SOE visit to Diageo Runcorn reveals impressive improvement culture 18 May 2010

Drinks giant Diageo opened the doors of its Runcorn site to plant engineers from SOE/IPlantE in April, to provide an impressive insight into how this key beer packaging plant achieves world class maintenance and operations.

Engineering manager Steve McConnell explained that his organisation uses two improvement methodologies – AMIS (asset management information service) and the Perfect Plant lean improvement system, assisted by MCP Consulting and Training.

It's been a long journey but the result, said McConnell, is that two different cultures – one involving craft technicians, the other technician operators – are now integral parts of Diageo's overall excellence programme.

Using AMIS and Perfect Plant, alongside Diageo's SAP computer system, plant operations and maintenance have transformed from reactive to proactive, he said, underpinned by continuous improvement processes geared to OEE (overall equipment effectiveness).

McConnell pointed to several keys to the plant's success, including: aiming for year-on-year improvements to its world class rating through AMIS; using RCM (reliability centred maintenance) studies; and improving maintenance scheduling.

Together, these are enabling ever better performance, reduced waste and lower cost, as well as proving a stable production platform.

At an engineering level, that is sustained by an area engineer overseeing the four quadrants of production, each with its own engineering lead, technicians and operators – with a strong emphasis on multi-skilling and participation in the overall performance improvement culture.

Steve Catte, for SOE/IPlantE, says: "This plant is a credit to the organisation and cannot fail to impress any visitor – which also supports the world class rating of Diageo's organisation."

Brian Tinham

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