Du Pont Uses Game To Decrease Maintenance Costs By 20%
Improvement programs such as Total Quality Management are embraced by many organizations but are often discontinued before full benefits can be reaped. With ever-increasing numbers of new techniques and methods available, as well as consultants ready to facilitate implementation, discovering improvement programs is no longer a problem. Instead successfully implementing these programs has become the biggest challenge. A research program spanning a decade, based on observation of over a dozen cases at company sites, interviews, surveys and literature analysis discovered a paradox in improvement programs. Although many organizations strive to improve performance by working smarter, what happens instead is they elevate ‘work harder’ to their standard operating procedure. They fall into the capability trap: the pressure maintain performance drives them to work harder, which prevents learning about ways to do the work smarter.
A case study at Du Pont shows how process improvement may be implemented successfully.
In 1991, a benchmarking study showed that Du Pont spent more on maintenance than its competitors yet its mechanics worked more overtime and plant uptime was lower. An in-house team developed a system dynamics model of these issues.
Policy analysis with the model showed that, while repairs to breakdowns had to continue, the company simultaneously had to invest additional resources in planned maintenance and training. This would in the short term reduce uptime and increase costs, and only show benefits later. In order to facilitate a learning process for the thousands of people that would be involved in implementing these changes, the team developed an interactive role-playing game called the Manufacturing Game. The game is based on the model and accurately captures time delays, costs and other parameters describing a typical plant. The game is used in multi-day workshops across the company and proved popular.
By the end of 1992, 1200 people had played the game and more than 50 facilitators had been trained. In plants that implemented the program by the end of 1993, the mean time between mechanical failure for pumps rose by an average of 12% each time cumulative operating experience doubled, maintenance costs fell an average of 20%. In 23 comparable plants the learning rate averaged 5% and maintenance costs increased by 7% on average.
Client | Du Pont |
---|---|
Authors/Consultants | Repenning NP, Sterman JD |
Do you want to know more?
OTHER SUCCESSFUL APPLICATIONS
System Dynamics Helps Farmers Escape Poverty Trap in Guatemala
System Dynamics Helps Farmers Escape Poverty Trap in Guatemala EXECUTIVE Summary Guatemala holds the 4th highest global ranking for chronic malnutrition, and climate change is intensifying the challenges subsistence farmers face in providing food for their families....
Twinings Uses System Dynamics Games to Enhance HR Capability
Twinings Uses System Dynamics Games to Enhance HR Capability “Realistic simulation is a powerful approach to building capability. The business simulation developed [by Dashboard Simulations and Lane4] gave [Twinings staff] an experience that called for them to develop...
RSC Uses System Dynamics to Increase HVACR Sales Against the Tide
RSC Uses System Dynamics to Increase HVACR Sales Against the Tide “Using the proven Strategy Dynamic process focused our limited resources on organizing strategic issues, identifying the critical resources, and developing the insight to more rapidly create intuitive...
Upcoming Events

6th Annual System Dynamics Competition by the South Africa System Dynamics Chapter
System Dynamics Competition CORRECT TIME: 2 PM CENTRAL EUROPE The System Dynamics Society’s South Africa Chapter is hosting a System Dynamics Competition that offers participants the opportunity to learn new modeling skills directly from experts, collaborate...
Recent Posts
Book Signing & Book Swap at ISDC 2023
Book Signing & Book Swap at ISDC 2023 Learn about their books directly from the authors! Don’t miss out! Several book authors will join us at the Book Signing event at ISDC 2023. This event will be held live at the conference in Chicago, on Tuesday, July 25 at...
Webinar Highlights & Recording: Digital Twin Business Models for Strategy and Operational Management
Webinar Highlights & Recording: Digital Twin Business Models for Strategy and Operational Management We had the opportunity to delve into the world of business model simulations with industry experts Kim Warren, founder of Strategy Dynamics, and Martin Lycko,...
Webinar Highlights & Recording: System Dynamics Modeling with R.
Webinar Highlights & Recording: System Dynamics Modeling with R. System Dynamics is a powerful approach to understanding complex systems in various fields, such as public health, ecology, and economics. Prof. Jim Duggan, an expert in applying System Dynamics and...
Join us
OTHER SUCCESSFUL APPLICATIONS
System Dynamics Helps Farmers Escape Poverty Trap in Guatemala
System Dynamics Helps Farmers Escape Poverty Trap in Guatemala EXECUTIVE Summary Guatemala holds the 4th highest global ranking for chronic malnutrition, and climate change is intensifying the challenges subsistence farmers face in providing food for their families....
Twinings Uses System Dynamics Games to Enhance HR Capability
Twinings Uses System Dynamics Games to Enhance HR Capability “Realistic simulation is a powerful approach to building capability. The business simulation developed [by Dashboard Simulations and Lane4] gave [Twinings staff] an experience that called for them to develop...
RSC Uses System Dynamics to Increase HVACR Sales Against the Tide
RSC Uses System Dynamics to Increase HVACR Sales Against the Tide “Using the proven Strategy Dynamic process focused our limited resources on organizing strategic issues, identifying the critical resources, and developing the insight to more rapidly create intuitive...
Recent Posts
Book Signing & Book Swap at ISDC 2023
Book Signing & Book Swap at ISDC 2023 Learn about their books directly from the authors! Don’t miss out! Several book authors will join us at the Book Signing event at ISDC 2023. This event will be held live at the conference in Chicago, on Tuesday, July 25 at...
Webinar Highlights & Recording: Digital Twin Business Models for Strategy and Operational Management
Webinar Highlights & Recording: Digital Twin Business Models for Strategy and Operational Management We had the opportunity to delve into the world of business model simulations with industry experts Kim Warren, founder of Strategy Dynamics, and Martin Lycko,...
Webinar Highlights & Recording: System Dynamics Modeling with R.
Webinar Highlights & Recording: System Dynamics Modeling with R. System Dynamics is a powerful approach to understanding complex systems in various fields, such as public health, ecology, and economics. Prof. Jim Duggan, an expert in applying System Dynamics and...
Upcoming Events



6th Annual System Dynamics Competition by the South Africa System Dynamics Chapter
System Dynamics Competition CORRECT TIME: 2 PM CENTRAL EUROPE The System Dynamics Society’s South Africa Chapter is hosting a System Dynamics Competition that offers participants the opportunity to learn new modeling skills directly from experts, collaborate...