Utilities Case Study

BNFL Sellafield

THE ORGANISATION

The Connections business within a major multi-utility service provider, covering both Regulated and Competitive connections. Multi-site business with a total of 18 Regulated teams and 14 Competitive teams across 7 locations

THE ISSUES / PROBLEMS

Following the NII's critical review of 1999, need to:

• Strengthen the manufacturing capability on site and introducing basic manufacturing disciplines
• Improve overall site performance and remove specific bottlenecks
• Undertake improvement activity within the unique culture at BNFL Sellafield

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

• Established a new internal department, the Manufacturing Support Group (MSG), up to full strength over 2 years (50 FTE's).
• Implemented the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) measure as the key driver for performance improvement
• Constructed a plant and site wide OEE databases to enable analysis, evaluation and interpretation of OEE data
• Phased transfer of responsibility from consultants to the MSG
• Established ongoing management review and improvement infrastructures
• Established improvement team structures, targets, activity and management framework
• Applied Six Sigma, Kaizan and Lean Manufacturing approaches to drive improvement activities across the site
• Integrated improvement activity with Sales Order Processing
• Developed the new relationships between the MSG, and others on site to ensure a quality, value added service

PROJECT RESULTS

• MSG now well established
• OEE measure successfully implemented in 12 major plant areas
• A total of 19 separate improvement initiatives underway
• MSG staff actively and confidently extended the OEE roll-out across the balance of the site and facilitated improvement team activity
• Breaking down the 'silo-mentality' that had historically been a feature of the culture at Sellafield
• Improved control of operations
• NII's increased confidence in BNFL's ability to deliver operational performance