Organizations can get stuck in their ways, doing things a certain way because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”. These practices, while comfortable, may not be the most efficient. To increase efficiency and the productivity of your workforce, change must occur. Creating a culture and management structure to constantly focus on effective and efficient work directly contributes to reducing the backlog of critical maintenance tasks, which lowers the asset risk profile. In the oil and gas industry, every employee’s time is a valuable resource so when an employee spends significant time on non-value-added (NVA) activities, it drains resources and negatively impacts employee productivity, particularly when measured in wrench time.
This article discusses effective tools for identifying and eliminating NVA activities, minimizing time-wasting activities that no longer serve the organization’s goals. Implementing effective tools to manage local as well as a global workforce, leads to improved operational efficiency and frees up valuable employee capacity to focus on value-adding tasks.
Are there effective tools to eliminate lost time for more value-added activities?
A common challenge faced by oil and gas companies is formulating effective and targeted solutions due to the difficulty in identifying NVA activities. With over 30 years of experience working side-by-side with onshore and offshore upstream clients, we have identified several key NVA activities including inefficient tool mobilization processes, ineffective meetings and unreliable transport arrangements that reduce wrench time, as well as delays associated with permits-to-work.
With so many tools, systems and approaches available, which ones truly work for oil and gas companies to eliminate NVA activities and free up capacity for more value-added tasks resulting in greater productivity and safety to the organization? Here are industry tested and proven tools that Renoir has implemented over the years:
Analysis
Vague assumptions do not work when an organization needs to measure how its employees spend their time. It is a detailed and rigorous analysis that can explain what employees are doing during working hours. With this insight, targeted solutions can be formulated to eliminate NVA activities and quantify potential improvements in terms of NVA elimination (where people can get more done in the same amount of time), leading to productivity gains.
Day in the Life of (DILO) observations
This is a tool that maps out a typical working day for employees. It is not intended to be a personal assessment, but rather a means of understanding the day-to-day challenges and issues employees face and how they respond. This tool sheds light on time allocation, work processes and potential areas for improvement. DILO observations can be used to track employees’ activities throughout the day to uncover high NVA activities and identify opportunities for workflow optimization.
Diagnostic interviews
Structured interviews can also be used to gain clarity on job expectations and explore opportunities for improvement. Our experience tells us that any discussion should focus on existing work practices with the aim of eliminating NVA activities. Some questions to ask are:
– How frequent are meetings and do they hinder productivity?
– Can the time spent in meetings be reduced by better planning, preparation, and agenda control?
Wrench time study
Wrench time refers to the productive time technicians spend actively performing maintenance tasks. It:
– includes activities such as reading instruments, using tools such as placing slings, and completing job-related documentation directly on the job site.
– excludes time spent obtaining parts, tools or instruction, travelling in connection with assigned tasks, obtaining permits-to-work or conducting site visits.
This is a valuable tool for benchmarking the actual time spent on maintenance tasks. This data allows analysis and continuous improvement of maintenance processes. It should be noted that the focus of these studies is not to identify individual inefficiencies, but rather to optimize planning and scheduling processes to ensure effective execution of maintenance activities.
Changing ingrained practices and cultures
Some employees simply are not aware that certain activities or practices don’t add value. Disrupting established processes and, in this context, identifying and eliminating NVA activities can be daunting. A more nuanced approach to changing ingrained practices is therefore required. Change management can be a powerful tool to address these issues that lead to ingrained NVA activities.
At Renoir, we don’t just advise from the sidelines. We work with your people at all levels of the organization to implement process improvement to foster a sense of ownership and increase buy-in. The data can be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of eliminating NVA activities and to work on further improvements.
Our workforce needs solutions to get more done in the time available by eliminating time-wasting activities that no longer serve the organization's goals.