Our guest today has been at the forefront of operational reliability improvement in various industries around the world for many years. Dick Pettigrew joins us today, sharing from his extensive experience as we discuss his integrated approach to design, maintenance and operations.   With a degree in Chemical Engineering and a love for machinery, Dick started out working in process engineering support. As he progressed into design and project management, Dick began to observe fundamental issues surrounding the approach to reliability improvement and maintenance operations. In this episode, Dick shares about his career journey, some of the major learnings of his experience thus far and his holistic approach to problem solving on site, not just within maintenance reliability.   We discuss how output improvement is more valuable than maintenance cost reductions, how there’s a difference between the problem and the cause and that taking a broadened approach from reliability improvement into total manufacturing improvement is what will create sustainable improvements.   Dick talks us through some of his experiences improving outcomes and how the assessment process itself isn’t as important as the commitment from the leadership team and people on site to implement the improvements. We discuss the importance of establishing a good culture and how working with people directly on the floor brings the plant up to standard and restores pride in the operation.   Dick has spent a lot of time creating measurement systems and writing books to take a systematic approach to output improvement. He discusses his asset utilisation model and how combining this with the theory of constraints enabled him to improve the output of many plants he’s been involved in.   We discuss using RCM not as a project but as a way of thinking about plant reliability and how it can make a real difference when utilised this way. Dick shares his advice to aspiring maintenance and operational managers, honing in on the vital component of the human aspect. TOPICS DISCUSSED AND WHERE TO FIND THEM [2:00]: How Dick started out as a chemical engineer and worked in process engineering support, moving into design and project management [3:30]: How Dick became frustrated by the fact that the chemical plants he built weren’t being operated and maintained in the way they were intended to and that they needed an integrated approach to design, maintenance and operations [4:30]: As he moved into maintenance management, Dick discovered there wasn’t a logical approach or codified practises as there were in design [6:00]: How Dick was asked by the vice president of a large plant to discover ways to improve the maintenance and how they hired a maintenance consultant, wrote a book, developed a bench-marking process and performed many assessments on their plants [8:00]: How all problems flow down to maintenance but they developed a measurement system and philosophy that went back to the source of the problem. [10:30]: Combining the asset utilization model with the theory of constraints enabled them to start improving the output of their plants [11:20]: How output improvement is 5-10 times more valuable than maintenance cost reductions [12:30]: The opportunities that exist within the unscheduled operational downtime [14:00]: How Dick retired from the chemical business in 2003 and established his own consulting business which led him to work with an Australian mining company. He rewrote the chemical plant assessment book into mining terms. [16:45]: How they implemented a successful process where the site took ownership for the outcomes of the assessment [18:50]: Relialitics Equipment Condition Supervisor software [21:00]: The assessment process itself isn’t as important as the commitment from the leadership team and people on site to implement the improvement [22:16]: How any errors should be classed as unscheduled downtime, regardless of the source of the problem because there’s a difference between the problem and the cause. [23:00]: How often maintenance and operations are at odds but working together is essential [25:00]: A successful plant that changed to become much more reliable, largely due to the local management and their focus on teamwork. [27:15]: How the state and size of the storeroom is a good indicator of the success of the plant [28:30]: How the commitment from local management and the people on site is what really makes change possible [32:00]: How senior managers understand how difficult improvement can be and have been more understanding of the process than Dick himself [34:20]: How the culture of a place with the right people, attitudes and standards create sustainability [39:00]: Working directly on the floor in clean and tag operations brings the plant up to standard and restores pride in the operation [42:10]: planning and scheduling is there to improve the efficiency of scheduled maintenance downtime but doesn’t actually improve reliability if the quality of the work isn’t there [43:30]: Dick’s advice to aspiring maintenance and operational managers - the human aspect has to be at the forefront of your thinking and the technical aspects of RCM, importantly addressing functional requirements not the machine itself How you think about failures and manage them through the RCM mentality   BOOKS MENTIONED: The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt Reliability-Centered Management by John Moubray   Website: https://www.bluefield.com.au/en/  

Bluefield 30 in 30

Taking a Systematic Approach to Ouput Improvement with Dick Pettigrew

Our guest today, Steve Flannery, has clocked up just over 30 years working primarily in the mining industry. Starting off as a plant mechanic apprentice to gain hands on experience, completing his mechanical engineering degree and working in numerous large corporations, Steve has vast experience in asset management with a focus on work quality. Steve’s current role is in Asset Management Services as Manager of Eastern Region (NSW/Vic/NZ) at Bluefield. In this episode, Steve shares his journey in the industry and how having a trade background makes a big difference with people on the ground, understanding the challenges of the job and how to find positive solutions. Steve shares how good maintenance is all about having the right people doing the right work at the right time and that work quality and safety go hand in hand.  He recounts some incidents on site leading to injuries and how in his experience, incidents most commonly involve an asset, design or maintenance element. When asked about his best outcome from assets, Steve shares about the challenge he faced in 2012 to cut his maintenance budget by 30%.  He was able to achieve this target in a sustainable way whilst maintaining fleet performance through strategy and good data. This experience taught Steve a lot and he discusses how he has learnt to focus on the work execution team to obtain the best results. Steve recounts his worst experience as a maintenance manager and his most difficult time dealing with a GM and how he dealt with it. He also shares about his positive fix mentality and leaves us with his top pieces of advice for those looking to enter into the maintenance managers space.   LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/stephen-flannery-5880ba14 Website: https://www.bluefield.com.au/en/

Improving Safety and Work Quality Outcomes with Steve Flannery

Our guest today is Dave Archinal, the South Australian Manager at Bluefield, and he shares from his wealth of knowledge and experience in the reliability and improvement arena.  Having worked in the industry for over 30 years, Dave has travelled the world working on different improvement programs across numerous industries and commodities. In this episode, Dave talks about how he got started in the industry in a mechanical engineering cadetship and how he worked his way through supervisory and planner roles, eventually finding his niche in reliability and improvement.  Dave was encouraged to step up into a supervisory role at the young age of 19 and he shares some of the lessons he learned early on about the importance of asking the right questions, listening and enabling others to perform at their best. As a young apprentice, David was never satisfied with simply completing transactions.  He felt the need to question how the system could be made easier, which led him into maintenance improvement initiatives and eventually into the consulting space.  David shares numerous experiences working with companies to improve their systems by asking the right questions and challenging the existing processes in place. David shares his 3 golden nuggets for those looking to embark on a reliability improvement project and talks about the importance of taking the time to listen to the people around you.  You can have all the ideas in the world, but until you know what the problem is, you won’t find the solution.   LINKS: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidarchinal/?originalSubdomain=au Website: https://www.bluefield.com.au/en/ Book: The Knowing Doing Gap

Listening to your Team to Achieve Results with Dave Archinal

This episode follows on from last week’s discussion with Richard Blayden as he talks about making change in a workplace by lifting people up to a common overall context. Richard discusses what is required to make lasting change and shares examples of how he has helped implement such change through his process utilising organisational charts, focussing on relationship, understanding data and asking the right questions. Richard also shares his top 5 pieces of advice for those wanting to get excellent results from their assets.

Lifting People up to a Common Goal with Richard Blayden Part 2

Our guest today has quite a few more than 30 years experience under his belt. Recognised as the father of the pipeline model for understanding work management, Richard Blayden was the first to put together a detailed framework for operational readiness processes. His developments have become the standard reference point for many of us in the industry. Starting out his career as a young apprentice, Richard went back to study engineering and progressed into project management. With a broad range of knowledge and depth of experience, he provides asset management and organisational performance improvement services to the mining industry and other industries. In this episode, Richard shares from his years of experience and how and why he came to develop the pipeline model. Having been involved in maintenance and project management from early days, he found that a lot of issues on site were due to a lack of information, communication and poor data analysis. Richard discusses common issues on site and how the pipeline model helps to lift people up to a common goal rather than dwelling on their personal thoughts about a particular issue. Richard discusses his involvement in the BHP maintenance evaluation in the early days and the three key issues that were discovered from that process. He shares his thoughts on why people aren’t good at data analysis, how a character string analysis identified an issue that was costing millions of dollars every year and how identifying and implementing the right process helped to fix it. LINKS: Website: https://www.bluefield.com.au/en/

Lifting People up to a Common Goal with Richard Blayden

A system is a tool that delivers on business processes to reach strategic goals.  A common mistake, however, is when businesses focus on the system instead of the outcome the system is intended to achieve. Our guest today is Leigh Jameson, Senior Asset Management Specialist at Bluefield, and he shares from his wealth of knowledge regarding data analysis, systems and processes.  Beginning his career as a motor mechanic and moving into diesel fitting and numerous roles within the mining industry, Leigh’s vast experience has provided a unique perspective into how keeping systems simple lead to the best performance outcomes. Throughout Leigh’s experience in the workplace, he discovered a passion for improving systems and asking the right questions to enable better outcomes and work quality.  Motivated by his desire to thoroughly investigate issues, Leigh spent nights reading and educating himself which eventually led him into the asset management space. In this episode, Leigh shares his passion for systems improvement and how quality data underpinned by good business processes leads to work quality and positive outcomes on site.  He shares some of his positive and challenging experiences over the years and the lessons learned regarding the importance of simplifying systems. A great system is only one aspect of achieving great results.  Leigh shares about the importance of developing a proactive culture on site where each person has a part to play.  When people are valued, motivated, and educated they can work together to look for areas of improvement and reduce administrative burden. Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/leighjameson Website: https://www.bluefield.com.au/en/

Keeping Your Systems Simple with Leigh Jameson

Building on our last episode with Relialytics’ senior analyst Angus Lay, we delve further into the $750,000 unexpected catastrophic engine failure resulting from analysis of post-filtration oil; oil with the red flags filtered out. This prompted a collaboration with Hastings to develop an in-house analysis of the filtration cake to find useful metrics of engine wear, contamination, dirt ingress etc and give critical insight into the problem which turned out to be fleet-wide. Part replacements and sensors for sensors quickly corrected the issue and an important lesson was learnt. Angus and Gerard talk through lesser-known engine issues and sensor misadventure which, although minute in isolation, can be catastrophic as they discuss. LINKS: Angus Lay on LinkedinBluefield’s webRE service Relialytics Website

An Engine Failure Story with Angus Lay

Collecting and analysing data in a reliable and efficient manner is crucial to obtaining good outcomes on site.  However, even the most in depth reporting and cutting edge systems are only as good as the people on the ground.  For a site to operate at its optimum, there must be trust and clear communication established from the ground up. Our guest today is Angus Lay, Senior Analyst at Relialytics in Brisbane. Growing up on the bayside, Angus had a natural love for the water and started his career as a marine mechanic.  Working his way up through trade roles to service manager, he eventually  moved across into mining where he spent 15 years working in numerous roles including equipment health, conditional monitoring and oil analysis. Angus talks through his current role at Relialytics and how they improve asset reliability through a different approach to analytics which alleviates the hours and money spent on manual data collection.  This enables people on site to spend more time working on the solution, which ultimately leads to better outcomes. As a fourth year apprentice, Angus moved into a service manager role and he shares some experiences which led him to discover the importance of communicating down to the shop floor level, not just focusing on systems and great reporting.  Angus talks about the need for building trust with people on site and how receiving feedback from the team leads to better learning outcomes. Technology is increasing rapidly, enabling better systems and reporting and whilst this provides great opportunity for reliability improvement, Angus reiterates the need for managers to bring their team on the journey to ensure they understand the processes and reasons behind the work they are doing. LINKS: Angus on Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/angus-lay-07087951 Relialytics: https://www.relialytics.com.au

Analysing Your Data For Optimal Performance with Angus Lay

There is an increasing awareness of the importance of building relationships with team mates and how this makes such a great impact on work ethic, efficiency and productivity in the workplace. Our guest today has 47 years of experience in the workplace and, having worked in every role imaginable from shop floor to management positions, he has a depth of knowledge in the mining industry and the importance of taking care of his team.  Tom Houston was a guest on our podcast earlier this year and we have him back today to take a deeper dive into the skills he utilises to build genuine relationships and obtain great results on site. Humans are very complex creatures, yet often it’s the simple things that make a big difference on our lives.  In this episode, Tom reiterates the importance of keeping things simple and being consistent and fair with the people around us.  When a culture of respect and trust flows from the top, it will naturally filter into all aspect of the company and produce excellent results. For more resources and information, head to the Bluefield Asset Management website. To learn more about getting the most out of your assets, grab a copy of Gerard’s book Simplifying Mining Maintenance.

A Deep Dive Into Building Relationships with Tom Houston

Our guest today is Greg Sheppard who has a broad range of experience in the mining industry, starting his career as a plant operator and working his way through numerous roles in operations, maintenance, technology and statistical analysis.  Greg is currently the Processing Manager at KCGM, a company who has managed one of the most successful and enduring mining operations in Australia’s history. Through Greg’s decades of experience, he has not only obtained valuable skills and qualifications but he has also come to understand the importance of prioritising people.  In this episode Greg shares his experience in how changing a culture on site leads to better outcomes, both for the business and for the team members. He talks about his insights on leadership roles, how best to manage difficulties on site and the importance of being an open minded team player.   Find Greg on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/greg-sheppard-16615420

Confident Decision-Making Through Appropriate Research with Greg Sheppard

Universities and technical colleges teach a lot of valuable things that can be utilised in the workplace but there are some essential skills that simply can’t be taught in a lecture theatre. The values of hard work, understanding priorities, taking care of people, these are things that must be learned through experience.  Knowledge can be gained, but if people aren’t taken care of, a workplace will struggle to thrive. Today’s guest is Heath Hamilton and his life is a great example of someone who has taken an alternative route, gaining his depth of knowledge through life experience.  Struggling with dyslexia, he left school at the age of 13 and began working on his family farm.  With an inherent love for machinery and doing things with his hands, he developed a keen interest in trucks which eventually led him into a long and successful career in the mining industry. In his farming days, Heath was fortunate enough to be surrounded by good people who taught him the ropes and helped to bring out his strengths.  In those early years, he learned the importance of valuing people and recognising what each individual can bring to a workplace.  In this episode, Heath shares some of his invaluable pieces of wisdom gained through hard work, observation and good old fashioned experience.  

Instilling A Culture Of Care with Heath Hamilton

Adrian Bancilhon commenced his mining maintenance career in Western Australia though has enjoyed the last decade on Australia’s east coast. He has experience working with iron, ore, copper, aluminium, gold, and coal and has worked in roles from the shop floor up to the general manager of maintenance. With a perfectionist trait, he is never satisfied with ‘good enough’ and continually analyses and questions the status quo. There is a relentless quest for improvement, efficiency, safety and all done with a can-do attitude. Amongst this critical analysis is an appreciation of people, culture and practises unique to any mining organisation, and Adrian touches on the importance of being informed of these when starting any management relationship. Further to this, Adrian talks candidly about his worst experiences as a maintenance manager, a serious workplace accident, and the difficulties he has faced with general managers. Take 30 minutes out of your day to hear from Adrian and learn from his 30+ years of experience in mining maintenance. BOOKS WE MENTIONED: Leading Change by Dr John Kotter   LINKS: Adrian Bancilhon’s LinkedIn

Focusing On The Fundamentals with Adrian Bancilhon

Phil McMahon has a wealth of experience in maintenance and reliability.  After many years working across numerous industries, Phil came to an epiphany that no matter how great a system he had, it was the person maintaining the equipment that really mattered.  Delving deeper into his discovery, Phil studied Psychology at UNE to gain insight and understanding on how he could implement workplace systems whilst ensuring the focus was on the person doing the job. In this episode, Phil shares some of his experiences in the workplace and the changes he has seen when sites invest in the ‘human element’.  When we focus on what individuals are naturally inclined to do, they are empowered and able to work with purpose, thus producing better results. You can have a man maintain a piece of equipment without a system, but you can’t have a system maintain anything without the man.  

Building A Reliability Culture with Phil McMahon

Phil McMahon has a wealth of experience in maintenance and reliability.  After many years working across numerous industries, Phil came to an epiphany that no matter how great a system he had, it was the person maintaining the equipment that really mattered.  Delving deeper into his discovery, Phil studied Psychology at UNE to gain insight and understanding on how he could implement workplace systems whilst ensuring the focus was on the person doing the job. In this episode, Phil shares some of his experiences in the workplace and the changes he has seen when sites invest in the ‘human element’.  When we focus on what individuals are naturally inclined to do, they are empowered and able to work with purpose, thus producing better results. You can have a man maintain a piece of equipment without a system, but you can’t have a system maintain anything without the man. BOOK WE MENTIONED: Drive by Daniel H. Pink

Seldom do you come across mining maintenance managers with as many years of service, and as much variety of experience as our guest today. Leigh Gould, a semi-retired mining maintenance manager with well over 30 years experience and roles spanning nearly every continent in the world, discusses his vast know-how with Gerard in this episode. His career in maintenance management began alongside the introduction of computers in the early 1980s in Weipa, and he became heavily involved in the development of programmed maintenance. Over the years, he has enjoyed time in gold, copper, aluminium, iron and coal mining representing a rarely seen multi-elemental maintenance manager. Join Leigh and Gerard in their discussion of mining maintenance across all the elements, failure mode effect analysis and reliability centred maintenance, maintenance scheduling in the era of computational expanse, and dealing with resource-intensive root cause analysis.   LINKS: Leigh Gould on LinkedIn Bluefield 30 in 30 podcast website

Developing Successful Strategies with Leigh Gould

Bluefield 30 in 30 is a podcast intending to capture key learnings from mining professionals with a minimum of 30 years experience in 30 minutes.

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Bluefield 30 in 30

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