INTERNSHIP REPORT

Name: Sheikh Shahir Muhammad Afiful Islam

Matric no. KEM120702
Organization name: British American Tobacco Bangladesh
Address: New D.O.H.S Road, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1206, Bangladesh.
Internship Period: 29th June 2015 to 5th September 2015.

1.0 Introduction

British American Tobacco Group is the worlds second largest quoted tobacco group by
global market share, with brands sold in more than 180 markets. The business was formed in
1902, as a joint venture between the UKs Imperial Tobacco Company and the American
Tobacco Company founded by James Buck Duke. With over 300 brands in their portfolio, BAT
holds large market positions in each of their regions and has leadership in more than 50 markets.
In 2011, they sold approximately 705 billion cigarettes.
Despite its name, derived from the home bases of its two founding companies, British
American Tobacco was established to trade outside both the UK and the USA, and grew from its
roots in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and continental Europe. In 2007,
subsidiaries enabled governments worldwide to gather over 17 billion a year in taxes, including
excise duty on our products, more than 7 times the Groups profit after tax. BAT has sustained a
significant global presence for over 100 years. Their business was founded in 1902 and by 1912
had become one of the worlds top dozen companies by market capitalization.
BAT has over 55,000 employees all over the world. They always maintain a multicultural workforce. They always try their best to make almost identical decisions for every local
stakeholder following a common framework of principles, standards, policies, strategies and
delegated authorities.
BAT is working appreciably with thousands of farmers internationally in the purpose of
tobacco growing. The company provides agronomy support to the farmers for quality crop
production as well as they maintain the whole procedure in an environmental friendly way. In
2011 BAT ran this cultivation process in 19 countries and had a notable success. They purchased
approximately 440,000 tones of leaf grown by 200,000 farmers.

1.1 British American Tobacco Bangladesh:

Fig: BATB Admin Office

British American Tobacco Bangladesh is one of the largest multi-national companies in
Bangladesh. They have over 1200 employees in Bangladesh. They are also employing 50,000
farmers, distributors and retailers indirectly. They have business contracts with 32,000 registered
farmers who produce quality products. The dialogue of their business is Success and
Responsibility go together. They are making high quality tobacco products for the diverse
preferences of consumers and expanding the business from crop to consumers. They always
believe that they are committed to the principles of corporate social responsibility. British
American Tobacco Bangladesh is one of the first companies to be listed on the Dhaka and
Chittagong stock exchanges. Currently it ranked amongst the top 10 companies in terms of
market capitalization.

History: In this part of the world the presence of the company can be traced back to 1910.
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Almost 102 years ago the company began its journey as Imperial Tobacco by establishing its first
sales depot at Armanitola in Dhaka. After having the partition of India in 1947, Pakistan Tobacco
Company was established in 1949. The first factory in Bangladesh (former East Pakistan) was
setup at Fauzdarhat in Chittagong in 1949. In 1965, the second factory (Present head office and
factory) of Pakistan Tobacco Company was setup in Mohakhali, Dhaka. In 1972 after the
independence of Bangladesh it became Bangladesh Tobacco Company Limited. In 1998, the
company changed its name and identity to British American Tobacco Bangladesh.

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1.2 Relationship of BATB with BAT Group:

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO GROUP

Parent Company

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British American Tobacco

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Subsidiaries

Company Ltd.

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America-Pacific

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Latin America

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Regional Operation

Europe

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Africa

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Asia-Pacific

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BATB

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Company in Concern

1.3 Products:

The products of British American Tobacco Bangladesh are divided into four product segments
for different types of customers. The segments are Premium, High, Medium and Low. The
brands are given below according to their product segmentation-

Premium- Benson & Hedges

High- Gold Leaf, Pall Mall, Capstan

Medium- Star, Scissors

Low- Pilot, Bristol, Hollywood.

Fig: BATB Products

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1.4 Operational Network Organogram of BATB:

Production
Marketin
g&
TM & D

Le
af

Finance

Supply Chain

Business

Human
Resour
ce

Services

Legal and
External
Affairs

Fig: Operational Network Organogram of BATB

During my internship period I was placed in the Engineering & Site Services department which
falls under the helm of Supply Chain. I worked under the tutelage of Mr. Masud Uddin Bhuiyan,
the manager responsible for Utilities Department which is a sub-division of Engineering and Site
Services. I worked under the supervision of the mechanical and power and maintenance engineer
who reported directly to him.

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Head Of Supply Chain

Engineering & Site

Services Manager

Primary Manufacturing
Department Manaer

Secondary
Manufacturing
Department Manager

Fig: Organizational Chart for Supply Chain

NazimuddinMahmud
Engineering&SiteServiceManager

Masud Uddin
Bhuiyan
Utilities
Manager
Upal Mahmud
Power
Maintenance
Engineer

Zubair Mahmud
Project Manager

Mehedi
Momen
Mechanical
Engineer

Shatil Saadman
Project Engineer

S M Ahmedul
Kabir
Facilities
Manager

Nusrat
Aman
Admin
Executive

Sheikh
Shahir
Intern

Fig: Organizational Chart for Engineering & Site Services

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2.0 Job Description

In order to develop an understanding of what my major tasks and responsibilities were during my
internship period, I believe it is important to understand the function of my department in the
company. The Primary Manufacturing Department (PMD for short) deals with leaf processing
and the production of tobacco powder. The Secondary Manufacturing Department (SMD) is
responsible for assembling the different ingredients together, adding in the filter rod to produce
the cigarettes and also packing them and getting them ready for sale. The utilities department is
responsible for looking after all the major utilities that support PMD and SMD and day-toactivities in the office buildings. Gas, Water and Electricity supply is looked after by this
department along with some other utilities that support PMD and SMD such as the Boiler,
Biofilter Plant, the Chiller Plant, Compressor and Vacuum plant, DRF & Pneumatic, CBC
Conveyor and the Clamp Trucks.

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Fig: BATB Dhaka Factory Layout

Over the ten weeks, I performed a variety of activities that required me to spend most of the day
in different sites as well as sitting in front of my desk and working on my computer. The tasks I
was assigned to each day varied in scope, difficulty and also required a wide variety of skills.
I have accomplished quite a number of activities over the past few months including but not
limited to the following:
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i) Underwent EHS training. British American Tobacco has some universal EHS ((Environment,
Health & Safety) protocols and anyone working in the company is required to adhere to these
strictly. Underwent EHS training. Attended a talk explaining the EHS protocols and the steps
that I should take to ensure my own safety and the safety of the people I am working with.
Understood the importance of wearing ear plugs and safety shoes while entering different sites to
ensure avoid injuries to ear drums when entering high noise areas and to protect the feet in case
of spillage or dropping and the importance of wearing helmet while climbing rooftops or ladders
above the height of 6 feet. Its also important to enter site areas only if you are in sound health as
otherwise you might be endangering yourself and also the people you are working with. I was
also made aware of the importance of environmental implications that an engineers work might
have and how best to conserve electricity, gas and other resources.
ii) Accompanied my supervising engineers to construction/maintenance site whenever required
and tried to comprehend the problems being faced and the thought process behind the solutions
that are applied.
iii) Regularly checked logbooks for electrical down time tracker to report to my supervisor about
which of the modules are experiencing the highest amount of down times and assess the root
cause behind such issues by talking to the operators of the machines and providing the feedback
to my supervisor.
iv) I was required to aid my manager in the budget preparation of the budget co-plan for the
fiscal year 2016. During my training period, I also aided in assessing the budget variance for the
month of July and August. The budget variance for each month is required to ensure that the
yearly expenditure is going according to the yearly co-plan. Also had to prepare any
presentations for our department which were then showed to the head of Engineering & Site
Services.
v) Learned about the Chiller Plant and the mechanical engineering involved in the working
process of the Water and Air Chillers responsible for the air conditioning in SMD, PMD and the
head office. Developed a thorough and hands-on understanding of the refrigeration cycle and
HVAC systems from the perspective of a mechanical engineer. Also learned about the different
valves and pumps used in different piping system.
vi) I learned about the Cold Plasma and the Biofilter Plant. The Bio- Filter unit has been installed
back in 2004 for reduction of odour from PMD (Primary manufacturing Department). Tobacco
odour is not acceptable from environmental point of view. As well as BATB factory is within the
Residential area .So the Authority wouldnt permit any sort of odour in this Area. The cold
plasma unit has been installed back in 2010 for abating odorous gas from identified sources from
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that of PMD (Primary manufacturing Department) specific points. Even though from 2004
BATB had bio filter for abating the odour of factory processed air. But with growth necessity of
another odour abatement process become prominent.
vii) Learned about the ETP (Effluent Treatment Plant). The ETP collects and processes used
water from the canteen, and sends it to the equalization tank. It has a capacity of 15m3/hr and
was installed in 2005. This processed water is used for gardening and toilet flush.
viii) Also managed to garner knowledge on the DRF units (Dust Removal Fan), and the
Pneumatic units. The DRF collects dust from every machine (maker) in SMD. The pneumatic
units draws the air from Tipper, Feeder & supplies Tobacco to SMD machines.

ix) I was required to deal with contractors and vendors on a regular basis. Dealing with
contractors proved to be a difficult task as I was required to relay information from my
supervisor to the on-site engineers from the contractors and obtain relevant information on
project activities and keep track on whether the contractor workers are following relevant EHS
protocols. Also had to participate in some risk assessment sessions with the supervisors from
certain contractors and develop an understanding of the risks that are present in the activities
they are carrying out and the steps taken to minimalize such risks.

2.1 Major Projects Involvement:

BAT Bangladesh factory runs 24/7, 365 days a year due to immense demand and consumption
of tobacco in Bangladesh. Therefore, any large scale when the whole site is shut down for a
period of two weeks. Employees at the head office and machine operators are on leave during
this period of time however, for the engineers at the utilities department there is no respite.
Because of this I sacrificed my Eid holidays to be a part of a certain project team. As a result of
this I had to sacrifice my Eid holidays and show up to work for 14 consecutive days and even
show up on weekends.
The most major project I was involved in was regarding one of the Boilers in Dhaka factory.
Before getting an overview of the project works, lets take a look at the boilers and their purpose:

BAT Bangladeshs Dhaka factory has 2 Fire tube boilers with capacities of 8 & 5 tons.
The boilers supply steam to PMD where it is used to process the tobacco leaves.
The boilers use natural gas as fuel; boiler 2 (5 ton) can be operated with both gas & diesel

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Annual Maintenance & Emergency Maintenance are done by Govt. Licensed Vendor
Shumi Eng.
Gas Line works done by Gov. Licensed Vendor R. Ahmed & sons.
Operations are done by Gov. Licensed Boiler Operator.

Name

Installation Date

Boiler 1

11th April, 1991

Boiler 2

13th October, 2002

Fig: Boiler House in BATB Dhaka Factory

Overview of a fire-tube boiler:

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A fire-tube boiler is a type of boiler in which hot gases from a fire pass through one or (many)
more tubes running through a sealed container of water. The heat of the gases is transferred
through the walls of the tubes by thermal conduction, heating the water and ultimately creating
steam.
The fire-tube boiler developed as the third of the four major historical types of boilers: lowpressure tank or "haystack" boilers, flued boilers with one or two large flues, fire-tube boilers
with many small tubes, and high-pressure water-tube boilers. Their advantage over flued boilers
with a single large flue is that the many small tubes offer far greater heating surface area for the
same overall boiler volume. The general construction is as a tank of water penetrated by tubes
that carry the hot flue gases from the fire. The tank is usually cylindrical for the most part
being the strongest practical shape for a pressurized containerand this cylindrical tank may be
either horizontal or vertical.
This type of boiler was used on virtually all steam locomotives in the horizontal "locomotive"
form. This has a cylindrical barrel containing the fire tubes, but also has an extension at one end
to house the "firebox". This firebox has an open base to provide a large grate area and often
extends beyond the cylindrical barrel to form a rectangular or tapered enclosure. The horizontal
fire-tube boiler is also typical of marine applications, using the Scotch boiler. Vertical boilers
have also been built of the multiple fire-tube type, although these are comparatively rare; most
vertical boilers were either flued, or with cross water-tubes.
With increasing gas prices and as part of utility departments efforts for reduced energy
consumption, a project was undertaken during the Eid Holidays to replace the burner panel for
the second boiler which was installed in 2002. Unlike the first boiler, boiler 2 doesnt have an
economizer thereby having a reduced efficiency. Installation of an economizer for boiler 2 was
not feasible at this moment as it required extensive modification and reworking of the steam pipe
line. The old panel was manually operated and had a significant start-up time. Installation of the
new panel would greatly improve the efficiency of the boiler. There was also installation of a
condensate and flash recovery system that would greatly reduce the amount of water used. The
new boiler panel was shipped from SAACKE, UK. The condensate and flash recovery system
was provided by Forbes Marshall and the parts were shipped from India. An engineer from
SAACKE travelled from UK to Bangladesh to work on the panel replacement and at the same
time Forbes Marshall provided an engineer of their own from their Bangladesh headquarters.

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To sum it up, the team for the boiler project consisted of the following members:
i) Mr. Mehedi Momen (Mechanical Engineer of Utilities Department and my Supervisor)
ii) Mr. Jim Hutchinson (Electrical Engineer from SAACKE UK)
iii) Mr. Mahfuz Alam (Mechanical Engineer from FORBES MARSHALL Bangladesh)
iv) Boiler house Operators (Boiler house always has three technicians operating on
alternating three hour shifts.
v) Mechanical and Electrical Support Provided by two contractors Madina Engineering
and APS electrical systems limited.
vi) And I, Sheikh Shahir Muhammad Afiful Islam as the only intern in utilities department.

There were three other major projects for which my supervisor was responsible (those being the
relocation of the Bio-filter, easy clean rotary air-lock installation, Pneumatic Damper
Replacement and Chiller Project cleaning and maintenance. Therefore my supervisor was unable
to dedicate his full time to the Boiler project and I was expected to be present at site every day

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from as early as 8:00 am till as late as 6:00 pm and serve as a medium between my supervisor
and the arriving engineers and contractual workers.

An overview of the programme of works that was carried out during this time is given below:

Date
12/07/2015
13/07/2015

14/07/2015

15/07/2015

16/07/2015

Scope Of Works
SAACKE engineer to travel from UK to
Bangladesh.
Arrival on site, parts to be checked to ensure all
are in good condition (no damage). Parts to be
checked off against supply list.
While the burner is in operation mark-up
location of existing cables in the control panel
ready for when the new panel is to be installed.
Site shutdown, burner to be stopped. Power to be
disconnected by the engineer with aid from the
contracted technician. Existing Control Panel to
be removed.
Installation of new control panel; reconnecting
of all new cables.

Provisions

Availability of parts.

Ensure that permits for

live panel work is in
place.
Permits to work.
Isolation of fuel and
electricity.
Permits to work.
Isolation of fuel and
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17/07/2015

18/07/2015

19/07/2015

20/07/2015

21/07/2015

Continued connection of electrical cables. Run

new cables to the burner front for upgraded parts
such as the servo motors.
Disconnection of mechanical parts not required
for the burner front. Fitting of new mechanical
parts with electrical connections.
Reinstating of fuel lines and power lines. Power
up of Control Panel. All Parameters to be
checked. Span/Direction of new servo motors to
be checked. Burner taken to ignition/ low fire
position for warm up.
Commissioning to be completed for first fuel
(gas) so the burner can be put in use for
production.
Commissioning to be completed for second fuel
(oil).

22/07/2015

Arrival of engineer from Forbes Marshall.

23/07/2015

Installation of Deaerator Head for feed water

tank.

24/07/2015

Installation of new safety valves for both boilers

25/07/2015

Installation of two new butterfly valves for water

inlet.

26/07/2015

Final commissioning of boiler and full on

operational mode.
Site visit by Engineering & Site Services
manager to survey the work done.

27/07/2015

electricity.
Permits to work.
Isolation of fuel and
electricity.
Permits to work.
Isolation of fuel and
electricity.
Permits to work.
Isolation of fuel and
electricity.

Permits to work. Steam

output from minimum to
maximum output.
Permits to work. Steam
output from minimum to
maximum output.
Permits to work. Steam
output from minimum to
maximum output.
Permits to work. Ensure
that water pump is
closed.
Permits to work. Ensure
that water flow has been
turned off.
Permits to work. Ensure
that water flow has been
turned off.

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2.2 Problems and Solutions:

During the installation of the new boiler panel, there were a number of incidents that almost
hindered the project from going according to schedule. However with some quick thinking and
effective decision any major losses to production was deftly avoided.
Below is the list of all the occurrences that almost hampered the project from going according to
plan:
Problem: The new panel that had arrived was bigger than the old panel and was not fitting into
the body frame of the old panel.
Solution Obtained: After the issue was addressed, I informed my supervisor of the problem and
he suggested that the quickest solution would be to remove the old body frame and assemble a
new one in the shortest possible time. After consulting, Madina Engineerings supervisor in
charge ( the contractor looking after all the mechanical handling and installation) the old frame
was removed and new one was assembled in the space of 12 hours and erected in its place where
the new boiler panel could be fit in.
Problem: An issue with the rewiring of the old cables to the new panel. Even after all the old
wires were connected to the new panel, the new panel was not receiving power.
Solution Obtained: Some of the old wires were deemed unnecessary for the new panel. It was
also realized that there was some miscommunication between the engineer from SAACKE who
spoke with a very thick Birmingham accent and the technicians from APS who were not so
proficient in English. There were some differences between the drawings of the old electrical
wiring and the new one and some connections were wrongly placed. Being extremely proficient
in English I was able to relay any misunderstood messages between the SAACKE engineers and
the technicians as they revised the wiring and fixed the issues.

Problem: The cables connecting the steam water pipe line to the boiler panel were deemed to be
insufficient in length and because of Eid Holidays it was impossible to purchase new 10 RM
(stranded round conductors) cables on such a short notice.
Solution Obtained: This was an issue that had to be addressed very quickly and I asked one of
the technicians of APS Engineering Limited (contractor responsible for providing support for
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electrical work) to accompany me to my supervisor. My supervisor immediately contacted a few

vendors to see if the new cables could be supplied within the next day. However, due to Eid
Holidays this was deemed impossible and the closest date would be 2 days later. In such a
worrying situation, it came to our realization that the Power Maintenance Engineer had some
large scale projects of his own going on one of them being replacement of Power Cables in
Secondary Manufacturing department DB. From there it would be possible to find some
perfectly usable, although old, cables of the required specification that would ensure that the
project goes according to schedule. This was an emergency measure to ensure that production
could restart back on time. However, it was decided that during the Eid-Ul-Adha holidays when
factory would be shut down again, this issue will be addressed and new cables will be installed
replacing the old ones.

Problem: Repeated attempts to commission the boiler on the secondary fuel failed and the result
of this repeated attempts was a mini back explosion that damaged the steam pipelines and
resulted in overheating of the burner.
Solution Obtained: Even though there was no occurrences of injuries accidents at BAT are
taken with the utmost seriousness. The entire boiler house was shut down and the affected area
was cordoned off with yellow caution tape and everyone other than authorized personnel was
restricted from entering the site. An EHS inspector arrived to assess the damage done and the
risk involved in containing further work. Only after he had obtained sufficient pictorial evidence
and deemed the workplace safe again everyone else was allowed to enter and assess the situation.
Everyone including my supervisor was dumbstruck by the situation and he immediately made
phone calls to some consultants to see if they could fathom the situation. I was asked to look up
the symptoms online and see if I could obtain any useful information.
After some internet search and consultancy with experts, the common causes behind such an
incident were deemed to be:
i) Unburnt fuel accumulation in the furnace
ii) Repeated unsuccessful strat attempts for boiler firing
iii) Burner malfunction and air fuel ratio disturbance
v) Flue gases outlet damper malfunction

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A meeting took place between my supervisor and the engineer from SAACKE. They both came
to the conclusion that the repeated attempts to run the boiler on oil must have been the root cause
behind this issue. Every time an attempt was made to run the boiler on oil, oil was supplied to the
furnace tube, and with every failed attempt unburnt oil was accumulating in the furnace. This
excess oil accumulation had resulted in the back explosion. The failure of the ignition to take
place was deemed to be a connectivity issue between the burner panel and the oil supply.
Immediate measures were taken by Madina Engineering to fix the damage done to the steam
pipeline whereas Mr. Jim from SAACKE reviewed the connections.

2.3 Discussion and Conclusion:

Being involved in this project taught me that as an engineer, I will have to face a multitude of
problems in my working life and there is no shame in accepting help from others. It was also
necessary to learn working in a team helps in addressing an issue a lot more quickly than it
would if a person were to work on his/her own. In a multinational company, every second
matters and any loss in production results in an insurmountable amount of monetary loss.
Therefore it is extremely important to have a very quick call-to-action procedure where problems
are assessed and dealt with immediately. I also learned the importance of having the presence of
mind to come up with innovative ways of dealing with any unexpected challenge. I also learned
that before everything else, safety should be an engineers biggest concern. As any lapse in
proper safety measurements might result in irreparable and irreversible damage including the
cost of a persons life.

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3.0 Summary:
During my internship period I was able to develop a number of skills that will hopefully help me
in the advancement of my career. Working in one of the largest tobacco manufacturing
companies in the world exposed to some of the latest tobacco maker and packer machines in the
industry (such as Mark 9, G.D. 121A makers).
I had the privilege of seeing them at work and develop an understanding of their mechanism. As
a member of the utilities department, and as a mechanical engineering student, I garnered
valuable knowledge on certain mechanical systems such as boilers and how they work, the
functions of an HVAC system and was also able to learn about the innovative operations of Cold
Plasma and Bio-filter system.
Dealing with contractors on a regular basis provided me with vastly improved communication
skills that is necessary for every working engineer. I learned how to get my points across in a
precise and appropriate manner.
Working on budget variation and a variety of spreadsheets has greatly improved my data analysis
capabilities and I have also learned how to prepare professional quality presentations.
I have also learned the importance of teamwork and learning how to show proper respect to my
immediate supervisors as well as maintaining a healthy work relationship with my colleagues.
Last but not the least, I have learned of my duties toward the environment and towards the
people I am working with as an engineer. I have also learned how to be self-sufficient and
disciplined during my tenure and strictly adhere to the working hours and staying back late
almost every other day for necessary purposes.
Nevertheless, I would like to thank all the people involved in Utilities Department especially Mr
Masud Uddin Bhuiyan, my line manager and Mr. Mehedi Momen, mechanical engineer, and Mr
Upal Mahmud, Power Maintenance Engineer, who had guided and advised me throughout my
program at the company. It was a great honour for me to work and learn some important lessons
at British American Tobacco Bangladesh.

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4.0 Appendixes:
Some relevant Pictures:

Figure: Snapshot before Upgradation

Figure: Snapshot before Upgradation

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Fig: Boiler Safety Valve Installation

5.0 References

http://www.bat.com/global

http://www.batbangladesh.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_American_Tobacco

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