What we did:
The team developed a Driver Tree to identify the key business levers to maximise throughput. Current project and new ideas were prioritised in a value:ease matrix. Two levers show to have the highest potential; planned maintenance and reactor efficiency.
- The team’s emphasis on planned shutdown maintenance has drastically changed the maintenance team’s strategy. Leaving a tendency of maximise the number of jobs during the shut downs to, instead, aiming to reduce shut down duration has improved production throughput. A thorough shut down schedule with key questions was developed for the entire process before, during and after shutdown. Prior to each shut, idea generation sessions were held to challenge each job on the critical path and to prepare well for the shutdown.
- With focus on the bottleneck, the recovery rate in the reactor was investigated. The controlling procedure was essential for the efficiency in the reactor. The level of skills differed widely between operators and no organised training occurred. Furthermore, best practice was based on people’s opinions rather than facts and no history of corrective actions was recorded. Working closely with process engineers and operators, an Operator Standard was developed. By frequently (twice daily) controlling and improving the use of the standard, best practices were quickly achieved between crews leading to rapid improvement in reactor efficiency.
All ideas within the business were monitored through a pipeline, tracking progress and providing coaching to ensure ideas proceeded in the shortest timeframe.
In parallel with the idea pipeline process, the organisation has also been hard-wired leading to better performance. Hour-long weekly Results Action Review (RAR) meetings were initiated between the site manager and direct reports. Initially, PIP coached the site managers to identify each of their KPIs for each direct report. For each week the direct reports were then asked to prepare a weekly report following a standardised format (RAR). The report firstly summarised the week’s highlights, low lights, emerging issues and priorities for the department and concluded with the KPIs and prioritised ideas. Middle managers were then trained to hold RAR meetings with lower level managers and the meeting structure then cascaded through to operator level to allow the reporting and meeting structures to be standardised throughout the company. Similar stand up meetings were held at lower level on the factory floor.
In summary, the site manager achieved alignment towards important KPIs through the organisation, creating a more positive work environment and staff who were results focused. The organisation had been hard-wired.
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