Measuring performance in chemical and specialty chemical makers: what to track and what to ignore

An adhesive plant starts paying a monthly bonus on kilos packed per crew. Output rises for two months. Then a customer returns a lot of hot melt that set too fast. The investigation finds that one crew had been cutting the hold before discharge short, to fit another batch into the shift. Nobody had cheated, exactly. They had done what the measure rewarded.

Every unit on our reactor, solvent and blending hub needs measures that steer people toward safe, right-first-time work. Below, the usual candidates are sorted into keep, handle carefully and drop.

On an assembly line, pieces per hour say something about the operator. Chemical output hangs on many things outside the operator's hands. The grade on the schedule. The batch size. The cook time the recipe demands. How fast QC clears a sample. Whether the dryer or filter press is the choke point that week. An operator on a long alkyd cook will always make fewer tonnes than one on a quick blend. Ranking them on tonnes says nothing about either.

• Reactor and field operators. Batches completed without a batch card deviation. Line-ups read back and countersigned. Samples taken at the right step and properly labelled. Signed skills added this quarter.
• Console operators. Alarms answered within the expected response. Trends flagged before alarm. Handover entries that list vessel state, pending samples and open permits.
• Lab analysts. Results reported within the agreed turnaround. Out-of-trend results flagged, not just out-of-limit ones. Retained samples traceable when asked.
• Drumming and loading. Fill weight accuracy. Labels matching the dispatch note. Earthing and driver briefing logged for every tanker.
• Shift in-charges. Permits complete and closed. Huddles held. Near misses raised by the crew and closed with an action. Cover matrix gaps filled before the week starts.

• Resin and polymer units. Acid value and viscosity reached on the expected step, with no unplanned extra cook. Reflux and water-off logged at the hour.
• Solvent recovery. Cut points held on the column, receiver changes recorded, vapour loss rounds done and signed.
• Adhesives and sealants. Gel time and pot life inside limits, mixer cleaned between grades, no skinned material in the pails.
• Water treatment blends. Dosing pump calibration sheets complete, site visit reports filed on time, jar test results passed to the customer.
• Cleaning chemical lines. Correct label on every SKU at changeover, cap torque checked, carton counts matching the pallet sheet.

• Cycle time against standard. Useful by crew and by grade, to spot a crew struggling with one product. Harmful as a personal target, because it invites cut holds and rushed cooling.
• Rework and reblends. Track them by batch and cause. Do not pin them on a person until the cause is known; many trace to raw material or recipe changes.
• Attendance. Note it, but separate genuine absence from late reliefs and doubles that the roster forced.

• Tonnes or kilos per operator. Dominated by grade mix. Use plant output for planning, not for rating people.
• Incident-free days as a reward. It teaches crews to hide spills and near misses. Reward reporting and good responses instead.
• Speed of filling alone. Without fill accuracy and label checks, faster just means more drums to recall.
• Tests per analyst per day. Encourages quick, shallow testing and discourages retests when something looks odd.

Name, unit, shift, grade.
Batches run this month, and any with a batch card deviation. Short note on each deviation.
Handover entries checked by in-charge: complete, or what was missing.
Permits and line-ups: any not read back or not closed.
Near misses reported by this person.
Skills signed off this month, and the next one planned.
One thing done well, in the in-charge's words.
One improvement for the coming month, agreed with the operator.
Signed by operator and in-charge. Copy to HR.

1. 1

   Keep it to twenty minutes

   The in-charge fills the sheet from the shift log, permits and skill matrix, then talks it through with the operator at a quiet point in the shift.

2. 2

   Use facts from the plant record

   Every line should be checkable from the log book, permit file or batch records. Opinions go in the done well and work on lines only.

3. 3

   Look across three months

   A single bad month matters less than a pattern. HR keeps the sheets so the in-charge and plant head can see the trend.

4. 4

   Feed the annual review

   The year-end appraisal reads the twelve sheets rather than starting from memory. Grade moves and increments draw on them.

GullyHR's way of designing reviews like this is set out under running performance reviews. Plants with dosing technicians and route delivery staff should read appraisal at boiler and cooling water chemical plants. How incentives can follow better measures is covered in pay and bonus design for detergent and degreaser blenders.

List every measure you now use to judge plant staff. Mark each as track, handle with care or drop. Try the monthly sheet with one in-charge and five operators for two months, then adjust the lines before rolling it out.