Starting Situation:
As is often the case, an increase in demand is matched by an increase in operational uncertainties and the risk of accumulating losses and inefficiencies. This was precisely the situation at the French newsprint paper manufacturer, for whom we were commissioned to carry out a full-immersion operation characterized by great urgency and time constraints.
Known Problems:
The intervening team quickly found 4 main areas of improvement to focus on. The challenge, as stated earlier, was to be able to make changes without disrupting daily activities and in an overall time frame of less than a week. The macro-areas identified, on which we then took action, were:
- efficiency in the use of materials
- energy efficiency
- removal of bottlenecks in production processes
Stratega’s Solutions and Approach:
In order to meet the client’s objectives and meet the schedule, we adopted our “Fast Track Approach”: combining rapid and in-depth analysis of business KPIs with observation of the plant during its daily operations, we provided constant, daily implementations to the client, along with the tools to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency over time of the changes made.
Results:
As a result of Stratega’s fast tracked and hands-on approach the client was able to register an overall 20% reduction in operational costs, after implementing the agreed-upon measures.
Key to Success:
The key to our success was in understanding both the opportunities and the constraints of the project and, of course, in having the customer’s management and staff beside us during the entire process.
