Major Challenge(s)
Project team created mostly from Operations for one-time expansion, High interaction with existing operations, Proximity to production line – high temperatures made working difficult
Vardhman is best known for its textiles business but more than 10 percent of the group’s turnover is due to Vardhman Special Steels Limited (VSSL). In 2009, VSSL’s Managing Director, Mr. Sachit Jain, established very aggressive growth goals for VSSL and embarked on a ₹ 200 Cr expansion planned to be completed in 14 months
Cost of delay was more than ₹ 1.1 Crore in lost sales per day. Most importantly, in this project were 2 shutdowns that, if delayed, would disrupt existing orders and lead to very unhappy customers
Solution Element(s)
Integrated Focus-&-Finish plans, Rigorous Full-Kitting processes for ensuring execution and installation and commissioning readiness, Special review process with main vendor and sub-vendors, Concerto for leveraging the implemented methodology to generate forward-looking alerts
The methodology and software was implemented in the projects. The key differences that prior systems did not provide were:
2-tier planning methodology
Simple and stable project plans with ~150 Focus-&-Finish tasks
Management processes established to drive pro-active actions on Concerto signals: Review structure implemented and driven to exploit thin management capacity
Full Kit management
Concerto provided full visibility of FK readiness and management processes were put in place for driving closure of FK prior to key phases in execution (Commencing civil works, equipment installation)
Contractor Alignment
Main vendor and its own downstream were aligned to ensure on-time manufacturing across 6 locations and supply to site
Synchronized execution
Dynamic and Prioritized schedules for aligning various teams
Forward-looking alerts
Portfolio/ project level forward-looking alerts for management meant pro-active actions. E.g. Concerto predicted huge delays due to slow pace of ordering, prompting Top Management to clear calendar for ordering decisions/ negotiations and delay recovery
Results achieved by client
We finished the project 1.5 months earlier than management expectations. In the first shutdown, we not only finished 1-day early, but we were also able to pull in additional scope. In intangibles, there was minimal fire-fighting. The communication that happened across the organization was fantastic.
MorgardShammar, the leading manufacturer of Steel mills and our main supplier, also commended our team saying that the way this project has been executed is way better than any other project they have done in India