Sanofi GeelElaboration of a Maintenance & Asset Management roadmap for the coming 2 years

The mission

The site in Geel faces some challenges to increase the production volume in the coming years. This creates also consequences for the maintenance and asset management. On top of that, the maintenance and asset management department of Sanofi Geel has the ambition to further professionalise itself in the field of organisation, processes, IT tools, content and indicators.

In this context, Mainnovation was asked by Sanofi Geel to help with the elaboration of a roadmap for the coming 2 years. Since Sanofi uses the VDM^XL-model and approach on all of its branches throughout the world, thinking in terms of value creation is a common basis.

The approach

The roadmap is elaborated on the basis of the “Focus+Change” approach. This means that from the beginning, we have taken into account the aspect of change and the promotion of acceptance. As a first step, we have worked out in team what the precise reason (context) and purposes of this programme are. Based on a future vision for Maintenance & Asset Management and a programme strategy, we have worked on a list of changes of behaviour that are either desired or necessary. These changes of behaviour are essential to make this programme a success. We have then split the “From -> To” statements into a series that can be influenced by the technical service department and another series that is outside the direct sphere of influence of the team. This way, we can later focus the energy on what we have in our own hands and we can exercise our influence on stakeholders through project sponsors. An “Excuse Wall” exercise (a brainstorming exercise where we gather arguments about the potential failure of the programme) has resulted in a number of potential roadblocks. By making these known and discussed early, we were able to take them into account as much as possible in the following steps.

We then set out the content. What kind of substantial change must be made now in order to meet our goals? Several themes had already been identified through a VDM^XL self-assessment and a future state workshop. By combining them logically and establishing an order of priority, we were able to define well-outlined projects and divide them over the coming 2 calendar years. The projects fall into 3 categories: maintenance, asset management and general matters (processes, organisation and KPI’s).

We determined in team the high-level scope of each project. In addition to that, each project also received a sponsor, a team leader and a team. This way, we were able to divide the workload of the employees that were concerned. The result is a programme roadmap with underlying projects for the coming 2 years. This programme was then discussed and approved at plant level and validated during the Business Leadership Team meeting.

The Mainnovation added value

Mainnovation has facilitated the elaboration of the roadmap. The attention paid to the theme of change by the set-up of a roadmap has given an additional dimension to the substantial discussions. By naming and including in the approach explicitly resistance, behaviour change and acceptance, they were given extra attention. Naturally, this does not stop here. With the realisation of the programme and the underlying projects, “Focus+Change” will have to be given back its place in order to be successful.

The roadmap serves as a navigation system for everyone involved in Maintenance & Asset Management.