Reliability Diagnostics

A reliability audit that finds the main causes of asset-related production loss, assesses maintenance and reliability practice, and sets out a prioritised improvement plan.

The standard diagnostic runs two weeks onsite (10 working days) at one site, using operating and maintenance records, interviews with site personnel and field observation. Hybrid and remote formats are also available.

Request a reliability diagnostic

Who it is for

For maintenance and operations leaders in mining, manufacturing, energy and logistics, including gold, copper and zinc processing plants, at sites in Australia and internationally, who need an evidence-based baseline of asset performance and maintenance practice before they commit to improvement work.

What the diagnostic covers

Eight workstreams:

1. Asset criticality and risk: asset hierarchy, criticality criteria, risk controls, critical utilities and single points of failure.
2. Performance and production losses: downtime logs, production records and CMMS events reconciled. Availability, failure frequency, restoration time and maintenance cost are reviewed where the data supports them.
3. Maintenance strategies and condition monitoring: sampled preventive and predictive tasks tested against failure modes, OEM guidance and operating duty, plus lubrication, inspections, alarm response and condition-monitoring coverage.
4. Planning, scheduling and shutdowns: work identification, prioritisation, job planning, weekly scheduling, backlog ageing, emergency work, shutdown preparation and closeout.
5. Defect elimination and failure analysis: repeat failures, RCA quality and corrective-action closure. Candidates for detailed RCA or FMECA are identified.
6. CMMS and data quality: asset hierarchy, failure codes, work-order closeout, equipment history, maintenance plans and reporting.
7. Spares, skills and governance: critical-spares rationale, stockouts, repairable spares, maintenance competence, contractor interfaces and meeting routines.
8. Field practices and asset condition: non-invasive observation of selected assets, checking documented tasks against field execution.

How it runs

Formats - Onsite (standard): 10 working days at one site. Onsite days are 10 nominal hours. - Remote: a 21-day deep dive into your operating and maintenance data. - Hybrid: the same 21-day data deep dive, with site visits as required.

Method: records review, then interviews with responsible personnel, then field verification, then validation with the site team.

Each workstream is scored on a five-level maturity scale, from 1 (reactive) to 5 (systematically improved). Areas without enough evidence are marked "not assessed" rather than scored.

Actions are ranked by safety, environmental and mandatory obligations first, then by production or quality consequence, recurrence and urgency.

Availability, MTBF and MTTR are reported only on agreed definitions and credible data. Where records fall short, the gap is reported.

Standard onsite sequence - Before mobilisation: confirm boundaries, data request and interview schedule. - Days 1–2: kickoff, interviews, process walkthrough and data validation. Agree the asset sample and metric definitions. - Days 3–5: review losses, maintenance strategies, CMMS records, planning and field practices. - Days 6–8: test findings, review recurring failures, spares and shutdown practice, and develop actions. - Days 9–10: report, action register and management closeout workshop. - Within 5 working days of closeout: final deliverables issued after one round of factual corrections.

What you receive

• Reliability audit report: scope and sampling coverage, methods, metric definitions, workstream maturity assessment, and evidence-backed findings and recommendations, with a management summary.
• Prioritised action register (editable): finding, evidence, consequence, priority, action, proposed owner, target timeframe and closure measure.
• 90-day improvement roadmap: immediate actions, a 30/60/90-day sequence and longer-term priorities.
• Baseline of performance measures and major loss contributors where records permit, with data gaps stated.
• Management closeout workshop to agree owners and next steps.

The diagnostic identifies improvement opportunities. Results depend on implementation and are not guaranteed.

Scope and boundaries

Sampling: up to 10 critical or poor-performing assets or systems, the last 12 months of records (up to 24 where available), about 30 completed work orders and the 10 highest-priority outstanding defects. Sampling finds material issues. It is not an inspection of every asset.

Client responsibilities: provide records electronically at least five working days before mobilisation, nominate a sponsor and coordinator, and arrange inductions, escorted access and personnel availability. Operational decisions and corrective work stay with the client.

Exclusions: detailed engineering design, statutory certification, comprehensive compliance audit, invasive inspection or testing, dismantling, laboratory analysis, repairs, full RCM/FMECA or RCA studies, CMMS cleansing or configuration, and implementation of recommendations.

Change control: additional sites, assets, specialist investigations, extended hours or data reconstruction need written agreement on scope, fee and schedule before work proceeds.

Fees

USD 2,880 per onsite day. The standard 10-day onsite diagnostic is typically USD 28,800, excluding GST and local taxes, plus agreed travel and expenses.

Travel days, extra days, overtime and weekend work are agreed before booking. Hybrid and remote diagnostics are priced on scope.

Optional remote support after the diagnostic (progress reviews, KPI monitoring, training) is scoped and priced separately.

Who delivers it

Norm Rodgers, Managing Director, Optimize Australia PTY LTD.

Master of Engineering (Asset Management), University of Wollongong. Graduate Certificate in Maintenance Management, Wollongong Technical College. Advanced Diploma and Advanced Certificate in Mechanical Engineering.

35+ years in asset reliability and maintenance.

Areas of practice include maintenance requirements analysis, systems reliability engineering, life-cycle and risk management, and financial management for engineered assets.

Based in Illawarra, Australia, working with sites in Australia and internationally. ABN 50 636 692 423.