1. The Challenge
E.ON Infrastructure Solutions operates a wide array of power and heat solutions across multiple UK sites. Due to the diversity of these assets, a single, rigid Management of Change (MOC) process was impractical across all business streams.
The dispersed nature of the sites, and their supporting engineering teams, also made timely and efficient collaboration on changes challenging.
Despite the unique needs of each business, E.ON recognized the importance of adopting a core MOC process to ensure changes aligned with corporate values and engineering procedures.
This core process needed to be flexible enough to meet individual business requirements while still maintaining robustness and consistency.
2. The Solution
FoCul collaborated closely with E.ON to map out the MOC business processes, configure the FoCul MOC solution and deliver a unified corporate MOC process. This solution included configurable approval stage gates tailored to each business stream and configurable risk assessment prompts tailored to each type of change.
Post go-live, FoCul continued to work with E.ON to integrate new MOC best practices as they emerged. These best practices came from industry bodies, other FoCul customers, and from within E.ON itself.
3. How the Solution added value
At FoCul, it is crucial that our solutions provide real business value.
Consistency
The FoCul solution promotes consistency by enforcing an agreed corporate stage gate process while also incorporating agreed local requirements for each business. The use of on-screen prompts, stage gate processes, and individual action tracking ensures that similar MOCs are executed uniformly against the corporate process and that the agreed local requirements are consistently applied.
Transparency
The system’s transparency and auditability helps people to learn from previous changes and how they were executed. This is particularly beneficial for young engineers or those who have recently changed roles. Transparency also enables process owners and mentors to manage by exception, as everything is easily visible and auditable.
Best Practice Improvements
The combination of transparency and consistent work processes simplifies the identification and deployment of new best practices across the business. Where appropriate, FoCul shares these best practices with other customers and professional groups. This helps to ensure continuous improvement for both FoCul and E.ON.
Efficiency Improvements
Managing change is always a stage gate process requiring input from multiple people, often located in different places. The FoCul solution provides users with consistent and MOC-relevant prompts in an online system, along with easy access to help guidance.
The application can be securely used on PCs and mobile devices to allow geographically dispersed teams to collaborate effectively.
The platform combines well proven pragmatic features, such as role deputisation, with robust auditability to ensure that the stage gate processes can be executed efficiently and pragmatically within a robust process.
The system also generates user specific reports and emails summarising what needs to be done. The activity tracking and metrics help MOC owners to understand the status of MOCs without needing dedicated administrators.
Metrics
A robust MOC process is vital for managing risk and ensuring business progress. The FoCul MOC solution simplifies the collection of key metrics and allows these to be published via the application dashboards, Excel or corporate systems like Microsoft Power BI.
The application dashboards are interactive allowing users to click through to the underlying chart data and then the relevant MOC and action records. This makes understanding the business performance data much more intuitive.
4. How we delivered the solution
FoCul used a 7 stage project process.
Stage 1. Information Gathering
Every organization has unique characteristics, values, and needs. We spent time with E.ON to understand how we could best assist them.
The role of the E.ON MOC champions was particularly important in helping us to understand the business processes and values.
Stage 2. Scoping
With a better understanding of E.ON’s business needs, we developed a range of options using our highly configurable MOC software.
Stage 3. Buy-In
We collaborated with E.ON to determine which option would deliver the best business value. We used wireframe mock-ups to make sure that the stakeholders had a clear understanding of how the solution would work. This phase resulted in a robust specification and a fixed price commitment.
Stage 4. Development and Testing
Once the requirements were agreed upon, we configured the application to deliver the required functionality. Where new features were needed, we enhanced the core product to include these.
Stage 5. Deployment & Go-Live
When E.ON was satisfied with the new MOC process, we worked with them to develop in-house training and then deployed the application. We provided particularly close support to key users during the first 60 days.
Stage 6. Support
Eight years on, FoCul continues to work closely with E.ON, providing exceptional support. This ensures E.ON gets the best value from the MOC process and helps FoCul to better understand our client’s needs.
Stage 7. Enhancements
By working closely with E.ON and other customers, we regularly identify improvements to the MOC solution. A good example is the Checklists feature which E.ON adopted as their MOC maturity increased. These checklists add further rigour to risk assessments and reviews in topics like Cyber Security.
5. About FoCul
FoCul is a specialist software business dedicated to helping organizations improve efficiency and profitability by managing processes and knowledge more effectively. Our team is unusual, having both software developers and professional engineers.
We assist our clients by first understanding their requirements and then deploying tailored solutions. These solutions are based on highly configurable FoCul products.
We always prioritize our clients, ensuring we help you deliver successful projects while you continue to manage your operational plants.