Smart shutdowns

The Minset team has been involved in major maintenance shutdown planning and execution programs for more than 20 years. Recently, we took our decades of experience and insights and collaborated with a large resources client in Oceania. Together, we developed a vision, strategy, and systems to plan and execute safe and efficient large-scale complex shutdowns, less frequently, to increase plant uptime and reduce costs.

We refer to these large-scale complex maintenance shutdowns as ‘Smart Shutdowns’. This new philosophy leverages the expertise of our people, the rigour of our shutdown methodology, and the efficiency of leading-edge technology solutions.

Our team

Our Smart Shutdowns specialists have the asset management skills and industry experience to help clients manage the demands of the most complex shutdowns. As a dedicated team, our people work closely with each site’s engineering, operations, and shutdown teams, assisting in the planning and execution of shutdown events.

We also draw on our wider network of industry professionals to create fit-for-purpose teams and technology solutions. Our people intimately understand management systems and what it takes to ensure complex shutdowns deliver the required business outcomes.

Our shutdown methodology

Smart Shutdowns address the ongoing need to maximise plant uptime and help to reduce waste.

We work across people, processes, and physical resources to provide certainty, clarity, and confidence for our clients. We take a ‘one team’ approach and engage with all key business leaders to understand their cost and productivity realities.

We assess what is required and develop the necessary plans and approaches with a strict focus on safety, quality, and costs. Working closely with our clients, we create long-term and sustainable outcomes while taking a pragmatic approach to continuous improvements.

Our integrated technology solutions

In today’s pressure-filled environment, most maintenance shutdowns are seen as business critical. Planning and executing tasks can be extremely complex due to the precise phasing and sequencing, and the requirement to perform activities simultaneously. Sites also need to engage and mobilise a large and highly skilled workforce. There comes a point where spreadsheets, person-to-person communications, and manual systems inevitably fail, or at the very least, become a project liability.

Smart Shutdowns minimise project risks by using a blend of lived experience and technology. Our technology solutions, delivered in conjunction with partners, take the hassle out of everything from contractor resource management and workforce logistics, to work management and event close-outs. Through our experience and digital applications, project management teams have the real-time guidance and information they need to make the right technical decisions on the ground.

Smart Shutdowns also offer an unprecedented level of visibility and transparency. For example, the project management team can use technology to access daily status reports to better understand the level of shutdown readiness, or to view how many contractors have been onboarded. This level of visibility helps ensure we understand what is working well and what activities may require an intervention, so the project stays on time and on budget.

Importantly, we integrate key shutdown data from different software platforms, including common CMMS (computerised maintenance management systems), to provide true end-to-end information management for the entire project.