Understanding the Importance of Reliability-centred Maintenance

Episode 15

Maintenance Management Podcast

 

About this episode

Managing Director of Maintain Reliability, Will Ocean, opens up about the importance of understanding and deploying reliability-centred maintenance activities to meet vital KPIs.


Published

Matt (Host): Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Comparesoft Podcast. Today, my guest is Will [Ocean]. Will is the managing director of Maintain Reliability Limited. And with 10 years of condition monitoring experience, Maintain Reliability, assess your needs and provide services to increase uptime and improve maintenance procedures. Will is passionate about reliability and has created a following with the hashtag #reliabilitygang. So, it will be really interesting to hear Will’s take on maintenance management. Hi, Will, welcome to the show. How’s it going?

Will Ocean: Very well, thank you. Thank you for having me on. Appreciate the opportunity to talk about the one thing I love probably the most, which is maintenance and reliability.

Matt: Awesome. So, could you start by telling the listeners a little bit more about what you do and your job specifically?

Will: Yes, of course, my name is Will Ocean, and I am [the] Managing Director of a company called Maintain Reliability. We essentially carry out reliability services and condition monitoring services across the UK nationwide. The business has scaled and grown ridiculously in the last two, three years. It was just me about three years ago. And within the last three years, there’s now eight of us employed at Maintain.

So, growth has been incredible. It’s been extremely fun. Again, it just goes to show the need and demand for reliability within the UK. We’re really grown with it. So, we obviously learned a lot along the way. But as well implemented new things to be able to add more value to customers. [we] really try to increase the asset life of the assets on site because I think, essentially, reliability is always the end goal. It’s a very long journey, depending on where you’re at through the middle to get to that end goal of reliability.

So, everyone’s at different stages, which gives us a big opportunity to be able to implement different services and different types of strategies as well. Yeah, Maintain Reliability is growing. We’ve got another guy coming on in January as well up north, which is great. So, we are starting to become nationwide with what we’re doing.

Matt: Well, it’s always great to hear a success story. What do you think has contributed to that success?

Will: Okay, so I generally think the reason for the success is down to probably three things. One is being open in the industry and trying new things – like podcasts. Open up about how passionate we are on LinkedIn, just really going in. Really showing and showcasing our passion, because that causes awareness for our cause, and what we’re doing.

Again, our ‘why’ for what we do is not just about selling, it’s about [a] solution. So, we’re always looking at how we solve the problem. It’s not about detecting loads of issues in front of my customers. It’s about understanding how we actually solve this. Can we be the end stop for that? Can we actually solve this and actually give them that value? Because that’s the thing again, essentially, with maintenance and predictive maintenance and what we’re doing. We’re just giving you information. The information has to be used and utilised to be able to be valuable.

So, what we’ve actually done is filled in the gap in terms of finding the information, or defects or whatever it is. Whether that’s vibration analysis or thermal imaging, then actually going in as engineers and fixing these problems and then improving and making them better. So, the asset – reliability of the asset – lasts longer. That’s the reason why we’ve been successful because we’re able to close the loop on what we’re doing. Whereas a lot of companies will only do one sector or one part of that. And essentially, people want the solution. They want that because that’s where the value lies, shall we say?

Number two is obviously now I believe we’re moving into a new age. So, since COVID, I believe that a lot of companies have – and this is something I’ve experienced – definitely got fewer people on the ground to be able to react to problems. So, they have to be a lot smarter with the way that they do maintenance. So, predictive maintenance, these different models are becoming very, shall we say, sought for? A lot of people now were looking to be able to do things smarter, [and] more efficiently. We don’t want to be spending more money than we need to be – got to be working smarter. So, this is where reliability and especially condition monitoring come in now. I believe a lot more companies are looking to able to be a lot smarter with the way they do things. I think it is a mixture of both. It’s a mixture of being in the right place at the right time.

Well, number three is having the knowledge to be able to convert it into value. So, vibration analysis maintenance. Again, all of these things are quite fairly niche to a degree. You don’t go to college to learn about reliability. They just don’t do it. It’s just not something that is caught up in the educational world. And that’s something that we actually try to tackle head-on as well, in terms of our training that we can offer now. We can offer mobius training, and actually, offer actual accredited training to be able to do reliability. Whereas before, they didn’t have this. Again, there’s a big call, a big need for it right now. I believe that we’re in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge, as well.

Matt: Amazing. Jumping into the first question, then, how do you go about setting a good maintenance culture?

Will: Setting up a good maintenance culture, for me in terms of success is about getting everyone involved, and everyone aware of the end goal, the mission. The thing is, in terms of a maintenance culture. I mean, maintenance, again, a good maintenance culture consists of your maintenance running more strategically, spending less money and budget on downtime, and creating efficient practices that allows everyone to enjoy their work life more, and actually get fulfilment out of the work.

That word I’ll use with quite a passion. Fulfilment is everything for an engineer, because engineers, they require to be able to have something they’re improving on and feel like they’re building towards something that’s bigger than themselves, whether that be the maintenance within a plant or the reliability of the plant, and actually feel like they’re contributing something. Because again, when it comes down to anyone’s work, especially engineers, we just want to make things better. We do. Again, it’s not just about the engineers as well. It’s about everyone involved.

So higher management, as well getting them involved as well, and then understand the importance of what the engineers do, and vice versa. And getting everyone working on the same hymn sheet. Because I believe when people have different goals or objectives, they’re trying to pull apart two different directions. It doesn’t work. Everyone needs to really have a clear vision of what the maintenance is actually trying to do, which is trying to help everybody. And then once everyone has a clear understanding that this maintenance culture that’s driving towards better efficiencies is here to help everybody, then everyone can get involved with it.

Another thing as well, in terms of culture, is making sure that everyone in the different sectors of the business is working towards the same goals. So that could be obviously production, maintenance, engineering, and procurement, as well, because all of them will intertwine with each other at some point, as well. So, without having a clear understanding what the goals are, then it’s very difficult to be able to create good maintenance culture, because I’ll give you an example of that.

Say, for example, procurement has KPIs driven by how much money they save on certain things. And then engineering is looking for a reliability-centred maintenance culture, where the lifecycle of the assets is important. There are two very different aligned goals. Because if engineering wants a replacement mower, and you’ve got procurement trying to be based in their KPIs and go for the cheapest option. They’re going to be buying the cheaper option, which is less reliable. And then they’re going to be installing a cheaper mower, that’s not going to give the lifecycle that a more expensive mower, but more reliable mower and the engineering department has to deal with that decision or choice. So, this is where the understanding across all levels needs to be understood. And the KPIs need to be driven upon the one goal that everyone’s going towards, rather than separate goals that really do misalign the whole effort to get to that one goal that is set for the culture.

So, working together is key, is everything. I think within the industry, a lot of people don’t. It’s just an honest analogy. There’s a lot of segregation within companies, and this is where reliability itself can really help align all of that. But again, it’s not very easy to do.

Matt: So, moving on from that, then, what’s the best way to plan maintenance activities?

Will: Planning is everything. So, it’s very important. There are different ways to do it. So again, it all depends on what journey you’re at and where you’re starting with your maintenance. Because we’ve obviously helped companies that have literally been at the very beginning and don’t have any PPM setup at all and don’t have any strategy. And they’re literally just in a reactive state and they’re just firefighting from day to day. And we’ve also helped companies where they’ve got to a certain stage of autonomy, and they’ve got CMMS systems that have been set up. They’ve got a lot of data behind what they’re doing, but they’ve been set up incorrectly. So, a lot of this stuff they’re doing isn’t efficient, and they’re not really maximising the deficiencies of their men and their work people.

Again, setting up a good plan involves going through a bit of a roadmap and a bit of a gap analysis of where we’re at. So, wherever you are with it, it’s understanding where the gaps are for improvement. And have we gone through the relevant step-by-step basis of getting from A to B? So, the first part of that step is getting the culture right, which we talked about just before. You can’t start driving maintenance plans if not everyone’s on board. So, getting the culture bit is so important. So that’s the first bit.

Again, reiterating what I said, getting the culture right is getting everyone involved, having awareness, and having everybody understand why we’re doing it. And where are the benefits of where the value is, for every department sector? Once that’s been done, we need to start looking at, is there a CMMS system set up? How does all the work orders go in into a central place? How are they distributed through the plan? And understand and really the next stage of criticality, he’s on-site, where’s the areas we need to focus on? Because a lot of the time companies have a blanket approach with certain ideas. The problem is, they’re not focusing on the parts of him to focus on first. They’re the parts that are going to hurt certain companies.

Having a look at the gap analysis can really identify where across your plan, you need that information first. And that could be with PPM. So, you could have a lot of engineers out there that are not engaged and your PPM, and you’re not utilising them correctly. It could be critical spares. You may find yourself having different times where you’re having failures. You don’t got the spares behind it to be able to replace, to be able to get you up and running again. Again, it all depends on the gap analysis of where you need to go, then it’s about working in their gaps and filling them first then create that roadmap to the next stage and step. Again, it all depends on where you are on this journey. Because, again, we’ve started with companies that have purely reactive state. We’re working with companies that have got all of these systems in place, but they’re not working effectively. So, it’s about how do we actually get them to work as well. Because you can have all the gear no idea so to speak. We’ve seen that as well.

Just because you’ve got CMMS up, you’ve invested a lot of money in different apps and stuff that can give you work orders. Adding a work order is effective in the first place. So, what is behind the body of technology that you have in place as well? Again, sometimes the KPIs are wrong as well, because a lot of people are like, “Right, have we got a CMMS system? Tick. Have we got PPMs in place? Tick. Have we identified all of our assets and critical assets? Tick.” These tick-box exercises are great, but what is it behind it? How effective? Are we measuring how effective these things are actually working within the plant? And that’s another part of work that is almost hidden in a very large percentage of plans. Because just because the box has been ticked, it’s almost like we’ll forget about it. So, we have to measure the effectiveness of what we’re doing continually all the time.

Matt: For somebody or a company without any software tools in place. Do you have any advice or information for them on how they can go about choosing the best or the correct one for their business?

Will: Essentially, it’s a bit of a minefield when it comes to CMMS picking, shall we say, like systems. There’s a lot out there. There are a lot of great systems. There are a lot of systems that aren’t so great. I mean, I’d say in terms of A; understanding if you need a CMMS straight away is that’s the first base ago is very important and understanding that. It’s extremely important to have something in place as a central system that allows you to do a lot of different processes and more efficiently. I would say in terms of looking for certain systems, I’ve got a handful of systems that are incredibly effective. We’ve worked with Maximo Lob, we’ve worked with a company called Upkeep, Brian Chan. He’s done incredible with that software package, as well. We’ve worked with stuff like SAP. We’ve worked with different companies like Impulse, as well, on a particular site that we’re working with.

Again, ultimately, if you have a clean slate and you have an opportunity to be able to start afresh that is a very nice position to be in because what we’ve found notoriously and this all goes out to the culture again, procurement-wise. A lot of companies will have a central place where they’ll say, “Right, so A, B C, and D are using this program and we’re going to get a deal or we’re going to invest in that money.” Without really understanding the value of certain things. Certain obviously sites are almost pigeonholed into using certain software without them actually even assessing that or actually having any type of say in it. Again, it all depends again on where you’re at and where you are. If you have got a clean slate, then you’re in a great position to be able to search the market. Do you know what? When it comes to CMMS, I can’t really suggest one. You’ve got to look at your organisation. You’ve got to look at what is the CMMS tried to achieve? So, write down the things that you would like from your CMMS system. One of them being maybe a good critical spare, understanding on-site. Be able to write work orders effectively and efficiently?

Do you want to have the guys use that on their phone that they can input information at on site to be able to capture that information, as well. That’s great. That’s technology. But you have to think about all the things that you want from that CMMS system. The research out there about all the things and all the different companies that can give you these features within what you’re looking for. Don’t just go for the first one. This is a really important decision. It’s such an important decision. There’s no right or wrong answer, so to say. So don’t just go leaping into the first one without researching five or six and getting the benefits and understanding where the limitations are. There’s companies out there that will take you two or three hours on the demonstration for all of the features. Give yourself a week, task to go find a CMMS system that works for you, but based around what you want from it. That’s the important thing.

We can help as a company. We do help with that. So instead of just suggesting one, what we do is say, “Well, what do you want to achieve?” We get that information out. And then what we can do is actually suggest the right system for them to use, as well. So, we can do a bit of that as well, but it’s a teamwork effort. It’s a teamwork exercise. It’s not something that we can just do ourselves. Again, it’s not something that a customer sometimes can just do, because sometimes they don’t even know what they want. So, we’re here to help them understand what they do want – if that makes sense.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. And so, talking about plans then, how do you go about implementing an effective maintenance plan?

Will: Implementing an effective maintenance plan, it can happen by, again, we talked about the gap analysis before. That’s a very important place to start, is understanding where the gaps are. And then with them gaps, you start to fill them in with practices that you need to. For example, in terms of a maintenance plan, if you look at your gap analysis and you understand. You don’t have any PPMs in regards to lubrication, or lubrication strategies poor. Then you go straight away, there’s a massive red flag about one area of your maintenance that needs to improve and get better. In terms of implementation, I genuinely believe if you’re a factory or a site, you need to be able to bring expertise in very quickly to be able to tackle these issues as well. Because one big mistake I do feel that a lot of bigger companies make is they try to do a lot of these activities in-house. The problem is with lubrication is extremely important. Vibration analysis is so important. And all of these different little shall we say, some services are very niche, as well. So, there’s a lot of expertise behind each and every one. And when you try to be able to seek too much information too quickly, it’s difficult because you can’t get the value straightaway. You have to learn a lot of this until it actually starts becoming valuable on your site.

Effectively, straightaway is find the gaps and get companies in that can help you fill those gaps. But get companies in that understand how to drive that value very quickly because that’s where you’re going to win. It’s about getting a company that can get to site, do a lubrication survey, understand exactly what requires lubrication, what intervals are required, and actually implement it very quickly. Because straight away, once you start implementing lubrication practices, straightaway, your reliability goes up on site. Because if you haven’t got an effective strategy plan, you are literally going to wait for things to fail. It’s going to happen. So, it’s about bringing the right people in as well behind to give you the information. Once you’ve got that information, it’s about strategizing how you can use it in its most effective manner.

So, a lot of companies that we do vibration analysis for, we can give them very key information about what assets are running in good condition, and what assets have been in poor condition. That information in bulk for these engineering managers is so vital because it allows them to focus their manpower on the areas that need attention and not have a blanket approach on everything. When you’ve got a blanket approach on everything with so many assets, you’re going to reduce the time it takes, as well. How effective are you going to be having a blanket approach on loads of assets rather than having a focus approach, or a few that require attention?

So, once we know what assets we need to focus on which information was provided by us in terms of doing the vibration analysis surveys and understand it that, then he can then set his PPMs or his work orders or his maintenance work orders are what requires to be done, rather than just guessing or being reactive. So, a good maintenance plan requires good information from people that know what they’re doing, and use other companies to be able to leverage yourself in a position to be able to really make the bad calls and more efficiency. Because once you start doing that, you can start to really, really maximise your maintenance plans for efficiency and drive value in terms of what you’re finding out information.

Matt: Sure, and we’ve spoken a little bit about tech already. But do you think software tools are useful for managing maintenance activities?

Will: Massively. Yeah, 100%. Again, we’re working with a customer where we’ve done — Again, this is a perfect example, as well, because this particular customer invested in the CMMS system early on. Very early, probably way early that they should have done. There are a lot of areas, in the gap analysis that needed to be addressed first. They were using this app, as well. The fact is, they didn’t have a proper PPM structure. They didn’t have work order management going in probably. They didn’t have anyone looking after that. So, it was very much done by an engineering manager. There was no planner. There was no schedules to what was happening. It was very ad hoc, very reactive. We’ve come in, and we’ve done a lot of pre-work. The culture work and the gap analysis. They’ve still had their system in the background. But now, we’ve done all the pre-work. What we’re doing now is incorporating all of the work we’ve done previously, because now we’ve done critical assessments. We’ve understood what is actually critical to your process? What assets are going to hurt you? Now, we’ve understood that. We’ve done level studies based upon production, health and safety, engineering, and procurement. Everyone’s involved in that process, because it doesn’t just come from engineering.

Now, we can focus on the critical elements. What we’ve actually done within the tech side of things, is actually now within the CMMS system. We’ve created different tiers of criticality. So now what we can do is filter out very quickly within the CMMS system, the critical assets. Now we can start focusing on added [inaudible 00:22:26] critical assets. Now we can start putting information in the CMMS system, whenever we do change about or we do find something or we do find some valuable information that we can log in there that keeps a record of it. So now in terms of what we can use with the technology for is really keeping them statistics up to date. Statistics of everything. Again, until you start logging exactly how your plant is performing, you don’t know how to improve from that moment in time. Because again, you can’t compare data with no data. It’s insanity. You need something to compare against to be able to notice improvement. So, this is where technology is coming in massively.

To be honest, this has been around for a long time, but people haven’t been using it. But there are so many CMMS systems out there and people are not logging information within it. This whole database allows us to be able to do that, and not even that through apps now on our phones. So this particular site is using a CMMS system called Impulse. I love it because it’s very innovative. The guys can go out. There’s a QR code with assets stamped as well on the asset that can scan that QR code, and they can put in any defects that they’ve seen with a picture. Assisting with that, and it’ll go directly straight into CMMS system that can then be approved to a work order instantly like that within three or four steps. That is innovation. That is incredible. Remember, the more efficient you can get to a defect or see something, see a problem and get it into a place where it could actually be resolved. If you can shorten that journey down and make it more efficient, then it’s going to be a hell of a lot easier. It’s going to be a lot more likely it’s going to get done.

Because again, what we do find within this world of maintenance and PPMs and CMMS systems is how long does it take for the information for problem detection, to go into a system, to get the out into a system into a work order for someone to take that work order, go complete it and so I’ve completed it? That’s always been a problem for CMMS systems. It’s great that we can raise issues and raise problems, but what is the trail between A, start detection to B, finished solution? Again, technology is helping us shorten that gap. So, if we can get a good strategy with these things and be like the apps and having the QR codes on site, there’s never no confusion of assets either.

So now you’ve got the QR codes, engineer goes with his phone, everyone’s got a phone, everyone’s got an app on the phone. Scan it instantly, and there’s going to be no confusion as well what asset has been selected because it’ll have it locked in the QR code. And then all of that information will be input from a phone. That for me is the future. If we can start to looking at how we can minimize the data stream from A to B and we can do it with devices that we already own, the phone. That’s where we’re going to really leap about specially in tech. Definitely.

Matt: And so, what about connected technologies? Do you think they’re going to change the way that we work in the future?

Will: Yeah, I mean, again, in terms of our industry, yes. I mean, when it especially comes down to vibration analysis, now, remote sensors and monitoring are becoming more common. They’re coming more popular. Technology is getting cheaper. Wireless technology is getting better. Internet connection is getting faster. Again, we are moving towards that age. Again, you even have some CMMS systems that integrate with wireless sensors. Again, what they can do is give you pre-warnings initially, they integrate within a CMMS, which is quite smart, quite clever, as well. There’s process concept, that type of thing that we’ve seen as well. But yeah, as technology gets better, these things are only going to get smarter. But we have to be careful because what we don’t want to do is move so fast with technology and forget the core principles of why we use it. This is one big misconception that we’re going towards right now, especially when it comes into our history.

You’ve got a lot of people out there a lot of sales guys trying to sell wireless sensors, very cheap models that don’t do what we need them to do. And the problem is we are getting this sold down the road as well a little bit. So, we have to be very careful to make sure that we know what our goals are initially and what are we using this technology for? Is it driving us close to our goal? Or is it just distracting us away from it? Do you know what I mean? There are times a place where you can maximise your goals. Definitely 100%. I totally agree. I’ve seen applications where we’ve helped companies in terms of the technology era, but as well, I’ve seen it really damage those. I’ve seen it really mislead people down the wrong direction in terms of where they’re going, as well. We have to be aligned with the purpose of what we’re doing. Does technology help us get there? Yes, brilliant. Let’s use it to accelerate that growth. No, it doesn’t. Let’s find technology that can help us move towards our goals rather than just use it because it’s a buzzword or, “Oh, 4.0 is around the corner. We need to buy loads of sensors because everyone else is.” What is the goal? How will we actually apply in this technology to help us? That’s got to be the question. That’s got to be answered, as well.

Matt: What about the other side of that? What about using spreadsheets in maintenance management? Do they still have a place? Or can you see those being faded out?

Will: Of course, I do. 100%. I’m glad that the questions because one of the other customers that we’ve got hasn’t got anything. They’ve started from scratch. Would it be wise for them to go straight into a CMMS? Maybe. Have they got the money to do that? Maybe not. Have they got the resource? Maybe not. Have they got a simple way of doing it? Probably yes. Can Excel work? Probably can. Yeah, it probably can get them going. It can organise.

Excel is incredibly powerful. Excel is a platform. We all use it for something. I use it for our reporting software, and we’ve got Will Crane in our company, that’s a technical genius. He can manipulate that Excel sheet to do an incredible amount of things. So, it can be very effective. But sometimes if you’re looking at a small organisation that has three or four people, small or manufacturing process, maybe that would work better than having a whole CMMS system that generates work orders and does all this fancy stuff. It might even be more effective. Again, spreadsheets have their place. Again, all depends on the application and all depends on where you’re at in your journey.

Sometimes simplicity is key. This is why I say to people as well. let’s not just buy all these things because people say we need them. Let’s have a look at the goal. Really focus on the goal. Where are we trying to get the next two to five years. We always have to have the big goal, a 5 to 10-year goal. But let’s break down that goal into little goals and every year, say, “Well, what’s the best thing to do now? Right for us to get to A to B right now, which is something that works.” So, is the spreadsheet going to work for us? Maybe, but it might be that might be the answer. Again, I’ve got nothing against spreadsheets. Again, back in the day, that’s what people used to use and operate, as well. It all depends on where you’re at.

Matt: And so then moving on from the tech side, how do you use maintenance as a competitive business advantage? A competitive advantage for the business?

Will: I think the way that we use is our knowledge because we know how to make things so much more efficient. We’re engineers at heart, as well. So, we’ve all worked for companies that have had these maintenance structures. We’ve all worked for companies and understood where we went wrong. What was frustrating? As engineers, we want to make things better. We’ve got this innate, well, that didn’t work, why are they doing things this way? We should be doing it this way. So, the way that we’ve used our maintenance knowledge and the competitive advantage is all the things that were very painful for us in our first early years, we’ve said, “Well, how do we make these things better? How do we package them things up? How do we sell them? And more importantly, how do we drive the value in the things that we sell? One example of that is the detect solve-improve model that maintenance engineers live by. The detect is the detection of problems that potentially the customer can detect. The solution is to actually go in and change it. Do a good job? Do it in a way that is precision maintenance. A lot of companies that understand what precision maintenance is. That improves reliability.

And then the improved part is how do we now maintain this thing? Do we lubricate it more often? Do we put the self-lubricator on it? To actually get the life it should do our best asset. So, our knowledge of being able to do tech solve and prove gives us a massive competitive advantage because a lot of our competitors don’t offer that knowledge that can get to a solution.

Matt: You’ve given us some incredible advice and information on this episode. So, thanks a lot for that, Will. What are your top three tips on effective maintenance for the listeners?

Will: Top three tips? So, tip number one is gap analysis. I’ll say it three times, gap analysis. Where are the gaps? Get everyone involved with identifying the gaps. Because if you’re just going to do it, you’re going to miss things because our egos are horrible things, and they get in the way sometimes. They don’t allow us to see sometimes what they are. This is why within my organisation, we have accountability partners. So, when we have ideas, we throw the idea across. Do you think that’s a good idea? I want people to pick holes out of my ideas. I want people to really question it. So, there’s no bias with it. So, gap analysis to get everyone involved? Where does it go wrong? Build data, as well. Looking back at your history.

For example, our agitative failed four times last year. We didn’t have a spare each time. Okay, spares, spares, spares got to be better. Or not even that, why didn’t we detect it? Are we doing any vibration analysis? No, we’re not. We don’t do any predictive maintenance. So, it’s about though in the gaps, but use the pain in the history of the past to know where the gaps are, and then start there. So, gap analysis for effective maintenance, very important.

Number two, having a very good team behind you that believes in your vision. Again, what I’ve seen in some places where a lot of people may be not expressed the vision, the goal, and haven’t really set the culture right. A lot of the engineers don’t understand that everyone’s here to be able to work for each other, to get to the same goal. If there’s any misalignment with that, then the engineers are not going to work and not going to give you their best, and you need your troops giving you your best. You need the guys on the front line, really understanding what the vision is, because they’re the ones that are really going to be doing a lot harder work.

Aligning everyone with the culture. So, I’d say number one, gap analysis, number two culture and everyone seeing the same goals. Number three, I’d say when you find out where your gaps are, implement a strategy where other companies like Maintain Reliability or any reliability company that’s out there could really help you kickstart this stuff quickly because that’s going to really help. Because sometimes getting the external view on it sometimes as well, especially for the gap analysis bit is great. Because if you’ve got an external viewer, we’re passionate, and we’re here to help. And we’re going to say, “Right, this is where you need to improve.”

So sometimes hearing it from someone external is very important because there’s no bias, if that makes sense. It’s like, “Right, they’re here to help us. These are the things they’ve identified.” And get them to kickstart it, if they can help quickly. You’ve got a good budget to be able to kickstart, I guarantee that in the long run, you guys are going to be saving a lot of money because the problem is procrastination is a real thing within this game, I believe. I think a lot of people will really wait too long before they start getting the ball rolling. And so, there is the need to get involved in it. And that can really hurt the short term. We know how important manufacturing lines are heading downtime could fetch so many losses, a paramount amount of money. If we can avoid them, we’re better off spending the money upfront.

Matt: Wrapping this episode up. What’s your favourite saying or quote, on maintenance for the listeners?

Will: I’ve got a couple to be fair.

Matt: Two is fine. You can give us two or more if you have them.

Will: Two is fine. Two is fine. If you don’t plan your maintenance, your maintenance will plan it for you, and that’s a saying that everyone uses. Again, if you can’t plan this stuff and you can’t use predictive maintenance, you can’t use the tools that we know that work out there, then, unfortunately, you maintenance will say, “Well, I’m going to stop today or tomorrow, or unexpectedly. I’m going to cause you the most amount of pain.” Generally, it will fail. I’ve seen this as well. It’s always the asset, you’re not monitoring. Always the one that you forget about. “Oh, yeah, that’ll be all right.” It will fail in the most convenient way, or the most inconvenient day. [inaudible 00:35:50] coming to get you. It always is like, “Right, I’m going to come back and I’m going to bite you so hard and you’re going to learn from this scenario or not.” Potentially, depending on your reaction. So that one.

As well, I’ll probably reaffirm engineering mastery as well. All engineers would want something to be good. They never forget that. A lot of engineers are a little demoralised out there as well, because strategies haven’t been working. They feel like what they’re doing is a little bit pointless sometimes because the reliability and the actual culture is not changing for the better, for the good and trying to do things better. We got to look after our engineer. So passionate engineers and making sure that — Because all engineers all they want to do is improve stuff. So passionate engineers need to be looked after, and I think that will stem for the top, definitely.

Matt: Amazing. Well, thanks so much for stopping by, Will. You’ve been an absolutely amazing guest and dropped some really incredible information for our listeners. So, thanks so much again for coming on the show.

Will: It’s a pleasure. Thank you, guys. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.

Matt: All right, and thanks to all you again for dropping by and listening to this episode. We’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.