Context / Scope of project

The Client, a major precious metals refinery and smelter, asked PIP to help identify improvement opportunities focused initially on cost reduction, as well as help them establish a Continuous Improvement function at the company.

They were under pressure to cut costs and while many initiatives had been carried out in the past, they did not have a system that would ensure sustained and continuous improvement. In particular a headcount reduction project done 5 years ago with another consulting firm was continuously mentioned as a bad example of consultant involvement. After 2 years the headcount was at an even higher level than before the exercise and many of the retrenched employees were working at higher cost as contractors.

There was a strong belief within the company that many processes were broken, but because of the complexity of the business and lack of fact-based and profit-focused analysis, the specific gaps and their magnitude were not clear.

Improvement initiatives were often politically and technologically motivated (improvement was normally associated with spending capex on the latest gadget, rather than improving what was already in place) with almost no real business case backing. The infrastructure, tools and skills for sustainable continuous improvement did not exist.

Our brief was to help identify the improvement potential, implement the highest value ideas, and train an internal Continuous Improvement team which would continue driving improvement long after we were gone.

PIP and client achieved:

(Refinery)

(Smelter)

(Overheads)

(Overall)