OREANDA-NEWS. April 21, 2010. In the first quarter of 2010 TNK-BP Upstream launched a new program called Best Practice in the company’s West Siberia Area. It is open to absolutely everyone who works for the six subsidiaries that make up the West Siberia Area: SNG, SNGDU-2, UKG, TNK-Nizhnevartovsk, Varyoganneftegaz and TNK-Nyagan. Within each of these companies the deputy head for long-range planning has been given responsibility for the programme. We spoke about the new project, its objectives and what company managers hope to get from it with Aleksandr Marnosov, regional manager of the West Siberia Area and the man responsible for promoting and developing the Best Practice program, reported the press-centre of TNK-BP.

Aleksandr Vitalyevich, how where did the idea come from and how relevant is it in today’s environment?
The idea behind the new project came from Chris Hopkinson, Vice President of the West Siberia Area. The term “best practice” is one that often crops up in the press. Amongst the first to formulate the idea, in 1914, was Frederick Tailor, one of the pioneers of the scientific organization of labour: “Amidst all the diversity of methods and tools used at each moment of each process there is always one method and tool that works faster and better than the others”. The main purpose of the project is to motivate workers, engineers, specialists and managers to share unique experience that can be applied widely across the Company for more efficient use of working time and material resources and safer operations.

What’s makes the Best Practice programme interesting? How does it work?
You really have to understand the meaning being the concept…what best practice is all about. It could be suggestions on organizing a production process, it could be something to do with equipment or with mechanisms – in other words, it’s about rationalization of operations. Chris Hopkinson has recommended the following: a best practice suggestion can be something absolutely simple – something that could be submitted in just a few minutes. Detailed materials and economic analyses are welcomed, of course, but these are not essential, as they are, for example, for rationalization proposals or speeches at workshop conferences.

Aleksandr Vitalyevich, company workers are probably bound to ask if this is rationalization, then what’s Best Practice all about? What’s the difference between the two?
Rationalization is usually to do with quite big, large-scale proposals concerning operations. The economics are analyzed and their efficiency has to be proven. In the same way, serious research projects form the basis of presentations at workshop conferences. And these tend to be about things that have already been introduced and are in operation. I myself spoke at several conferences as a young specialist and I known that unless your topic is some global problem you’re not likely to win be awarded a prize. Best practice, on the other hand, is about more concrete and narrow proposals, but ones that are no less significant for us. A best practice proposal can describe any process – to do with oil field equipment, mechanisms, scientific organization of labour, an operator or mechanic’s work station, or working techniques that save materials and time. Given that health, safety and the environment are priorities for TNK-BP any proposal needs to be compliant with the Company’s safety standards.

When we were discussing the rules of the Best Practice project — which have now been published in all the subsidiaries — with the deputy heads for long-range planning we came top the conclusion that there could two types of proposal, both of which are valuable for the Company. The first type is things that have already been introduced at the local level with proven benefits. And the second type is where somebody just has an idea and puts it forward. What the project aims to do is to generalize and systematize useful ideas and make them accessible to wide group of people. Imagine, for example, if one employee, even in something small, can work more efficiently than others using his experience and skill — by applying this experience across several thousand people the Company could achieve a very significant benefit!

Who is the project aimed at?
Best Practice is aimed at the broadest possible audience. Rationalization these days is mostly for engineering and technical staff, with young specialists taking part in the conferences. We very much hope that absolutely all employees will get involved in this new movement, especially shop personnel who are closer to the “coal-face” and more aware of the bottlenecks, inconveniences or discrepancies in the technological processes.

How do people submit their ideas and who’s responsible for this in the subsidiaries?
“We’ve published orders within the subsidiaries and set up commissions to review Best Practice proposals. At least once a quarter the commissions will review and assess proposals received from employees. There are various types of incentives that will be developed together with the programme. At the moment, there are financial rewards for the best ideas and opportunities for career growth and achieving personal ambitions. The subsidiaries have produced and distributed posters explaining what the programme is all about and giving contact numbers for the people in charge. They’ve also produced an application form that’s quite simple and can be filled in by hand or electronically. People can submit their ideas at any time and present them to the commission if they are invited by the commission secretary.

A central commission has also been appointed for the West Siberia Area. This will meet regularly to analyze the best practice proposals from the subsidiaries and meet the applicants. For them this will be an opportunity to talk to company managers, which should be of interest to ambitious and creative people.

Every year in December we plan to review the results and select prize winners from amongst the Area’s enterprises and Best Practice applicants. So we’re looking forward to some creative and interesting ideas from our employees and hope that their suggestions will help us to make further progress towards efficient and safe operations.