Background

The site director of the factory to be closed left the business. My brief was to take on the management of the site and deliver the closure on time in full whilst ensuring the new supply sources came on stream and without any market impact in terms of quality or service. As part of the closure those personnel remaining would relocate to a newly office location.

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Approach

 

Meetings were held with the factory management team and Key stakeholders from across the business including all Top Team members,  senior management from the factories that would take on the production from the site that was closing and Regional Supply Chain, Planning and Procurement teams.

 

These meeting highlighted that there were a broad group of senior stakeholders who had a range of requirements. The following key items which would be critical to the success of the project identified.

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• Site vacated by agreed closure date to avoid additional site rental costs.

• New Office facility available 1 month in advance of closure to allow smooth transfer.

• New supplying sites achieving current quality to avoid consumer impact.

• Import Supply Chain team and processes up and running to avoid out of stock and high working capital post closure.

• Equipment transfers / disposals completed on time and revenues from sales received.

• Safety, Quality and Volume targets for site to be achieved during ramp down.

• Maintaining ability to react to Market changes (pricing, regulation, new products) during rampdown and cutover period.

• Employees leaving the business as a result of the closure to maintain morale and be treated with respect.

 

A project for the site closure and equipment disposal was in place. As a result of the review additional workstreams were developed to cover the other critical success factors.

 

Further engagement was carried out with the Regional Supply Chain and Supplying Factories which gained commitment to the relevant resources from them to support the project.

 

Additional dedicated resources were agreed to manage the process mapping, training and team building for the new supply chain unit and the office refurbishment project was brought directly under the site closure project.

 

Targets and KPIs were shared with local management and employees to build buy in and momentum behind their achievement.

 

A Project Board was put in place to oversee progress and make decisions as required.

 

The project was delivered on time in full with all targets met or exceeded.

 

Summary

 

This was a complex project with multiple stakeholders. Each stakeholder had their particular requirements and these could compete with each other. My role as the Operations Director was to understand who the key stakeholders were and their requirements from or potential influence on the project.

 

This allowed me to build a broader project which had all items critical to success within its scope. Using a formal project management approach such as Prince 2 with strong project governance ensured the project remained in control.

 

Engaging the management and workforce, both those leaving and staying in the organsition, around the key targets built a great amount of goodwill and energy and ultimately helped deliver a successful outcome.

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