely essential for Citec as a company – in the end the only product we sell is the expertise of our employees”, Westerén-Hagnäs says.

“The obvious way to learn new things is by taking on new tasks or new roles. We try to ensure that people work with different kinds of projects where they will learn something new in the process. It could be working with a new customer, a different type of plant or shouldering a greater responsibility.”

Part of learning by doing is to get out of the office. Employees can, for example, relocate to work in the customer’s premises for a while, or be assigned to a customer site with a certain role on site, or just simply through conducting a site study. When you, as an engineer, get to really see the power plant where you have been part of the design team, you get an additional understanding of the importance of your own work.

“We also ensure that those who have conducted a site study share their knowledge with their team, once they are back. This is a good example of how you can learn from your colleagues”, Westerén-Hagnäs explains.

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projects. In these, a mix of all necessary functions is represented to ensure the joint outcome for Citec. In these projects, inevitably, everybody will get a holistic understanding which will also widen their knowledge.

Citec also encourages people to rotate within the workplace, take on other roles, as well as transfer to Citec offices in other countries.

“The most common rotation is from Citec India to some of our European locations. With this way of working we efficiently transfer knowledge to a wider group of colleagues, via an ‘ambassador’, which is precisely according to our strategy; local presence with global resourcing.”

The competence development of the workforce is clearly a

WIN-WIN. “Our employee satisfaction surveys show a clear correlation between workplace satisfaction and participation in learning by doing actvities”, says Katarina WesterénHagnäs.

LEARNING BY DOING

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katja lösönen

Learning by doing learning from doing

learn from otinhegrs learnin by trainigng

Citec is wor atically to continuous lekiarngningsystinem to the daily roinutcoinrpe.orate

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LEARNING BY DOING

Training by questioning The biggest problem with training courses tends to be that the content is either too basic or too advanced.

Ted Bergman has developed a brilliant concept for how to tailor the content to match the participants.

■ Today Ted Bergman is Director of Competence Services at Citec. It was whilst working as a global manager for plant solutions that he suddenly realized how one can combine mentoring and training and tailor the concept to the participants.

“I started with giving a more experienced employee the task of leading a training session, for example around a certain topic in process design. Everyone who was to attend the session had to send in questions in advance concerning the topic. By doing that, the person running the training session could tailor the content to match the level of the group. During the session anyone could answer the questions, which led to many good discussions.“ Bergman noticed that his concept was most useful in situations where there were many new employees who needed to learn the ropes. “The team developed good internal communication and everyone got a deep understanding of the work of their colleagues. Those who answered the questions learnt just as much as those asking questions.”

The training sessions usually lasted for two hours and about 20–30 people took part in them. The participants could be from Citec’s offices in different countries.

Bergman admits that sometimes he added some questions, if he thought that something essential was missing. “The questions lacking gave me valuable information, revealing that some fundamentals had to be included in the training.”

At the same time Bergman himself learnt a lot about his own team. Above all he was able to avoid a common problem in training sessions; that the content is at the wrong level.

“Had we held more traditional training sessions, parts of the content would have been lost on many of the participants.”

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TAILORED CONTENT. Ted Bergman developed a training method where every particpant had to ask questions. Anyone who wished could then answer the questions.

Learning by doing

LEARNING BY DOING

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Understanding the big picture

One year in Finland

Lina Ingves did not hesitate to say yes when she was asked whether she wanted a transfer to a different unit. Learning new things is one of the most important things about a job, she thinks.

For a long time Citec has been training the Indian staff by giving some of them the chance to work in Finland. Suvarna Pangare considers virtually everything she learnt during her year in Finland as a great advantage.

■ Lina Ingves started working for Citec directly after finishing her degree in construction engineering. After two years of working in building design within engineering, she was asked whether she wanted to start working within technical information instead.

“I had tried my hand at that kind of work the previous summer, since that team needed backup, and it seemed very interesting. I really did not NEW TASKS. Lina Ingves thinks need any time to think, and I said it’s really fun to go to work every yes on the spot.” morning.

Ingves has now worked with compiling station manuals for a few months and is enjoying it a lot.

“It is really great to learn new things and take on new challenges.

Now I have a different understanding of power plants from a broader perspective, having seen both how a power plant is designed and how the technical manuals are produced.”

■ Today Suvarna Pangare works as a section manager in Electrical & Automation at Citec’s office in Mumbai. In 2008 she came to Finland to work at Citec’s head office for a year.

“I was very excited about the assignment. My main reason for coming was to get an opportunity to interact directly with our international customers in order to learn to understand them better. I also got a chance to interact with our vendors”, says Pangare.

USEFUL LESSONS. Suvarna The year in Finland turned out to Pangare learnt the importance be a period of time that made a of prompt decision making. strong impression on Pangare. The most useful learning experiences concerned the work methods.

“I learnt the importance of prompt decision making. Another important thing I learnt was that you should always give added value by doing a little bit more than the customer expects. Going that extra mile.”

Switching from being a design engineer to a documentation engineer has been quite easy, although Ingves feels she still has a lot to learn.

“I have heard that it takes roughly a year before you really get to know the ropes of this job, so that is comforting. Luckily I get a lot of help from my more experienced colleagues. If there is anything I do not know how to do, I can always ask them. I also got a very thorough introduction to information management when I started.”

Although Ingves has had to learn how to use a whole new range of software as part of her new job, she doesn’t see that as a drawback, in fact quite the opposite.

“One of the most important things about a good job is that one gets to learn new things continuously. It’s really fun to go to work every morning.”

In her current job, Pangare is in charge of developing her team member’s competence – and also from that perspective the learning experiences gained in Finland are valuable.

“I would say that almost anything and everything I learnt has been useful.”

When Pangare travelled to the other side of the globe, her son and mother accompanied her. “My son enjoyed the English kindergarten he went to and he also loved playing in the snow. For my mother it was a bit harder since she is an extrovert person and loves to be surrounded by a lot of people. But overall it was a good experience for all of us.”

So, would you recommend everyone who gets the opportunity to work abroad to take it? “Yes, definitely. It strengthens the bonds between people from different cultures and therefore helps the organization to grow and become more liberal.”

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EXPERT ARTICLE: SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

TAKEUSTOMISED C TOO ENGINEERING TO THE NEXT LEVEL Sometimes software can’t do what you’d like it to do. That’s when Citec’s application specialists step in and start developing the tools.

TOOL DESIGN. System development is often about getting different types of software to communicate better.

A

fter a long day at the office, it’s time for the employees at Citec’s offices in different countries to go home. The computers won’t go home, though. In fact they will continue working all night long, updating the day’s work by synchronising hundreds of PDMS models. The next morning everyone at Citec can see what their colleagues on the other side of the globe have done on their common projects.

Each customer will also receive a new 3D viewer model of their project, in order to see the latest stage of the project. This model will also contain attribute data on certain elements that the customer can query if needed.

This is just one example of how Citec’s application specialists have improved the software, in order to serve all our clients faster and better. Although only one project can be updated at a time in the basic version of PDMS, thanks to an application created

by Citec, hundreds of projects can now be controlled simultaneously during the nightly updates.

Citec currently handles over 40 different design tools and all their respective tool configurations. The main focus of development has been on primary production tools like PDMS, Autodesk products, COMOS and Tekla.

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A team of around ten application specialists are constantly available and ready to help out on any larger or smaller tasks related to these design tools. Every tool can be customised to meet the demands in each project; repetitive tasks can be automated, new functions can be integrated and bugs can be fixed. Sometimes it can just be about minimising the number of mouse clicks for a certain task.

An increasing number of system suppliers have realised that it pays off to leave software open so that the users can create their own configurations. Comos is a perfect example of this way of thinking, since it is built with an open system architecture.

During the last seven years, Citec’s application specialists have had the

possibility to adapt the system to suit each customer’s specific needs. System development is often about getting different types of software to communicate better, and in the case of Comos, Citec has successfully made integration with other systems easy and flexible. The extensive range of experience in developing Comos has given Citec a clear advantage over other companies in the Nordic countries providing similar services.

If a customer requires a special drawing style, data or output, it is a much better idea to let the applications specialist configure the software instead of doing it by hand.

Too much manual and repetitive work tends to create a lot of human error, thus slowing

EXPERT ARTICLE: SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

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CASE STUDY:

Developing a new isometric PDMS tool

down the whole process.

Citec’s application specialists follow trends and new functionalities and conduct research on new tools on the customers’ behalf. They are also in direct contact with the software vendors on a weekly basis, in order to provide them with feedback on issues and bugs.

The Production Tool team at Citec has made their mark in most of our design processes. Whether talking about isometrics production, drafting of support drawings, implementation of design progress and status systems, they always provide the solutions to problems. Without the help of this team we would not be able to handle the large projects we work with today.

Johnny Bjolin, Manager Mechanical Engineering Energy & Civil, Citec

The writer Thomas Back is part of Citec’s team of application specialists.

PDMS is the main tool used for plant design at Citec: a tool that has been successfully used by Citec in more than 1000 engineering projects to date. In PDMS everything is designed in 3D, which means that all the different disciplines in the same model can be integrated without clashes. PDMS can also be customised for different customers, as in this case. The end customer in a large thermal project had very specific demands on how pipe isometrics should appear. Amongst other things, the customer required the following: • Isometrics had to be delivered in AutoCad format • Weld numbers had to be static so they would not change between isometric revisions • All pipes had to be spooled for prefabrication • Different weld number series must be shown for different types of welds • The isometric material list must be in Excel format, and not shown on the isometric drawings • Part numbering must be unique for every component and tube within a pipe • Different details on the isometric drawings must be shown on individual AutoCad layers (e.g. weld numbers, gridlines, numbers, dimension lines, etc), in order to allow for the automatic processing of drawing data by the end customer • Part lists and isometric drawings must be linked with Citec’s document management system

It quickly became apparent that since only the first three demands in the above list could be produced automatically in PDMS without any additional customisation, the rest of the work would require a tremendous amount of manual input from the designers.

Apart from the above requirements, the customer also requested that the designers would store and edit title block data in PDMS and set gridline references. As the project was running in a global environment with design in several offices simultaneously, all isometric data had to be stored in PDMS databases to ensure that the same isometric could be run at any of the design offices having access to it.

To be able to meet these requirements, a large internal development project began at Citec involving Citec’s application specialists and chief design engineers. The CDEs verified each step in the process, and also made rough outlines for how the tool should work from a user point of view.

Several tools were customised simultaneously (PDMS, AutoCad and Excel) and new integrations were built between the tools for a smooth transfer of data. The target was to develop a system that would minimise the manual input as much as possible.

This tool development process started as soon as Citec engineers began the plant design, which meant that by the time the engineering design had come to the stage where isometric production had to start, the application was already available for the designers.

As a result of this development, Citec was able to meet all of the end customer’s requirements on documentation successfully.

During the project, Citec also created more than 20 different Excel reports, many of which were made using data stored or managed by the isometric application.

The same isometric tool, with more or less features enabled, is now used in all Thermal projects where Citec provides pipe design.

This is a typical example of how all Citec customers benefit from the development work made in a particular case.

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LIFESTYLE: BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS

KNOCKED OUT BY Do you sometimes feel like putting your head on the desk and napping for a while in the afternoon? In that case you should consider eating less bread, pasta and rice for lunch.

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LIFESTYLE: BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS

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Sebnem Ragiboglu

CARBS

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wo to three hours after having lunch it creeps in, the urge to lie down and sleep, even though there are several hours left of the work day. And after having managed to recover from the worst drowsiness, the next challenge sets in around five, when an overwhelming hunger almost causes you to faint. How should you eat in order to feel satisfied and avoid the blood sugar rollercoaster during the work day?

Science journalist Ann Fernholm, with a PhD in molecular biotechnology, is particularly suited to answering the question. Fernholm is the author of the book “Ett sötare blod – om hälsoeffekterna av ett halvsekel med socker” (Sweeter blood – about the health effects of half a century with sugar) in which she scrutinizes the research that is the foundation of contemporary nutritional advice.

“My best advice to people who have jobs in which they sit all day is to avoid carbohydrates for lunch.

Carbohydrates make you tired and can cause a constant low-grade inflammation in the body. That’s why we should eat less pasta, rice, bread and sugar.”

As strange as it sounds, it isn’t the amount of food that determines whether we become full or not. The feeling of satiety is controlled by hormones. It’s possible to achieve short-term satiety through binging on carbs, but quite soon you’ll feel hungry again. When you eat carbs, the blood-sugar rises, only to plummet after a while. Then you get hungry, and perhaps even irritable and tired. Long-term satiety is achieved by eating fat and protein. That’s why diets with the sole aim to cutting the number of calories rarely work – few of us have enough willpower to endure a state of constant hunger in the long run.

The trend with low-carb diets started with the Atkins diet in the USA already in the 1970s, but it’s not until recent years that the debate has reached the general public. Sweden is probably the country in the world where carbohydrates and their

health effects are being debated most. As much as one fourth of the Swedes claim that they have reduced their carb intake.

Ann Fernholm became interested in the subject after having met a woman with diabetes who had started following the LCHF (Low Carb, High Fat) diet.

According to the diet, the carb intake should be kept at a minimum. The woman had lost over 40 kilograms and didn’t need medication anymore. “I couldn’t understand how it was possible. In order to learn more I started to examine the research that deals with how food affects our health.”

Quite soon Fernholm realised that the nutritional advice given by authorities in most countries today is incorrect and outdated. In her book she effectively busts the myth that saturated fat is the villain when it comes to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Instead, carbohydrates are what should be avoided, and in particular, we should eat less of the number one carb villain sugar.

“The research that is the foundation of contemporary low-fat nutritional advice was done several decades ago. The conclusions drawn were simply too definite and incorrect, and after some time it became an established truth that fat, and in particular saturated fat, is dangerous”, says Fernholm.

One of the classic studies of the field is the Seven Countries Study done in the 1960s, which measured the relationship between the amount of saturated fat the population in the different counties ate, and the rate of cardiovascular disease. Finland was also part of the study which had a significant impact on the dietary recommendations the authorities then started to give.

“If France had been part of the study, the conclusions that were drawn then would never have been drawn. The French eat the

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LIFESTYLE: BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS

The key thing is to keep the blood sugar low and Hayati Kayhan

largest amounts of saturated fat in the whole of Europe, yet they have the lowest rate of heart attacks. There are many indications that the French are healthier than other Europeans due to the fact that they eat less sugar”, says Fernholm.

Those who have followed the so-called fat debate know that it has often been heated, and that the two parties have widely different opinions. The authorities stand by their old theories, whereas the LCHF advocates think that everybody would benefit from more butter and cream.

“Nevertheless, in recent times, more and more doctors and authorities have begun to realise that this debate cannot be dismissed. However, more research in the field is definitely required.

Everyone who tries LCHF doesn’t manage to lose weight even though many actually do”, says Fernholm.

According to Fernholm, the key thing is to keep one’s blood sugar level low and stable, how it’s kept low is of less significance. How much carbs you can eat without problems is also related to how much you exercise, whether you’re healthy, or if you already have a metabolic syndrome, i.e. problems with the regulation of blood sugar.

“If a person is healthy and exercises regularly, the body can handle carbohydrates quite well.

But those who already have a metabolic syndrome might have to abstain from carbs altogether.”

Laurentiu Iordache

Since writing the book Ann Fernholm herself

5 QUESTIONS

has also started eating differently. Like many others she earlier tried to eat healthier through cutting down on fat. “Nowadays, I top my lunch salad with half a decilitre of olive oil and stay full till the evening. Earlier I was often very hungry before it was time to have dinner.”

Linguist and financial expert Eija Savela, Group Financial Controller, works at Citec’s head office in Vaasa.

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CUT DOWN. Eating less carbohydrates is one way to keep your blood sugar levels stable.

Candies and bread are common carb sources.

How did you end up at Citec?

“I was previously an auditor with Ernst & Young, and after a while I realised that I wanted to see the other side of my line of work. In other words I wanted to learn how financial management works within one company. This job has exceeded my expectations; the best thing here is the international aspect and the fact that I’m able to

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work in a network. I also like the fact that I can use different languages every day.”

Precisely what kind of work do you do?

“I’m responsible for Citec Group’s reporting and also for group-level financial control. I cooperate a great deal with the finance managers of our subsidiaries in other countries. In addition, I’m

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LIFESTYLE: BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS

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stable If you eat a lot of carbs and catch the metabolic syndrome, you easily get stuck in a vicious circle: the inflammation makes you feel tired and as if you had a slight cold – and then of course you don’t feel like exercising when coming home from work.

Fernholm encourages everybody who feels out of shape to cut down on carbs.

“You don’t lose anything by trying. Already after a couple of days people usually notice whether it works or not. A lot of people find that in addition to losing weight, they also feel more energetic and sleep better at night.”

BLOOD SUGAR FACTS A stable and low blood sugar is a key prerequisite for staying healthy and keeping weight off. There are different ways to keep your blood sugar at a healthy level:

“ The aim with common coffee breaks is to recharge and to exchange information on what’s going on in the company.”

• You can cut down on carbohydrates in your food since it is the carbs that raise blood sugar levels. The idea behind the LCHF method is to minimise the amount of carbohydrates; the idea behind the GI method is to eat slow carbs (such as whole-grain) which raise the blood sugar levels slowly.

• Active persons use a lot of energy and they can therefore also, without problems, eat a good amount of carbs since the body uses them as fuel.

• The trendy 5:2 diet, which promotes fasting for a couple of days per week, has also proved to have a positive effect on blood sugar levels. If you don’t eat anything, the blood sugar will naturally remain low.

• Classic low-calorie diets also have a certain effect on the blood sugar – the less you eat, the lower the blood sugar. The downside is that it’s difficult to stay full.

responsible for transfer pricing guidelines and I’m involved in all kinds of development projects.”

How has Citec changed since you joined the company? “It has changed rather a lot. I joined the company in early 2011 and a few months later Citec Engineering and Citec Information merged and we gained a new owner. I had joined a middle sized

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CHANGED HABITS. “Nowadays I top my lunch salad with half a decilitre of olive oil and stay full till the evening”, says Ann Fernholm.

company owned by its personnel and suddenly I was working in a company that had a private equity investor and a strong growth strategy. This has been an exciting time, which is still continuing. Citec has recently acquired new companies in France, Norway and Singapore, and the integration of their financial management has given me new colleagues and generated quite a bit of work.”

How did you come to choose a career within finance and accounting?

“Originally I studied languages, Swedish and English, but pretty soon I realised that it wasn’t my dream career, and so I began to study financial accounting instead.

I came to study in Vaasa, because I wanted the opportunity the use Swedish. In terms of my educational background, I guess I

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was well suited to Citec, which is like a small consortium of expert engineers and linguists.”

What do you do during your leisure time?

“I relax by reading and exercising.

Before I didn’t care for running, but a year ago I became an enthusiastic jogger. I also spend a lot of time with my family; my children are five and seven years old.”

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LIFESTYLE: HOUSE BUILDING Suvi-Tuuli Kankaanpää

W HERE THEORY

WORK AND PLAY. “I have stacked nearly all of the 4,000 blocks by hand. It’s a little like building with Lego”, says Nicklas Holmqvist.

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LIFESTYLE: HOUSE BUILDING

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MEETS PRACTICE Nicklas Holmqvist’s life is all about constructing and building. He has built his own house from scratch, and his work at Citec also revolves around buildings.

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oday it’s not so common anymore that people build their own houses. Nicklas Holmqvist hasn’t only built his house himself; he has also been the architect, construction planner, developer and master builder of the project. In addition, he has done a large part of the plumbing, ventilation and electrical fitting himself.

“The main part I didn’t do myself was to drive the excavator when doing the earthworks. And on the inside I’ve had some help with pouring concrete floors and plastering.”

Holmqvist’s passion for building doesn’t end here though – his working life is also all about construction, as he works as a section manager in the civil engineering sector at Citec.

Holmqvist has had a passion for construction ever since childhood. He studied first to become a carpenter and builder, but after a couple of years in working life he decided to study further to become an engineer.

“Being able to combine theory and practice is optimal. I wouldn’t like to work only on building sites, but, on the other hand, I wouldn’t either like to work only with the theoretical aspects of construction.”

Ever since childhood it has been a given thing that Holmqvist would one day build his own house. The house that he started building in summer 2012 is situated in Porvoo, 50 kilometres east of Helsinki. A year and a half after the start the house was ready enough to move into.

“During the building stage I usually went to the building site straight from work, worked for 3–4 hours, before rushing home in time to say goodnight to my daughter. At the weekends I spent 12–14 hours a day on the building site.”

People around him often ask how he coped, and there were many who doubted that the

Suvi-Tuuli Kankaanpää

project would keep on time and budget.

“Honestly, I don’t think it has been that hard. Of course, from time to time I’ve been somewhat stressed out, but I think that it has been harder for my wife.”

The project hasn’t proceeded completely without complications though – once Holmqvist fell from a wall and once from a ladder. In both instances he needed hospital care; the first time a large wound in the back of his head had to be stiched, and the second time a broken wrist was plastered. After the second incident he had to take an involuntary leave from the building work for a little more than a month.

AND WHAT NOT. Nicklas Holmqvist has been the architect, construction planner and builder of the project, among other things.

NICKLAS HOLMQVIST Age: 35

Holmqvist estimates that he has easily saved 150,000 euro compared to having employed someone to do the work. The house of 163 m² is built of light-weight concrete blocks.

“I have stacked nearly all of the 4,000 blocks by hand, on top of each other. It’s a little like building with Lego, or like planning a building using a 3D software” Holmqvist thinks that the most fun and inspiring part of the building project is to see the result of the work. He feels that he has gained new insights, also with regard to his job at Citec. “You get a better understanding of how the planning affects the final result.

Overall, I’ve been satisfied with my drawings.

It really pays off to invest time and care in the planning.”

So this is not a project that has left you thinking “never again”?

“No, just the opposite, In fact, I’m rather convinced that this isn’t the last building project I’m going to fulfill.”

Work: Section Manager, Civil Engineering Family: Wife and two-year-old daughter Lives: In a 163 m² single-floor house in Porvoo

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