Page 254 - TPM A Route to World-Class Performance

228 TPM-A Route to World-Class Performance

assist in maintenance tasks and other asset care routines previously the domain
of the maintenance technician.
Comments Brian: ’If the operators have a better feel for how maintenance
links into the whole production process, they have far better judgement when
it comes to making on the spot decisions that can drastically affect safety,
performance and efficiency. We now have Instrumentation staff who can run
the NGL plant and Production Technicians training in Control Room duties
- a year ago that would never have happened.’
A vital element of cross-training is the positive attitude that it engenders
- an openness and willingness to exchange knowledge with workers from
other disciplines, giving a real team spirit right across the platform and onto
the beach.
Ultimately, the drive for CI means that the plant is more stable. People are
released from a round of reactive responses to machinery problems and instead
can take a step back to implement proactive measures that allow both the
individual and total platform team to be more in control of its operations:
prevention rather than cure.

4.0 The future for Forties

The importance of the work on Delta cannot be underestimated. In the future,
Alpha, Bravo and Charlie will all share in the CI practices tried and tested
during the late 1990s by Delta. The intent for the Forties Field is to move to
consistent use of best practices across the whole field and maximize the
opportunity of sharing lessons learned between each of the platforms. Other
assets outside Forties are already taking an interest in the work that Delta
have embarked upon and are keen to learn from the Delta experience.
Over the next five years, Forties Field will also be looking at a series of
environmental improvement issues, including the emission of hydrocarbon
gas, carbon dioxide and overboard discharges.
So just as an operator now shares knowledge with and co-operates with a
team member from another discipline, so too the Forties Platforms will pool
their strengths and learn best practice from each other to everyone’s benefit.
Already Delta staff have been involved in seeking best practices and new
ideas from other assets, both at home and abroad. This will continue throughout
1998, with several visits being planned. Platform staff are about to embark
upon a shared learning experience. The programme will include short-term
transfers of personnel. Delta have already been hosts to other BP asset staff.
They believe that by this type of co-operation they have a forum for exchanging
techniques, methodology, procedures and processes that has been shown to
improve business results.
As BP Chief Executive, John Browne, said in a recent Sunday Telegraph
article: ’The most important thing I have done is to play a part in building a
team for today and for the future. We set the strong goals and within that our
people innovate to get the right answer.’