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Otto Bousema |
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What was your involvement with
PIP?
BHP Billiton’s Bayside smelter had had average
or poor results for many years. Within the group overall
it did not have a clear future and the question of whether
to divest or close had been examined a number of times.
Bayside had done a number of improvement projects with
top consulting firms in the past 6 years. Early in 2004
we pulled out those methodologies and formed our own
internal project team to drive improvement (The Rhino
Team). I was put in charge of that as business improvement
manager. By mid-2004 we were stalling and the results
were not coming fast enough for our liking. We had heard
about PIP and after an initial diagnostic from them
decided to bring them on to help us accelerate and increase
improvements and, more importantly, make it sustainable.
How were the results?
Extraordinarily results, especially given the challenges
we had to face including management changes, pot room
A freezing and required slowdown of production towards
end of project. Despite all of this we delivered US$18m
of validated savings in 9 months with more to come.
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| The Bayside aluminium
smelter
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What are the PIPers like?
The PIPers are an extremely dynamic and competent bunch
of guys that are giving extraordinary results in challenging
conditions. The PIPers made a huge impact on all the
people that they worked with in the last 10 months.
What did they leave behind?
PIP left behind great results and a well entrenched
process of business improvement.
What were the keys to success
of the project?
The caliber of the PIP team, the dedicated improvement
team and commitment from management were the keys to
the success, along with the PIP methodology: ideas +
wiring + Results-Action-Reviews.
What would you recommend to other
sites?
Make sure only the stars are on the improvement team
from your side
Definitely recommend PIP to other sites, but needs buy-in
from management to ensure alignment and be successful.
What impact has this had on Bayside’s
reputation within BHPB?
For the first time senior BHPB managers see Bayside
as achieving real business improvement without blaming
external factors.
How has this changed Baysiders?
Rhino changed the way Baysiders look at the business
– people know that they should challenge a bit
more, push themselves a bit harder and make stretch
target.
Rhino definitely improved Baysiders effectiveness
– especially through improved measures, better
meeting effectiveness and results focus.
I enjoyed it a lot, learned the most ever about business
in the last nine months.
What about ‘BI on the floor’
– the process of putting improvement processes
at shopfloor level?
Some great early successes and definitely the way forward…
BI on the floor is the real key to making sure we will
be successful in the business to the future because
that is where you really mobilize the masses.
How has the experience linked
in with BHP Billiton’s internal Operating Excellence
structure and methods?
It has given us a tremendous kick start in establishing
a culture of improvement in our organization through
a great process and excellent results. Now we are training
our improvement team in six sigma OE methodology to
increase their skill-set even more.
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