Globally, the oil and gas industry continues to wrestle with the challenges of reducing maintenance backlogs while ensuring costs don’t spiral out of control; SRCN Solutions’ expertise can help them do just that.
Many organisations are recognising that the company’s straight-talking approach is just what’s needed for today’s challenges and to help asset-owning businesses and energy industries of the future too.
The recent high oil price that’s predicted to remain through Q1 this year means that most companies will have the money to tackle the maintenance backlog and other relevant maintenance, if they choose to. This could be a great thing – so long as the money is spent wisely. That’s where SRCN Solutions, started in 2018 by directors and co-founders Colin Wilson and Euan Galloway, comes in.
Colin says: “We can focus on making sure you’re doing the right maintenance at the right time, that you’re not doing maintenance you don’t have to and that you’re as efficient and effective as possible in doing that maintenance.
“All of which helps you reduce the cost of doing that maintenance and if you’re moving towards a low margin industry, it has to be done.”
Colin started his career with an apprenticeship at Weir Pumps (it was later sold to Clyde Pumps Ltd), before specialising in work management and execution in oil and gas. Working as a buffer between offshore and onshore teams has given him a good understanding of the day-to-day reality of maintenance management.
Meanwhile, Euan’s consultancy background and many years at Ernst & Young saw him working on global projects, mostly around large-scale system change and transformation, before leaving to join a company started by one of his former colleagues. A few more years down the road and he and Colin began speaking seriously about SRCN Solutions.
The pair met on a project and discovered a synergy between their working styles. Plus, they had identified a common flaw in maintenance and work management – or as Colin describes it, an itch they couldn’t scratch.
Colin explains: “You’ve got to identify the work you need to do for the equipment to function and achieve the outcomes you want. Next is to get that all into a database that captures what you want to do and what you need in order to get it done – parts, resources and so on. You then need a process that gets everything done at the right time and correctly executed. That requires a workforce that understands the plan and can get it done.”
Colin and Euan couldn’t find a company that did all of this. The only choice was to outsource it to multiple companies and contractors but managing the costs and timescales of this could prove “a bit of a headache”.
And so SRCN Solutions was born, offering a one-stop-shop approach for maintenance and work management. They come in, provide a fixed price for a fixed duration, and then go after delivering an agreed outcome with the client.
© Supplied by SRCNTheir combined experience in day-to-day maintenance and work management and delivering change at all levels means they are fully equipped to do this.
Euan says: “We’re comfortable working with the guys doing the work maintaining the assets, right up to the people in the board room who might not be aware of the impact they may have on the front line.
“Our style allows us to translate and communicate issues really well on both sides; to people working on the asset and to people in the boardroom who may be that little bit removed from the day-to-day detailed impact of their decisions.”
Colin adds: “We’re essentially boilersuit up, not just boardroom down.”
They do this by taking a straight talking, no-fuss approach that they both favour (Colin has “a bit of an aversion to waffle”, while Euan hates inefficiency). An important part of this is minimising the time demand and burden on the client, by letting the client determine how much time and input they can give to the project. Euan says: “We’ll work in the background to get you your outcome. Where we need you involved, we’ll involve you, and where we can just get on and get it done, then we like to do that.”
But it all starts with helping clients establish goals. Colin explains: “The analogy I use is of someone saying they’re going to B&Q for a drillbit. They want the drillbit to drill the holes for the screws that carry the brackets that carry the shelves. Their real goal is they want a shelf, not a drillbit and not all the complications.”
“So, it’s working with clients to get very clear on what they want to achieve and then we can help them figure out what we need to do to achieve that outcome.”
Euan adds: “That’s the interesting bit for us, or certainly for me. It’s fun and interesting trying to figure out what is it you really want and what is actually the best way to achieve that in the shortest period of time, plus making the impact that you want.”
SRCN Solutions makes this happen through its holistic approach to maintenance and work management. Colin says: “You can have the best maintenance strategies in the world and the best system, but if your people don’t understand them then the work’s not getting done.
“Or similarly, you can have the best people in the world and the best system, but if your maintenance strategies are wrong then you’re just very good at executing the wrong work. So essentially, everything has to work holistically.”
In an ideal scenario, client work starts with an end-to-end assessment, looking at maintenance strategies, computer systems, data structure and work management processes. It all allows SRCN Solutions to sweep away much of the complexity that can often be found in maintenance management.
And it’s served SRCN Solutions well, as the company has enjoyed a great year of growth in 2021, gaining new clients and even delivering a large project in central Asia entirely remotely.
As the company looks to the future, Euan and Colin are also pushing beyond oil and gas to help clients in sectors like renewables, utilities and nuclear power. In particular, Euan is excited about the value they can add to renewables, particularly as OPEX costs are beginning to creep up.
He says: “I think there are a lot of opportunities for the likes of the renewables industries to learn from the good things in oil and gas, but also some of the mistakes that have been made.”
Colin further explains: “A pound spent on maintenance now saves you £20 spent on maintenance in the future. If you ask people in oil and gas if they could go back in a time machine and make some changes in the past, a lot of them would bite your hand off to do it. Renewables has got the opportunity to do that now, it’s really important they don’t miss that.”
For those still in oil and gas who may be considering net-zero goals, there’s still much to be gained from effective maintenance and work management. Colin says: “In any industry that we help, if your equipment operates as designed, and is running efficiently, effectively and reliably, then essentially any negative impact on the environment and others is going to be mitigated. So, a large part that we play is going to be making sure that the equipment does what it’s meant to.”
Find out more about SRCN Solutions and how it could improve your maintenance and work management at srcnsolutions.com
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