Baytown Briefs (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 05, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 1, 1993 Page: 3 of 12
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ymanagement
S, H, & E
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Seeing bottom-line results
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3
we’re taking on,” Brent
says. “Since change like
we are striving for comes
“This is part of a
long-term change
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2
slowly, some may be skeptical
about the progress we’re making. My
challenge to them is to compare the way it
looked three to four years ago and judge
the difference. We’ve made a commit-
ment to manage differently. The payoffs
so far are encouraging. Over the next
several months, we will be trying to
provide more focus on the business
through better planning and more
grassroots involvement of local work
teams to help improve work processes and
systems.”
additional higher margin, low-volatility
lube basestocks, for a total savings of $5
million in 1993. The team is also support-
ing efforts to promote additional use of
statistical process control in the lubes
business for even greater savings.
Efforts guided by the Process Non-
Maintenance Leadership Team to improve
energy efficiency at the refinery, includ-
ing a system to identify steam leaks, are
expected to generate $800,000 savings in
a year.
The Process Non-Maintenance
Leadership Team is sponsoring a team
working to reduce the cost of chemicals
used in cooling water lowers. Process and
Technical groups, working in conjunction
with Headquarters Purchasing, have
moved to a single vendor for cooling
tower chemicals to lower costs and
improve the customer/supplier relation-
ship. The refinery is expected to save
$1 million over the next 18 months.
An Overall Business Integration group
directs the interaction among the six
teams, allocates overall resources and
provides strategic direction for the
company plan.
“We have tried to spread decision-
making across the business functions so
that when an idea is generated by the
organization it can be directed to a single
group rather than having to ‘sell’ it to all
affected parts of the organization.”
The leadership teams meet weekly or
biweekly to plan, allocate resources and
discuss business issues. “We’ve elimi-
nated a lot of lime spent on prioritizing
and are able to spend more time on how
we’re going to help improve work
activities,” Brent says.
To finalize the commitment, all
managers signed a contract to manage in a
new way. “We wanted to demonstrate our
commitment to change and our trust in
one another,” says Fuels South Depart-
ment Head Pete Porrazzo. “Historically
our culture at Baytown has involved
everybody who might be impacted or
asked to implement a change in making
decisions. The leadership teams provide a
way for us to focus decision-making, get
the necessary input through involvement
of folks who really know the work and
make decisions in a timely way,” he adds.
—’ Team and the Quality Steering
Committee provide stability and strategic
direction for refinery business and cultural
issues, respectively. The refinery Mission,
Vision and Core Values in conjunction with
Quality and Continuous Improvement
establish a hub on which to base our efforts.
The six Leadership Teams, as spokes and a
rim, provide support for the Process,
Technical, Mechanical and Human
Resources organizations resembling a tire
where the “rubber meets the road” as work
gets done.
1
I
Achieving results
Under the guidance provided by the
leadership team structure, Management
Staff hopes to improve profitability in
1993 by $1 a barrel. Even though partially
negated by difficult marketplace condi-
tions, the refinery is halfway there with
improvements of about 50 cents per
barrel.
In addition, each refinery section is in
the process of developing business
improvement measures that will help
align specific improvement efforts with
the direction established by leadership
team structure.
WMThile a fundamental shift in manage-
V V ment style may take time, the
Baytown Refinery is already seeing
results by managing across functions.
To improve run-lime of rental equip-
ment, such as cranes, the Maintenance
Leadership Team agreed to centralize
equipment into one yard, significantly
reducing the amount of rental equipment
(from 28 cranes to 2). The project is
expected to save up to $1 million a year.
An effort to balance the workload done
by contractors is expected to save
$500,000 a year. The Maintenance
Leadership Team has coordinated efforts
to maintain workloads so that the refinery
needs between 800 and 900 contract
workers, versus peaks of up to 1,300. This
saves an estimated $ 1,500 in training
costs per person.
The Specialties Margin Leadership
Team provided support for Pipe Still 3
paraffinic lubes blocks to produce
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Pfennig, Glena. Baytown Briefs (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 05, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 1, 1993, newspaper, September 1, 1993; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1494934/m1/3/: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.