Category Archives: Smart Technology

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 →

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 →

Sydney Water’s Data Strategy Makes the Insights Flow

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For Sydney Water’s five million customers, quality and satisfaction can simply mean pouring a clean glass of drinking water. But behind this seemingly basic concept, there’s a complex network of assets that are all underpinned by one thing: Data. Ahead of her session at Mainstream Conference, Tammy Falconer, Head of Asset Knowledge at Sydney Water, outlines the key steps they have taken to build a trusted data strategy and the benefits that are flowing onto their valued customers. Drowning in Data? Not at Sydney Water It’s easy to take for granted that Sydney-siders have access to some of the highest quality drinking water in the world, and that our wastewater disappears, just like that. Behind the scenes, there’s a huge number of assets delivering these services. We’ve been building and maintaining these assets for over 130 years to help make Sydney a liveable city and we’re passionate and proud of our role in shaping the lifestyle of Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra for generations to come. With a long history, our older assets can provide unique challenges, particularly our underground assets where we don’t have easy access to the asset to verify the accuracy of the data. We need to take a targeted and cost-effective approach to improve the data quality of existing assets and at the same time ensure that any new data meets the standards we require. Focusing on Data Foundations We’ve taken a business capability approach to maximising the value of our data focusing on … Continue reading →

Devon Energy: A Data-Assisted Asset Integrity Approach

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In 2008, the combination of technical breakthroughs in directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies started a wave of industry transformation and disruption that continues today. One US company at the forefront of this is Devon Energy, headquartered in Oklahoma City. A Fortune 500 oil and natural gas exploration and production company, Devon has some 3,400 employees and a capex of $US 2.4 billion. In Canada, Devon produces heavy oil through steam-assisted gravity drainage, producing some 35,000 barrels a day from each of three plants. Then there’s the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of shale oil deposits throughout the US. Working in some of the most adverse conditions in the world, Devon’s asset integrity approach is based on constantly monitoring data from its rigs. Data technology, along with team-building in its WellCon rig control centres, is not only improving drilling accuracy, but enabling the implementation of autonomous processes. Ben Williams, VP and CIO of Devon Energy, shared his insights into the company’s challenges and its asset integrity approach at this year’s Mainstream Conference. Asset Management in a Harsh Environment Williams says Devon has invested heavily in asset integrity because of the hazardous environments its rig locations present to workers and equipment. “Our asset integrity teams on the oil-producing plants have the unenviable problem of having to keep up with inspections on a highly complex asset,” Williams says. “They do inspections on pipelines and plants at times of the year when these are virtually inaccessible. The ground is like tundra, it … Continue reading →

Pioneers of Smart Technology: SA Water Case Study

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In 2017 South Australian Water implemented a “smart network” in Adelaide’s CBD, using smart technology to listen to the water network for leaks, reducing the impact of water main failures on customers, and maximising the life of the water supply network. The broad role out of smart sensor technology to monitor water networks isn’t extensively used around the world, in fact SA Water is the first water utility in Australia to do so on this scale. We recently interviewed Peter Seltsikas, South Australian Water’s Senior Manager of Asset Management who shared their story at Mainstream Conference in Melbourne.   Peter, tell us about the lead up to this smart network implementation. How did you receive buy-in from the Asset management team, and how did you decide to go ahead with this particular project? The adoption of smart technology in SA Water has been driven by our vision of delivering world class water services for a better life and by recognition that a large part of achieving that vision lies is becoming a digitally enabled utility. To achieve our vision it is paramount that we listen and understand what our customers value and recent feedback has been that they value minimal disruption in their day from water supply issues, whether that be disruption to community as a result of water main leaks or disruption to their direct water supply.   With the asset management team having a key role in driving asset performance and therefore delivering a more reliable service we are … Continue reading →