Dear All, I am interested to find about your view on the recent demand by the industry on Digitalization of work! There seems to be an immense sense of urgency (fueled by the pandemic) and move away from the traditional ways of implementation (test/pilot/assess/adjust/implement etc) of digital tools and services. Many organizations create new analytics departments, hire Data Scientists, implement mobile apps, further convert print media to digital format, roll out new software in enormous speed these days. So, in this dynamic situation, how are you approaching to this within the sphere of Maintenance & Reliability Management? My initial take on this was, first we need to fix our backyard and ensure that the house is in order (get the basics right! - i.e. if your CMMS equipment hierarchy is incomplete, your workpacks are rough, your team lacks competencies, what is the point of spending all that efforts and money on digitalizing your sub-standard work practices and processes!). Nevertheless, the more I read and think about it, the dynamics of Digitalization is somewhat different to what we are used such as a traditional CMMS roll out which typically takes 2-3 years. The digital crusaders seem not to take any prisoners and follow the agile processes (similar to .com industry) and adopt "Fail Fast, Learn Fast" approach and strategize, plan and roll out digital initiatives in 90 days-180 days horizons - and claim success! I am still not quite there and struggle to see how they achieve these in an integrated and sustainable way! Be interesting to hear from you all! Noyan Ercan Quote from an McKinsey expert: "Too often people think of digital transformation in terms of, “Let’s put some really powerful technology over this process and it’ll suddenly be much stronger.” That’s not how it works. Just digitizing an analogue that was conceived decades ago is not transformation—without going back to how you can serve the customer’s need better, you haven’t transformed anything." Related article/Podcast from McKinsey: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3BvZGNhc3RzLm1ja2luc2V5LmNvbS9mcC9pbnNpZGV0aGVzdHJhdGVneXJvb21fZ3BsYXk/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly9wb2RjYXN0cy5tY2tpbnNleS5jb206NDQzL2w_cj1nb29nbGVib3Qmcz1fZ29vZ2xlYm90Jmk9NmM2MzNhMzEzMDMwMzAzMDMxNjMzNDczNzA3NDM1NjIzMzM0NmE2NTczNzMmaGU9Njg3NDc0NzAyNTMzNDEyNTMyNDYyNTMyNDY3Nzc3NzcyZTZkNjM2YjY5NmU3MzY1NzkyZTYzNmY2ZDI1MzI0NjYxNzM3MzY1NzQ3MzI1MzI0NjY0NmY3NDYzNmY2ZDI1MzI0Njc0Njg2NTJkNzM3NDcyNjE3NDY1Njc3OTJkNzI2ZjZmNmQyZDcwNmY2NDYzNjE3Mzc0MjUzMjQ2Njk2ZTczNjk2NDY1MmQ3NDY4NjUyZDczNzQ3MjYxNzQ2NTY3NzkyZDcyNmY2ZjZkMmQ2Mjc1Njk2YzY0Njk2ZTY3MmQ2MTJkNjc3MjY1NjE3NDJkNjQ2OTY3Njk3NDYxNmMyZDYyNzU3MzY5NmU2NTczNzMyZTZkNzAzMw?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwio783ro_3tAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ Digital strategy in a time of crisis (mckinsey.com)

Customer - Service provider model vs Direct Reporting approaches are both used in O&G industry. Current trend that we can see these days is a central Maintenance Support Organization leading and managing core areas such as; CMMS, Planning & Scheduling, Spare Parts, Analytics/KPI report out, Strategy/Tactics, Continuous Improvement and supporting the front line Maintenance Teams (Superintendent/Supervisor level) who directly report to the Production Unit Leader and execute daily maintenance. In this matrix model, the central organization 's involvement to day to day is limited, and they focus on the house keeping and improvement aspects. Obviously this model is more relevant for mid to large size organizations where matrix organization model offers value . For smaller teams, I favor customer-service provider model, otherwise under pure Operational Leadership Maintenance tends to get reactive!

Words of wisdom from Peter! If you recall the Asset Improvement Program we worked on together in Turkey, I followed the above formula. First achieved a few quick wins, both the production and Leadership then were able to see concretely the "value" that M&R effort can unlock. After that, we utilized the end year Solomon performance report output and advocate to the Leadership that, if they fund our M&R improvement initiatives, then we have a credible case for improving reliability and deliver a significant return on investment. We were able to ask for that, as the quick wins helped us achieve credibility and we could demand for more resources or tools etc.. Pretty much we claimed portion of the profit and asked Leadership to "spend money to make money"! In three years time the refining company achieved top quartile availability performance (reaching 92-95% availability levels), and the rest was history! Good to catch up in this forum! Noyan