"You’ve made my life a lot easier”, is a favourite quote of mine from a no-nonsense Chief Engineer on board an FPSO (a Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading vessel used in the offshore oil and gas
industry), where we had redesigned and fully implemented a practical Work Management system and process. It was one of those rare projects where we had been given the time to, not only train; but to embed in the offshore organisation for several months, coaching the offshore workers.

While the vast majority of Work Management improvement projects concentrate on the numbers, they rarely address the all too important softer benefits that arise from the successful implementation of
a good Work Management process. A few words to describe what can be a positive and fundamental change in the culture and outlook of the whole asset.

Prior to implementation, personnel, especially the Supervisors, would finish their three-week stint exhausted, down in the dumps, drained and disillusioned with work. To their credit, a lot of this was caused by them trying to do their best for the FPSO, doing jobs after normal hours so their teams didn’t get distracted and overworked. Allowing and encouraging people to say “no” is a cornerstone of a successful Work Management implementation, giving them back some semblance of control. Technicians would frequently discuss being frustrated at not being able to just “get on with the job”.

Benefits of Effective Work Management Implementation

KEY FACTORS FOR SUCCESSFUL WORK MANAGEMENT

Recognise and Accept that Issues Exist

Any attempt to resolve an issue starts with an admission that the issue exists in the first place – this is perhaps the hardest hurdle to get over. People naturally defend the way they work, not wanting to admit that they’re doing anything “wrong”. That, in itself, will be a discussion for another future blog.

Once you can get to a place where the asset/teams/people, especially senior managers, admit that they need help, the change can begin.

Supportive Management

The implementation must have a supportive structure and the backing of senior managers, especially, as is typical, if major changes to the CMMS are required. Work Management also relies on effective procurement and material processes; these usually need improving in parallel.

Gaining the Trust of the Team

A huge part of the job for a coach is getting to be trusted by the team; this is difficult to train for but is an essential part of the coach’s toolkit. Only once they trust you will people start to tell you the truth – for example: they are knackered, they dread coming to work because they knowhow busy it is going to be, they rarely get to finish (or even start) jobs that are on the schedule, they have to scramble decisions on how to fill their day while being constantly at loggerheads with other teams as to what needs priority today. Also, worst of all, the admission that theyare looking elsewhere for work.

Few assets can afford to haemorrhage experienced people; none should be losing good people because of backlogs and ineffective work management. How do we help with this? Firstly, we listen – really listen. Then we look for the solutions. If we say we will do something for them,we do it. We ensure that they know we are there to support and help them, non-judgementally. And we bring a deep knowledgeand understanding of the process, and this helps enormously.

Employ Patience, Set Expectations

The other part of the job for the coach is to employ patience. The problem will get better, but not immediately; there is a lot to change and get rightefore Nirvana is reached. Personnel want things to change NOW when they realise it can get better, but fixing it in the right, effective way takes work and a little bit of patience.

Key Factors that Enable Use of Successful Work Managementt

The successful implementation of Work Management within anasset depends on several key factors that ensure efficiency, structure, and long-term sustainability, including:

Trained and competent and energised personnel

• Provide good training; I don’t know how many times I have heard “we just get told by our mates when we get on board” and “I have a cheat sheet in a drawer that I did five years ago”.
• If personnel don’t know what they should be doing, it wastes time, reduces quality, increases re-work and causes huge amounts of frustration.

High quality corrective and preventative maintenance work orders

• Risk-ranked correctly and containing details of every task.
• Prepared and checked by experienced personnel to minimise the number of poor-quality Work
  Orders getting into the pipeline. Re-working of work orders once the job has already started is a major stumbling block to efficiency and, as always, causes frustration, pressure to rush, etc.

Agree the schedule with every team that haswork to do on that Work Order

• Ensure that there are effective scheduler(s) within the team. Ensurepeople know they should say “no, we cannot do that then” rather thannodding to not look bad.
• If work needs to break into the schedule, is it really needed? Management should have visibility and decision-making capabilities.
  

Ensure the Work Orders are ready to execute, materials, vendors, etc., in place

• To minimise work being started/stopped/restarted because teams can’t locate parts
  or are scrambling to fill gaps caused by incorrect parts having been delivered
  or not having arrived yet.
• The majority of Technicians want to do the job, do it properly and move on to the
  next one. Massive dissatisfaction andfrustration are caused by jobs not being ready.

Celebrate success, understand whereimprovements can be made

• Everyone should understand their effect on measures, KPIs, etc.
• KPIs should be discussed regularly AND so too should the root causes of issues. Supportive management can help reduce theneed felt to hit certain numbers – potentially causing supervisory staff to “cook” the numbers to ensure pats on backs and bonuses are achieved.
• Where issues are understood, talk about what can be done to minimise them in the
  future – discuss support, resources, training, changes, etc.

Master data is up-to-date, accurate and high quality

• A basic need and the foundations upon which Work Management is built.

The above discussion and points come from a dozen years of successful Work Management implementations around the North Sea. The positive impact on personnel wellbeing,stress levels, and the ability to plan ahead,cannot and should not be underestimated or ignored by their management and those tasked with improving processes and procedures. The numbers should go in the right direction,but personnel should also see a positive impact upon themselves.

For those of you who know Work Management, you may have noticed that I haven’t yet mentioned the key to this – executing the right work. This will form the bases of future blogs. When people understand that they are managing to get after the right work and execute it efficiently, that is an added boost to morale.

Lastly, these changes do not happen immediately, do not occur overnight or by accident. To get the maximum benefit out of KPIs and the people who deliver them, companies need to invest time and money.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy McCaughtrie, SRCN Work Management Subject Matter Expert & Coach

Andy brings expertise from over 25 years of delivering coaching and training to teams onshore and offshore. He has been part of the SRCN team for seven years and is responsible for producing tailored training and coaching programmes on Work Management,operational excellence, and behavioural and cultural change projects. He has 30 years of oil and gas experience, starting his career as a Chemical Engineer in oil refineries.

Andy has recently moved to the Moray coast and in his free time loves exploring the beaches and forests, walking with his wife and dogs. He is a huge rugby fan and has played and coached the sport, but these days has to be satisfied with watching with a pint or two.

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