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If we wouldn’t have engaged PVA we most likely wouldn’t be talking about it today.

Greg Booth
President & CEO
Zippo Logo

PVA’s intervention enabled us to deploy a performance management system for all our Managers in Quebec and Ontario. We surpassed the anticipated benefits. Two years later, the system is still being utilized daily.

Christian Roy
Vice President
Bell Logo

We hired PVA for 2 reasons - for cost savings and to change people's attitudes. On both fronts they accomplished the targets.

Senior Vice President
Canadian Pacific Logo

We engaged PVA based on positive feedback we received from some of their previous clients. We achieved the promised savings and have seen a significant positive impact to business results.

Paul Flaherty
President & CEO
NorthwesTel Logo

The big win was increasing the active supervision and re-defining the role of the Supervisor. This contributed to the results which are (currently) tracking to the targets.

Director
Operations
TransAlta Logo

I am pleased to say that we have now successfully implemented a weekly work plan, bi-weekly KPI’s, an opportunity-based Steering Committee, held multiple Supervisor coaching sessions, and significantly reduced overtime.

Matt Dover
Assistant Manager
Nova Scotia Power Logo

Management Consulting Services

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Management Consulting

Utilities Management Consulting Company - Hybird Workplace

Utilities Management
Consulting Company

Our client has ownership of more than 50 power plants in Canada, the United States, and Australia producing 8,460 MW of power. It generates electricity, fueled by coal, natural gas, water, geothermal energy and wind, and sells their commodity to wholesale customers in various regions of Canada, the U.S., and Australia. This organization has approximately $3 billion in annual revenue and more than $9 billion in assets.

Management Consulting Case Study: Power Generation

Objectives

  • Improved processes and enhanced managerial skill sets.
  • Improved the Continuous Improvement climate and culture in the facility.
  • Ensure that at all times safety levels were maintained or improved upon, and that all changes were sustainable.
  • Reduce overtime costs in Routine Maintenance and Operations.
  • Reduce Contractor costs.

Assessment Findings

  • Work Time

  • Travel Time

  • Non-effective Time

  • Little or no sign-out of work was occurring at the beginning of the shifts with regards to how much should be accomplished within a given period of time.
  • Field operators were only performing “visual” inspections when touring, and during the observations there were no “check-lists” or “hand-held devices” used to document temperatures, pressures, oil fill heights, etc.
  • There was a lack of an effective backlog management system in maintenance (thousands of hours of backlog were past due to the planned completion date).
  • Supervisors and Managers did not exhibit appropriate management behaviors such as communicating expectations and following-up on variance to plan with their employees.
  • Supervisors spent a great deal of their time doing administration activities and did not understand how to manage their time between these activities and following-up with their people.
  • There was little monitoring of work throughout the day by individual or by activity (Mechanical, Electrical, or Operators).
  • Problems and the hours associated with them were not being properly documented, tracked and summarized so that they could be assigned to the appropriate individual(s) for permanent resolution.

PVA's Response

  • PVA management consultants provided Supervisors and Managers with the appropriate training and one-on-one coaching to effectively engage in work process analysis and solution implementations.
  • Developed and implemented planning elements as per measured standards.
  • Developed and implemented checklists for operations monitoring conducted by the outside operators.
  • Developed and implemented control documents to better manage costs in the Operations and Maintenance areas.
  • Increased overall compliance to work plans by increasing the pro-active follow-up by the Supervisors and Managers.
  • Increased the effective utilization of in-house versus Contractor crews.

The Results

Hover over graphs for more information

Some significant results obtained by our Client included:

  • 10% improvement in the levels of Operations overtime.
  • 45% improvement in the levels of Routine Maintenance overtime.
  • 106% attainment of the planned savings target.

Actual OMG & Capital Hours vs. Base Hours

PM Attainment

Overtime hours (Maintenance)

Improvement in Supervisory Activities

PRE-PROJECT
1% 0% 57% 32% 10%
POST-PROJECT
40% 5% 20% 25% 10%
  • Active Supervision
  • Training
  • Administration
  • Travel to Plants
  • Available

Long Term Work Continuation

  • A client coordinator was trained and certified during the PVA engagement
  • A quarterly audit of the new Management Operating System was developed and implemented for the plant Coordinator, and was supported through PVA’s audits over 21 months post the project.
  • A weekly Management Meeting and Executive Report was designed and implemented to ensure that all Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) are reviewed on an ongoing basis.
  • The review process was designed to support and drive the organization to continually improve all aspects of the plant in terms of safety, costs and reliability.
$1.16
+ BILLION SAVED
AVERAGE ROI
YEARS
+ ENGAGEMENTS
228
+ CLIENTS

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Our client is an organization that provides 95% of the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in one of the Canadian provinces. They serve 490,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers, and employ 2,000 employees and expert professionals. This client manages $4 billion worth of generation, transmission and distribution assets. The organization has recently undergone privatization, and it now needs to enhance the various departments, processes, and management operating systems to move from a not-for-profit to a market-based organization.

Management Consulting Case Study: System Maintenance

Objectives

  • The foremost objective was to re-energize the business unit while moving from a “single, independent” department to a contributing member of the overall utility.
  • Improve cost controls, reduce overall costs, and get more of the annual work plan accomplished.
  • Improve maintenance planning and management techniques to increase overall utilization of resources and preventive maintenance program attainment.
  • Develop and implement proactive management styles with the Supervisors and Managers to increase their involvement and engagement of the workforce.

Assessment Findings

Need for Improvements

  • Productivity

  • Opportunity

  • Assignments were not communicated with realistic time expectations.
  • Employees determined the pace and the time they felt was required to complete assigned work.
  • Lack of control on the overtime used to complete activities that should have been completed during regular working hours.
  • An excessive amount of time was spent out in the field searching for the proper documentation and/or equipment needed to complete work.
  • Minimal or no cooperation from other departments such as engineering to address and help resolve issues that they were responsible for creating (missing information, drawings or permits).
  • When issues were identified by workers out in the field they were not communicated nor documented, and were left for the next individual to identify and encounter the same issue at a later date.
  • Supervisors rarely engaged the workforce and spent only about 2% of their time actively supervising their people.
  • There was a lack of expectation setting and appropriate follow-up at the beginning of the day, during the day, and at the end of the day by the Supervisors with their employees.
  • Supervisors believed that their people knew what to do and did not require a great deal of follow-up or communication.

PVA's Response

Improvement in Supervisory Activities

Utilities Supervisory Activities

  • Provided training and individual one-on-one coaching to the Supervisors and Managers to improve the effectiveness of their management skills.
  • A customized Management Operating System (MOS) was designed and installed to increase accountability and ownership of the results.
  • Developed and implemented a problem resolution mechanism to increase the involvement of all employees in the change process and results attainment.
  • Developed performance standards and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for the preventive maintenance routines.
  • Utilized those performance standards to provide specific daily targets to the Maintenance personnel.
  • Improved the planning and execution of work.
  • Implemented a comprehensive overtime control program.
  • Enhanced the roles and responsibilities for Supervisors and Managers.
PRE-PROJECT
2% 0% 44% 29% 25%
POST-PROJECT
45% 5% 15% 15% 20%
  • Active Supervision
  • Training
  • Administration
  • Travel Time on Sites
  • Available

Hover over charts for details.

The Results

Hover over graphs for more information

Some significant results obtained by our client included:

  • Reduction of the overtime rate by over 80%.
  • Increased the amount of preventive maintenance work plan completed by 16%.
  • Reduced regular maintenance operating costs by 23%.
  • Improvements in the communication of maintenance and capital issues.
  • Improvements in the levels of pro-active management by the Supervisors and Managers.
  • Improvements in intra and inter-departmental communications and cooperation.
  • Creation of a climate of continuous improvement.

Total Savings

Utilities - System Maintenance

Long Term Work Continuation

  • A client Coordinator was trained and certified during the PVA engagement. A quarterly audit program of the new Management Operating System (MOS) was developed for the Coordinator.
  • PVA conducted audits over 18 months to ensure the continued utilization of the Management Operating System.
  • Standard operating procedures (SOP’s) and manuals were developed as reference material for the future.
  • Planning and Management Meetings were implemented to ensure that long-term checks and balances for utilization of the MOS were being performed.