Maintenance, high place on the priority list
“As a large waste-processing company, we had given
maintenance a high place on the priority list for some time,
simply because a large share of the processing costs consists
of maintenance costs,” says De Jong. “When I started at AVR
Afvalverwerking Rozenburg as Head of Maintenance in 2001,
structuring and improving the maintenance process was my
number 1 priority. Because the improvement process that
had been started was lagging behind the targets that had
been set, I decided to call in the external help of PDM. The target was further rationalisation of maintenance
so that we could carry it out more efficiently and effectively,
in order to be able to make a bigger contribution to the
operating result.
Approach
The PDM consultants on the Rozenburg site started by analysing the complete maintenance function on the basis of the ‘Strategic Maintenance Issues’ analysis model. “Among the things that appeared was that extra attention would have to be devoted to plant management,” says the senior PDM consultant. “In order to achieve the desired plant performances, the right maintenance plans would have to be drawn up and all of this would have to be in relation to maintenance costs to be incurred.
Furthermore, work-flow management, preparation and planning of all work, and the organisation structure would have to be examined. And also shutdown would have to be evaluated, from scoping and preparation to actual execution. In this latter project, our project leader and work-preparation co-ordinator supervised the AVR employees during a short shutdown in 2002. The shutdown was completed within the scheduled time and budget."
Procedure sets
While the different projects were in full swing, PDM consultants
drew up two procedure sets for the maintenance and shutdown
functions. These sets covered the full organisation structure,
including consultation structures, reporting and performance
indicators. PDM provided procedures by training the AVR
employees. The PDM project leader and preparation co-ordinator
were still supervising AVR employees until the end of 2003. This made a positive
contribution to the readiness to change of the AVR organisation
and its employees, allowing us to successfully embed.
Result
Since the project was completed, AVR has been able to
achieve its original objectives, namely an effective, efficient
maintenance function.
Roughly speaking, this leads to a saving of about 1 to 1.5
million Euros on maintenance costs, or more than 10%. The
way is also now free for further improving plant performance.
“The results of these projects have led the management
board to carry out these improvement projects at out sites in
Rotterdam and Duiven too,” says De Jong. “Looking back,
we can say that the project was successful and we also liked
working with the PDM people very much.”
