Imagine your production facility as a 1950s pickup truck. It’s functional, but a lack of available parts, new regulatory standards, and an absence of modern sensors and electronics make diagnosing problems and improving performance difficult. Commissioned in 1954, Sherritt International Corporation faces many challenges characteristic of a classic car—challenges that not only include equipment lifecycles, but also human resources, software, workflows, and asset obsolescence. This case study will review the training, business process transformation projects, organizational design changes, and continuous improvement initiatives that Sherritt is implementing to modernize their work management processes. See how optimization of these processes have helped address the challenges presented by an aging site, and learn how projects were prioritized, which initiatives helped build organizational capability and improve performance, and what wasn’t worth the effort.
Ryan Pretzlaw, MMP, has over 15 years of maintenance, operations, and Lean manufacturing experience spanning the aerospace and mining industries. Ryan joined Sherritt International Corporation in 2013 and became the Director of Maintenance Work Management in 2019. In his current role, Ryan oversees the design, implementation, and optimization of maintenance work management processes to enable the efficient and effective execution of the asset management strategy at the Fort Saskatchewan site.
