Vertical Startup Will Deliver Unimaginable Results

Reach full production faster—while engaging employees, reducing waste, and producing more finished product—with full commitment of cross-functional leaders and stakeholders.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE captured the imagination of huge TV audiences with chilling tales of science fiction. As host Rod Serling opined some 60 years ago, “It isn’t enough for a sole voice of reason to exist.”

Those words could not be truer today, particularly in the case of achieving vertical startup of your company’s capital projects. Vertical startup—in which new operations reach full production quickly—will accrue benefits to all aspects of the business, so it stands to reason to enlist several voices of reason, engaging all functional areas as “investors” in the project’s success from Day 1.

Vertical startup requires a full commitment of cross-functional leaders and stakeholders to the success of the project—investment of key resources early on and a regular review and oversight process to quickly provide direction, eliminate barriers, and react to the unexpected challenges.

This new commitment to vertical startup of the project begins by creating BOA (buy-in, ownership, and advocacy) among all stakeholders. It has been proven to be a force multiplier to deliver the company’s key initiative. Some formerly “unimaginable results” include:

• 85% reduction in startup waste

• Additional 450,000 lb of finished product

• Full production reached 12 weeks faster, and sustained

• Well trained and engaged employees at all levels Contributing to the vertical startup discussion for this article are two industry leaders and FSO Institute coaches: Paul Schaum, former COO and CTO of Pretzels Inc., and Mark Cacciatore, former senior vice president of operations of Conagra, and Campbell Soup.

FSO INSTITUTE: Paul, these results noted above were from your recent project. When you were the chief technical of cer for a mid-size snack food manufacturer, can you describe how you successfully engaged others in the senior leadership team to fully support vertical startup?

PAUL SCHAUM: Our company’s business driver was meeting the customers’ demands for capacity and quality. Beginning with the end in mind, I shared the data of past projects done the traditional way— engineering owned the project and turned it over to production when construction was complete. In that approach, expectations, timelines, and budgets were rarely met. Most importantly, full production at the required quality levels took many months to achieve and sustain. That loss of time and product was a significant limitation to our ability to meet customers’ needs.

Recognizing the limited resources available as a smaller company, we had to develop a plan that created BOA in all key departments. This was crucial as all individuals involved realized this e ort was a vital—and additional—part of their job, while all normal functional responsibilities remain.

The all-hands-on-deck commitment was certainly di cult at times, particularly in the early stages. For example, purchasing questioned why they should be engaged so early before the project was completed (“we never had to do that before”). Vertical startup requires sustained operational reliability and, as a result, purchasing had to be aligned with demand forecasts for each period going forward. We could not a ord to run out of materials and ingredients with the accelerated production.

The plan was also to hire the operators,