Pride Month 2024: Supporting 2SLGBTQI+ Artists
Celebrating Pride Month at Trindent
The history of Pride is rooted in resistance, resilience, and the pursuit of equality. It traces back to the early morning hours of June 28th, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City and is now a global movement celebrating how far we have come, and how far we still need to go.
Trindent is proud to be a supporter of the 2SLGBTQI+ community. 🏳️🌈
As part of our celebration of Pride, we’ve invited each one of our team members to pick a song by an 2SLGBTQI+ artist that inspires them. These selections have been compiled into a playlist we proudly call “Trindent’s Pride Month Playlist.”
Be Proud. Be Unique. Be Yourself.
At Trindent Consulting, we are committed to diversity, inclusion and equal rights. This means that every team member is encouraged to be their authentic self at work and is empowered to express themselves freely, without any barriers.
Our inclusion and diversity strategy puts a strong focus on creating a comfortable and open work environment. We are committed to ensuring that every employee is allowed to excel regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Interested in joining our team? Visit our current openings page to learn more!
2024 International Womens Day
Today, on International Women’s Day, we take this moment to celebrate our esteemed women at Trindent Consulting and all the incredible women around the globe for their dedication, expertise, and passion!
At Trindent Consulting, we’re committed to empowering women in the workplace, fostering a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion.
We are always on the lookout for new talent, and we want to welcome more women to our team! Interested? Check out our Current Openings page!
Let’s continue to support, uplift, and empower one another. 💜💪
Maximizing Benefits through Advanced Process Control (APC) in Gasoline Blending
Introduction:
Advanced process control (APC) plays a crucial role in real-time analysis and recipe control for optimizing gasoline blending operations. However, to harness the full potential of these systems, users must be aware of key considerations. This article will explore three important caveats when implementing APC in gasoline blending: configuring the objective function, ensuring accurate parameters and constraints, and establishing a robust performance review process. By addressing these aspects, refineries can unlock the benefits of precise process control, automation, and financial advantages while adapting to lean operational environments.
Table of content:
- Configuring the Objective Function
- Parameters and Constraints
- Performance Review Process
- Benefits of a Well-Configured APC System
- Conclusion
Configuring the Objective Function:
To achieve optimal results, configuring the APC system's objective function is essential. Refineries must customize the solution to align with their specific refinery posture and economic goals. Often, default settings from initial installation are utilized without considering individual circumstances. Refineries should assess and update these settings regularly to maximize performance and value delivery.
Parameters and Constraints:
The accuracy and timeliness of data feeding into the APC system are critical for effective gasoline blending. Refineries must ensure that data sources are up-to-date, reflecting daily operations and incorporating the latest lab data. Careful attention should be given to the calibration and accuracy of the data. Additionally, refining the constraints is vital to strike the right balance. Overly flexible constraints can lead to excessive fluctuations during adjustments, while overly tight constraints may hinder the system's ability to provide optimized solutions.
Performance Review Process:
Regular performance reviews are essential to ensure that the APC system remains up-to-date and continuously improves. Refineries should establish a robust review process to assess the system's configuration and identify additional optimization opportunities. By periodically evaluating system performance and exploring new features, refineries can enhance their operational efficiency, identify potential areas for improvement, and capitalize on emerging technologies.
Benefits of a Well-Configured APC System:
A well-configured APC system in gasoline blending brings numerous benefits. It enables precise process control, ensuring the production of optimal-quality gasoline within specifications. The high level of automation reduces manual intervention and empowers process control engineers and operators. In lean operational environments, a well-configured APC system can generate significant financial benefits, potentially amounting to tens of millions of dollars annually.
Conclusion:
Maximizing the benefits of APC in gasoline blending requires careful attention to key considerations. Configuring the objective function to align with refinery goals, ensuring accurate parameters and constraints, and implementing a robust performance review process are crucial steps. By addressing these caveats, refineries can achieve precise process control, automation, and substantial financial advantages in an increasingly lean operational landscape.
Operations and Supply Chain Optimization
A medical device company focused on the design, marketing and manufacturing of surgical products for spine disorders experienced low fill rates, weak ordering governance, poor field inventory visibility and elevated purchasing and material input costs and engaged Trindent to complete a structured operations and supply chain optimization.
$2,200,000
ANNUALIZED SAVINGS
14%
FILL RATE IMPROVEMENT
$1,100,000
REDUCTION IN YEARLY PURCHASING SPEND
HOW WE MADE IT HAPPEN
- Formalized key supply chain and customer satisfaction indicators: order fill rate, inventory ABC segmentation, average back in stock date, inventory planning accuracy.
- Improved accuracy of production signals by adjusting inventory category parameters. (min/max/safety stock)
- Implemented a vendor-managed inventory program and formalized the buying process, saving $1,100,000 annually.
- Redesigned warehouse layout to streamline picking and flow of material to enable the consolidation of orders to various distributors, saving $310,000 annually.
- Installed inventory turns and tissue expiry reports to reduce net field inventory levels by 13% in 3 months.
- Designed operating dashboards and daily meeting for departmental managers to review KPIs and determined a plan of action to address variances to targets.
- Redesigned the return of material process to release $2,000,000 in previously invisible stock • Reduced inbound priority overnight shipments by 57%.
- Reduced outbound priority overnight shipments by 20%.
- Reduced overtime hours by 31% in manufacturing, quality assurance, clean room and distribution.
“From the start, the Trindent team integrated with our staff at all levels. In a very short time, the team uncovered over 50 process improvement opportunities and worked collaboratively with groups in customer service, planning, purchasing, manufacturing, and distribution to execute their implementation. Furthermore, a formalized continuous improvement program was defined which accelerated the pace of change in the business.”
– Chief Operating Officer
Medical Technology A/R Solutions
One of the world’s largest medical technology corporations was facing large rebate disputes, costly damages and returns, and difficulty managing Accounts Receivable and engaged Trindent to identify and implement solutions.
6%
REDUCTION IN PRICING ERRORS
$7,700,000
ANNUALIZED SAVIINGS
67%
REDUCTION IN DAY SALES OUTSTANDING
HOW WE MADE IT HAPPEN
Achieved $2,800,000 reduction in working capital Eliminated 50% of customer data errors with new through improvement of DSO:
- Refined and optimized collection targets based on collections performance in each age bracket.
- Reduced A/R Bad Debt reserves by 50%.
Saved over $1,300,000 in shipping costs and damages:
- Reduced shipping discrepancies by over 40%.
- Developed standard auditing processes and tools for each shipping methods to maintain the benefits realized.
Eliminated 50% of customer data errors with new data management protocols:
- Implemented a set of tools and processes to identify and prioritize customer error resolution.
- Introduced service levels and KPIs to eliminate backlog and set operational targets.
Reduced Pricing errors by 6%:
- Developed and implemented a system for Pricing and Rebates which reduced and synchronized pricing/rebate data with distributors.
“Trindent’s practical, hands-on implementation approach was able to quickly solve very complex issues that improved the experience for internal departments, third party facilities and end customers. The speed at which Trindent was able to bring acceptance and accountability into the project and the ability to convert the project into a ‘business as usual’ continuous improvement culture is what impressed me the most.”
– Chief Financial Officer
Back-Office Improvement
A Japanese division of one of the largest insurance providers engaged Trindent to improve productivity and implement effective management processes.
64%
PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT
32%
REDUCTION IN PROCESSING ERRORS
21%
REDUCTION IN LABOR HOURS
HOW WE MADE IT HAPPEN
Upgraded the customer error reduction program, leading to a significantly improved customer experience:
- Implemented an error reduction program to analyze and eliminate errors on customer submitted documents reducing errors by 50%.
- Identified alternate mail methods for documents returned to customers based on risk of error.
Improved reporting and management systems:
- Installed area and team dashboards.
- Implemented early warning management system to immediately identify variances to plan and enable management to take corrective action Installed short-interval feedback mechanism to drive performance accountability throughout all levels of staff.
Implemented ‘Straight Through’ processing:
- Consolidated and processing across teams and implemented ‘Straight Through’ processing strategies across the business, saving over 25,000 hours per year Implemented workload balancing tools which contributed to 21% reduction in labor costs.
- Developed a risk profile and eliminated multiple checks according to process risk level.
“The Trindent team immediately built relationships with our local staff enabling them to get to the root cause of issues and quickly solve business problems. As we continue to proceed with the implementation of our global gold standard, we consider the Trindent team an important business partner.”
– Vice President, Asia
Operations Efficiency Turnaround
An insurance market leader in Korea, seeking to improve its competitive position in Thailand and China engaged Trindent to perform an operations efficiency turnaround at one of its business divisions based in Bangkok, Thailand. The client aimed to raise service levels and decrease costs.
20%
PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT
50%
DECREASE IN TURNAROUND TIME
67%
REDUCTION IN UNREALIZED PREMIUM LOSSES
HOW WE MADE IT HAPPEN
- Improved customer service productivity services by over 20%: cross-training service teams, introductory enquiry categories for the majority of inbound calls, routed calls to most skilled available CSR, balanced workload between teams.
- Improved cash remittance ratio by encouraging new customers to remit by pre-authorized payment.
- Installed real-time dashboards that measured and controlled productivity, quality, speed, error rates and backlog.
- Enhanced claims assessment process to route inbound claims to the assessors with the correct authority limits and experience levels.
- Classified claims cases as quick versus complex and ensured processing with the appropriate level of assessment.
- Eliminated unnecessary actuarial verification activities for key loan and policy surrender processes.
- Improved collections performance in group insurance business by issuing timely correspondence regarding failed pre-authorized payments, helping reduce unrealized premium losses by 67%.
- Designed resource-planning tools to estimate future staffing levels based on forecasted work volumes.
- Coached and transformed front-line supervisors to actively manage.
“Trindent contributed deep subject matter expertise in a straightforward fashion despite the cultural complexities and linguistic barriers at hand. What was most impressive is that the reporting tools were deployed within a period of only 9 weeks – with no IT investments. It is my hope that this management system becomes the corporate standard for how operational effectiveness is assessed across our division”
– Executive Vice President
Oil Sands Maintenance Operations Improvement
Building on strong past engagements, one of the largest operators in Canada’s growing oil sands industry engaged Trindent to assess the efficiency of operation within its maintenance services group.
18%
REDUCTION IN FTE LEVELS
$25,000,000
ANNUALIZED SAVINGS
59%
REDUCTION IN WEEKLY RENTAL COSTS
HOW WE MADE IT HAPPEN
Enforced crane shop cancellation and confirmation process, leading to 59% reduction in rental crane costs:
- Freed up company-owned resources to reduce unnecessary rental crane bookings.
- Reported out on reservations that were not utilized for each maintenance area.
- Promoted active communication between crane shop and users.
Improved reporting and management systems:
- Installed area and team dashboards.
- Upgraded daily activity sheet to track barriers.
- Implemented weekly executive level reports to increase operational performance visibility.
Improved contractor short interval management by frontline supervisors, leading to 18% reduction in contractor FTE:
- Reported out on planned vs. unplanned permits to reduce contractor time spent on permit request
- Standardized duration and timing for contractor breaks to avoid unnecessary travel time
“Trindent’s team helped us to establish processes and performance management tools which resulted in cultivating an active and effective management environment. Financially speaking, the engagement proved to be successful and sustainable.”
– Vice President, Maintenance
Hydrocarbon Loss Control
A diversified energy company with renewable fuels, petroleum refining and marketing business throughout the USA South-Midwest engaged Trindent to create and develop an industry leading hydrocarbon loss control program and reduce custody transfer losses.
62%
REDUCTION IN REFINERY MASS BALANCE LOSS
$9,500,000
ANNUALIZED SAVINGS
56%
DECREASE IN SEDIMENT & WATER VARIANCE
HOW WE MADE IT HAPPEN
Sediment & Water
- Installed a Sediment & Water (S&W) tracking Dashboard to monitor Crude Quality and corrective actions that resulted in 56% less S&W paid at the price of Crude.
- Achieved accurate and consistent S&W analysis and $7,800,000 in annualized savings from baseline.
- Established S&W witnessing checklists per API and ASTM standards to ensure measurement best practices are followed by 3rd parties.
Gathered Crude Measurements
- Installed a witnessing checklist which reduced Truck Driver’s Crude Ticket Errors by 54%.
- Implemented an automated, integrated WellTrax tickets dashboard that reduced manual data entry efforts by 80% to ensure sustainability which resulted in $1,180,000 annualized savings.
Meter Measurements
- Installed a standardized process to reduce variance between Bill of Lading (BOL) and actual receipt volumes which has recovered $230,000 in annualized loss.
- Built and implemented 200+ Meter Factor Control Charts (MFCC) to monitor deviations in 106 meters, which are used to initiate maintenance, proving, and meter correction actions.
“The Trindent team collaborated effectively with our Leadership team and key stakeholders to develop and implement best practices to improve refinery mass balance. Trindent has implemented a sustainable solution and they have set us up for success moving forward. It was a pleasure working with the Trindent team.“
– Vice President, Refinery Operations
Energy Consumption Optimization
A leading refinery in Canada, with already top-quartile Energy Intensity Index (Ell) rankings engaged Trindent to push the frontiers of their energy efficiency with the aim of seeking Energy Star certification while simultaneously reducing their GHG emissions. Over the course of six months, Trindent developed and implemented over 170 changes that reduced natural gas consumption by 4.5% and electrical consumption by 3.7%. The engagement was not reliant on any capital expenditures or software.
4.5%
REDUCTION IN NATURAL GAS CONSUMPTION
$17,300,000
ANNUALIZED SAVINGS
3.7%
REDUCTION IN ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION
HOW WE MADE IT HAPPEN
- Designed and implemented near real-time dashboards to monitor natural gas and electricity consumption, versus refinery forecasted demand.
- Implemented area-by-area sub-metering of electricity to promote ownership and awareness.
- Reduced flue gas quantities by repairing leaks, saving 2.2% and implemented advanced flue gas monitoring processes.
- Reduced excess air in boilers by optimizing fuel-to air ratios to improve boiler efficiency by 1.1%.
- Optimized the reflux ratio of the distillation column to produce energy savings of $1.2M by optimizing characteristics of the feed.
- Developed purchasing and repair specifications for motors (pumps, air compressors, fans and other applications) to ensure that motor speeds, loads and sizing were most efficiently selected.
- Reduced steam costs by $3.2M by implementing a scheduling approach that assigned priority to boilers that were more efficient.
- Implemented solutions to match natural gas consumption with forecasted demand and identify variances using statistical process control. Reduced electricity consumption by implementing over 60 changes to usage patterns in the plant such as lighting controls, and gradually replacing with LED lighting.
- Changed the FCC pumparound process to reflect changes over time to optimize energy efficiency.
- Saved 7,900 MMBtu per year in natural gas by optimizing boiler blowdowns that were excessive.
“Trindent helped us significantly on our journey towards energy efficiency. The plant benefitted from over 170 small changes, that had the combined effect of reducing our consumption by $17.3M dollars annually. We are on track to achieve the savings that Trindent cited in the Assessment and feel that everything was recommended would sustain itself. We were suitably impressed to say the least”
– Vice President, Refinery Operations