CONSTRUCTION IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

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  • Non Validated Contractor Access to Restricted Site
  • 15% of unauthorized contract employees were gaining access to new employee training. Created need for extra classes and some personnel overtime.
  • Process clarified & mapped with HR, TAR, Project, HSSE, Maintenance organizations.
  • Post-improvement unauthorized access below 1%, monitoring for sustainment continuing.
  • Construction Projects Team Roles and Responsibility
  • Overlapping responsibilities sometimes improved construction speed but sometimes resulted in redundancies.
  • As-is processes were mapped,
  • Deficiencies found in process decision points creating confusion, indecision and re-work, RACI & RAPID clarified
  • Ideal future state process mapped, training & education held with subject matter experts, process owners, stakeholders.
  • Cycle time measurement system set in place for future continuous improvement projects.
  • Initial results indicated some (soft) improvements.
  • Construction Project Forecasting Improvement (Controls)
  • Lack of consistent controls prevented teams & managers from understanding performance against plan resulting in high variability in forecasting final cost & schedule/timing.
  • Inadequate measurement system in place to identify root causes, new measurement system implemented.
  • Current state process mapping completed for both cost controlling and schedule controlling projects.
  • Ideal future state mapping completed with feedback loops and control plans for the process.
  • Measurements being collected to determine extent of improvement.
  • Construction Projects Communications Improvement
  • Confusion exists as to which contractor, Company and industry standards, policies and procedures to follow during different work activities.
  • Current state process map captured, very messy.
  • Customer/client/stakeholder segment surveys completed and recommended changes prioritized by impact and effort.
  • Communications process map changed to reflect survey results, with training & education as to changes underway.
  • Additional surveys forthcoming for continuous improvement.
  • Construction Projects Forward Planning
  • Front End Loading (Project Appraise & Select Phase) taking too long although clean measurement system not in place to compare against benchmarks & entitlements.
  • Work flow separated into schedule driven and cost driven processes to better clarify which steps are needed when.
  • A measurement system was added to the process flow to collect data on cycle time and work-in-progress as a function of project size for the purpose of future continuous improvement.
  • Change made, measurements being collected to determine future improvement opportunities
  • Contract Labor Invoice Payment Cycle Time Reduction
  • Invoices submitted for approval ran 3 months average +/- 3 months standard deviation after work week time sheets submitted. .
  • Impact was chaos & confusion concerning cost center accounting resulting in some blown budgets.
  • Value stream mapped, process cleaned and invoice cycle time improved to a 1 week average +/- 1 week standard deviation lag after time sheet submitted.
  • Fueling Remote Sited Equipment
  • Tremendous amount of personnel time used by both the Truck Garage and the Procurement Department for tracking dispensed fuel to construction contractors equipment in the field.
  • The Team - fuel truckdrivers, administration Procurement personnel – identified which recordswere value adding and eliminated therest.
  • Through focusing on the mandatory information, the overall cycle time forprocessing fueling records was reducedby 45%.
  • Personnel time reduction calculations underway.
  • Outside Battery Limit Piping Tie-in Cycle Time Reduction
  • Typical tie-in time & variation not well measured - measurement system installed.
  • No clear process – process mapped with roles & responsibilities defined.
  • Communications breakdowns between Construction & Operations.
  • Construction supervisors were then included in daily huddles between Maintenance & Operations to clarify project work done by both groups.
  • Some wasted time was eliminated resulting in an approximate 10% cycle time reduction, worth about $100,000 in overtime labor costs, while additional data is being obtained for a phase 2.
  • Learnings to be applied to inside battery limit piping tie-ins.
  • Contractor Variance Reduction
  • 65 contractors average continuously given safety variances to work on site because the document system indicated their safety records were not to standard.
  • Document system validated as being good to a high degree
  • Root cause identified as insufficient time for procurement to go to market to find contractors with good records.
  • Procurement single point of contact identified to timestamp contractor work requests
  • Process map formulated to standardize when to go to market vs. utilize existing contractor.
  • Variances dropped to 15 average, additional improvements implementation underway.
  • Turn Around Control of Work Permitting Cycle Time Reduction
  • Oil out to oil in turnaround time running about 40% higher than industry standard.
  • Project scoped into 2 parts: Permitting, Blinding & Blanking.
  • Benchmarking completed to identify best practices while maintaining or improving safety.
  • Kaizen Event completed to change processes:
  • Increased number of simple/low risk permits allotted per operator.
  • Blanking at battery limits instead of at every equipment piece.
  • Visual Factory & flow implemented for permit issuing & updating.
  • Waiting next turn-arounds to evaluate results.
  • Plant Contractor Service Charges Reduction
  • Plant was using 3rd party contractors in place of joint venture contractors that were pre-paid budgeted
  • Root causes were identified as inadequate communication between JV contractor & Maintenance, Construction & Operations departments during Kaizen event.
  • JV contractor employees now attend daily, weekly and special event huddles
  • JV contractor usage set up to mimic FedEx and UPS logistics operations
  • JV now in charge of 3rd party contractor dispatch
  • $400M+ COGS variable cost savings attained.
  • Supplier Management (supply chain) ImprovementIdeation
  • Brainstorming sessions held with numerous key suppliers to identify cost savings projects.
  • Numerous value chain optimization opportunities worth $8.6 MM/yr. O&O reduction.
  • Boston Square used to rank order projects, several now underway.
  • On-going opportunity identification sessions set in place.
  • Projects Construction Completion - Information Transfer to Operations/Maintenance - Quality & Timeliness Improvement
  • A significant issue existed with technical information being complete and transferred in a timely manner from construction personnel to personnel charged with startup, operation & maintenance of the new facilities. This resulted in delays with increased costs.
  • Voice of the Customer Critical to Satisfaction survey completed along with the current state process maps.
  • Misalignment of separate organization processes and information needs were pin-pointed.
  • Future state maps were formulated to create alignment for the different, new operating areas.
  • Changes implemented, preliminary results show improvement per survey, timing data being collected with further improvements upcoming.
  • Plant Contractor Service Charges Reduction
  • Plant was using 3rd party contractors in place of joint venture contractors that were pre-paid budgeted
  • Root causes were identified as inadequate communication between JV contractor & Maintenance, Construction & Operations departments during Kaizen event.
  • JV contractor employees now attend daily, weekly and special event huddles
  • JV contractor usage set up to mimic FedEx and UPS logistics operations
  • JV now in charge of 3rd party contractor dispatch
  • $400M+ COGS variable cost savings attained.
  • Construction Receipt, Fabrication & Staging Yard Communications Improvement – Installation Cycle Time Reduction
  • Significant confusion with delayed installation and rework present, Kaizen event conducted.
  • Process examined started with order entry to receipt to fab to staging to installation communications
  • Stakeholders included Construction, Operations and numerous 3rd party vendors
  • Process mapped, gaps and inconsistencies identified.
  • Timestamping measurement system formulated and installed.
  • RACI & RAPID implemented at decision points
  • Future state process implemented.
  • Data collection underway for new baseline and future improvement projects

Provided mentoring & coaching on the following projects related to manager training:

Functional

Area Project Name

Projects TAR Efficiency Improvement

ProjectsSulfur Recovery Project Cycle Time Reduction

CommercialLabor Distribution/Allocation for Cost Mapping

ProjectsPSME Updating

ProjectsJob Notes improvement

Projects Contract Engineers & Contract Management improved utilization

HRLabor Relations Documentation

ProjectsImproving Pipe Fab Quality

ProjectsSmall Projects Work Process

ProjectsEnhancing Quality of CapEx Portfolio

ProjectsContractor Alliance - Competitive Estimates & Schedules

Projects Change Management

ProjectsOperations Supervisor Development Program

HSEProcess Safety - Near Miss Reporting

ProjectsImprove Project Estimates

CommercialReduce Time to Approve Projects (stage/gate)

CommercialPlace Order and get Materials Faster

ProjectsScheduling Updating improvement

ProjectsBring in Additional Lab external Work & $ by freeing FTE time

ProjectsImprove Field Work Scoping in TAR's

HRManage Training Formulation Requests & Approval Process

ProjectsCycle Time Reduction for Select Phase of CVP Process

ProjectsCost control of projects

ProjectsEquipment installations & repairs material & workmanship defects

ProjectsWRMP Policies do not match Customer Policies which creates extra work and confusion.

HRUnderperforming probationary employees are kept too long

resulting in poor morale and increased costs.

CommercialStreamline information flow in procurement processes

ProjectsWelding rental equipment is not tracked which results in lost

equipment.