A Catalyst Manufacturer Improves Project and Plant Engineering via Lean Product Development

Client Context

• A global manufacturer of chemical catalysts and designer of processing plants and equipment sought to drive improvements across its project engineering organization. The goal was to support changing market dynamics by accelerating the commercialization of new product offerings.
• EFESO was engaged to introduce select Lean Product Development (LPD) concepts to enhance efficiency and flexibility in engineering processes. This initiative resulted in a 10% increase in project delivery throughput, corresponding to an additional $22.5 million in annual revenue for the project business.

Key Challenges

• The need to enhance project engineering efficiency to support faster commercialization.
• A legacy CapEx planning approach focused primarily on sustainment rather than strategic investment.
• Frequent project reprioritization and interruptions, causing inefficiencies.
• A reactive approach to problem-solving rather than proactive risk mitigation.

Approach & Key Success Factors

Drawing on EFESO’s 7+1 Lean Product Development essentials, the cross-functional team focused on two pilot projects to implement LPD principles:

Aligning Engineering Throughput to Business Needs

• Matched project throughput with business priorities.
• Established portfolio cadence and flow for predictable project execution.

Enhancing Visibility and Decision-Making

• Introduced visual management tools to improve project tracking and foster proactive decision-making.
• Shifted the organizational approach from reactive status reporting to forward-looking risk avoidance.

Strengthening Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration

• Implemented standardized cross-functional knowledge templates to close knowledge gaps.
• Defined new roles and responsibilities to promote knowledge flow and organizational flexibility.

By building on the company’s tradition of innovation, these efforts enabled a transition beyond traditional stage-gate and project management models toward a more adaptive and knowledge-driven approach.

Results

10%

Increase in project delivery capacity and time to market, despite workforce reductions.

$22.5M 

In additional annual revenue.

$5.5 M

In accelerated benefits from optimized CapEx investments.

Enhanced

Project predictability and more efficient resource planning.

Improved Collaboration

Replacing firefighting with proactive risk management.