Resumé – Laeeq Zafar

I’m a result-driven professional with over 9 years of progressive engineering, maintenance and analytics experience in the steel manufacturing and oil and gas production/services industries.

My journey into industrial maintenance began with a simple fascination for all things electrical. Over the years, I honed my skills, delving deep into the world of electrical maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, overhauling and handling upgradation projects with budgets of over 3M USD. Today, I stand as a seasoned professional, ready to handle responsibilities of all sizes and complexities.

What I Do Now

I’m a maintenance supervisor at Tenaris, Sault Ste Marie, Canada where I oversee a team of electricians and mechanics as a part of the emergency crew. I handle:

Supervision

Lead the maintenance team. Ensure daily tasks meet KPI requirements with 100% compliance to HSE.

Troubleshooting

Provide technical oversight and advice to technicians and assist with complex troubleshooting tasks.

Projects

Plan, implement and test upgrades and continuous improvement initiatives to optimize process efficiency.

CMMS

Plan, prepare and issue work orders in SAP. Monitor spares and coordinate procurement of required material.

My Approach

Every work day is a new adventure. I take the time to plan my day, prepare my team, and coordinate with the production crew to ensure site operations run smooth and align with the organization’s daily KPI’s and production requirements. My process is collaborative, transparent, and built on years of acquired knowledge; ensuring all relevant personnel are involved and informed every step of the way.

Work Experience

2023 – Now

Maintenance Supervisor (Emergency Crew)

Tenaris, Sault St. Marie, Canada

Expand Job Description & Responsibilities

Lead and manage teams of unionized mechanics, electricians, and team leaders in routine and emergency
maintenance activities at a steel pipe manufacturing mill; ensuring all tasks meet KPI requirements with 100% compliance of HSE standards. Record/manage activities/resources in SAP CMMS.
Provide technical oversight and assist with complex troubleshooting tasks (electrical and mechanical), conduct failure analyses and implement changes to improve equipment reliability and operational performance. Under my supervision, our team achieved a 30% reduction in repeated failures over 16 months.
Plan and undertake equipment upgrades and continuous improvement projects to optimize process and equipment efficiency. Prepare, update, and maintain all technical and project/process documentation.
Optimize the availability and allocation of material and manpower (including contractors). Forecast annual
department budget (Opex/Capex) and address the department’s concerns with higher management.
Provide, arrange and manage training for all shop-floor employees.

2015 – 2022

Site Electrical Engineer/Supervisor (Offshore)

ADNOC Drilling, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Expand Job Description & Responsibilities

Lead all predictive and preventive maintenance activities with 100% compliance to HSE requirements and standard operation procedures (SOP); occasionally working in Ex-rated areas (ATEX Zone 0 – H2S)
Supervised and lead the entire electrical maintenance crew of 6 technicians; occasionally dealing with thirdparty service providers as well. Managed all jobs/work-orders and resources using SAP CMMS.
Reduced operating costs by preventing shutdowns and implementing timely corrective actions to minimize
non-productive time. Analyzing failures and forecasting inventory/spare requirements accordingly.
Collaborated across rigs and onshore departments to implement continuous improvement initiatives and
achieve outstanding KPI targets; awarded rig of the year in 2017 & 2019.
Played a key role in ensuring integrity of electrical systems and smooth operations by assisting crews on over 5 jack-up drilling rigs to overcome Covid-19 related manpower and material deficiencies across the fleet.
Lead and managed all electrical aspects of rig major maintenance and overhauling projects onboard multiple
jack-up drilling rigs, dealing with equipment from a variety of manufacturers.

What kind of equipment have I worked on?

While there’s a lot to talk about here, an inexhaustive list would include:

AC/DC motors up to 3000HP
Drive controllers (VFD/SCR) and Dynamic braking systems – upgrading legacy DC motor/drive systems to AC/VFD. Extremely comfortable with handling ABB ACS drives.
Industrial Automation and Instrumentation – PLC programming (Allen-Bradley,
Modicon, Siemens and others), Ethernet/Profibus/optic-fiber networks etc, Field sensors and transducers – HMD’s, Proximity switches, photoelectric sensors, pressure transducers etc.

Data recording and trend/failure analysis using tools such as Power BI, iBA.
Troubleshooting of Hydraulic and
Pneumatic control systems.
Power generation and Distribution, power system protection, emergency power (UPS, E. gen), Caterpiller Gensets, transformers etc.
Well-versed in productivity tools and programming languages such as – Jira, Asana, MS Project, SolidWorks, LabView, Python, C++