An Integrated energy company with refining, wholesale, and retail operations throughout North America engaged Trindent Consulting to enhance their refinery planning process, and blending and terminal operations to improve margins and mitigate quality giveaway.
How we Made it Happen™
Product Blending and Shipping Operations
- Implemented an Execution Review process to mitigate 44.3% performance variance amongst Board Operators, and supplementing it with a BI Dashboard that increased active management by 46%.
- Installed a blend correction process where quality giveaway must be re-blended, resulting in over $861,000 in savings and a positive change in behaviour to reduce rework.
- Developed and conducted training to enhance Operators’ knowledge on component properties, and installed tools such as Dynamic Blend Guide Cards and Blend Correction Calculator to allow them to confidently make improvements to blend recipes.
Terminal Operations
- Implemented an innovative dynamic terminal blending process where blend ratios for E0 87, MID 89, and PRM 91 are revised based on certified blendstock results, resulting in an annual improvement of over $1,066,000.
- Installed a real-time Recipe BI Dashboard that leverages PI data to showcase optimized blend ratios based on current octane values, saving over 28,200 barrels of SUP 94 from being downgraded.
- Eliminated internal buffers by analyzing over 423 meter tickets and meter factor control charts, and implementing a quarterly sampling program per ASTM standards to ensure product quality.
Planning and Scheduling
- Reduced $3,900,000 of excess iso-octane purchases by implementing a cross functional planning cycle that focuses on validation of inputs and optimization opportunities, in addition to a weekly and monthly lookback process to identify variances to planned KPI targets such as yield, utilization, and production volumes.
- Implemented a monthly LP backcasting process, which identified that the FCC performance was continuously overstated resulting in a sub-model maintenance.
- Installed a method to account for inventory when using a single period LP model to eliminate the assumption that all demands must be met and all intermediates have a disposition within the single period, which was causing suboptimal solutions and infeasibilities.
- Implemented a MBO backcasting process and enhanced post-ethanol blend prediction models to reduce planning buffers, resulting in up to 53.6% reduction in quality giveaway and $3,640,000 in annualized savings.
- Developed operational improvement opportunities such as adjusting the Alky rate, importing additional LPG rail cars in negotiation with CP Rail, and blending butane in crude in discussion with Trans Mountain to fully pressurize finished products in the winter blending season.
“Trindent helped us establish performance management tools in key areas of our operations. Weekly management reports provided the leadership team with visibility and insight into performance, while providing clarity on next steps. Trindent worked closely to build the necessary cross-functional communication and cooperation within our teams, and their focus on sustainability has ensured a smooth transition of project ownership.”