This leading pipeline and services company delivers a full range of petrochemical products and services to gathering systems, refineries and petrochemical operations and is one of the  largest transmission organizations in the United States, with pipelines and field service locations throughout the mid continent and gulf coast regions. 

The organization had a number of concerns regarding it's future. 

• Production and service revenue forecasts indicated a flat line in revenue growth for the near term. 
• Tighter operating margins due to accelerating costs of equipment and infrastructure maintenance were growing constraints.  
• Long term profitabiltiy projections had fallen off significantly despite a robust overall commodity market. 
• Operations processes and organizational structure were unchanged since mid-1990's despite changing business and regulatory requirements and demands.   Skills and competency requirements failed to evolve and advance. 

An increase in "weak metrics" – work overload, incidents, access to data, regulatory findings, etc continued to accrue.  Finally, workforce transitioning capability due to age demographics - having right processes, information and supporting tools failed to ensure successful transitions and knowledge transfers.  

Tech Shelter Group Ltd. was engaged by management to assess these conditions.  Focus areas included field labor productivity, core operating practices, responsiveness to current internal and regulatory compliance demands, as well as materials and supply chain effectiveness as supporting processes.  Further, an assessment of supervisory effectiveness and organizational structure was conducted.

The assessment uncovered significant opportunities to improve Operations and Maintenance (O & M) processes, increase productivity of technicians and supervisors, reduce costs of daily operations thus improving the return on capital employed, and increasing operating margins. 

Efforts at planning and scheduling daily and weekly field activities failed at most field locations due to cronic equipment failures, poor communication and little direction by management.  First line supervisors spent little time in the field and were consumed with administrative duties and inventory problems.  Beyond DOT inspection requirement and various other regualtory issues, the workstreams of this organization were uneven and often chaotic in nature.  Technician overtime was standard policy and was considered an entitlement.

Average age of technicians and supervisors indicated accelerated attrition would occur within five to seven years.  The Human Resources organizaiton was unable to identify training needs and critical skills aside from Operator Qualification (OQ) and other compliance related regimens. 

The work order system (CMMS) was used solely to capture labor & material costs and regulatory inspection results.  No equipment histories, failure data or other data germane to trending, forecasting etc. was in use.  Further, technicians data entry on regulatory work created log jams at computer work stations and consumed excessive labor hours due to lack of computer literacy, CMMS training and poor communication links to the network server.

However, we found a knowledgeable work force and an organizational willingness to participate in a change management initiative aimed at future operating improvement.

After presenting the assessment results to management, we were asked to proceed with a multi phased improvement process with our client’s key personnel to begin the design, development and implementation of several key initiatives:

First a framework for a work management process (WMP) that was designed to support:

• A Work Identification (WorkID) component and improved priority setting
• A Short and Long range Planning capability
• An improved Compliance Reporting process 
• A weekly technician work scheduling process.
• Improved Metrics & Benchmarking.

Second an internal Steering Team devoted to:

• Future work force attrition impacts.
• Employee Knowledge transfer and "Best Practices" development and sharing
• Identification of "High risk/high value" job profiles
• Subject Matter Expert (SME) recruitment and Knowledge Assessment planning

Tech Shelter Group consultants worked with client personnel to design the appropriate work management process suitable for all field locations. Action teams were assigned to map and detail all requirements.  This focus included all aspects of work identification through coordination with planning, scheduling and execution of weekly technician compliance and noncompliance work activities. 

An expansion in use of the CMMS in terms of planning, work order generation and close out, equipment history and failure reporting were implemented.  Training was conducted by vendor related personnel in new CMMS functionality.  A planner/scheduler position was created for all field locations for the purpose of: 

• Prioritizing and processing maintenance requests.
• Creating and tracking work orders
• Planning and scheduling all work requirements and resources one week in advance.
• Managing the materials and procurement needs at each location.
• Conducting the weekly scheduling meeting and managing schedule deviations 
• Point of contact for all compliance and non compliance related work streams
• Point of contact and custodian of CMMS by location

Concurrent with these events, we developed a process to identify critical jobs and activities within each location.  Subject matter experts were chosen within the most tenured groups of craftsmen and technicians to assist this effort as well as to begin the developement of the the Knowledge Assessment process.  High criticality/value jobs and technical activities were identified and documented for the purpose of  best practice designation and the creation of Knowledge assessment diagnostics.     

The results of this multi stage improvement initiative continue to accrue. However, as of this date we can describe the following benefits.

• A common work management process linking all locations and activities has greatly improved work flow 
• A 50% reduction in technician overtime has been achieved 
• Travel & "windshield time" between work sites has been reduced by 20%
• Time on tools ratios have improved significantly 
• Operators and technicians are provided week ahead activity schedules 
• CMMS functionality has expanded beyond simple cost capture
• Materials management and procurement has improved through single points of contact and automation 
• Regulatory compliance reporting has been streamlined
• Employee training and development initiatives mitigate knowledge loss due to retirements and other attrition related events
• "Best Practice" documentation exists in all locations and is linked to Integrity Management Process requirements