Implementation of the Stroytransgaz Production System

An innovative production system is introduced across Stroytransgaz Group at each of the 4 MTEC construction sites and at SKA Arena. The system is designed to improve the performance and quality, reduce construction time and improve production processes.

According to Vladimir Aleksandrovich Lavlentsev, "Stroytransgaz Production System is a well weighed decision. The implementation of the Production System is in general aimed at multifold improvement of the performance and meeting the company's strategic goals to expand the project portfolio, timely build facilities within budget with consistently high quality."

The company decided to introduce a systematic approach to the deployment of the Stroytransgaz Production System across all construction sites. A new stage of forward movement starts with a view to maintain leadership in the highly competitive construction market. Stroytransgaz has an impeccable 30 years’ track record. Now, more than ever, it is important to constantly improve by preserving the best traditions and develop according to new requirements of the time. Implementation of an innovative production system is a new era. This will provide momentum to the next stage of the company's development. Therefore, at this stage of development, it is important to work as a single team by helping each other and demonstrating the best professional qualities and use the best practices of major corporations. The system shall combine the services implemented in the company, provide fresh ideas and developments and encourage the team for new aspirations and achievements.  The most important component is training and employee incentives.

 
This is a systemic work to create an infrastructure that would contribute to the development of a lean production culture and improve the performance without prejudice to quality.

The system came to us from Rosatom, a company that simply does not have the right to make any design and technical errors in its projects due to a specific nature of its activities.

Rosatom production system (RPS) is a culture of lean production and a system of ongoing process improvement to ensure global competitive advantages. Implementation of the RPS system in the company is not an easy team work. The RPS is based on five principles encouraging the employees to:

1. Be attentive to the customer's demands (not only in relation to the end user, but also to the consumer site, consumer workshop and even the subsequent operator);
2. Solve problems where they occur;
3. Embed quality into the process, do not produce defect products;
4. Identify and eliminate any losses (excess stocks, interprocess backlogs, downtime, unnecessary flows, etc.);
5. Be a role model for colleagues.

These principles were generated on the basis of the best Russian and foreign practices. Mastering the RPS tools is a prerequisite for the professional and career development of employees of the country's nuclear industry.

At the construction site of the SKA Arena, works are performed in two shifts with the highest productivity possible, the work of the teams is monitored daily using a production monitoring and analysis stand. Each sector has its own team, 14 sectors totally. All data from the sectors are consolidated in the obeya, a Japanese word meaning a “large room” where the management monitors the daily progress, identifies problems and makes decisions to remedy them. Building a production monitoring chain from the sector to the monitoring screen of the entire construction site in the obeya allows to reliably assess the current status, identify factors that reduce performance and solve these problems, reduce decision-making time as much as possible.

The teams compete with one another. The analysis sheet allows to identify and quickly solve pressing issues, underperforming teams and to determine construction leaders. However, the analysis of operational indicators only is not sufficient to understand the achievement of the project target.

"At the SKA Arena site, we began to implement the production control screen for the construction manager based on an end-to-end map of the construction process displaying all milestones of the project. This tool will allow to assess the impact of the current situation on the critical path, the risk of deviation from milestones, which in turn will allow timely development of the necessary measures aimed at achieving the goal, i.e. to timely deliver a high-quality facility," said Deputy General Director for the SKA Arena Production Preparation and Planning Andrey Vladimirovich Orlov.

It is worth noting that a lean system is created jointly with all participants in the process and integrated in both production and office processes. An example is the application of the pulling principle, when the purchase and delivery are based on the production needs or a daily and monthly work schedule. Another example is the transition from hoist-based crane time planning to time-based planning. In addition to the compliance with construction deadlines, it is important to pay attention to the quality of work.

Now, SKA Arena is implementing an acceptance analysis at the first submission to identify and eliminate recurring quality problems. Two Technical Board meetings were held, where proposals for improvements received from company employees were considered and a bonus was paid for implemented proposals.

The cultural & educational complex facilities in South Russia are actively involved in the lean production programme. The production system implementation workshops are held together with representatives of STG JSC. In addition to main construction jobs, the PSS, for example, will also improve the work of office employees, including the administrative assistant, spokesperson and HR department. Anything that requires some kind of optimization can be improved by the STG production system.

Construction works are assessed by meeting the plan, the amount of scrap and surplus. However, related non-construction positions are assessed by the speed of negotiating contracts, the amount, relevance to the plan, materials to be released, errors and comments, and other indicators.

Each site holds meetings in obeya in the format provided by the production system. They have stands with posters, workflow charts to visually show what needs to be done.

An analysis of the construction site of the Opera and Ballet Theatre showed a lack of space to store materials, in particular, reinforcements. A technical solution was found during the meeting, a "herringbone" stand, where materials are secured semi-vertically and can be placed more consolidated. Attention to such detail can lead to a good increase in performance in the medium term.

To date, STG Siberia JSC is building a comprehensive organization and management production system. Processes are aligned so that high-quality construction proceeded as safely, quickly, efficiently and economically as possible.

"The priority is to provide for the transparent construction process, to create a visual system to clearly show how the process is going, where and why the delay takes place. At the same time, engineer and worker training shall be arranged, we shall introduce a 5S system ("sort", "set in order", "shine", "standardize", and "sustain") at construction sites to correctly manage the workplace to ensure safe and efficient performance by each member of the team," said General Director of STG Siberia JSC Sergey Sergeevich Mariinsky.

First of all, the Stroytransgaz Production System will be used to create a transparent construction management system from the general director to workers at the construction site. A detailed ‘plan-actual’ analysis of the performance of the main, auxiliary and supporting processes will ensure transparency of the construction process and a better understanding of possible risks and areas requiring additional attention.

"The purpose of any production system is to have no losses. This is the only way to achieve the required quality of works and meet their deadlines. STG Zapad team accepts and understands the need to implement this system at all facilities under construction at the complex. To date, they have managed to arrange the monitoring of project milestones in the "plan-actual-divergence" format. This is the most important basic component for subsequent implementation of the production system. If there are no deviations, it is impossible to identity problems, in principle. This does not mean that they do not exist and we have to make the works "transparent" through their daily planning and monitoring. Supporting and auxiliary processes have also been changed. For example, a project has been initiated to improve the process of drawing up as-built documentation; a project is underway to increase the productivity of driving of bored piles at the Opera and Ballet Theatre project and solid cast works at the Museum Complex," says General Director of Stroytransgaz Zapad LLC Andrey Ivanovich Fedorov.

"The main problem is people's resistance. My task is to help. The team plays a big role. It is important that people cooperate and share improvement ideas. I would like that the employees enjoyed the work process. A friendly atmosphere is important in this case," said Deputy Director of STG Zapad LLC Vyacheslav Valerievich Ognev.

Stroytransgaz Vostok is getting ready to implement the Stroytransgaz Production System. Now the employees are finishing the preparations, in the near months the company's management will have a detailed road map, pilot areas will be identified and a list of employees who will be the first to be trained on lean production tools will be drawn up.

"Usually, when people talk about the introduction of any system, they are talking about the purchase of new equipment or the beginning of the use of alternative software in electronic document flow, but in the case of the Stroytransgaz ”production system”, the main “innovation” is a change in the mindset of the company's employees from directors, heads of services and departments to ordinary workers. People are the key link in the system, our most valuable asset. Exactly when the principles of lean production become clear and accepted by any and all employees, it will be possible to say that the production system is working at full capacity," said General Director of Stroytransgaz Vostok LLC Igor Vladimirovich Volkunovich.

As the transition to the Stroytransgaz production system is mostly linked to training, the deployment of tools does not require significant financial investments. However, at the initial stage, the increase in performance is estimated at 20-25%. The result of the implementation of the Stroytransgaz Production System shall be the transformation of STG Vostok construction sites into locations with a very high level of production culture, where safety is the highest priority, where people know how to identify losses and quickly eliminate them, where people listen and hear various proposals for improving production processes. Such sites will certainly become role models and, to a certain extent, a standard for other construction sites in Primorye Territory.

A professional team is engaged in the implementation of the production system in STG Group and in GORKA Group. Several events, orientation sessions, trainings were held, and work with managers is carried out on an ongoing basis. This is a systematic and active process of involving personnel in the PS. The implementation of the PSS requires non-standard and creative solutions and a special approach to the team.

"Resistance of the team when introducing changes is inevitable, and this is an absolutely normal reaction that cannot be immediately suppressed by administrative levers. Only gradual involvement of the staff in the continuous improvement culture through immersion in projects and training will allow us to mitigate possible negative responses and make projects painless for everyone," said Implementation Project Manager (PS) Aleksandr Pleshkov.

Aleksandr has an extensive track record of implementing the Rosatom production system at major Russian companies. No factors affect successful implementation of the production system (PS) in the company. The most interesting thing is that the activity of companies does not play any role in the development of the production system. Global practice has successfully demonstrated this through the introduction of PS in the banking sector, in agricultural holdings, at nuclear facilities, medicine, education, etc. Extensive experience in implementing tools at construction sites in the Russian Federation will allow the company to improve the project performance in all production areas.