Aug 22 2006
SUAL Group, the world's sixth largest aluminium producer has appointed Shell Global Solutions to develop a business improvement plan for its IrkAZ smelter in southern Siberia, one of Russia's largest aluminium plants producing 293,5 ktpa in 2005.
The appointment is in line with SUAL's ongoing strategy for the long term performance enhancement of its smelting operations. Shell Global Solutions has embarked on a consultancy programme that will assess the plant's current maintenance, contracting and procurement strategies and processes, against ‘best-in-class' practices at other top performing companies.
SUAL expects the evaluation to result in recommendations for the introduction of new business processes that will help increase maintenance productivity and efficiency, as well as improve equipment reliability and asset performance. Additionally, the evaluation will support the optimal execution and introduction of the SAP R3 Maintenance and Materials' Management Modules.
Wayne Hale, SUAL Holding Senior Vice-president Upstream, said: «Shell Global Solutions has a reputation for operational and technical excellence, and its consultants can offer us an approach to improvement that has been tested in top performing companies within a number of industries and across a number of geographies.»
Working in tandem with staff from the IrkAZ plant, operational performance will be considered against a wide range of indicators, both from within and outside the aluminium industry. The assessment will also define the scope of activity needed to implement new practices in conjunction with the implementation of the SAP R3 Maintenance and the Materials Management Modules. It is intended that this will be the framework for best practice rollout to other SUAL upstream facilities.
The inclusion and implementation of risk-based decision making for all aspects of maintenance will be integral to the improvement plan.
The Siberian-Ural Aluminium Company (SUAL) was formed in 1996 by a merger between the Irkutsk and Ural aluminium smelters. Since then, SUAL has made a series of acquisitions that has improved its operating efficiency, while ensuring it produces sufficient raw materials to meet SUAL's evolving production needs.
Dalip Sud, Executive Consultant, Shell Global Solutions BV, said: «IrkAZ already has a very skilled workforce, which is extremely capable of adopting new ways of working. When supported by an optimally configured SAP and new performance measures, we are confident that they have the potential to achieve higher performance and improved plant availability.»
The 236-hectare IrkAZ smelter site lies two kilometres east of the Trans-Siberian railway. Built in the early 1960s, the plant has undergone a series of modifications and expansions to meet its present production capacity of 290Kt per annum, with new production facilities using state of the art process technology.