Balancing Speed with Quality & Reliability in Field Service

Ryan: Sandy, hello. Thank you for joining us today. If it’s all right with you, we’ll jump straight into this chat. You’re Project Director and VP of Field Services at RRC Companies. What does a typical day look like for you, and how much does it vary?

Sandra Laird: Hi, nice to see you. First, I need a cup of coffee. Then I go through emails to see if anything critical happened overnight, especially with projects in different time zones. If something is urgent, I tackle it straight away. If an email needs more time and data, I park it and respond to the quicker ones first.
Every morning I check in with my director to see if he needs support, or if there are any concerns coming up from the field. We talk through what’s happening that day. It keeps communication open and informal, and it helps us stay aligned.

Ryan: Brilliant. For more than two decades your career focused heavily on quality management and quality control. How does that background influence how you lead large-scale field service projects today?

Sandra Laird: The biggest thing is process. At one point I had 27 projects running at once. You need the same process from project to project, regardless of location: the same expectations, the same deliverables, and consistency across the board. That also ensures field personnel have the same understanding and training.
I make sure people understand my expectations: what’s correct, what isn’t, and what’s high risk versus low risk. That makes a huge difference through construction. Even on site, when contractors have strong processes in place, you usually see a better project outcome because everyone follows the same routine and sequence.

Ryan: Consistency and communication seem like the two leading factors.

Sandra Laird: Yes, definitely. And trained personnel. That’s a big issue in the industry right now: having trained people and taking the time to make sure training actually happens. People are moving from project to project so quickly, and it’s hard to find experienced workers.
Last year I visited a site where a young person had died during a project. It wasn’t that they did something wrong. It was a lack of training. On large energy sites you’re dealing with live connections and massive power. People need to understand what they’re working with, what they’re doing, and the consequences if work isn’t done correctly. Lack of training is one of the biggest problems I’m seeing.

Ryan: Would you say there’s a skills gap currently, and is it getting bigger?

Sandra Laird: It’s getting bigger. There’s an increase in projects worldwide, especially with data centres and BESS sites. There just aren’t enough trained people. If someone finishes one project, they’re often treated as “trained”, but their tasks on one site might be completely different on the next. There isn’t enough time for proper training because companies need workers and they’re pulling people in as long as they have one project on their CV.

Ryan: Your career spans industrial machinery, telecoms, and renewable energy. From your perspective, how do those sectors differ in meeting customer expectations, complex planning, and compliance?

Sandra Laird: They differ a lot. Industrial is more mature. Standards have been around for a long time. Even going back to military standards, sampling inspections, then British Standard 5750 and ISO 9000. Those industries understand expectations for clients and workers, and quality is built in.
Telecom came later with TL 9000, which builds on ISO 9000 and adds metrics and performance measures. I sat on the TL 9000 board and helped develop the standard.
Green energy doesn’t have that same push. There isn’t an entity pushing a mandate down to ensure quality is built into projects. In other industries, expectations come from above and suppliers are required to have quality systems. In energy, you don’t get that, which makes quality and reliability harder to manage.

Ryan: Why do you think that is? Is speed prioritised over quality in that sector?

Sandra Laird: Speed is prioritised. Energy sites have energisation dates, and missing those dates can be extremely costly. Owners want to hit energisation so they can start generating revenue.
But there’s no one pushing a requirement for quality systems. Quality might be referenced in contracts or designs, but if it isn’t in the contract, it’s hard to push expectations down to subcontractors because there’s nothing contractual to enforce.

Ryan: You’ve worked on large-scale infrastructure projects and still do today. Any key lessons about pace, coordination, and planning?

Sandra Laird: Quality doesn’t cost money. Poor quality costs money. If you have good processes and quality, things actually move faster because you avoid rework. Rework eats cost and eats your schedule.
When you have a sequence of operations and everyone follows the same expectations for what “good” looks like, you get better output and fewer fixes later. That protects your schedule and reduces extra spend.

Ryan: And that’s the same for compliance and regulatory demands as well?

Sandra Laird: Yes. If it’s built in up front, it doesn’t slow things down at all. Companies that already have strong systems can mobilise quickly and operate efficiently. On sites without that structure, you can feel the chaos and pressure. You can often tell early that the project is heading in the wrong direction.

Ryan: You moved into green energy at First Solar. That meant a much more field-based, outdoor installation environment. How much of the design goes into proactively planning for challenging weather conditions?

Sandra Laird: Engineers do plan for it. They look at things like floodplains. Tracker systems can stow to reduce hail damage. A lot of design is built in to reduce environmental impacts.
But workmanship matters too. You can have the right design, but if installation is poor, you’ll still fail. In cold or frost areas, cables need enough depth and slack because frost heave moves things. Installation needs to account for expansion and contraction. A small failure can become financially huge because these sites are so large.

Ryan: And it’s not just installation that needs planning, it’s the aftercare and preventative maintenance too.

Sandra Laird: Yes.

Ryan: RRC also has an engineering group specialising in data centres and battery energy storage. What’s the responsibility of your department on these projects, and what demand have you seen over the last few years for data centre construction?

Sandra Laird: Data centres are relatively new, and the more data we generate, the more data centres we need for storage. BESS is also growing, though it’s been around for a while.
My responsibilities can include defining the contractor scope of work, having on-site field personnel monitor construction, and ensuring there are no reliability or quality issues that prevent interconnection to the grid. We also check contractors are meeting contractual requirements, and sometimes we support commissioning: energising the site, testing grounding, and completing terminations so the client can bring it online.

Ryan: Is speed being prioritised over quality on data centre construction too?

Sandra Laird: Yes, because again there’s no wider quality mandate. The only references are the contract or drawings. Without industry standards like ISO 9000, you can run into quality issues.
On site, you’re constantly assessing risk: will this affect energisation, could something blow up, could there be a thermal event, can it be fixed safely once live, and will it last? These assets are meant to last 25–35 years. But with no external push, you’ll hear, “I’m covered by my warranty,” or “insurance will cover it.” That’s not healthy. You end up relying on warranties or insurance after something goes wrong.

Ryan: These projects can create community and environmental pushback. How do you balance technical delivery with public concerns?

Sandra Laird: Education is key. On my first major solar project, it was the largest in the world at the time and people were taking photos from planes and around the fence because it was new.
The best approach is to educate the community: what’s being built, how it affects them, noise, traffic, and what it means for their lives. Another strong approach is an open house after energisation: invite the community in, walk them through the site with operations and maintenance, explain how it works and how it benefits the community. That builds acceptance and pride.

Ryan: That makes them feel part of the project. In your experience, what do end customers value most: speed, communication, or quality?

Sandra Laird: Right now, speed, because of energisation dates and major fines for missing them. So a key metric is installation progress and whether you’re on track to hit the date.
But owners also need reliability. These sites should last decades. Something as small as a plastic zip tie can become a huge issue. If the wrong zip tie is used, some can fail within months. On an 800-megawatt site, it could cost over a million dollars to fix that kind of small mistake. Failures create downtime, and downtime means you can’t generate revenue.

Ryan: I’m now really curious about the zip tie budget. On metrics: what KPIs best reflect delivery success for crews installing and delivering these projects?

Sandra Laird: Install numbers per day are important. If processes are strong, you can compare one crew to another and learn why performance differs. Sometimes it’s setup, preparation, and lean practices: pre-kitting hardware, washers, components so installation is quicker.
But you have to look at quality in parallel. Are crews going back to fix work flagged by quality teams? If so, install numbers alone are misleading because you’re creating rework. Tracking both together reduces rework, increases efficiency, helps hit dates, and lowers cost.

Ryan: So you’d look at things like site revisits and first-time quality by crew?

Sandra Laird: Yes.

Ryan: You mentioned managing 27 projects, which sounds overwhelming. What technology or tools did you find most effective for managing multiple projects and teams?

Sandra Laird: Standardisation. I hire good people and make sure they’re trained. Then I keep the same standards and processes across all projects. The reporting structure is consistent: highlights, constraints, and issues.
Photos are incredibly useful. They can reveal problems quickly. Using phones to take date-stamped, location-tagged photos helps, especially on huge sites where pinpointing issues matters.
I’ve used different software tools, but in the field you can lose reception, so systems can fail. Still, capturing photos with GPS and uploading them into reports is very effective.

Ryan: With so many contractors and crews, it helps to have everything in one system.

Sandra Laird: Yes. Most projects use some kind of database. They tend to be structured similarly, with document areas and upload processes. That helps with archiving and retrieving information.

Ryan: Digital transformation is a big topic in utilities and energy. If you had to recommend one technology investment field service teams should prioritise over the next few years, what would it be?

Sandra Laird: Robots with AI for operations and maintenance. I’ve seen low-to-the-ground robots that can identify loose connections, broken glass, and other faults based on what they’re trained to detect. It saves time, especially on large sites with long grass, insects, snakes, and harsh conditions.
My caution is: don’t lose the “why”. If people only follow AI instructions without understanding root cause, you lose knowledge and your ability to train others. It’s important to fix issues and also understand why they happened and how to prevent them.

Ryan: That addresses both the skills gap and speed requirements.

Sandra Laird: Yes. They’re fast, they have good traction systems, and they can cover a lot of ground quickly.

Ryan: From everything you’ve seen at RRC, what is the single biggest challenge facing large-scale infrastructure projects today?

Sandra Laird: Accountability. It’s missing across the sector. It’s not just construction-site quality; it needs to run through the whole system: suppliers, vendors, everyone supporting the build.
Without accountability, failures are hard to resolve. You might energise a site even knowing there are issues because of schedule pressure. Then six months later it fails, and the contract may not assign responsibility. It becomes unclear who is accountable, and people fall back on insurance or warranties. Everyone tries to protect themselves instead of owning outcomes. Something needs to push accountability down, including workmanship responsibility for a defined period.

Ryan: Where do you see the biggest growth over the next decade: renewables, storage, oil and gas, or data centres?

Sandra Laird: Data centres. They’re new, but growing quickly. The more data we produce, the more storage we need.

Ryan: A few years ago you might have said renewables, and then BESS.

Sandra Laird: Exactly. Now it’s taken off. Everything is more electronic, more AI-driven, and that requires data storage.

Ryan: We like to finish with advice for aspiring field service leaders. You’ve had an incredible career in a male-dominated sector. What challenges did you face early on, and what’s changed today?

Sandra Laird: Respect is the biggest challenge. You can have the education, background, and experience, but you still have to prove yourself. That’s hard.
Be true to yourself. If you believe something is incorrect, don’t be afraid to speak up. Often I’m the only woman in the room. If there’s a difference of opinion, voices can get louder and it can be intimidating. My advice is: stay calm, stay professional, answer what you can, and don’t get pulled into negativity. People often respect you more when you stay composed and stand your ground.

Ryan: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to women entering field service, construction, energy, and infrastructure today?

Sandra Laird: Be true to yourself. Don’t stay silent because you think people won’t like what you say. Ask yourself: what’s the worst that can happen? The worst is you could be fired, and if that happens, it wasn’t the right job for you.
I’ve had scary situations. I’ve had meetings where people were furious. Stay relaxed, calm, and professional.
Also: when you leave site or work, don’t be afraid to cry. It doesn’t mean you’re weak. It’s just a way to release emotion. Try not to do it in the room; step out, go to your car, take a moment.
Often the tension rises because you’ve said something correct and someone doesn’t like it. That’s when it gets louder and can turn insulting. Stay calm, don’t let it knock you off course, and don’t back down if you believe you’re right. That’s why you’re in the position you’re in. Stay strong.

Ryan: That’s brilliant advice. Sandy, thank you so much for joining us today. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, and I’m definitely going away to look at the zip tie budget.

Sandra Laird: Thank you. I wish I’d had chairs back then.

Ryan: Thank you again, Sandy, and thank you all for listening. We’ll see you on the next episode.

Sandra Laird: Thank you. Have a great day.