Energy, Power & Renewables
MERU CASE STUDY
Implemented 20% increase in labor productivity gains for a regulated gas distributor
COMPANY OVERVIEW
- $250M gas utility providing residential, commercial and retail natural gas for 800,000+ customers in a major U.S. metropolitan city
- Operating costs increasing as the targeted productivity gains agreed within the previous rate case not being achieved
- The company required external assistance to identify productivity opportunities quickly and support management implement prioritized initiatives
- The goal was to identify operational opportunities that could be implemented before the upcoming rate case without spending capital
OUR APPROACH
- Conducted an operational diagnostic over 2 weeks to understand the operational value levers and quick wins
- Assessed the financial impacts on the annual operations budget and likely impact on the upcoming rate case
- Developed a showroom sliver approach to enable leverage across the 6 service centers and 200+ service vehicles
- Established a rapid behavioral change program focused on a single metric to improve driver productivity whilst developing the supervisor competencies
- Established an internal operational excellence team to maintain the tools and systems setup to drive productivity
OUR IMPACT
20% increase in jobs completed per day in 8 weeks by reducing operational downtime for the 200+ service vehicles while teaching the supervisors how to manage crews effectively using operating metrics.
$1.5M per annum reduction in overtime as the increase in job productivity enabled the dispatch team to manage drivers with improved disciplines.
$2.8M per annum of additional labor savings expected to hit the bottom line over the next 3 years as natural attrition will not require backfilling.