The workshop was part of a large chemical complex in the North of England. Its customers were the numerous chemical plants on the site. Work was not undertaken for third parties.
The workshop employed some 800 craftsmen, including fitters, electricians, boilermakers, platers, welders, instrument mechanics and other specialists. Internally it was organised largely on craft-based functional lines.
The work handled by the Central Workshops was large in volume and varied in nature, a decentralised system of plant-based engineering having been recently discontinued. It included
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Gear Box overhauls
Large machine overhauls
Centrifuge overhauls
Pump overhauls
Cartridge seal overhauls
Sundyne pump overhauls
Filters
Compressor overhauls
On-line leak sealing
Non-metallic repairs
Vulcanising
Specialist welding
Expansion joint overhauls
On-line freezing
Under pressure break-ins
Torquing
NDTPVI (inspection)
Spec. elect, M/C testing and repair
Hazardous area inspections |
Civil & Building
Lifts
Air conditioning
Refrigeration
Welding inspection
Planned shutdowns
Demolition
Shot blasting
Provision of Specs, standards, codes
Auditing
Lifting gear
Fixed grindstone overhaul
Boiler overhauls
Cooling tower overhauls
HP water wash
Lagging Scaffold
General Worker assist. & amenities (day gang)
Cable gangs
Earthing tests |
Transport and drivers
Stores
Jetty loading arms
Storage wells workovers
R/V overhauls & test
Isolation valve overhauls
Pipeline maintenance
R/V overhauls and test
Isolation valve overhauls
Control valve overhaul and repair
Steam trap overhauls
Trace heating steam and electric Motor overhauls
Portable electrical equipment test and repair
HV Switchgear overhaul and repair
Specialist cable testing
Fire alarms - repair
Tannoy (PA) systems |
Morale, across most job satisfaction measures, was extremely low. The union branches representing the different trades in the workshops were the most militant on the site. Restrictive practices abounded. The workshop was known as the 'black hole of Calcutta' since no-one wanted to work there. Performance, whether measured as output, reliability or delivery, was equally poor. Stories abounded of machinery going in for repair, getting lost in the system, and when eventually found and returned, still not working.
Senior management were uncertain as to what to do with the Central Workshops in the future. Hardliners favoured closing it and buying-in services from third parties. They pointed out that numerous attempts had already been made to improve efficiency and quality of service of the workshop without success. Not only did it remain much costlier than other comparable facilities, but the poor service it provided was detrimental to the performance of the chemical plants on which the company's profitability depended.
As a last attempt to recover the situation, the Company invited WSL to carry out a work structuring exercise. WSL was chosen because of its unique 'whole systems level' approach to organisational design.
In the Workshop application, as a first step, all the work processes were examined and activities closely associated with the key transformations in each process were clustered together using a TIED Analysis. Once the various clusters - known as'whole tasks' - had been identified, work groups were allocated to each task and a leadership structure built up from them. The result was a number of semi-autonomous 'Centres of Excellence', each responsible for a family of closely related services which required similar skills and equipment and which were closely allied to customer needs. For example,
Centre 1 |
Centre 2 |
Centre 3 |
Centre 4 |
Centre 5 |
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Pumps
Gearboxes
Cartridge seals
Motors |
Steam Traps
Relief valve overhauls
Instrument overhauls
Control valve overhauls |
Flow metering
Instrument |
Boiler overhauls
Expansion joints
Fabrication
Vessel repair
Heat exchangers |
Sheet metal work |
From this foundation, new streamlined planning systems could be developed appropriate to the needs of each Centre and which replaced the clumsy 'one size fits all' system of the past. Likewise, a series of key performance indicators were compiled including cost and cash flow statistics for each Centre. This enabled the Workshop as a whole to identify (for the first time) which services had the potential to become profitable and which were endemic loss-makers. In some Centres further process streamlining could be undertaken. Another innovation was the appointment of a sales (customer liaison) person to market the available services to the chemical plants. On the people side, a review was undertaken of the skills required for the successful operation for each Centre. In some, it was discovered that a 'generalist' tradesmen possessing a combination of skills was best suited. In other Centres, such as those predominantly concerned with Instrumentation, specialists with a high level of expertise in a single trade were more appropriate.
The overall effect of these changes was dramatic. Morale improved to the point where craftsmen were competing to get a job in the Workshop. Performance measures also improved beyond everyone's expectations. Also, thanks to the efforts of the sales person, third parties began to use the services of the Workshop. Hearing of the intentions of the (now diminishing) hardliners, the Workshop management approached the Company with a view to negotiating a management buy-out. Other prestigious engineering companies also bid to take over the Workshops. Many other benefits flowed from the revived facilities and the unique skill base and newly won enthusiasm of the workforce.
For senior management there were important lessons to be learnt. One was the intrinsic superiority of a 'whole systems' as opposed to an ad hoc series of improvement measures which only operate at the component-level. Another was the reaffirmation of the importance of the human being in a 'whole systems' environment. A third was the unexpected discovery that good structures can greatly widen the scope for intelligent strategic decisions. At the outset of the project, the strategic options open to senior management were limited to closure or another (unsuccessful) set of ad hoc initiatives. At the conclusion of the WSL intervention there were many more strategic options available to maximise the Company's success. |
