AM-95-07 BEYOND REENGINEERING: IMPLEMENTING AN ORGANIZATION FOR THE FUTURE - A CASE STUDY

Description:

In recent years, many companies have implemented some form of business transformation or process reengineering. They have invested significant time, energy and money in hopes of achieving “breakthrough” improvements in profitability and culture, but often have been disappointed by the results. Phillips Petroleum’s Sweeny SBU also initiated a business improvement effort in mid- 1993. However, unlike many other efforts, Phillips Sweeny’s initiative has experienced some significant success, A driving factor for this success has been the installation of a new team-based organization structure in combination with the implementation of redesigned work processes. The new organization has encouraged employees to go beyond the redesigned processes and identify additional opportunities for improvement and has improved morale and increased enthusiasm significantly. Although it has only been eight months since implementation, Sweeny has realized bottom-line improvements and continues on the path toward its objective of becoming the “benchmark” producer of petroleum and petrochemical products. This paper provides an overview of Phillips Sweeny’s improvement effort, highlighting some of the specific factors that have helped make it successful.