The Challenge

DP World is Western Canada’s premier Container Terminal Operator and Stevedore, part of a global network of 70 terminals spread across six continents. Propel Solutions was engaged to assist DP World with discovering opportunities for organizational restructuring to align their Safety and Security processes across their Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Fraser Surrey terminals and standardize these processes across the three ports. In addition, Propel identified opportunities for process improvement and operation efficiencies.

The Objective

  • Process Observations: Propel conducted detailed Process Observations with each member of the Safety and Security Departments across the Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Fraser Surrey Terminals. By spending one-on-one time with the DP World staff, Propel was able to gain deep insight into the processes being completed by comparable roles across the 3 terminals. This highlighted activities in which there was no value being added and identified opportunities for process alignment and improvement to increase efficiencies and reduce repetitive tasks.
  • Activity List: Building upon a previously completed phase that developed an initial Activity List, the Process Observations allowed a more comprehensive and detailed list to be developed. Through the Process Observations and contributions by the staff, Propel was able to develop a conclusive list of each roles frequency, volume and duration of key activities. The final list also included activities identified for role rationalization and potential share services roles to promote efficiency.
  • Management Toolkit Analysis: Propel conducted a review of the tools used by the Safety and Security Leaders to manage processes including Daily Forecasting, Meeting Planning and Operational Reports. From this analysis, Propel was able to identify missing tools that should be developed in order to increase staff engagement, operational capacity and communicate the expectations to staff in a common language.

The Result

Propel Solutions identified key deliverables to increase DP World’s operational efficiency by identifying areas for process optimization which included Role Rationalization, Management Toolkit Utilization, and Document Control Opportunities. By installing KPI’s identified by Propel, DP World has an opportunity to unlock value currently being lost through process inefficiencies.