A Global Diversified Petrochemical Company Applies Lean Techniques to Improve Maintenance and Operations Performance​

Client Context

• Global manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and fabricated building products operating 50+ manufacturing plants with 16,000 employees across North America, Europe and Asia ​
• The North American site group engaged is comprised of 6 plants, 600 people and produces over 5B lbs. annually​

Key Challenges

• Ad-hoc maintenance workflow processes were being used ​
• SAP was not being fully utilized to optimize workflow​
• Legacy of “just get it done” vs following a disciplined process​
• Role and process drifted over time – everyone thought they were supposed to do everything, little ownership or formal training​
• Maintenance split into two craft groups which operated independently, challenged on planning/execution coordination​
• Hiring to fill gaps was taking much of the leadership time and pointed to as the solution for many problems​​

Approach & Key Success Factors

Started with basic foundational elements to gain alignment and momentum without much disruption. The approach and results in each phase were similar.

• Training & Coaching​
  • Lean Thinking Training to over 100 people & Coaching for Supervisors​
  • SAP training, coaching and auditing​
• Maintenance Workflow and Backlog ​
  • Established standard processes, flow, terminology and responsibilities for SAP data fields​
  • Established clear guidelines for work order priorities, resulting in immediate reduction in Emergency work and call-outs​
  • Training and feedback for notifications quality started to align people on what was important for maintenance execution and Planning​
  • Focused Clean-up work significantly reduced backlog in a matter of weeks​
  • Clean-up included overdue PMs and providing feedback for improving PM frequency and content​
• Lean Waste Elimination Methods and Visual Management ​
  • Use of visual boards to drive daily work scheduling (vs weekly) to increase real-time collaboration between Operations and Maintenance. ​
  • Cross–functional collaboration shortened job completion times since work was pulled through the system vs pushed. ​
  • Use of shop visual accountability boards and expanded toolbox talks for daily KPI tracking, performance, ownership and barrier/waste reduction.​
• Leader Behaviors for daily performance and accountability​
  • Daily coaching of key operations and maintenance supervisors on effective Leader Behaviors for daily performance and cross functional effectiveness 

    Started with basic foundational elements to gain alignment and momentum without much disruption. The approach and results in each phase were similar. ​

Results

40-50%

Reduction in Emergency Work Orders​​

30-40% 

Reduction in Backlog​​

25-35%

TIncrease in Work Order Throughput​

30-40%

Reduction in Maintenance Labor (Direct, OT, Call-Out)​

3x-4x

Return on Investment