Operating Effectively
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See the Whole Organization on a Single Page
Integration within the Organization provides huge benefits when you can see the whole organization on a single page. Learn how to use the Key Themes Tool to view integration of the whole.
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Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Carbon Footprint Modeling
Today, we hear quite a bit about the energy transition and see many global companies resetting their business strategies to incorporate the impending move from oil and gas toward renewable forms of energy. The resetting incorporates anything from ambitious carbon footprint targets to measurable...
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Preparing for the Future of Offshore Oil and Gas
Are you ready for the next phase of Offshore Oil & Gas? Bruce Crager shares his views on preparing for the future of offshore oil and gas.
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Supply Chain Plan
There are many businesses that have just tried to keep their head above water for the past few months with their supply chain plan. Now is the time to get back in the game and reignite the growth engines. What needs to be communicated, and agreed to, with your partners – up and down the...
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Mid-level Leaders Business Transformation
How are Mid-level Leaders Part of Your Business Transformation? In this time of business transformation, engagement of Mid-level leaders by the executive team is crucial. Mid-level Leaders (managers) support the message from the C-Suite and provide the feedback loop critical to getting all on...
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Dispersed Work Teams? How's it Working Out?
Now that several weeks have passed, it would be interesting to hear what good practices have emerged. From my discussions with colleagues and experience working virtually for the last 5 years after 35 years of corporate office life, here are a few efficient ways of working as a virtual team...
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Downstream Industry - Optimize Key Parts of the Value Chain
The change in downstream market conditions is an opportunity for the downstream sector to move even further toward operational efficiency and effectiveness by capitalizing on ways to optimize key parts of the value chain.
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Creating a Truly Integrated Management System
The average NFL team is run by 2-3 front-office personnel and about 15 coaches. That’s about 18 individuals charged with ensuring they win. Yet not one of them has the specific title of ensuring they don’t lose. They do not have a Coach of Penalty Avoidance, a VP of Injury Prevention or a...
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Fundamentals of OE #10: Big Picture
Fundamentals of OE #10: Staying Focused on the big picture Summary: Don’t lose sight of the objective of your OE efforts Many OE programs get launched and, years later, after hundreds of changes, little has really improved At the end of the day, the shortest path to Operational Excellence is...
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Fundamentals of OE #9: Culture
Fundamentals of OE #9: Getting the Culture Right Summary Culture can be one of the greatest competitive advantages for any company, helping it stay ahead even if product, process or talent-based advantages diminish Operationally Excellent companies treat culture as an ongoing effort to be...
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Fundamentals of OE #8: Governance
Fundamentals of OE #8: Establish Governance that Improves Decisions Summary: Governance is a critical aspect of a functioning, continuously improving organization Many companies take a one-size-fits-all approach to governance, which over-burdens some decisions and turns it into a check-the-box...
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Fundamentals of OE #7: Establish Clear Lines of Ownership & Accountability
Summary: Ownership and accountability are critical to operational excellence, primarily to your ability to continuously improve A lack of accountability can set you into a spiral of continuous change, create redundant controls, add cost to your improvement efforts and hold back innovation To...
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Fundamentals of OE #5: Keep It Simple
Summary: Management Systems naturally grow more complex over time A key objective of a management system is to simplify how the organization works together, which means the system itself must be simple Keep in mind what the system is intended for, and who it is supposed to help, and build in...
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Fundamentals of OE #4: Use a Process-Based Decision Making Framework
Fundamentals of OE #4: Use a Process-Based Framework for Key Decisions Summary Your system should be made up of a set of processes necessary to manage the risks within scope A process-based system has less built-in complexity, can have embedded continuous improvement, and is easier to manage...
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Fundamentals of OE #2: Enable Agility Through Organizational Muscle Memory
“The right decision is the wrong decision if it’s made too late”. Lee Iacocca Summary The pace of change in every industry requires rapid and constant strategy adjustments, so consistent execution requires agility Traditional methods for ensuring consistent execution make the system...
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Fundamentals of OE #1: Integrate the Management Systems
Summary There is a big difference between Unified Systems like an EHS system, and an Integrated System like an OEMS Unified Systems tend to work independently from standard business processes, and thus pull the organization in different directions Companies that operate in an Operationally...
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First Things First - Where to Begin the Journey to Operational Excellence
Without a clear idea of where you’re headed, how can you know how to get there? Most executives will agree that Operational Excellence is good. Many will argue that it’s a crucial factor for success. But what is it? Despite the widespread positive perception, there isn’t a lot of...
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Fundamentals of Operational Excellence - 10 Things To Get Right
Fundamentals of Operational Excellence The 10 Things to Get Right if You Want to Beat the Odds Operational Excellence continues to gain popularity. A recent worldwide survey by the Business Transformation & Operational Excellence World Summit found that over half of respondents...
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Organizations Don't Perform Work, People Do
Organization Don't Perform Work, People Do “The strength of the pack is the wolf. The strength of the wolf is the pack.” – Rudyard Kipling, Law of the Jungle Silo Busting On capital projects , strong leadership is required to unite the various functions, organizations, and companies around...
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Offshore Facilities and Remote Operations
: A Way to Reduce Costs, Improve Performance, and Embrace the Future Keeping oil and gas projects profitable when oil prices drop has been a key challenge for the past several years, though not the only one for the industry. While prices in the $70/bbl range have provided some relief recently,...
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Life Extension for Offshore Floating Assets, Part 2
Developing a Life Extension Plan The benefits and challenges of safely and effectively extending the operating life of an asset is well described in Part 1 of this discussion on life extension (LE). In this second part, logical and step-wise approach to developing LE plan that meets the interests...
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Life Extension for Offshore Floating Assets, Part 1
Safely & Effectively Getting the Most Out of Facilities WHAT IS LIFE EXTENSION? At its core, a life extension (LE) plan is a management system that provides assurance to the duty holder, regulators, investors, and other stake-holders that an aging asset can continue to safely operate beyond...
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Lean Six Sigma: Where does it fit within Operational Excellence?
LSS vs OE: Same Tools, Different Names? There seems to be a lot of noise and general misconceptions about Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Operational Excellence (OE). Are they different terms for the same thing? Are they just different approaches to the same end goal? If they are different, which one is...
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Building Organizational Capability of Capital Project Leaders
Given that strong, quality capital project leaders are a key determinant of successful capital project outcomes, and leadership is one of the more frequently cited risks to achieve these, the development of bench strength in project execution organizations requires a clear strategic path forward....
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People Are The Most Important Asset Asset, Part 3 - Walking the Talk
People Are The Most Important Asset Part 3 - Walking the Talk I have spent my entire career working in the upstream oilfield environment and have found people to be a critical success factor in every company in which I have come in contact. In my last two posts on the value of employees to a...
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People Are The Most Important Asset, Part 2 - Employee Expectations
People Are The Most Important Asset Part 2 - Employee Expectations I have spent my entire career working in the upstream oilfield environment and have found people to be a critical success factor in every segment in which I have worked. In Part 1 , I commented on the reasons why people are the...
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People Are The Most Important Asset, Part 1 - Reasons
People Are The Most Important Asset Part 1 It is common to hear companies talk about how people are the most important asset. It is just as common to hear workers talk about being frustrated in their jobs and mistreated by the companies that employ them. Every company needs assets, including...