Safety and compliance
Remove personnel hazards, structural liabilities and regulatory risk.
- Missing guards and edge protection
- Structural integrity and inspection plans
- Substandard work platforms
- General workplace hazards
Reliability and asset management · Mongolia
Find the gaps before they stop the plant
We walk your site, find where operations and maintenance are losing hours, and give you a ranked plan: engineering solutions for safety, world-class practice for production, and a budget your management can approve line by line.
Illustrative vibration spectrum
Small defect→unplanned failure→production stoppage→lost output and emergency cost
The assessment
An operational and maintenance gap assessment, built from a site walk
We look at three areas. Each finding is tied to an action, the tool to do it with, and a priority, so the result is a work plan and not a report that sits on a shelf.
Mechanical reliability
Stop repeat failure loops and raise precision maintenance skills.
- Freezing lines and gearboxes
- V-belt failures
- Cracked shafts and structural metals
- Fan breakdowns and balancing
- High or unexplained vibration
Operations and asset management
Modernise material flow, software tracking and communication.
- Preventive maintenance planning
- Liner and pipe wear rates
- Breakdown registration for all equipment
- Chutes, seals, lagging and belt tracking
- Shutdown activity lists and team communication
Site walk-down
Inspect conveyors, fixed equipment, guarding, platforms, structures and stores on site.
Findings and recommendations
Every observation is paired with a recommended action, an engineering solution where one is needed, and the tool to carry it out.
Rank the work
Ranked by safety risk and downtime impact.Must-doShould-doCould-do
Zero-based budget
No carry-over. Each line is tied to a finding and priced as do nothing, minimum or full option, with the risk of each.
Timeline
Quick wins in 0–3 months, medium term in 3–12 months, longer-term studies after 12 months.
Example findings
What an assessment says: what we saw, what we recommend
Extract from a recent visit to a cement plant in Mongolia. The plant is not named.
| What we observed | Our recommendation |
|---|---|
| PM not defined or standardised, and not tied to shutdown planning | Define PM frequencies (daily or weekly to annual, hours or cycle based) and link PM tasks into shutdown scope |
| Predictive maintenance lacks definitions and consistent execution | Define techniques: vibration, oil analysis, thermography, ultrasonic, motor and electrical monitoring, trending |
| Work is mostly breakdown or corrective driven | Identify critical equipment (safety, production impact, consequence) and focus planned prevention there |
| No standard shutdown activity list | Structured shutdown follow-up: planning, readiness, execution and post-shutdown review |
| Job history unused; planned and actual hours not compared | Use the maintenance system consistently to capture job history and compare planned against actual labour hours |
Better planning → better control → better execution → improved maintenance performance → cost control
Engineering solutions and best practice
Beyond the findings: how we make the plant safer and produce more
Where a gap needs a design fix, we specify the engineering solution. Where it needs a better way of working, we bring established world-class practice and fit it to your site.
Safer by design
Engineered fixes for personnel and structural risk.
Guarding and edge protectionGuard and barrier design for rotating parts and open edges
Work platforms and accessInspection and repair of platforms, especially where heavy material is staged
Structural integrityRecurring NDT-backed inspection plan; load capacity checks with structural analysis
Dust at conveyor transfersEngineered skirting, modified chutes and optimised impact idler spacing
More throughput
Fixes that remove chronic stoppages.
Chute wear and weld repairsStandardise on modular ceramic liners or Hardox wear plates
Belt misalignment and laggingRoot-cause tracking with laser belt trackers and auto-aligning idlers; right lagging type for each pulley
Freezing lines and seal leaksSeasonal oil grades, enclosed lines, trace heating; seals selected for speed and environment
V-belt and fan failuresMatched belt sets, laser sheave alignment, field balancing, dedicated torque tools
World-class practice
Ways of working that hold the gains.
Work management cycleIdentify→Plan→Schedule→Execute→Complete→Analyse
Criticality-based PM and predictive workFocus planned prevention on the equipment that matters most
Structured shutdownsStandard activity lists, readiness gates and a post-shutdown review
Daily and weekly planning meetingsField updates escalated across teams; defects and wear data recorded in the CMMS
Industries
A baseline for each type of plant
Select a plant type to see what we baseline, where failures start and which condition monitoring fits.
- Baseline metrics
- Equivalent availability factor, forced outage rate, planned outage factor, heat rate, load factor, starts per year
- Critical systems
- Boiler, turbine and generator, coal handling and mills, feed water pumps, fans, condenser, transformers and switchgear, ash handling
- Typical failure modes
- Boiler tube leaks, bearing and rotor vibration, liner and roller wear, fan imbalance, insulation breakdown, hot joints
- Condition monitoring
- Tube wall thickness (UT) and creep assessment, online turbine vibration, oil analysis, dissolved gas analysis, partial discharge, thermography
- Shutdown pattern
- Outages sit outside the heating season: annual boiler inspection, turbine overhaul on a multi-year cycle
- Baseline metrics
- Plant utilisation and availability by circuit, tonnes per hour, downtime Pareto, pump MTBF, liner life and reline duration
- Critical systems
- Primary crusher, SAG and ball mills, conveyors, slurry pumps, cyclones, flotation, thickeners, filters
- Typical failure modes
- Liner wear, trunnion and bearing damage, gear wear, belt and roller failure, slurry pump wear
- Condition monitoring
- Vibration, oil analysis, MT on gear teeth, UT on shell welds and pipe wear, belt scanning, thermography
- Shutdown pattern
- Mill and crusher relines dominate scope; baseline reline hours, crew and liner stock
- Baseline metrics
- Physical availability, use of availability, utilisation, MTBF and MTTR per class, component life, PM compliance by service hours, parts fill rate, wrench time
- Critical systems
- Engine, transmission and final drives, hydraulics, structure and frame, undercarriage and tyres, electrical and cooling
- Typical failure modes
- Overheating, contamination, pump and cylinder wear, fatigue cracks at welds, wear beyond limits
- Condition monitoring
- Scheduled oil sampling, on-board fault codes, oil cleanliness counts, MT and UT on known crack locations, wear and tyre monitoring
- Shutdown pattern
- No single plant stop: service stops by hour interval and component change-outs on a rebuild schedule
- Baseline metrics
- Kiln and mill availability, reliability, MTBF, incident stops, PM compliance, predictive and emergency work ratios, maintenance cost per tonne
- Critical systems
- Rotary kiln, raw mill, cement mill, cooler, ID fans, coal mill, conveyors and chutes
- Typical failure modes
- Shell hot spots, tyre and roller cracks, gear wear, fan imbalance, belt misalignment, chute weld cracking
- Condition monitoring
- Kiln shell thermography, UT and MT on tyres, rollers and welds, lead wire tests, vibration, oil analysis, laser alignment
- Shutdown pattern
- Typically one kiln stop a year for refractory and inspection work
- Baseline metrics
- OEE per line, changeover time, unplanned stops and micro-stops, MTBF and MTTR for line-critical machines, sanitation time
- Critical systems
- Filling and packing machines, ovens and fryers, refrigeration, boilers and steam, mixers and pumps, CIP systems, compressed air
- Typical failure modes
- Seal and bearing failure from washdown, chain and belt wear, sensor drift, refrigerant and air leaks
- Condition monitoring
- Vibration, motor current, thermography, ultrasonic leak and steam trap testing, food-grade oil analysis
- Shutdown pattern
- Short weekend or sanitation windows; cleaning and food-safety sign-off sit on the critical path
Baseline and assessment
Measure first, then decide: the baseline behind RCM, shutdowns and condition monitoring
Every plant starts from the same baseline. It shows how reactive the site is today, where the downtime sits, and how much of the plant is monitored.
Baseline for RCM
- Asset register and hierarchy
- Criticality ranking
- Failure and downtime history
- Operating context
- Planned vs reactive work mix
- PM programme and compliance
- Condition monitoring coverage
- Shutdown history
- Critical spares and materials
- Safety and environmental events
Condition monitoring assessment
Five checks per critical asset:
- Can a known technique detect the dominant failure mode?
- Is it installed or scheduled on this asset?
- Is it sampled often enough to catch the warning period?
- Is the data trended in one place?
- Does an alarm lead to planned work?
Each asset scores level 0 to 3, from no monitoring to alarms that produce planned work with parts ready.
Shutdown optimisation
- Scope control
- Work pack quality
- Parts and materials kitting
- Critical path and duration
- Resources and contractors
- Emergent work
- Execution control
- Close-out and review
- Restart quality
Each lever has a baseline measure and a target set with your team.
Current state vs world class
See where you are, and what world class looks like
We score your current practice on eight dimensions against world class operation, then rank the gaps by effect on availability, safety and cost.
- Reactive
- Preventive
- Predictive
- Proactive
Work management
Now Most work is reactive; planning and scheduling are informal
Target Under 5% emergency work; jobs planned, parts ready, weekly schedule held
Preventive maintenance
Now PM tasks copied from manuals; completion not tracked
Target PM above 95% on time, with tasks chosen from failure modes (RCM)
Condition monitoring
Now One or two techniques, ad hoc, data not acted on
Target Level 3 on critical assets: alarms produce planned work with parts ready
Shutdown management
Now Scope grows late; packs incomplete; overruns are normal
Target Scope frozen on a T-minus timeline, packs complete, parts kitted, critical path managed
Spares and materials
Now Stockouts on critical parts; no criticality-based stocking
Target Critical spares set by criticality, parts kitted to work orders
Failure data and analysis
Now Failures logged as “breakdown”; repeat failures not analysed
Target Failure codes, MTBF by asset, root cause analysis on the top losses
Safety
Now Isolation and permits depend on individuals; hazards found after incidents
Target Hazard review built into job plans; verified isolation; engineered controls first
Operations and ownership
Now Operators and maintenance work separately; OEE not measured
Target Operators do basic care; OEE measured by shift; shared reliability targets
Benchmarks are commonly used industry levels. We set the targets for your plant with your team.
Tools
A planner for weekly maintenance work
Plan the week, track PM compliance and see crew load in one place. Access is by approval.
Plant Maintenance Planner
- Seven-day schedule with crew capacity by trade
- PM work orders generated from your PM plans
- Backlog, overdue work and equipment register
- Annual plan view to spot overloaded weeks
Send a request and we will reply once approved.
Request access Already approved? Open the plannerIf you have not been approved, the planner will ask you to sign in and will not open.
Services
Assess, support onsite, then engineer the fix
Assessments show where to look. Our team then supports the plant onsite and designs engineering solutions from the assessment results.
- Assess
- Rank the gaps
- Support onsite
- Engineer the fix
- Verify results
Condition monitoring
- Online condition monitoring for smart plants
- Vibration analysis
- Thermography testing
- Oil analysis
NDT and inspection
- Magnetic particle testing
- Ultrasonic testing
- Visual inspections
- Thickness tests
- Electromagnetic rope testing and Winspect camera
- Rope back-end and other inspections
Planning and reliability
- Reliability-centred maintenance
- Preventive and predictive maintenance programs
- Work management process
- Shutdown planning and readiness
- Zero-based maintenance budgets
- Engineering studies: structural load checks, lagging, seals, chute liners, belt tracking
Maintenance systems and improvement
- CMMS or eMaint selection and setup for maintenance planning
- Asset register, work order flow, PM schedules and failure codes
- Defect elimination process: log, rank, find root cause, fix, track
- Regular reviews that turn repeat failures into operational improvements
Onsite support
- Field dynamic balancing of fans and rotors
- Condition monitoring routes and reports by our team
- Laser shaft alignment and vibration checks after repair
- Inspection support during shutdowns
Engineering solutions
- Designed from your assessment results and ranked gaps
- Wear protection, structural fixes and safer guarding and access
- Redesigned PM, condition monitoring and shutdown scope
- Results checked against the baseline measures
Shutdown management
A shutdown is won before it starts
The objective: complete the required work safely, within the planned duration, within budget and at the required quality, then return the plant to operation reliably.
T-14 to T-12Establish shutdown
T-11 to T-6Draft schedule
T-5 to T-3Final schedule; authorise scope amendment
T-2Shutdown readiness
T-1Mobilise shutdown
TPerform and record work
T+1Close-out and review
After T+1Agreed improvement actions
- Shutdown ManagerOverall shutdown accountability
- Shutdown PlannerScope, job plans and job readiness
- SchedulerIntegrated schedule and progress tracking
- OperationsShutdown, isolation, handover and start-up
- Maintenance SupervisorField execution
- Supply/ProcurementMaterials and services
- HSE/SafetySafety requirements and assurance
Team
Operations, maintenance and reliability people
Bayarmagnai Barsed
Reliability and asset management
Operations and maintenance leader across fixed plant operations, underground mining and industrial processing, with over a decade at Rio Tinto. Experience in concentrator plants, underground hoisting and critical fixed plant assets, leading teams and managing contractors. Mechanical engineer.
Ankhbayar Turbat
Reliability and asset management
More than 15 years in mining, underground fixed plant maintenance, condition monitoring, non-destructive testing and equipment integrity. Leads multidisciplinary reliability programs, facilitates root cause analysis and delivers predictive maintenance for critical mining assets.
Adilbish Tseveen
Maintenance and shutdown planning
Planned maintenance, shutdown preparation, work management, scheduling, readiness tracking and execution coordination. Focus on quality work packs, scope control and better planning data, working with maintenance management systems and cross-functional teams.
Contact
Tell us about your plant
Send us a short note and these four items. We use them to scope the visit and to price each budget line.
- Plant type and main equipment
- Last year's maintenance spend and downtime data
- Counterparts for maintenance, shutdown planning and HSE
- Problem areas you already know about
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