Key results
16%
Increase in overall
monthly production
10%
Indirect cost benefit at
Plant 1
15%
Indirect cost benefit at
Plant 2
About the client
Our client is one of India’s leading producers and suppliers of stainless-steel long products such as round bars, continuous cast billets/blooms, threaded bars, bright bars, and forged bars. It is also one of the most technologically advanced stainless-steel manufacturing companies in India and has a global presence.
The challenge
The client wanted a more appropriate organisational design for its plants. We were brought in to help them achieve two objectives:
- To revamp the organisational structure of the bright bar processing unit, as well as two manufacturing units
- To improve throughput at the bright bar processing unit by installing management control systems (MCS) that handled production, planning and maintenance
What we did
The project was broken down into two workstreams, with each team made up of employees from the client company, senior plant management, and Renoir experts.
Workstream 1: Organisation design and restructuring — all target plants
Focus: Integrate organisation structures, processes, and people
- Evaluated over 1,000 positions involved in the manufacturing process of the various products.
- Carried out detailed observations of the activities undertaken by shift workers to determine the most appropriate organisation structure required to perform these activities.
- Conducted interviews and completed observation studies of the managerial layer to understand the activities and processes undertaken to identify and implement improvements.
- Determined the correct organisation structure, with efficient spans of control, for the different production areas.
Workstream 2: Throughput improvement – bright bar processing unit
Focus: Improve the plant’s production, maintenance, and planning systems
- Identified gaps in the production, maintenance, quality and planning processes.
- Initiated standards for planning and performance monitoring of machines.
- Set up a formal structure for monthly, weekly and daily planning.
- Set up monthly production planning processes based on pending orders, works in progress (WIP), and raw material (RM) availability. RM and WIP was also segregated at the target plants based on shape, size, process stage and so on.
- Introduced an MCS to improve the quality of incoming black material from the manufacturing units — a problem that was also affecting production in the bright bar processing unit.
- Designed and implemented an effective management system that emphasised short interval controls.
Results
Besides the key results that were obtained after the project’s implementation, the client could finally address the inefficiency gaps in the process and management systems sustainably.
As a result, the target plants achieved their highest ever monthly production numbers on two separate occasions during the 22-week timeframe.
