Top Tips on Profiting from Process Excellence in the Energy Sector

Aug. 30, 2011 - PRLog -- PEX Network: Mike, you’ll be speaking at IQPC’s Energy Process Excellence Summit in Aberdeen this September. Can you tell me about Talisman’s Process and Operational Excellence programme? How mature is it?
M Bonine: Our programme is about two, two and a half years, mature, so we’re still, I would consider, in our infancy stages. But we actually have started off using some consultant at the beginning to get this kick-started. But now we have a programme that is actually self-sufficient within Talisman at this moment.
PEX Network: What are the top three priorities for operational excellence at Talisman over the next six to 12 months?

M Bonine: The three top priorities that we’re working on currently: the first one is actually looking at managing our daily improvements. And when you look at this concept of improvements and how we’re managing that, you have to consider your standard work that is in place for employees, but also how we actually utilise visual management so that we actually can look at our performance and understand where our costs are and where our key metrics are at within the process.

The second thing is actually looking at engaging our leadership, and that really deals within what we call the three Cs: The level of commitment from our leadership, the clarity of the message that they are providing for the organisation, and the consistency of that message. And we do define our leadership within three tiers. We have our top leadership that definitely has to drive and be part of the culture change that we’re espousing here at Talisman. But we also are very focused within the middle management group, so when we look at team leads - we look at supervisors, frontline supervisors - they are also leaders that have to actually have that commitment, the clarity and consistency that we’re looking for.

And then we actually look at everyone in the organisation as a potential leader, as a leader within their areas of work that they’re focused in on. So a lot of the frontline workers are also considered to be leaders that have to make sure that that commitment, clarity and consistency is there and they’re engaging.

PEX Network: Now, at the conference this September, you’ll be speaking about getting leadership and employees engaged in process improvement projects. What’s your experience been with this at Talisman?

M Bonine: I think, like every transformational effort, there are struggles, there are obstacles that you’re faced with, but also there’s a lot of rewarding things that come about. I think, with the struggles that we’ve looked at as a business that is growing, we always run into conflicting priorities. If it’s not our portfolio management, or looking at upgrading our IT services, there’s our safety issues; there’s things like that. Those are things that sometimes people feel like they’re having an overload of things. And then we’re looking at a culture change from a lean culture and adapting some principles. So I think a lot of times people struggle with overload. There are so many things going on. What are the priorities that we need to go focused with?

And the rewarding part is that people are actually starting to adopt some of the principles and actually improving their process. And we’re seeing a lot more of this, probably from the bottom up, as we look at the frontline workers and the supervisors and team leads starting to participate in what we refer to as kaizen events. They’re seeing results immediately through these events. And, actually, some of these events are actually tying together or connecting the dots within the process. So, when we talk about safety or our portfolio, they’re starting to make the connection of how this actually helps our other strategies that we’re going to conquer within Talisman.

PEX Network: What are the keys to developing the right infrastructure to achieve and sustain continuous improvement projects, in your view?

M Bonine: I believe that, really, infrastructure is about the alignment, and it’s a strategic alignment. It’s looking at our business performance management metrics that we have at the top level, and how those are cascaded down and linked down to the operator level. But it’s also having those dialogues so that we’re actually linking what we would refer to as leading indicators with our lagging indicators, to make sure that the things that we’re measuring and the things that we’re looking at on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, are the right things that we want to look at.

I think that the other things that we want to focus on are having clear roles and responsibilities. Some of the things that we are focused on, particularly this year, are on the area of sustainability.  And, without clear roles and responsibilities or accountabilities defined, then we’re not going to be sustainable in how we do things, and that ties back into the leadership roles.

The other thing is we have to make sure that we have a feedback system in place so that we know how we’re performing, and we can actually look at how we managed the work, not so much as a silo, but more from a functional standpoint, horizontally, how the work actually flows.

PEX Network: What would you say then is the number one thing that you can do to get those that matter on your side and stay on your side?

M Bonine: I think a lot of the thing is patience. I think you have to be able to listen to people.  You have to observe processes so you understand how things are working in the current state. But, also, you have to start challenging people on their thinking. I think by challenging people, by asking them questions about how they do things, what is going on, and do they have the right tools, I think they start thinking and helping them connect the dots that lead to, I think, some very positive behaviours.

And I think people, at the end of the day, have to be able to recognise and understand what we refer to as lean principles and concepts. I think, from our [?] organisation, particularly our top leadership, there’s projects that go on, they like the projects, they like the money, the savings, that they deliver.  But one of the things that we’re very keen about is making sure that the principles, the respect for people, are focused on the process to get those results. But also looking at how we do problem-solving. And, actually, we have a philosophy of continuous improvement; it’s just not one-time improvement. But how we’re going to continue to get improvements moving forward is going to be very important that that is understood and recognised in the company at the end of the day.

EX Network: What are you looking forward to most from taking part in the conference in September?

M Bonine: I think this is a great time, not just to network with other people within the industry, but I think it’s the learning and growing that you can get from everyone; that collaboration of ideas and looking at the different approaches that people are taking with continuous improvement methodologies, and how they’re actually doing these things. So I think there’s tremendous opportunity to learn and to get some insights from other people, and to share insights that we’ve learnt. And I think it just helps the industry, overall, become stronger and better at how we actually approach things and people in our leadership.

PEX Network: We look forward to hearing more from you at the event itself and we’ll see you there in September. Thanks very much for your time today, Mike.

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Mike Bonine will be among the speakers at IQPC’s Energy Process Excellence Europe Conference, due to take place at the Ardoe House Hotel, Aberdeen, Scotland from 26th – 28th September 2011. For further information about this event please visit www.energyprocessexcellence.com, call 0800 652 2363 or email enquire@iqpc.co.uk