Face to Face
Lee Monthei
Vice President Engineering and Projects
Published May 2003

Lee Monthei joined Alyeska in 1991 and took on his current position in July 2002 as part of the company’s major restructuring. Monthei is in charge of engineering, major maintenance and project work, and equipment fleet management. He has lived in Fairbanks since 1997.

What’s hot now?

We’re still working through all the restructuring. What’s taken a lot of time is managing the workload so that all the essential work gets accomplished. In the restructuring we downsized, so now we are managing the workload with fewer resources. We’ve streamlined a lot of processes and procedures. We’ve eliminated activities that didn’t have a lot of value. And streamlined the processes so that we can get the work done in less time. We really are challenging ourselves to make sure our work assignments have high value as opposed to being bureaucratic.

Can you give an example?

The former Engineering Design Manual, PM-2001, had over 300 pages of detailed requirements. Now it’s less than 50 pages including the elements associated with project management. We were doing lots of work that generated paperwork and records but didn’t contribute significantly to our business needs.

Have there been any surprises in the streamlining process?

I’ve been surprised at how smoothly it’s gone. I thought it would be a lot more difficult. I attribute that to the quality of our employees. Many employees were frustrated with having to do work that wasn’t valuable and they had a lot of good ideas for how to streamline. Another thing I’ve been impressed with is the abilities of our managers and supervisors to differentiate between work that is essential to our business versus some of the more bureaucratic work we’ve been able to eliminate.

Have there been concerns, from outside or within the company, about the impact of streamlining on the environment or safety?

Sure, we hear concerns and we treat them all seriously. If you’re irresponsible about streamlining, it can impact safety and integrity. You have to be careful and methodical. We don’t just eliminate processes haphazardly, without really thinking it through. It’s a sign of a healthy organization when people challenge things – you put it on the table and deal with it. If it’s not the right thing, we change course. Our open culture makes it work. We couldn’t have done this some years ago. We didn’t have the mature, open culture that exists today.