Category Archives: Blog

Underappreciating and Misunderstanding the Reliability Engineer

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“In our organisation, Reliability Engineers are not utilized properly. Leadership do not understand what they should be doing, and they end up doing everything across the maintenance function, except what they should be doing – thinking about reliability and preventing failure”. HEAD OF MAINTENANCE AND RELIABILITY, ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION This is an excerpt from the annual MAINSTREAM State of Asset Management Report, with detailed input from 255 participants from Australia and New Zealand representing a range of regions, industries, asset management maturity, and organisation sizes. Because the cost of failure is not great enough, business owners of most companies that participated in the survey still place greater emphasis on using systems and sweating assets rather than perfecting system reliability and eliminating asset failure at any cost. This results in a culture that has a higher risk appetite and bias to action, which is not a supportive environment for the natural reliability engineer. Strategic vs Tactical Research suggests that the predominant Myers Briggs personality for a reliability engineer is ISTJ. If you’re not familiar with Myers Briggs, this definition can be simplified as someone who is analytical, practical, reserved, direct, dutiful, insensitive, and not naturally drawn to people. Reliability engineers are more process driven than results orientated. They are required to think, design and be strategic. Their skills are not utilised effectively when they are asked to be tactical. The value we get from our reliability engineers is misunderstood. During down cycles we often move reliability engineers elsewhere in the plant to … Continue reading →

What’s Causing the Increase in Mental Health & Well-being Challenges for our Maintenance Workforce?

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Mental health continues to be a major issue in the workplaces of our MAINSTREAM community. This rated as the #1 challenge in the annual MAINSTREAM State of Asset Management Report. Many companies reported that the issue is greater than it’s ever been and getting worse. Poor mental health can have a significant impact on an individual’s health, attendance, performance, engagement, and safety. Several Causes The significant increase in mental health and wellbeing challenges over the last few years are a result of job insecurity, high job demand and pressure to perform, lack of empathy and understanding from leadership, and the imbalance between effort and reward. But by far the biggest reasons for this increase, according to the research, are the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and relentless organisational change. Ongoing effects of COVID-19 During the pandemic, whether it was mining, manufacturing, power generation or transport, almost all companies applied the strategy of having critical operational and maintenance people working on site in A and B teams, whilst non-critical operations, management and corporate functions completed much of their work from home. After two years, the us vs them divide that often existed between operational teams and corporate teams has become amplified. Due to people being sick from Covid or having to isolate because of close contact restrictions, the long and sustained hours and overtime required, has changed some organisation’s approach to reliability and equipment maintenance. Examples include choosing to run machines to failure because it was a better strategy. Another … Continue reading →

The State of Asset Management Report 2022

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Since 1995, the MAINSTREAM research team has polled our community of thousands of Maintenance, Reliability and Asset Management professionals to glean distinctive insights into the barriers and challenges faced, and the opportunities on offer, in their quest for achieving asset management excellence. The findings from our surveys help leaders, teams, and individuals to understand best practices, compare their companies’ performance and working environment to those inside and outside their industry, and make informed and effective decisions. Having fuelled this special Community for 26 years, this is by far the most interesting State of Asset Management Report created for you yet. It captures insights from 255 like-minded folk, representing a range of regions, industries, and asset management maturity. Insights leading the way are: Unpreparedness for the asset management workforce of the future Significant increase in mental health and wellbeing across asset intensive industries Misalignment between Asset Strategy and Enterprise Strategy Overwhelmed by the enormous amount of data collected Under-appreciating and misunderstanding the Reliability Engineer Download the State of Asset Management Report for 2022 below. … Continue reading →

How Practical Industrial Sustainability Can Lead to Increased Profits

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When we think of environmental sustainability, increased compliance often comes to mind. For manufacturing, mines, process plants, and other industrial sites, environmental sustainability is very much about controlling various inputs and outputs. A lot of focus is placed upon greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with energy use, especially carbon dioxide (CO2). For reliability, availability and maintenance (RAM) professionals, improving energy efficiency and reducing associated emissions can be a boon for profitability, production reliability, reduced lifecycle cost of asset ownership, and safety. Drew Troyer is an Asset Management and Reliability Educator. He presented at Mainstream OnAir 2021 on how practical industrial sustainability can lead to increased profits. Here’s a summary of his session. The Asset Management Economy Asset management is transitioning from a linear economy to one that is  focused on sustainability – what we call a circular economy. The Reliability and Maintenance professional (R&M) plays an important role in this transformation, by harnessing the opportunities presented to them by focusing on energy and managing fugitive emissions. These are harmful to people, the environment, and to the bottom line. “You can drive sustainable asset management from the plant floor. Some things you can put to work today, to improve the sustainability of your plant and your operation,” says Drew. SUSTAINABLE + PROFITABLE + SAFE = SUCCESS. These are not conflicting goals! Asset Management in the Linear vs. Circular Economy In the traditional linear economy that we are most familiar with, asset management follows a linear pattern. That is, the initial design, … Continue reading →

How AGL Exploited their Existing People, Process and Technology to Drive Transformation

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While machines are generating more data with increasing granularity, our most seasoned experts are leaving with all their accumulated experience. So why are we buried in data and starving for insight? Common sense says once every sensor, machine and system is integrated, we can start to reap the benefits. But what if we’re looking at the problem from the wrong end of the telescope? David Bartolo, Head of Asset Intelligence, AGL says too often we’re ignoring the very methods humans use to build their own expertise, and disruptive technologies allow us to harness that, and exploit what we already have to drive new levels of performance. He recently presented at Mainstream OnAir 2021 and shared how organisations can use what they already have to drive lasting transformation. Here’s a summary of his session. The Future of AGL – Using What You Have The energy industry in Australia is going through a massive transition, and AGL is right at the centre of it. AGL is in the process of splitting most of the assets into a new company which will be much more customer-centric. Having worked in the energy industry for a long time, David is aware of the need to concentrate on the now, while also planning for the future of the power generation side of the business and utilities. “We’re going to have to become a very low-cost provider of centralised energy for our customer base in this new business. And we’re going to have to use every trick … Continue reading →

Maximizing the Success of your Digital Transformation Journey

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Contrary to popular opinion, maintenance and reliability can be a highly profitable investment, and not just a cost. But it takes courage to bridge the gap between the needs of the business and the ability of the workforce to execute in a secure and resilient environment. That’s what John Schultz has spent the last two decades doing. Regarded as one of the world’s best reliability educators, John has helped over 300 manufacturing locations save millions in direct costs while increasing production, improving quality, and reducing inventories. John has personally benchmarked over 1,000 locations. In summary, John has spent his entire career helping organizations to bridge the gap between the needs of the business and the ability of the workforce to execute in a secure and resilient environment. Or, in straight-talking language: Make more, break less, and don’t spend. Schultz recently presented at Mainstream OnAir 2021, a two day event for asset, reliability and maintenance professionals. His focus was how to maximise the success of your digital transformation journey. Here’s a summary of his session, What is Bootleg Innovation? Engage the three key Centres of Intelligence To enact lasting, sustainable change, Schultz advocates engaging the three Centres of Intelligence. The Thinking Centre of Intelligence is about the brain and includes aspects of your business like subject matter experts, content and technology. The Emotional Centre of Intelligence is about engaging the heart, encompassing change management, leadership and workforce engagement. “If you have an enabled and engaged workforce, you can tackle any problem,” says … Continue reading →

Excited By the Potential Of Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning? Read This First

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Technological advances mean that computers have the potential to understand our equipment better than we do. We increasingly rely on complex algorithms and artificial intelligence to control industrial equipment and predict and prevent its failure. But, leaving computers to run our plants is potentially dangerous. Melinda Hodkiewicz, Professor at the School of Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Western Australia, recently presented at Mainstream OnAir 2021. She outlined the limitations and risks associated with predictive analytics and laid out a path for effectively managing those risks. Here’s a summary of her session, The Ghost in the Machine – Are we heading for a predictive analytics driven disaster? What Is the Success Rates Of Maintenance Transformations? “The truth is that 70 percent of all maintenance transformation fail,” says Hodkiewicz in a blunt wake-up call based on 2020 data by McKinsey. She outlines the factors that commonly lead to failure: Organisations trapped in a cycle of endless, small scale piloting and experimentation Corporate systems not being ready for complex solutions capable of predicting solutions before they happen Doomed initiatives that leave battle scars on the leaders that nurtured them Many sectors are still not well able to implement more basic preventative maintenance. What AI Is – And Isn’t – Suited To “Artificial intelligence (AI) is best when applied to truly repetitive processes,” says Hodkiewicz. One example of this is fault detection in fleet management, where identical equipment operates in similar conditions and faults are likely to repeat themselves. Other ideal … Continue reading →

Developing Women Into Operational Leadership in Asset Management

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Globally the face of the workforce is changing. Now more that ever, there is an upswell of awareness and support around improving gender equality in every workplace. In the asset management space – an industry that has historically employed an almost entirely male workforce – the shift towards creating opportunities for women is challenging. But some companies are making great strides towards gender equality and are discovering that greater diversity of thought and style will surely drive Australian industry towards world’s best practice. Jess Torpey, Transformation Implementation Leader, Operations Services at Aurizon will be presenting at Mainstream Conference 2018. As a female business and journalism major employed to write speeches for our senior execs, Jess never imagined that she’d find herself in a front-line leadership role in a heavy haul rail workshop. One day, she was enjoying life in Brisbane’s CBD and the next she was the team leader of the Traction and Machine shop, one hour from Brisbane, leading a team of 12 tradies and apprentices. Opportunities to take a leadership role don’t come along very often so she was keen to make the most of it and as daunting as it appeared initially, it was the best thing that happened to her career. Jess is well positioned to share her insights into how companies can use their existing people and by simply placing the right people in the right jobs, with a little lateral thinking, can impact their businesses and the lives of their staff positively. We chatted … Continue reading →

Why Failure is an Asset, Not a Liability

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For former fighter pilot and U.S. Marine, David Wilbur, failure is something that should be at odds with his very nature. But, David believes embracing failure can actually be an asset and a key tool for improving operational reliability. David will be presenting at Mainstream Conference 2021 on “admitting human error in the workplace – maximizing asset reliability with human factors”. Here he explains how failure is not exactly black and white, and why allowing for some types of failure is a critical element of building a high-thriving organisation. Time to Embrace Human Failure In most organisations there are three primary domains of asset integrity: Asset reliabilityProcess reliabilityHuman reliability Most leaders who want to create a high performing asset base believe if they focus on the first two aspects, then the human reliability piece will fall into place. It will simply do what it’s supposed to do and people will make good choices. The problem is we often have a reductionist view of our assets: if X happens then Y. But people aren’t necessarily bound by science. We’re human. And an integral part of the human condition is that we’re equally prone to failure as we are to innovation and discovery. There’s research showing organisations who allow for failure see far more economic benefits than those who don’t. We’ve done our own research that has yielded similar results. Our own body of research has proven environments where people feel connected to the purpose, feel well-led, are in a psychologically safe … Continue reading →

When Life Hands you a Pandemic: How to Turn Chaos into Change

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The economic and societal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented. Yes, we’ve lived through traumatic events like 9-11 or the death of Robert of President Kennedy. These tend to be acute, horrific, and over quickly. We’ve also experienced chronic events that are extended of a period of time like economic downturns. These tend not to be as acute but still create a great deal of stress and loss. But COVID-19, and the resulting economic impact, has been both acute and chronic. It’s been a slow-motion train wreck that just won’t quit. We’ve seen thousands of companies shut down forever, tens of millions of people around the world laid off, and over 2 million people who have lost their lives because of this pandemic. Many of us couldn’t wait to see the backend of 2020. And while we’re starting to see things turning in a positive direction, there’s still no end in sight. But, there is an upside. Crises as a catalyst for change Sun Tzu said, “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” And he was absolutely right. We all know on a personal level that the greatest challenge to change is breaking out of the status quo. Crises have the unique ability to jar us out of complacency and into action. And that’s what’s happening now in organisations around the world. They’re being forced out of their complacency and asked to pinpoint and confront the things that matter most to them. In 2020 we’ve seen … Continue reading →