Why intelligent maintenance outperforms labour-led maintenance models for energy assets

Head of Construction & Commissioning for the Asia Pacific region, Phil Palmer, has been involved in oil, gas and chemical construction, commissioning and maintenance across onshore and offshore projects for over 40 years, including more than a decade in senior operational leadership roles across the APAC region.

He explains why Australia's current operating environment demands more than labour-led maintenance – arguing that digital capability, deep domain expertise, transition experience, and operational intelligence are now essential to achieving higher maintenance performance.

After many years supporting Australia’s onshore and offshore operations, we’ve consistently observed that effective maintenance outcomes result from informed decision-making, targeted resource allocation and disciplined execution.

As assets age and production pressures increase, maintenance strategies must balance practical, on-the-ground capability with data-driven insights to maximise performance and asset value.

Our approach combines end-to-end maintenance services, from strategy through to execution, integrating global experience, technology enabled decision-making and a reliable blue-collar workforce. This enables clients to focus their resources where they deliver the greatest return while sustaining long-term asset performance.

More than manpower: A blue-collar workforce backed by integrated insight

Operators require maintenance approaches that scale with asset complexity, facility return and operational demand. This means access to flexible capability from targeted labour support through to full accountability for asset maintenance.

That may involve supplying skilled people, supervising execution, delivering integrated end-to-end services, managing the delivery of a programme, advising on your maintenance strategy or taking full accountability for your asset’s maintenance.

When labour supply is required, we draw from a strong network of more than 2,300 trade and craft professionals across Australia. This includes a dedicated core workforce of over 900 personnel based across the Northern Territory and Western Australia, enabling rapid, efficient deployment to key onshore and offshore locations.

Value is realised when maintenance, reliability, integrity and data expertise are applied together, enabling more consistent decision-making and sustained reductions in unplanned downtime.

By combining data-backed insight, access to experienced subject matter experts and more than 40 years of regional maintenance experience, we enable smarter decision-making, optimised routines and sustained reductions in unplanned downtime.

We’ve found that this approach helps operators focus on maintaining long‑term value, not just the assets themselves.

Driving smarter maintenance through AI-enabled analysis

We recently helped an energy operator identify significant annual maintenance optimisation opportunities by combining AI‑enabled analysis with deep maintenance domain expertise from our people.

Wood analysed preventative and corrective maintenance programmes to identify where work could be reduced, reprioritised or redesigned without compromising safety, integrity or production performance. Within a matter of weeks, this approach identified a meaningful reduction in planned preventative maintenance hours.

Recommendations were collaboratively validated with on‑site teams, ensuring changes were practical, implementable and capable of delivering recurring year‑on‑year value.

By linking intelligent insight directly to how work is planned and executed on the ground, maintenance teams move beyond task completion to understanding how each activity impacts reliability, safety, production and cost. That's the difference between labour supply and value delivery.

Turning maintenance intelligence into action

We recognise that every client is on their own maintenance maturity journey, shaped by asset age, operational complexity and organisational priorities. At Wood, our role is to meet operators where they are and help them progress with confidence.

We combine AI‑enabled analytics, smart data models and decades of experience to assess asset performance, optimise maintenance routines, prioritise work based on risk and impact and embed insights directly into what’s happening on the ground.

Instead of simply completing work orders, we help anticipate failures before they occur. We enhance tool time while simultaneously streamlining planning, scheduling and execution across the entire maintenance workflow, and we bring the ability to add intelligence where it’s needed alongside a strong blue-collar workforce.

Why it’s important to choose a maintenance partner for the future

Higher ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) expectations including greater scrutiny on safety performance, environmental risk and regulatory compliance, broader operational footprints, decentralised workforces and increasing production targets mean that maintenance must evolve.

It’s no longer enough to rely on traditional labour-centric approaches. Operators need a partner than can apply a new lens.

One that improve productivity beyond labour hours, enhance safety through digital assurance, optimise cost through smart planning and engineering insight and scale capability as assets and operations grow.

Combining skilled labour, expertise and operational intelligence for long term value

For years, Australia’s maintenance market has embraced labour‑centric providers and continues to do so as a reliable way to deliver workforce capability. Today’s operating environment, however, demands additional layers of insight, assurance and optimisation alongside that foundation.

At Wood, our approach starts with a strong blue-collar workforce, supported by digital capability, deep domain expertise, proven transition experience and operational intelligence to deliver a higher standard of maintenance performance.

Choosing a value-focused maintenance partner enables asset owners to maintain reliability, manage risk and protect long‑term value as operational expectations continue to rise.