The challenge
As a result of the global financial crisis in 2009, productivity and plant reliability were suboptimal, while energy, labour and operating costs were high. Alongside this, Incitec Pivot Ltd (IPL) had just acquired Dyno Nobel, a manufacturer of explosives and initiating systems (IS) for use primarily in the mining and quarrying sector.
The Dyno Nobel business acquisition included Ensign-Bickford Company (EBCo), which had a relatively mature Lean manufacturing culture within their North American IS manufacturing function. The IPL Executive Team wanted to leverage this IS continuous improvement culture globally into the entire IPL group.
Industry
Chemicals
IPL produce a wide range of explosives, fertilizers, and industrial chemicals. As well as owning and operating 20 plants in the US, Canada, Australia, Mexico Indonesia, and Turkey, the company has joint venture operations in South Africa, Malaysia, China, and Australia.
The solution
- Productivity driven from the bottom up
A focus on workforce empowerment – enable employees to self-solve and drive productivity ensuring problems are being solved at the core i.e. by those closest to the customer. This was driven by a robust training program to upskill employees. - Reframe the role of leaders
Support IPL’s leadership team to own, implement and improve the business system and become coaches and mentors to support their teams in change initiation and problem solving. - Create alignment through ‘big rocks’
Simplify workflows then define focus areas for improvement. In this case, the team focused on improving Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) – quality (first pass yield), availability (equipment, people and materials), throughput rate and increasing production volumes. Implement a Daily Management System and visual management systems to provide direct line of sight across the business of the company’s strategic objectives and KPIs. - Best practice standardization
Continually redefine what ‘perfect’ looks like and reset benchmarks to drive continuous improvement. Implement best practices that the team can sustain and then improve upon.
The results
Creating a business system that ensures long-term sustainability
Over the course of five years the TRACC-powered Bex program enabled the IPL team to achieve step change results, including:
AU$570 million+ in EBIT gross benefits
AU$300 million reduction in working capital
20% improvement in OEE at Initiating Systems plants
35% reduction in recordable safety-related injuries
85% reduction in injury severity
Record output at IPL’s largest chemical plants globally
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