The Challenge
A pilot plant in a fast-paced, customer-driven battery materials market was completely unable to meet demand, with only 19% of its production output delivering on time due to a lack of standardised work
Client Case Study | Product Flow
Driving On-Time Pilot Plant Output from 19% to 85% by Standardising Flow
Our client operates within the rapidly expanding, highly competitive battery materials division - a sector supercharged by global electric vehicle (EV) demand.
In a fast-paced, customer-driven environment, speed-to-market is everything. The division was under immense pressure to achieve production volumes quickly. However, the pilot plant was failing to keep pace. They were structurally unable to meet customer demand, threatening their market position and client trust at a critical time of industry growth.
The Challenge
The primary challenge stalling the plant was a lack of standardised work.
Cross-functional teams had no clear visibility into how work moved from the factory floor to the testing labs.
A massive bottleneck in quality control created a lagging process, choking overall plant output.
Operations were entirely reactive. With no high-level KPI alignment, different tiers of management operated in silos, leading to a catastrophic reality where only 19% of plant output was considered on time.
Sam Walker, Sector Business Improvement ManagerProject4 were excellent at adapting their approach to address the problem at hand, thoroughly enjoyed working with them all
The Symptoms
Uncontrolled Variability
The lack of standardisation in the production process.
Sub-Optimal System Control
The mechanisms used to monitor and manage the flow are ineffective or outdated.
Perpetual Inconsistencies
A state where the delivery process is riddled with non-standard workarounds and varying methods.
The Strategy
The client's internal teams lacked the mechanism to align daily actions with high-level strategy. We stepped in to deliver a highly integrated operational excellence blueprint.
We mapped the entire value stream from the initial factory floor production through to the quality control testing labs. This exposed the exact friction points delaying the sampling lifecycle.
We didn't just hand over a checklist. We introduced Tiered Visual Performance Management, a communication structure linking operators directly to plant directors.
We standardised the material flow through the plant and embedded a lean governance model that fostered objective, multi-level management alignment.
The Results
By establishing a predictable, standardised cadence, the pilot plant unlocked rapid operational recovery:
Increased Reliability of Delivery
Standardising the plant flow allowed the team to completely stabilise production scheduling, increasing from 19% to 85% on-time delivery.
Reduced Wait Times
Slashed the cycle and quality control wait time to a predictable fortnightly window.
Cross-Tier Management Alignment
Equipped leadership with a transparent dashboard view to see exactly how higher-level KPIs directly impacted daily shopfloor deliverables.
100
NPS®
Achieved Net Promoter Score of 100
Conclusion
Even in volatile, high-growth engineering environments, operational stability relies entirely on flow visibility.
By installing a unified governance model, Project4 successfully transformed a chaotic pilot plant into a reliable engine capable of meeting market demand. The operational framework left behind ensured the plant was fully optimised for its next phase of commercial growth.
Is your production scale stalled by a lack of standardised work or slow quality control turnaround?
We diagnose, remediate, resolve, report and enable. Let's find your flow.
Workshop Participant & Management TeamGood overview to see how the higher level KPIs are impacted and what I need to deliver... I liked how the team involved was from all ranges of managerial levels to get the right mixture of discussions.