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Shell Canada
Shell Oil Jump Starts Consumables Savings—Rapid ToolWatch implementation nets 50% savings in three months
Situation
Shell Oil Companys Caroline natural gas field in Alberta, Canada was the industry giants biggest Canadian discovery in 20 years when company geologists located it in 1986. Today, the site is home to the Shell Caroline Complex, the most technologically advanced Shell processing plant in western Canada. The complex processes natural gas for use throughout the region, distributing gas to Los Angeles and Chicago, liquid fuel to refineries and chemical plants throughout Canada and the United States and piping molten sulfur underground for eventual export.
Because the complex is one of the worlds most automated natural gas production and processing facilities, the Shell Caroline project employs fewer than 160 operating and maintenance people. The 15 wells and three compressor stations generally operate unmanned. All this automation means plant employees must make sure every part of the plant is running smoothly at all times.
To do this, the Caroline facility uses a team of contract workers and Shell employees—trained tradesmen whose numbers fluctuate based on plant needs. Whether performing regular plant maintenance or extensive repairs for equipment failure, the team hits the Caroline tool crib before they can complete the job. Before implementing ToolWatch in August 2005, the consumables budget, which covers items like electrical and pipe fittings, and nuts and bolts, was running noticeably high. Whether technicians were wasting items or taking them home for odd jobs around the house, Shell needed to reduce the money it was spending on consumables, while finding a reliable method for tracking which departments were misusing them.
Solution
A state-of-the-art plant like Caroline needed a state-of-the-art program to track its tools, and their old-school pen-and-paper method wasnt cutting it. But the solution also needed to be simple enough that it didnt hinder employees from doing their jobs. Powerful and user-friendly, ToolWatch fit the bill on both accounts.
Shell implemented ToolWatch with a JumpStart program, which brought a team of ToolWatch experts to the Caroline tool crib. JumpStart is a personalized service that helps clients thoroughly understand the ToolWatch software and equipment and ensures a smooth transition from purchase to implementation. Together with Shell employees who would be using the program daily, the team input 90 percent of the tools and consumables the company needed to track. ToolWatch also trained Evan Lodewyk, stock analyst, to use the system and teach it to others. A permanent Shell employee, Lodewyk was the ideal person to become the inside ToolWatch expert, and he could train contract workers to use the program during periods of high turnover. Without JumpStart, wed have far fewer things entered into the system. And we would have had to sit down with this program and figure it all out ourselves. Who knows how long it would have taken to accomplish all that. JumpStart made it easy, Lodewyk said.
Tool crib attendant Joe Lamb now uses the system to track each tradesman checking out tools. Before using the software, important tools were lying around the shop, in the plant or hidden unused in employee toolboxes. There was no motivation or sense of responsibility for where tools went when jobs were completed.
Result
Now employees have a good reason to get the tools back to the crib—ToolWatch. The program has increased contractors and employees attention to tools. Since Lamb always knows who has each tool, he can easily track down any missing item. And when tools are safely back in the tool crib, they are much less likely to be lost, stolen, misused or damaged.
Perhaps the most noticeable change has been how tradesmen use consumables. Before Shell implemented ToolWatch, employees seemed to take more than they needed, wasting resources and causing Shell to spend more on these items than necessary. But since Lamb started using ToolWatch to track consumables and assign consumable costs back to departments, the demand for those items has dropped significantly. The money we spend on consumables dropped so much after we started to use ToolWatch, it was close to half as much as we used to spend, Lamb said.
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