Improve critical asset maintenance and planning and forecasting for greater capability

Our client wanted to review and improve their critical asset maintenance planning and forecasting process, which was being impacted by reactive emergency maintenance situations. Using Open Orbit, they were able to rapidly define, analyse and improve their processes across multiple business areas, yielding greater forecasting and asset maintenance capability.

At a glance

The Client

Our client is a statutory state-owned corporation who supply water, wastewater, recycled water and some stormwater services to over five million people. They also maintain water quality and asset performance, manage the Economic level of water conservation, and environmental indicators and management.

Industry

Utility services and maintenance

Business need

Better forecasting and demand management on maintenance of critical assets.

Solution

Users were able to define their process and identify the pain point causes. Solutions were identified and able to be cross referenced to pain point causes to ensure no issues were missed. Actions to implement solutions were coordinated between four different business areas for implementation. Most importantly this was done in days and weeks, not months. 

Challenges

The lead time and risk from identification to rectification of a maintenance issue was excessive. Prioritisation planning was reactive as critical failures occurred before preventative maintenance could be carried out.

The process had not been defined, resulting in limited understanding of the process within the business, leading to inconsistencies in its implementation. These inconsistencies were rooted within data capturing and the urgency identification of maintenance requests.

Due to the reactive manner of the process, maintenance requests were being held and submitted at the last minute in the hopes of them going through as emergency requests.

How we helped

The simplicity of Open Orbit’s diagnostic map meant that the team were able to easily define their processes, enabling them to select and track all of the pain-points across the process. This was achieved without losing sight of the projects scope amongst the various process complexities and challenges.

The analysis was completed in a couple of weeks instead of months, meaning the team could rapidly identify the key improvements needed to achieve their desired outcomes.

The clarity of Open Orbit’s presentation tools (including the diagnostic report, action plan, fishbone analysis, and gap reports) ensured that the importance of the recommended solutions were clearly communicated to stakeholders; enabling the project to receive buy-in from multiple business areas. This solidified the chance of implementation and thus seeing the success of changes recommended through the tool by the project team.

Action plan and accountability features ensured that a large number of actions across a number of business areas were completed by the right people at the right time. Tracking the progress of solution implementation was available at a glance.

Open Orbit supports remote collaboration between members of the same project, which was emphasised during the unprecedented shift to mandatory working from home. Multiple users could work on the project at the same time, with changes being updated live. This ensured the success of the project despite the inability to hold traditional project workshops and meetings.

Business Impact Delivered

Speed of Execution

Problems were analysed and solution action plans were generated within weeks, not months.

Improved forecast accuracy

By identifying and implementing different ways to flatten volume spikes, the project was able to improve the forecasting on required maintenance.

Better Asset Management Outcomes

By improving the prioritisation system for planned maintenance, there has been a reduction in emergency maintenance required, as a result of which they were also able to lower maintenance and operational costs.