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Refining & Chemicals (Downstream)

The petroleum refining business environment today is perhaps the most challenging it has ever been. Excess capacity, acquisitions and divestitures, asset closures, demand vagaries, product substitutions, changing trade-flow dynamics, uncertain regulatory pressures – these and other challenges are extending the boundaries of creativity and ingenuity of the leaders running the refining business.

The chemicals industry business environment demands are no less challenging.  Unparalleled growth in capacity with highly competitive investments in the Middle-East and Asia, increased business uncertainties exacerbated by lower supply chain inventory levels  and volatility in feed and energy costs, demands and requirements of   international capital markets, business climate constraints – these and other challenges are extending the boundaries of creativity and ingenuity of the leaders running the chemicals business.

What we find is that within these environments, there is a wide variation in performance between leaders and laggards, and often among multiple-sites within the same company. The demands to achieve significant performance improvement have been never more immediate and necessary. The financial and qualitative rewards from a successful improvement effort on existing assets are quite significant indeed.

How well you maximize the returns on your existing assets is a crucial component of your competitiveness. Maximizing value-added products, optimizing crude oil selection, acquisition and delivery, adopting technology improvements, optimizing operating expenses such as energy, maintenance, personnel, catalysts and chemicals, minimizing losses and operating at competitive utilization rates – several such factors are within the control of the asset operator. We offer world-class consulting products and services to help you achieve world-class performance.

Working With You To Build Your Vision into Reality
You want to make improvements and build your market value, yet your organization is struggling to make the progress necessary.  You know that your pace of advancement is keenly important given today’s industry demands and shareholder expectations.

We work with you and your team to accelerate the growth of your competitiveness while reinforcing change with measurable and sustainable results.  Through our process, you and your team learn and internalize the disciplines and practices necessary to perpetuate these improvements.

Refining and Chemicals Functional

Chief Executive Officers — How to build and sustain:

  • a healthy, more competitive, company?
  • the leading-edge “mechanical availability” of our assets?
  • our optimum asset utilization for maximum gross margin?
  • our optimum operating/SGA for maximum net cash margin?
  • top 10% in net income, ROCE, safety, environmental performance?
  • top 50% in all key performance measures (Solomon, etc.)?
  • a VPP Merit/Star safety culture?
  • our reliability levels at a pace faster than our competitors?
  • the growth of our future leaders, faster?
  • improved alignment between our strategic and tactical plans?
  • higher-impact projects at lower cost?
  • the pro-active leadership we want with our market analysts?
  • the positive contribution board members can make?
  • our key talent to drive faster, more sustainable growth?
  • ourselves for the key strategic challenges of the next decade?

Finance/Administration/IT — How to:

  • more capably manage margins, cost and volume?
  • more effectively manage contractors and services?
  • define our technology strategy for the next decade?
  • improve our competitiveness, faster?
  • build more “business think” into what we do?

Engineering/Procurement — How to:

  • improve our yields of high-value products by 10%?
  • improve our unit/system reliability by 10%?
  • improve our capital and expense project performance?
  • reduce turnaround time by 25%?
  • stop spending time and resources on marginal projects?
  • improve procurement savings by 10% yearly?
  • achieve top 10% or better performance in product quality?
  • more fully develop engineering and technology expertise?

Operations — How to:

  • improve gross margin by 10%?
  • improve utilization to top 10%?
  • improve operating expense by 10%?
  • achieve unit/system reliability at top 10% level?
  • improve blending and losses performance by 10%?
  • decrease catalyst and chemicals consumption by 5%?
  • reduce demurrage by 10-50%?

Maintenance — How to:

  • increase and sustain unit/system reliability at top 10% or better?
  • achieve optimum maintenance cost to support above reliability levels?
  • instill a culture of cost, safety and operational stewardship?
  • improve our contractor management capabilities?

Cross-Functional Capabilities — How To:

  • more effectively manage inter-functional communication, cooperation and cross-functional processes and activities?…

Refining and Chemicals Organizational Development

Leadership — How to:

  • define our leadership development needs?
  • improve our attract/develop/retain program?
  • grow our growth and competitiveness faster every day?
  • grow our cross-functional collaboration?
  • build employee satisfaction to top 10th percentile?
  • grow our 1st line management’s pro-active involvement with their employees?

Strategy — How to:

  • more astutely define our value-proposition?
  • more clearly define what differentiates us?
  • increase our competitiveness against our defined KPI’s?
  • restructure our asset portfolio based on our strategy?
  • have a “win in this unit” strategy everywhere?
  • pro-actively dispose of our “non-strategic” assets?
  • manage and steward our units and facilities strategically?

Organization — How to:

  • integrate our acquired assets and team members?
  • build capability for new environmental specs?
  • build a common structure across multiple facilities?
  • account for process, skills, strategy considerations?

People — How to:

  • develop for the future those we hired in the past?
  • build development programs based on our future needs?
  • drive productivity and capture its value?

Culture — How to:

  • measure our culture and know how to manage it?
  • establish improvement areas and address them?
  • use cultural drivers to improve our competitiveness?
  • train our team members to achieve our desired outcome?

Process — How to:

  • improve our communication and alignment?
  • move us from “event driven” to “results driven?”
  • easily move team members across different assets?
  • achieve a 25% reduction in turnaround time?
  • accomplish a 10% unit cost reduction?
  • use process to win our cost/create-value paradox

For Case Studies, Leadership Insights and other materials and information Contact:

Bill Rutherford
214.675.7562