Case Study
Wallis Drilling
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Wallis Drilling is a leading drilling services provider with operations in Australia and selected international markets. While not a household name themselves, they support large Australian resources companies that are household names. Those large resources companies demand quality services from their contractors.
Wallis Drilling is renowned for their innovative custom-design drill rigs and experienced professionals who have a strong commitment to quality and safety. It’s this commitment to quality and safety that saw Wallis Drilling becoming a relatively early adopter of quality management systems in the resources sector in Australia.
They achieved ISO 9001 in 2003, quickly followed by ISO 45001 – Occupational health and safety management systems and ISO 14001 – Environmental management systems.
Wallis Drilling has integrated these management systems into their operations and are now mature in their management system. In 2019, in their efforts to continue to expand their clientele, Wallis Drilling decided to implement ISO 55001 – Asset management systems, with the view to support a large Australian resources company.
ISO 55001 is a management system built on the continuous improvement principles encompassed in ISO 9001 (Plan, Do, Check, Act). ISO 55001 aids organisations in their implementation of policy, procedures and practices in better management of assets.
For Wallis Drilling, these assets are large specialist drilling rigs on site at drilling locations around Australia. With more than 55 drilling rigs in operation, it’s important that Wallis Drilling understand their rigs, the condition of the rigs, the cost of operation of the rigs and the cost to maintain the rigs.
Wallis Drilling has implemented ISO 55001 to specifically service one client and some specific rigs. The company had already implemented ISO 9001 to manage their entire fleet of rigs and thanks to being relatively mature in management systems, Wallis were able to rely on their experience and existing management systems to help with the implementation of ISO 55001, which otherwise would have been a much greater challenge.
Having four standards has meant that Wallis Drilling is able to focus their ISO 55001 certification on the specific rigs, while maintaining an integrated quality management system across their entire company.
There are synergies to be gained from the implementation of multiple standards, and so Wallis Drilling was able to piggy-back much of the ISO 55001 requirements on the established practices and procedures that they have in place for their other rigs with ISO 9001.
Implementation of ISO 55001 has not been without its challenges. Having an integrated set of management systems is useful, but ISO 55001 is not a straight copy of ISO 9001 — it requires specific understanding of the assets in scope, the approach to manage the assets and then auditing of the processes established under ISO 55001.
It is in this regard where Wallis Drilling has experienced their greatest challenge with respect to ISO 55001. Unlike ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001, ISO 55001 requires a certified engineer to perform the stage 1 and stage 2 assessments so that they can be certified in ISO 55001. This adds cost to the audit, as does the need for these certified engineer auditors to travel from the Australian East Coast to the Australian West Coast.
Where Wallis Drilling did obtain benefits from ISO 55001 over ISO 9001 practices for these specific in-scope rigs was around business continuity and life cycle of the rigs.
ISO 55001 sets out requirements for a strategic asset management plan (SAMP). This helped Wallis Drilling think about the risks to the particular assets and to develop effective plans for the ongoing management and maintenance of the assets over and above the good practices embodied in the ISO 9001 requirements.
To see details of Wallis Drilling’s ISO 55001 certificate, visit register.jas-anz.org/certified-organisations and search for Wallis Drilling.
To learn more about Wallis Drilling, visit www.wallisdrilling.com.au