A global steel and mining company with plants across North America had facilities with wildly different performance. Their equipment at many facilities was outdated and poorly maintained. SOPs barely existed. And there was no reliable way to track results, which meant performance issues often persisted for months before anyone figured it out.
Across their network, equipment availability was a paltry 37.5% and quality was a 41.2%. For every hundred hours of theoretical capacity, the operation produced about twelve hours of good output.
We helped them built a new model in four phases, working from leadership down to the line.
Unlike most projects, we actually started with training this time. With no SOPs or results-tracking mechanisms, we felt the need to develop a management model first. More than 140 managers and supervisors went through theoretical and practical training on management for results.
The second phase was about process control. Key processes were prioritized, critical tasks were identified, and KPIs were defined with direct links to business outcomes. The diagnostics surfaced 65 tracked improvement actions, which we developed anomaly treatment routines for.
In the third phase we standardized their highest-impact work, focusing on 12 key task standards. We helped them define the standards, taught them to the operators, and implemented verification processes in the field to confirm they were being adhered to.
Last was the handover. We provided coaching, developed a RACI matrix, and helped stand up governance routines to transfer ownership into their own structure.
OEE rose 6.8 percentage points (a 58% improvement in a single year) with gains on all three components at once. And adherence to standardized procedures rose 45%, which is the leading indicator behind the lagging ones.
We trained the supervisors before writing standards so they'd know what success looked like. And the 65 improvement actions and anomaly routines helped them make data-driven decisions.
An OEE of 18.4% still leaves enormous room to grow. But now the client now owns the process and has the management team in place that can help drive the next incremental improvements.