Case Studies

Transmission and Distribution Electricity and Gas Utility - West Coast

Client and Industry Description
The client operates a large electric grid, consisting of transmission lines, electric substations and distribution lines.

The Problem
The Electric System Engineering (ESE) group, consisting of more than 300 electric system engineers, designers, process engineers and failure protection engineers needed to increase the total output of engineered projects for release to the construction group.

Objectives
The ESE group needed to improve the engineering and design process to deliver more projects, in less time while increasing project output.

The Approach

The director of the ESE group visualized the task in three parts:

1. Define the current situation, and what needed to be accomplished.

2. Improve the process and tools for moving projects through engineering and design.
3. Implement the new process and ensure that the entire company uses it to increase deliverables.

• STRUCTURE: A cross-functional team (CFT) consisting of the director and four key managers was established to collaborate as the project leadership.
   
• PROTOCOL: A Phase I assessment of the overall existing process of ESE group was conducted over eight weeks. Phase II Development required 12 weeks. Many barriers and redundancies were identified and removed from the process, improving the overall quality. Decision making was changed from a passive activity to an active one requiring the accountable party to force a decision rather than wait for one.
  
  Affinity developed “straw models,” reviewed them with the CFT and created a final model and document for each component of the new process or tool.
  
  Phase III Implementation was completed over the following nine months. Every step was described in terms of what was required and when, as well as who was accountable, while each functional position was described in terms of their accountabilities across the entire flow of a project. The director, managers and the development CFT were frequently brought together to share results and accelerate usage of the process.
  
  In all, more than 40 workshops, classes, orientations and individual project coaching events were conducted, most of them conducted by the ESE group personnel. Affinity developed the training and coaching methodology, and prepared the ESE presenters using rehearsal and role-play.

This method:

• Increased buy-in from the management team.

• Improved worker adoption and understanding of the process.
• Validated the process and reduced concerns about an outside entity “not understanding our department.”
• Enhanced the presentation skills of the ESE managers and directors.
   

Deliverables

The ESE group director wanted a “Playbook,” a work procedure manual for how projects should go through the engineering and design process most efficiently. The completed Playbook contains the process maps, roles & responsibilities, definitions & requirements, procedures, forms, checklists, standard schedules, review cycles, metrics (Dashboard methodology) and descriptions required to operate the new process and train new ESE group engineers.

The Results

After two months of using the new process, the ESE group achieved a 20% improvement in project completions and cycle-time reduction, while improving quality (first-pass-yield).