Enhancing plant performance across the globe

At Add Energy, our work is delivered by a passionate team of industry experts, whose collective specialisms help our customers overcome their biggest asset and integrity management, drilling and well engineering, safety and risk, and decarbonization challenges.

In our new ‘Ask the Experts’ series, we delve into the experiences and insights of specialists across the company, asking them to share their most powerful insights, as well as their key drivers within their roles.

Based in the Calgary office, Brian Smith, Add Energy’s Principal Consultant of Maintenance and Reliability Engineering, has developed a rich understanding of the challenges maintenance teams face, as well as the keys to success.

Effective maintenance planning and scheduling is vitally important for every asset, because not only does it enable efficient work execution, it has a direct impact on production and safety targets as well as OPEX. Proactively planning and scheduling your maintenance can often seem impossible amid unexpected priority changes and urgent requests - or what many describe as “firefighting”.

Downstream USA unites leading innovators and decision makers as they identify, discuss, and map out future OPEX success opportunities. Add Energy’s North America team are very much looking forward to exhibiting at this year's event and connecting with the downstream and maintenance and reliability community.  

During a time when budgets are being scrutinized and cut, we are forced to work smarter with fewer resources. Add Energy’s Country Manager and BD Manager for our Canada branch, Afia McClenaghan, has seen the effects that budget constraints have on companies, describing the current tone of the industry as “cautiously optimistic, but nevertheless still cautious”.  

We asked our LinkedIn audience what they found to be the biggest challenge relating to training and competency assurance in their maintenance and reliability workforce, and these were the results: 

At the heart of every inventory management strategy is accurate and reliable data. It is critical to have access to this data and information at your fingertips to make informed decisions around setting optimal inventory levels.  

Ensuring spare parts are fit for purpose is incredibly important, as it enables operations to run smoothly, minimizes production inefficiencies, and eliminates wasted time and money. Yet this is often neglected and proves costly for so many companies across the world.

With many benefits such as increased employability, improved skills and knowledge, personal development, and professional networking, work placements are a great way for students and graduates to kickstart their professional development and for organizations to invest in the up-and-coming workforce that will soon be joining their industry. 

Having a highly skilled maintenance team is essential to enhancing plant performance and reducing the number of incidents and accidents which occur. 

Although highly competent people are employed in their roles, research has shown that there is a considerable gap in non-technical skills among maintenance teams and those in supervisory roles.

In this blog post, Mike Meen - consultant at Add Energy - shares his insights on what the most common skills gaps are among maintenance teams, why these have become so prevalent in the industry and how to plug this disparity in non-technical skills…