Facilitated Strategic Problem Solving

Situation

A large multinational resource company has 3 large mineral processing plants (employing approximately 3,000 people), all located in the same region of Australia. The company wanted to identify cross plant and corporate departmental synergies to enable cost reductions and efficiency increases.

Task

INTEGRATED IMPROVEMENT was engaged to facilitate workshops with representatives from all 3 plants plus other corporate departments to identify these synergies and resulting cost saving and efficiency gain opportunities.

Action

In total, 8 separate workshops were held with 6-12 participants at each workshop. A brainstorming process was designed to identify a list of potential opportunities. This list was then assessed using a “Benefit /Effort” process to further identify the final list of realistic, achievable opportunities which was then progressed to the implementation phase.

Result

Approximately AUD 30 million dollars of potential cost savings and efficiency gains were identified and progressed to the implementation phase. People who may have been affected by any proposed changes were engaged in the solution design and management process. This then increased the likelihood of success and sustainability of solutions going forward.