Site services and infrastructure

Rasch AA (2006) The Role of Site Services and Infrastructure for Productivity Management. In Budde F, Felcht U-H, Frankemolle H (eds) Value Creation Strategies for the Chemical Industry, 2nd edn. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, pp 257-268... 

The Role of Site Services and Infrastructure for Productivity Management... 

Site services and infrastructure are very often considered a rather unexciting function in chemical corporations. Yet maintenance, logistics, utilities, engineering, analytical services, and SHE (safety, health, and environment) - to name but some of the key tasks - can have a major impact on their competitiveness. Hence, their management needs to be treated by chemical companies as part of their core activities. 

Over the last couple of years, site services and infrastructure have undergone a major transition many chemical companies have established a dedicated service unit, sometimes even as a separate legal entity. As competitive pressure in the chemical industry increases, site services and infrastructure must continue to adapt and thus spare no effort to further increase their own competitiveness and contribute to their customers success. 

Site Services and Infrastructure an Important Driver of Manufacturing Productivity... 

However, site services and infrastructure are not only a major driver of cost competitiveness. Some of the services are also crucial for improving plant effectiveness. Maintenance performance, for instance, can have a huge impact on plant output. Unplanned breakdowns, often caused by failure to implement the most effective maintenance strategy or by poor execution, can lead to as much as a 20 percent loss in overall equipment effectiveness (OEE see also Chapter 18). On the utilities side, significant cost advantages can be captured, e.g., by providing... 

The last couple of years have seen considerable changes in the way chemical companies manage their site services and infrastructure. Until the mid 90s, site services and infrastructure were mainly provided via a functional organization by central departments. There was often no or only little coordination or bundling of the services, with no safeguarding of overall responsibility. Budget adherence was the key imperative. The relationship between the service units and the production plants was characterized by ... 

Since then, many players in the chemicals industry have initiated huge changes in their site services and infrastructure organization (Fig. 20.1). 

From the provider s point of view, site services and infrastructure have in many cases become businesses in their own right. Not only have the incumbent service companies tried to expand their business beyond their existing customer bases, but non-chemical players such as ABB Full Service have been attracted to this market as well and are pushing to capture a larger slice of it. 

Going Forward Increasing Site Services and Infrastructure s Competitiveness... 

The process of trying to divest or acquire a site services and infrastructure organization is a very tedious exercise, requiring thorough preparation, and with a very uncertain outcome. So far, a successful exit by a major chemical company is still up for realization and the recent failures raise the question of whether this path will be followed in the near future at all. 

Regardless of the question of ownership, the increased competitive pressure in the chemical industry will be passed on to site services and infrastructure providers. They will need to pull a broad set of levers to improve their own performance in order to help their customers succeed and thus secure their own business (Fig. 20.3). 

Redefining the service offering. Based on an evaluation of customer needs and external competitors, site services and infrastructure providers firstly need to reconsider which services they should offer - and which ones they should not. They are clearly not the best owners of activities such as catering, human resources management, information management, or patent and license management - currently often part of their service portfolio. Second, they need to define which services will be provided by their own personnel and which services will be... 

Fig. 20.3 Key levers for further improving site services and infrastructure competitiveness.

Site services and infrastructure have undergone a major transition over the last couple of years, gaining increased independence or even being spun off into new entities. 

Site services and infrastructure have a strong impact on total production costs and plant effectiveness, and in times of increased changes of ownership of chemical assets their organizational flexibility is becoming more and more relevant. 

As site services and infrastructure made the transition first to bundled services units and then in some cases even to separate independent service companies, they were faced with the need to significantly professionalize the way in which they rendered services to both internal and external customers. 

Competitiveness 262 To Divest or Not to Divest Site Services and Infrastructure 262 Improving Performance and Growing Selectively 264 Summary 267... 

Equipment failures for example failures of level measurement systems (gauges, radar devices, suspended weights), valves and other components also failures of site services and infrastructure that could affect safe operation (eg loss of power, utilities, communications... 

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