RLG International Results Stories

A Success Story at a Refinery

ELIN Utilization Improvement and Shipping Logistics Optimization

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Key Objectives

In 2006, management at this Oil and Gas company and their Oil Refinery identified the opportunity to improve on the efficiency and capacity of rail tank-car loading and shipping. Management's initial assessment called for improvements in all aspects of shipping and loading, with specific emphasis on improving the overall utilization and performance of the two spot loading facilities, known as the ELINs.

The ELINs were considered a much slower loading facility (loading each rail tank-car sequentially) when compared to a gantry-type loading rack (loading 32 cars simultaneously). Historically, the difference in duration for a full loading cycle time was 300% to prepare, load and ship 32 rail tank-cars. However, the difference in loading technology was such that only the ELINs allowed for hermetically sealing and recovering vapours when loading light hydro-carbon fuels into the rail tank-car, and thus made utilization of the ELINs a much safer and environmentally friendly option.

The urgency to increase the ELINs utilization was also emphasized by the pressure from the company to comply with the Corporate Integrity Strategy. The Strategy stated that: ". for all light products railcar loading must be done by means of hermetically sealed facilities with vapour recovery technology, particularly for gasoline." At the time, loading the entire volume of light products using only the ELINs and without jeopardizing the monthly shipping plan, was not deemed feasible.

After assessing the situation, it was determined that the solution was not to be found in a single initiative focused only on the ELINs, but what was needed was an integrated strategy, involving multi-entities, multi-departments within those entities (this involved Shop 11, Transportation, Production with Blending Operations and Production/Shipping Planning/Scheduling), and improvements to infrastructure, equipment, business processes, documentation flow, along with an aligned approach to implementing all the opportunities.

With the leadership and buy-in from the senior leaders in Refining and the company, RLG began to develop a system of common goals with aligned metrics to engage all the parties involved. It also became apparent that all the stakeholders needed to come together on a regular basis, which led to the establishment of regular shipping logistics business reviews, where the aligned key performance indicators (KPIs) were presented and discussed as a team (with the first one conducted in December 2006). These business reviews evolved into effective monthly, cross-functional KPI discussions and action-planning forums among Head Office, refinery and, a bit later, [name] Rail Company. This forum glued the strategy elements together and created the basis for dramatic improvements in communication patterns and teamwork among the key stakeholders.

To address targeted improvement opportunities and to deliver both bottom line results and cultural change, numerous tools and business concepts were applied by RLG. These included key aspects of the FAIR Model® (Focus, Accountability, Involvement, Response), such as departmental business reviews, measuring performance (KPI tracking), action planning logs, and performance improvement teams, as well as the application of TMP® (Theoretical Maximum Performance) sessions, and business process re-engineering, to name a few. One of the most positive aspects of the initiative was the personal and organizational transformation of the client management teams. From a group of managers and professional teams with misaligned agendas and "fighting fires" on a daily basis, they transformed to a team of leaders and strategic thinkers with aligned goals, mutual commitment to scheduled work and clear accountabilities.