Standardised Maintenance Cycle Lifts Haulage Capacity
70.4% cut in planned main line possession time through a standardised cycle
- 3 minutes read
Our client runs one of Western Australia’s largest heavy-haul iron ore networks, moving ore from mine to port across more than 1,300 kilometres of track with a fleet of over 180 locomotives and 10,000 ore cars.
Availability and capacity constraints across the network were limiting volumes and efficiency. The company formed a specialist project team, supported by ORBIZ, to streamline maintenance practices, reduce operational variability and lift asset reliability across the network.
The engagement began by testing a hypothesis: that bundling maintenance work packages across the network and standardising operations could meaningfully cut scheduled downtime.
Standardising maintenance into a repeating 12-week cycle turned ad hoc, reactive possessions into a predictable rhythm — cutting planned mainline possession time by 70.4% against a 10% target, lifting asset reliability and efficiency, and giving the network full visibility of every possession with a twelve-month lookahead.
70.4%
92.5%
The approach
An investigation found the current asset strategy wasn’t being followed: several assets were exceeding scheduled maintenance possessions by up to ten times. ORBIZ worked directly with the project team to analyse the data and build recovery plans, informing a revision of the Integrated Possession Management Strategy (IPMS).
- Reviewed and validated the current Rules of the Route credentials.
- Developed an Annual Service Calendar aligned to IPMS requirements.
- Identified the fundamental drivers behind high levels of unscheduled possessions.
Leadership set an initial target of a 10% reduction in main line possession time — the program went on to deliver 70.4%.
The solutions
A five-year review of historical maintenance activity found that more than 75% of planned work was rejected outside its scheduled window. Track condition was treated as the overriding priority, driving a reactive culture of workarounds rather than planned delivery.
The root cause was a perceived conflict between planned maintenance and haulage capacity: work was routinely bumped to protect tonnage, even though actual possession times were already ten times longer than planned. Splitting maintenance centres by trade or activity type compounded the problem, creating uncoordinated, avoidable, ad hoc possessions.
Working with key stakeholders, ORBIZ redesigned the maintenance schedule and delivery calendar, aligning work centres to each asset and to the IPMS. The result was a repeating 12-week pattern of possessions and maintenance activity, giving crews a standardised, predictable rhythm.
The program cut individually planned possession events by 92.5% and shortened the remaining possessions, achieving full alignment with the head maintenance strategy — with 12-month visibility into every possession by location. Together, these changes increased the network’s availability for its core job: hauling ore from mine to port.
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