Chemical plant secures £10m productivity boost

After 20 years of under-investment, SABIC UK's ethylene liquefaction plant on Teesside has witnessed a dramatic turnaround. Eighteen months ago, it embarked on a manufacturing excellence programme with change management consultancy Reliable Manufacturing; since then, plant breakdowns and performance problems have been dramatically reduced. Communication between the plant's two facilities has improved, saving the company more than £1 million a year. Asset care improvement teams have made efficiency savings – on one propylene dryer, this is estimated to be in excess of £400k a year. Despite the plant's age, it now achieves reliable production week after week, without any significant investment. The business is following Reliable Manufacturing's three-phase approach of engage, transform and sustain. John Burluraux, manufacturing excellence project manager, said a key change has been in the working culture: "When people start to see changes happening, they begin to have more pride in the assets. It increases their motivation and has an indirect effect on performance." Engineering director Alan Wasson added: "Our best results are in what have traditionally been our worst months, so the performance is stellar, especially if we can lock it in going forward – that's the next phase of the project." With the new levels of reliability, the plant has extra capacity to sell. The improvement process is also helping SABIC to achieve its safety goals. Manufacturing director Mike Ducker summed up: "It's about having a workforce that's really engaged and aligned with where the business needs to go, and seeing their job as one of continuously improving business performance. With that sort of teamwork ethos, the sky's the limit."