Millstone Nuclear Power Plant
CLIENT: | MILLSTONE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT |  |
INDUSTRY: | POWER GENERATION | |
COMPETENCIES: | RESTRUCTURING/REDEPLOYMENT |
CHALLENGE
To facilitate the restart of a previously closed Nuclear Power Plant and build back to efficient operations without litigation.
BACKGROUND
Millstone had been shut down by the NRC. After extensive analysis and testing, the owner (Northeast Utilities) was ready to begin the process of restarting the reactors. The company was faced with a number of serious organizational, operational, and process issues simultaneously. Management had decided to decommission one of the reactors and had to manage workforce redundancy. During the shut down, nearly two hundred specialized engineers and other workers were hired to do analysis and testing; some of whom were strategically critical in the future and others redundant to future needs. Future deregulation was pressuring the company to reduce operating costs when back in operation producing electricity. It was critical to implement the changes without additional litigation. Previous attempts had failed, and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and lost revenue.
PROCESS
In concert with the Strategy Department, ECI designed and conducted a “war game” type business simulation. The plan for the project had three consecutive phases: The proposed strategy was tested to uncover flaws in the analysis, unintended consequences and hypothetical potential “surprise” moves from competitors A business game simulation was conducted, based seven years in the future, on the assumption that the plan was executed successfully, creating a “Future History” of the Company A divisional CEO-level leadership team analysis of the first two phases was facilitated to review and revise the proposed strategy based on the outcome of the business simulation. The “game” was hosted in a confidential location over a ten day period. All AlliedSignal Aerospace strategic business unit Presidents plus sixteen “high potential” Directors participated, including the President of the Company during summation.
RESULTS
Executive Consulting consulted closely with the CEO/President and VP of Human Resources, and recommended proceeding as a two-part project:
Phase 1, conducted over 10 months, required the development of an interim structure and 25% reduction in the workforce:
- Executive Consulting conducted employee workshops to assess the interim organization. 92 two-hour workshops were conducted to include all employees in a two week period, and all resulting information compiled for review:
- Half-day, optional employee workshops were conducted to enable employees to manage their individual situations in advance of the change - workshops enabled employees to examine their own values and interests relative to the organization’s direction, and begin their own change management process.
- A zero-based staffing process was implemented for the Interim Organizational Structure. The process was to strategically select the optimal interim team (vs. blunt overhead cuts).
Phase 2, conducted over 14 months, required the review and improvement all of the key processes, “de-unitize” (i.e., make units Two and Three identical in structure and procedures), reorganize to meet the demands of a smaller, more focused workforce, and conduct a staffing process to optimize skill sets for each of the positions – completing the force reductions:
- Executive Consulting worked with employee teams as well as a group of other consulting firms to integrate and implement the process improvements necessary to reduce operating costs.
- Working with a small group of employees and the Leadership Team, Executive Consulting designed the “final” organization which would leverage the resource savings from these process improvements.