A North American Refiner operating in Western Canada partnered with Trindent to implement a state-of-the-art Gasoline Quality Giveaway Reduction Program. Focusing on process, system and behavioral changes in Scheduling, Operations, and Laboratory areas, the refinery was able to greatly reduce octane and volatility giveaway with the support of Trindent.
How we Made it Happen™
First (Blend) Operator Development
- Expanded the knowledge base of First Operators through enhanced giveaway and Experion training. This enabled sharing of best practices and lessons learned.
- Empowered First Operators by creating Blend Guide Cards to support active blend adjustments in a structured manner based on gasoline component properties and price.
- Monitored First Operator Performance using Execution Performance Dashboards. increasing visibility into execution variance by crew and operator.
- Provided First Operators feedback through Crew Review Meetings to promote a culture of continuous improvement and drive operator accountability.
Improved Insight
- Created a Weekly Giveaway Tracker to communicate and distribute results to relevant stakeholders – increasing visibility into the refinery’s performance and enabling continuous improvement discussions.
- Established a Blend Review Meeting for various stakeholders to discuss blend challenges and best practices. Resulted in several improvement initiatives to prevent reoccurrence of blend failures.
- Installed Analyzer Control Charts to provide rapid feedback of Analyzer performance – installation increased analyzer accuracy by over 60% for octane and volatility readings.
Sustaining the Results
- Provision of support and detailed instructions for each implemented tool.
- Development of Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) charts for changes to indicate ownership, required actions, and frequency of actions.
- Implementation of a Sustainability Plan to capture the historic record, implemented actions, future next steps, and plan for sustainment.
“The Sustainability Plan is an incredibly thorough document and I really appreciate Trindent taking the time to add in details on historical numbers and processes , as it will help ensure the sustainability of these efforts long after key members of the group have moved into new roles.”