Driving Output Growth Through Operational Excellence at Sif

EFESO supported Sif in accelerating production performance at its expanded Maasvlakte facility, which included significant greenfield elements, by improving machine reliability, reducing downtime and defects, and implementing structured performance management across operations and maintenance teams.

Industry: Industrial Manufacturing

Service: Leadership & Change Management

Service: Operational Excellence

Service: People and Organization

Our Client

Sif Group has over 77 years of experience in manufacturing large-diameter heavy steel tubular structures and more than 25 years of experience in offshore wind foundations. As a leading supplier of monopiles and transition pieces, Sif supports offshore wind projects worldwide and contributes to the global energy transition through advanced manufacturing capabilities and innovative foundation solutions.

The Challenge

During the ramp-up of a major expansion at its existing Maasvlakte facility, Sif faced a critical challenge: production output was significantly below the level required to meet customer commitments and planned demand. To support the company’s growth ambitions and contractual obligations, output needed to be at least doubled while maintaining operational stability and product quality.

Achieving this required addressing several operational constraints, including:

Frequent downtime and reliability issues on critical production equipment
Limited maintenance capabilities to effectively resolve recurring technical issues
Insufficient visibility into breakdowns, defects, and production losses
Lack of structured KPI management and performance steering on the shopfloor
Inexperienced operational teams and inconsistent operating procedures
Shifting bottlenecks across the production process limiting overall throughput

Real Results Achieved Together

Through a focused operational improvement program, Sif significantly stabilized production performance at its facility. By improving machine reliability, strengthening daily performance management, and increasing shopfloor execution, the organization achieved substantial improvements in output, downtime reduction, and quality first time right increase.

46%

Reduction in processing time

22%

Quality first time right increase

108%

Output increase

Transformation Impact

Reduces downtime by 46% on critical equipment and increased output by 108%.
Implemented daily control meetings with daily steering on KPI's.
Created dashboards providing real-time workorder insights.
Restored and implemented maintaining basic machine conditions.

Our Approach

Started with rapid loss identification while simultaneously addressing immediate operational issues
Defined dedicated workstreams focused on daily control, digitalization, and critical machinery improvement
Re-prioritized improvement initiatives every four weeks to respond to shifting production bottlenecks
Setup and rollout of operational management
High frequent shopfloor coaching to support leadership and operational teams across multiple shifts
Established standardized machine condition and maintenance management practices to improve equipment reliability and performance
Worked closely with machine suppliers and technical specialists to accelerate problem solving
Strengthened collaboration across departments, including Operations, Maintenance, Sales, and Leadership, to improve execution and decision-making

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Improve operational performance and reliability
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