+50
Plants across North America, Europe, and Asia
A Global Petrochemical Company Improves Maintenance with Lean: Up to 50% Reduction in Emergency Work Orders and 3–4x ROI Through Lean Maintenance Transformation
Industry: Chemicals
Service: Lean Lab
Service: Manufacturing
Service: Operations Strategy and Transformation
Service: People and Organization
Our Client
Global manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers, and fabricated building products operating 50+ manufacturing plants with 16,000 employees across North America, Europe, and Asia.
16K
Employees globally
5B lbs
Annual production from 6 North American sites
The Challenge
The North American operations, comprising six plants and 600 employees, faced critical challenges undermining maintenance effectiveness and operational discipline.
- Ad-hoc maintenance workflows with limited process structure
- Underutilization of SAP for planning and execution
- “Just get it done” culture replacing process adherence
- Lack of role clarity and minimal formal training
- Two independent craft groups creating coordination inefficiencies
- Leadership bandwidth consumed by reactive hiring and gap-filling
Real Results Achieved Together
EFESO’s Lean Maintenance Transformation established strong process discipline, cross-functional collaboration, and measurable productivity gains across the client’s sites.
4x
Return on investment
50%
Reduction in emergency work orders
40%
Reduction in backlog
Transformation Impact
- Improved process discipline and SAP utilization across all maintenance functions
- Embedded continuous improvement behaviors in operations and maintenance teams
- Enhanced accountability and daily performance management
Our Approach
EFESO implemented a comprehensive Lean Maintenance Transformation program focused on process standardization, capability building, and operational alignment.
- Training & Coaching
- Delivered Lean Thinking and SAP workflow training to over 100 employees.
- Coached supervisors to drive process consistency and performance tracking.
- Maintenance Workflow Optimization
- Standardized maintenance processes and terminology in SAP.
- Defined clear work order priorities to reduce emergency work and call-outs.
- Cleaned up backlogs and overdue preventive maintenance to improve scheduling accuracy.
- Lean Waste Elimination & Visual Management
- Introduced daily visual management boards to align Operations and Maintenance.
- Improved cross-functional collaboration, reducing job completion times and increasing accountability.
- Implemented shop-floor accountability boards and toolbox talks for KPI tracking.
- Leader Development & Daily Management
- Coached supervisors on Leader Standard Work and daily performance routines.
- Reinforced proactive problem-solving and continuous improvement behaviors.
Related Services
Lean Lab
Volatile workloads create productivity troughs and lead-time peaks. We stabilize lab operations through capacity modeling, dynamic resource allocation, and lean process optimization.
Manufacturing
Aging equipment meets rising costs and technology disruption. We transform operations through smart factory integration, predictive maintenance, and workforce capability building.
Operations Strategy and Transformation
Helping organizations rethink how they create value. We strengthen performance, build resilience, and accelerate growth across every layer of your business.
Ready to Strengthen Your Maintenance Performance with Lean?
- Standardize maintenance workflows and SAP utilization.
- Reduce emergency work and maintenance backlog.
- Build leadership capability and process discipline across your plants.
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