How we helped a UAE-based cool­ing solu­tions provider dou­ble wrench time in 28 weeks

About The Client

Our client is a UAE-based dis­trict cool­ing com­pa­ny that pro­vides sus­tain­able, energy-efficient, cost-effective, and inno­v­a­tive cool­ing solu­tions to gov­ern­ment, com­mer­cial, res­i­den­tial and pri­vate orga­ni­za­tions in the GCC (Gulf Coop­er­a­tion Council). 

Through its infra­struc­ture net­work, the client sup­plies cus­tomers with chilled water used for air con­di­tion­ing. They also design, build and oper­ate dis­trict cool­ing plants specif­i­cal­ly com­mis­sioned for cer­tain projects, or con­vert exist­ing projects from tra­di­tion­al cool­ing sys­tems to dis­trict cooling.

The clien­t’s port­fo­lio com­pris­es 76 plants across five GCC coun­tries, deliv­er­ing over 1.16 mil­lion tons of cool­ing to its cus­tomers. How­ev­er, they also oper­ate in a com­pet­i­tive mar­ket — one where reli­a­bil­i­ty and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of dis­trict cool­ing at the low­est prices are key. To sus­tain its cur­rent mar­ket posi­tion and meet future chal­lenges, the client need­ed to cap­i­talise on oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve the effec­tive­ness and effi­cien­cy of the main­te­nance process.

What Was Discovered

We were brought in for a two-week analy­sis of the clien­t’s main­te­nance func­tions. We worked togeth­er with the client to review man­age­ment sys­tem ele­ments by con­duct­ing var­i­ous stud­ies, both in the plants and offices. After accu­mu­lat­ing more than 318 hours of obser­va­tions, our field stud­ies showed wrench time of around 30%. The analy­sis also iden­ti­fied oppor­tu­ni­ties for improve­ment in sys­tem­at­ic plan­ning, prepa­ra­tion, costs, exe­cu­tion, super­vi­sion, and behaviour.

Bol­stered by these results, the client ini­ti­at­ed on an ambi­tious 28-week trans­for­ma­tion project that aimed to dou­ble the wrench time by struc­tural­ly improv­ing per­for­mance man­age­ment, work plan­ning, prepa­ra­tion, orga­ni­za­tion, process super­vi­sion and reporting/analysis.

How We Helped

The project team con­sist­ed of key main­te­nance play­ers from the clien­t’s side, com­bined with three of our con­sul­tants. In the ini­tial stages, we trained and coached the client-side team mem­bers in method­olo­gies, behav­iour­al change techniques,

super­vi­so­ry skills and problem-solving tools. A project man­age­ment struc­ture was put in place to val­i­date and review progress, under guid­ance of our project man­ag­er and the clien­t’s Senior Man­ag­er for Tech­ni­cal Services.

The 8‑week pilot project was split into two workstreams:

1. Main­te­nance Excel­lence and Man­age­ment Con­trol Sys­tem (MCS)
   This work­stream over­saw con­struc­tion and pilot­ing of both the main­te­nance process and MCS. At the same time, they were also set­ting up a new time horizon-based orga­ni­za­tion to guar­an­tee the required focus on main­te­nance reli­a­bil­i­ty engi­neer­ing, plan­ning, sched­ul­ing, and execution.
2. Site Exe­cu­tion
   This work­stream imple­ment­ed active super­vi­sion tech­niques for super­vi­sors, along with tech­niques for cap­tur­ing loss­es in wrench time and sched­ule attainment.

An exec­u­tive steer­ing com­mit­tee met fort­night­ly to pro­vide strate­gic direc­tion and take key deci­sions. They also val­i­dat­ed the results of the pilot project, ulti­mate­ly giv­ing the go-ahead to ful­ly roll out the designed process­es, organ­i­sa­tion, and man­age­ment con­trol sys­tem (MCS).

What Was Implemented

The roll­out cov­ered the whole of the UAE dur­ing the annu­al peak demand peri­od. The first focus was on imple­ment­ed “a sin­gle way of work­ing” with regards to the effi­cien­cy of the main­te­nance process. At the same time, the shift to the new main­te­nance organ­i­sa­tion cov­ered val­i­da­tion of final job descrip­tions to ensure the effec­tive uptake of their new account­abil­i­ties. This ensured that the actu­al tran­si­tion towards the new organ­i­sa­tion process­es hap­pened smooth­ly with­out impact­ing reli­a­bil­i­ty and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. This includ­ed mon­i­tor­ing four dis­tinct KPIs:

1. Train­ing plan compliance
2. Coach­ing com­pli­ance and active supervision
3. Oper­a­tional KPIs to mea­sure actu­al per­for­mance improve­ment (wrench time, reduced risk, reduced cost, and improved sched­uled attainment)
4. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and pro­gres­sion towards the top of the main­te­nance pyramid.

“Recog­ni­tion of the behav­iour­al fac­tor is essen­tial to achieve great results. From “imple­ment­ing active super­vi­sion” to “peo­ple selec­tion based on peo­ple strengths,” we nailed every aspect of this project — it thanks to the insights of Renoir.”

SVP, Oper­a­tions & Maintenance