Around the 2009/2010 time-frame, SPX Cooling Technologies won a contract worth over a $1 Billion with Hitachi to produce the boiler pressure parts for the Kusilie and Medupi power plants. By 2012, SPX Cooling Technologies was losing around $40MM per year, driven specifically by the plant in Nigel, South Africa, where the boiler pressure parts (connectors & headers) were being fabricated. The plant was at least six months behind in schedule, and quality issues were prevalent throughout the whole build. In addition, there were pay issues that existed between the company and the operators.
Anthony, along with seven other colleagues from America who worked at different functions — such as materials management, safety, quality, and finance — were sent over to recoup the losses and to help the project to get back on schedule. This particular project was culturally challenging because (1) the site was run by SPX’s German subsidiary, (2) the customer was Japanese, (3) the workers were primarily African/Afrikaan, and (4) the project team sent over to intervene was American. This environment created a unique cultural dynamic to navigate.
Anthony Green, Senior Vice President — Operational Excellence
Over the next nine months, Anthony led a team of industrial engineers to conduct time studies & methods evaluations. In addition, the team conducted lean and leadership training with front line leaders and most of the operators. The team was able to identify non-value-added activities to eliminate and improve the way of work. With the creation of “hour x hour” boards, the team was able to manage progress at each cell. Also created, were Gemba boards for the purpose of daily review at the beginning of each shift to communicate important information so that help could be requested from groups such as maintenance.
These fundamental changes led to an increased quantity of 55 connectors to 135 daily, which equated to an approximate 40% increase in productivity over nine months. Ultimately, the increase in productivity equated to Anthony’s team realizing a cost savings of $4 MM. Overall, the whole team recouped a total of $32 MM in nine months and got the project timeline back on track. In the end, the team was able to recoup $32MM in 9 months, and cut the $4M from the expense side of the ledger.
Watch full video interview below.
Contact Anthony Green via LinkedIn or his Career WebFolio.
See also: viewpoint, experts, interviews, solving, problems, workplace, topics, focused, decision, executive placement, executive search