Allied Reliability partnered with one of North America’s largest energy companies to transform their reliability and maintenance practices. The client is responsible for maintaining and operating an extensive network of pipelines and terminal operations across North America, spanning nine different operating regions in both the U.S. and Canada. They oversee over 70,000 assets, maintained by approximately 500 dedicated maintenance technicians.
The initial engagement revealed that the client believed their maintenance costs were excessive, though this assumption was unsubstantiated due to poor cost tracking. The organization’s primary focus was ensuring regulatory compliance, maintaining personnel safety, and promoting environmental stewardship. The client utilized an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software, but it was primarily used to track preventive maintenance (PM) activities and demonstrate regulatory compliance. Corrective maintenance work orders were rarely documented in the EAM, and no formal maintenance planning function existed across the enterprise. There were no routine work schedules; each technician determined their daily activities independently every morning.
PM requirements were designed and implemented at the Business Unit (BU) level without a formalized basis for their development. Storerooms were undocumented, and the procurement process relied heavily on credit card transactions executed by individuals. Although some PM technology was in place, the formality and follow-through necessary to achieve meaningful results were largely absent.
The key driver for this improvement effort was to broaden the organization’s focus to include operating efficiency and reducing unplanned downtime without compromising personnel safety, environmental performance, or regulatory compliance.
The project commenced with a comprehensive assessment of maintenance practices. A strict governance structure was established to ensure visibility at the BU senior vice president level. A structured review cycle was implemented, encompassing weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews, with a formal reassessment conducted every two years. All project objectives and activities were meticulously integrated into the enterprise's overall annual business plan.
The initial assessment identified three key workstreams for focus:
This case study will summarize the first two workstreams.
Reliability-Centered Lubrication was initially an area of focus but was postponed due to budget constraints.
Assessments were conducted using Allied Reliability’s established Reliability Systems Model (Figure 1), with each element graded on a 5-point scale and an overall composite score calculated. These scores, along with the underlying narrative and business case, formed the foundation of the annual improvement plan. The same model would be used for the formal reassessment every two years.
For this workstream, the client collaborated with Allied to establish governance with representation from all regions and enterprise resources. A charter was adopted, outlining objectives, milestones, and metrics. Key efforts included refining the classification of assets in the database, with a Criticality Analysis and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) performed across approximately 50 asset classes.
The results of these efforts were used to develop a comprehensive equipment maintenance strategy for each asset class, defining the following:
Further efforts included developing quantitative PM task descriptions to support the execution of the equipment maintenance strategy and establishing a "bad actor" program.
A route-based data collection and predictive maintenance program was established, with data collected by local technicians and analyzed by an Allied Reliability analyst. Defects were immediately reported via work order, and necessary repairs were coordinated and performed in the field, as illustrated in Figure 2 below.
This initiative significantly contributed to an overall $15 million reduction in repair costs by decreasing equipment failures through the implementation of these maintenance strategies, thereby allowing the organization to avoid costly repairs.
For the Work Execution Management (WEM) workstream, the client collaborated with Allied to establish governance with representation from all regions and enterprise resources. This group conducted a visioning exercise to capture both the current state and the desired future state. A charter was adopted, outlining objectives, milestones, and metrics. The charter, a single-page document, outlined the following elements at the project's inception:
The team used this charter as an anchor point. As the process evolved, they regularly referred to the charter to ensure that any changes or developments still aligned with the original intent and that adequate, measurable value was being delivered to the organization—not just good ideas, but good ideas that led to measurable improvements.
This charter was then used to develop an enterprise-wide work execution standard, outlining specific details of how each element of the WEM process would be performed, by whom, and how performance would be measured. This standard became the next anchor point, guiding specific role-based training and coaching.
Allied coaches embedded themselves within the organization, modeling the changes and providing technical support, encouragement, and praise for successes.
It is important to note that the WEM workstream required organization-wide changes in daily behaviors to achieve success. Unlike the asset health and reliability engineering (AHRE) workstream, where changes could be designed and executed by a small group, the WEM workstream required altering long-held beliefs, changing established ways of working, and overcoming longstanding skepticism about the need for change.
The personal attention and mentorship provided by Allied coaches, both in small groups and on an individual basis, proved to be the critical success factor in driving long-lasting behavioral change. We quickly learned that merely documenting expectations and emailing them to those affected wouldn’t suffice—this was an exercise in changing hearts and minds.
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As a result of this effort, a formal planning and scheduling function was established, including planner/schedulers across the BU, supported by planning supervisors. Management transitioned from having no visibility of work performed to 100% of labor hours being accounted for via work orders in Maximo. Weekly schedules were established, with metrics in place for labor utilization, schedule compliance, and the percentage of planned work. While wrench time was not directly measured, improvements in the above metrics were associated with a 35% increase in frontline productivity, largely attributed to an increase in wrench time.
The enhanced outage coordination process contributed to increased revenue, driven by increased pipeline flow. The visibility and regular cadence of discussions on metrics, particularly at the frontline level, were key drivers of success. The process has become self-sustaining, as technicians now demand schedules and work orders to perform tasks and actively participate in improvement efforts tied to metrics.
The higher-quality execution and documentation of proactive work, resulting from the improved planning and scheduling function, contributed to the $15 million in value previously mentioned in the asset health and reliability engineering (AHRE) section.
Throughout the partnership, $65 million in costs were eliminated through optimized outage coordination ($40 million in savings) and reduced maintenance costs ($15 million). Additionally, frontline technician productivity increased by 35%.
Allied Reliability continues to collaborate with the client to enhance predictive maintenance and data analysis. The client remains committed to continuously improving their maintenance and reliability efforts, with a strong focus on measured benefits, regular reviews, and accountability.
One of the most significant sources of value has been frontline engagement. Due to geographic distance, these efforts must be locally owned, driven, and reported, with support from the business units (BU). Finally, significant knowledge transfer occurred through coaching and skills development.
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