Client: Multi-National Chemical Processor
Problem:
The firm is a leader in its industry and operates a large number of domestic sites where it processes and ships industrial chemical products. The company was struggling with underutilized capacity and excessive infrastructure investment. Senior management decided to pursue a new lean operations initiative that would allow the firm to gain the traction it needed to improve profitability by making its processes more efficient.
Scope of Work:
The client brought Quantalyst in to integrate the lean initiative into the daily schedule of operations to achieve throughput gains while management consolidated selected sites to the remaining flagship operations.
What Quantalyst Did:
- Quantified the actual utilization and capability of the flagship operations and the impact to capacity of the transferred product.
- Systemized the lean initiative into a daily report of operations that communicates and quantifies operator identified barriers to performance.
- Developed and implemented a common planning, execution and follow-up system for the remaining six domestic sites and one international.
- Implemented a common opportunity reporting structure across all remaining operations.
- Trained all users and managers in the utilization of the execution system.
Results:
- 12 sites consolidated to 6 remaining flagship operations achieved significant infrastructure and budgetary savings.
- Downstream processes and bottlenecks are now managed prior to upstream schedule release - eliminating wasted labor and freeing vessel capacity.
- Common planning, execution and follow-up implemented across all sites.
- Systemization of process maintained gains and institutionalized lean methodologies after engagement end.
