Aker Solutions – Kaizen: 5S at Aker Solutions Portlethen Facility

Problem Statement

Excess materials and inventory, HSE issues due to
inventory and the need to hire another property to be
able to service a major contract.

Aim 

To improve the efficiency of the work carried out at the
Aker Solutions Portlethen facility.

Method 

• Map current process and draw out issues preventing the
flow of work through the facility.
• Map future lay out.
• Clear out excess inventory.
• Set-up standardised work areas.
• Reset factory for major contract and for flow
• Install lean tools such as tool shadowing, visual
management and Kanban.

Impact

New process ensured:
• Reduction in motion waste (approx 73% for the most frequent
job type).
• 8.5 tonnes removed – electrical, paperwork, scrap metal.
• £11k retrieved from scrapped items.
• 230m2 space freed-up for potential production bays.
• Potential 70% increase in production with introduction of new
bays.
• Cost avoidance – removing need for additional facility for
Mariner workload: £406K for per year, starting 2017.

The new process resulted in:
• Safer environment with 8.5tonnes of waste removed from site.
• Installed management walk rounds and time to reset and
improve during working day so changes are sustained
• Aker Solutions Portlethen is a more desirable place to work (an
interviewee after a facility tour).
• During a scheduled tour of the facility a customer was
impressed with how “in control” the facility was of production
for their contract.

Total cost avoided: £406k per annum

Contact: Darren Clyde, Senior Lean Coach

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