UK firm puts BASF site on the path to world-class performance
3 Aug 2011
Warrington, UK – BASF has started an ’operational excellence’ programme with Reliable Manufacturing – a Warrington, UK-based change-management consultancy – to help increase asset utilisation and capacity at its Antwerp plant.
A Euro1-billion capital investment programme at BASF Antwerp saw large increases in production between 2006 and 2008 at the Belgian site– the second largest BASF site worldwide, with an annual turnover of over Euro5 billion and 3,500 employees.
When asset utilisation was introduced as a key performance indicator for the worldwide organisation, the Antwerp operation identified the potential for further substantial capacity gains through improved OEE.
A cultural shift was critical for the gains to be realised, according to Herman Baets, technical governance manager at the Antwerp plant
“We have always operated at a very high level technically and instinctively we look for a technical solution to problems. Despite this our asset reliability and asset utilisation were still only ‘better than average’, and we wanted world class. We recognised the solution lay in changing our behaviours and procedures and that is Reliable Manufacturing’s area of expertise.”
The change programme began in May with a series of masterclass workshops focussed on transforming leadership and culture.
As a result BASF has set clear targets for both plant slowdown and asset utilisation, with two senior executives assigned specific responsibility for these. It has already started to see results from some of the early process improvements it’s been making.
For example, the level of unexpected loss from a cooling unit has been reduced from 10% to 5% through the introduction of a few simple measures.
BASF Antwerp is setting ambitious targets for the future; with the help of the Reliable Manufacturing programme, it is aiming to reduce unexpected losses and optimise plant shutdowns by the end of 2012 and thus increase capacity by better asset utilisation.
Baets says this will convert into considerable savings. He acknowledges buy-in from the top is fundamental.
“We are talking about major culture change in a very large operation, which is already very successful, and it will probably take two years to deliver kinetic effect. But our president is 100% on board and that is vital,” he concluded.
