Attero Energy & Services (NL):

Performance management built into the company ‘DNA’

With facilities at Wijster and Moerdijk in the southern Netherlands, Attero is the largest Dutch player on the market for waste-energy conversion. Processing an annual 2.5 million metrix tons of household and other waste each year, the company produces enough electricity for 350,000 households. Originally a part of the multinational Essent organization, and with stakeholders both public and private, Attero went independent in 2009.

Natural starting point

Independence brought with it new challenges from the start. Operating results were under pressure from overcapacity on the waste-energy conversion market and reduced waste volumes, due to macro-economic factors and growing waste-separation at the municipal level. Attero was faced with the need to achieve substantial structural savings while generating optimal cash flow for a number of strategic projects. Management also recognized that the recent internal changes provided a natural starting point for anchoring continuous improvement and best practices within the organization.

Attero’s Energy & Services division approached ARV Group with the request to carry out a series of studies into potential improvements in almost all facets of its operations, including process efficiency and the reduction of controllable costs in maintenance, facilities and the Stop organization. To guarantee organization buy-in, an added condition was that the relevant line managers be directly involved in the development process; they would assume and maintain responsibility for presenting their results in monthly reporting to a division-wide steering committee, including Attero finance & control plant management and ARV Group consultants.

Improved target-planning

Within the approved continuous-improvement program, ARV Group in turn was able to apply its experience with and knowledge of line industry to facilitate the changes needed to achieve improved target-planning and communication and to anchor result-oriented thinking, a new reporting structure and a renewed focus on lasting improvement in the organization.

Before the implementation period was over, production goals had already assumed the leading position in the division’s decision-making. A new system of performance management, making use of standardized tools, was not only fully integrated and bearing fruit within the organization, but was also being applied independently by Attero people to projects outside the original horizons of the business case. ISO audits carried out in “business-as-usual” situations confirmed that QA had become an integral part of the organization.

By end of term, estimates were that the original savings targets would be met or even surpassed.

Wilfred de Jager, Program Manager: "ARV Group helped us to implement performance management in a way that changed it from a tool into part of our organization’s DNA. The improvements seen in the last year are only the start of an ongoing process".

Marcel Daemen, General Manager Attero E&S: "Faced with tough challenges from the market, we’re now on the road to becoming not only Holland’s leading waste-energy convertor, but also the low-cost leader in our field. ARV Group played a crucial role in that turnaround."