Rail Sleeper Manufacturing Acceleration
Visual management delivers a rapid production rate increase
- 3 minutes read
Our client is a world leader in the design and manufacture of pre-stressed concrete sleepers and Australia’s largest concrete sleeper manufacturer. They had been engaged to produce and supply approximately 280,000 concrete sleepers to Rio Tinto’s USD 2.6 billion Koodaideri iron ore mine project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The Koodaideri project involved constructing a 166-km railway line to connect the mine to Rio Tinto’s existing network.
The project struggled to meet the agreed delivery schedule due to extended production cycle times and a high defect rate. These issues had negatively impacted customer satisfaction and created contractual friction. The underlying issues causing production inefficiency and poor-quality performance required immediate improvement.
ORBIZ was engaged to identify issues within the production process, then develop and implement agreed-upon solutions to resolve the problems and rapidly improve performance.
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The approach
The initial activity involved a comprehensive review of the production operation to identify the root causes of the underperformance and present options for resolution while engaging the relevant stakeholders to ensure an accurate and objective assessment. The review noted that, at minimum, organisational structure, process discipline, and role accountability would need to be enhanced to accelerate the program and provide the necessary performance improvement.
Following the completion of the initial assessment, a dedicated support program was developed to conduct deeper diagnostics, identify improvement opportunities, and provide coaching to the production and frontline leadership teams. Visual Performance Centres (VPC) would be constructed to provide a forum and management tools for daily management and control of the production process.
The solutions
Deep-dive diagnostics to identify the root cause revealed several challenges to production efficiency and high-value improvement opportunities, which were then actioned through structured implementation activities. Activity execution was facilitated and managed through tiered VPCs designed and constructed to display relevant information, data, and metrics consistent with each management tier.
VPCs were also utilised to manage production processes and performance in scheduled regular review meetings where short interval control could be applied and critical issues elevated for resolution or mitigation before impacting production output.
Daily VPC meetings attended by production team leaders, functional support personnel, and the leadership team were implemented, and the production teams participated in high-frequency short-interval control meetings every two hours to ensure real-time production performance monitoring.
The frequency and intensity of the brief but targeted two-hourly meetings provided an opportunity for the team members to be coached while honing their personal skills in work management, problem recognition, and identifying practical solutions.
Overall, team leadership development significantly enhanced communication and fostered collaboration with site leadership as both groups took on a collective approach to operational performance and improvement. This was further complimented by ORBIZ utilising a project management office methodology to provide governance over the engagement project and ensure a successful outcome for the client.
Site leaders quickly recognised the benefits of measuring relevant criteria and utilising the associated metrics to drive performance improvement and highlight areas for improvement.
The project’s success resulted in substantial improvements to safety, quality, productivity, and cost reduction.
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