Organisational Change Team Restructure

Organisational Change and Team Restructure.
Working within business constraints.

Challenge: The Port Hedland planning team was understaffed, but the business needed to see a gain in productivity without recruiting more people. How could we deliver the desired output with less people, whilst still finding continuous improvement opportunities?

Solution: As leader of the team, I first sought to understand our constraints and pain points. The key to success was being honest and transparent with the existing team, and ensuring they had full understanding and buy-in before engaging stakeholders. Then, looking at the data to identify where the workload was, and taking into account the capability of the team and how best to use their skills, we began housekeeping:

• Removed waste from our processes
• Automated work that was repetitive or time-consuming
• Engaged internal customers to agree on waste reduction strategies
• Developed transition plan with minimal impact and risk
• Communications roll out, documentation updates.

Outcome: With only 6 weeks’ preparation, we completed our transition in a matter of weeks. There was no drop in reliability or output of the team. Continuous improvements were evident in the next major project (Shute rebuild). Moreover, the team now had a strategic and cohesive approach between coordinators; better reporting to support and enable people and process; and improved team morale. From this success, I helped other peers do the same with their team, and this became a repeatable process for any team to apply.