BHP's Olympic Dam is one of Australia’s largest copper and uranium mines and was experiencing consistent difficulty with quality of labour and outcomes from shutdown maintenance services. With an opportunity cost of several million dollar per day and the ability to improve or degrade plant reliability, shutdowns are a major determinant of overall business performance.

BHP needed shutdown maintenance contracts that could deliver on both safety and quality performance and cultural change.  

PCI's role:

• Worked with BHP to design the new collaborative contracting model suited to the complexity of shutdown maintenance environment.

• Facilitated the establishment of 3 collaborative maintenance contracts, structured to embed BHP's long-term cultural and performance aspirations into the commercial framework - linking supplier profit to desired outcomes

• Ran a transparent, high-quality establishment process that earned strong industry recognition

Outcomes:

• Developed contracts that separated profit from costs in an open-book arrangement to enable the parties to govern shutdown activities on a best-for-client basis without bias toward under -or- over-servicing

• Drove a significant, lasting improvement in shutdown maintenance performance at Olympic Dam

• Enabled successful mobilisation of 700 people to site every 8–12 weeks

• Process recognised industry-wide for its quality and transparency

In the client's words:

"Fifteen years later (after the contract has finished), that collaboration is still one of the defining highlights of my career. Watching people go from hopeless, stressed and ready to give up... to excited, engaged, and successfully mobilising 700 people to site every 8-12 weeks was incredible to experience."

Johan van der Merwe, Maintenance Manager at the time (now Head of HSE, BHP)