Speed up the energy transition

At the Infra Drenthe location, approximately 200 employees are active. In order to accelerate the energy transition in a very tight labour market, Enexis, among others from Infra Drenthe, launched a national programme called OPS (Operational Steering). The central challenge was how to work more efficiently with limited personnel. This programme consisted of four main themes:

• Behaviour and Leadership

• Direction and Frameworks

• Proper Control (measuring the right indicators)

• Effective Steering and Continuous Improvement

The Lean philosophy was used as the foundation for these themes. From the Emmen location, Masters In Lean executed the programme and worked on the following challenges:

• How do we achieve a cultural transformation in a hectic environment characterised by high workload and limited capacity?

• Where can the first improvements be identified?

Management plays an important role in the success of a cultural transformation. For this reason, a significant amount of time was initially invested in involving the management team in the change process. At the Emmen location, there is a highly motivated and driven management team, which created a lot of positive energy throughout the organisation. In addition to this, there are also highly engaged employees at the site. The challenge was to translate the shared vision together with both management and employees into a clear strategy at departmental level.

Many discussions were held about concrete, measurable objectives and the corresponding improvement actions required to achieve them. This already led to an important initial improvement: by redesigning the meeting structure, meetings are now held more frequently but with a shorter duration. As a result, the total amount of meeting time has decreased, giving employees more time for other operational activities.

In addition to reducing meeting time, many other improvements were implemented across the organisation. Both management and employees were able to monitor performance and improvements using team boards and dashboards. Because both Masters iIn Lean and the organisation used the same tools from day one, the programme was rolled out very quickly and effectively.

All teams achieved strong results (improvements) across the following areas:

• Safety

• Productivity

• Delivery reliability

• Quality

• Financial performance

What stands out is the change in mindset on the shop floor. This is driven by the fact that everyone in the organisation can clearly see and monitor their own objectives in a structured and transparent way. As a result, the bar is continuously being raised. More output is being delivered with less effort. Of course, challenges still remain. However, with the implementation of Lean, continuous improvement has been embedded into the organisation. The first seed has taken root. This new way of working is highly appreciated not only by management, but also by employees.