Increase availability by cutting maintenance time by up to 50%

Boosting operating hours, reducing risk profile and increasing quality with Digital Standardised Work

We reduce Maintenance task durations by an average of 50%, delivering more operating hours, improving safety and driving quality by implementing digital standardised work. Vexillum’s proprietary Work Design™ Methodology and supporting digital tools work to remove waste and optimise value add activities in your maintenance processes.

Work Design™

Our desktop software, Work Design™, builds in Safety, Quality & Reliability Performance to the process and empowers the frontline to own their work.

Build your improved
process library

Working with you

Our team works with client teams to – embed the principles of the Work Design™ methodology, including identifying and eliminating waste, sequencing and integrating work, and holistic process improvements.

Embed an
improvement culture

Work D™

Our mobile application puts the improved process in the hands of the frontline workers, ensuring sequence, knowledge and safety requirements are available and durations and feedback are captured.

Empower the frontline

Increasing productivity by reducing variability in tasks. Achieves rapid, lasting performance improvement using Work Design™

Work Design™ Benefits

Work Design™ eliminates waste, reduces variation, and enhances quality.

Work Design™ Benefits

Increased Equipment Operating Hours

Reduced average duration of recurring maintenance activities returns operating hours to production via increased availability.

Work Design™ Benefits

Reduced Backlog

Reduced average duration and variation in duration frees up crews to reduce backlog, improving equipment reliability and increasing Mean-Time-To-Failure.

Work Design™ Benefits

Improved Safety

Identifying critical risks and corresponding controls and embedding them into work sequences for each individual worker, ensures controls are implemented at the right place and right time, every time, helping keep frontline workers safe.

Work Design™ Benefits

Controlled Costs

Feed-back captured during the Work Design™ process helps Supply Chain update Part Lists to reduce returns and increase number of kits ready when Work Orders are planned and scheduled.

Work Design™ Benefits

Enabled Diversity

Processes improved with Work Design™ include upgraded tooling and other solutions that allow a more diverse workforce to perform tasks. Video and photo images support written instructions support additional learning styles, improving understanding.

Work Design™ Benefits

Optimised Labour

As Backlog is reduced and zero-based labour calculations are improved, panel make-up and size, along with contracted 3rd party labour, are optimised to meet demand.

Work Design™ Benefits

Structured Feedback

Time Durations captured in the WorkD™ app along with delay and variation information are automated into feedback loops with planning, scheduling, maintenance and reliability engineering.

Work Design™ Process

The Work Design™ methodology systematically enhances job performance by improving how tasks are executed.

Work Design™

Establishing a Productivity Team and implementing the process and tools.

Work Design™ Expansion

Client Productivity Team expands rolls out to additional Tasks and services

Production System

With a solid foundation of well-designed work, the Vexillum team helps building out Production and Operating System tools that further accelerate productivity improvements.

Our bottom-up approach leverages detailed insights from the frontline to drive continuous improvement.

Capture Analyse Create Execute Iterate

Capture: We film how the task is currently performed, with multiple cameras including ones mounted on Maintainers’ hard hats.

Analyse: Vexillum’s proprietary VALUE-WASTE Analysis measures how much of the filmed activities is waste (using classic LEAN definitions), how much is value creating and value enabling activities. Baseline timings are captured for each step, and are used in initial work designs.

Create: Using timings from the Capture and Analysis steps, a revised process is built, including validating against existing Work Instructions, Safety Requirements, and PMIs, removing waste identified in the Analyse.

Execute: The Improved Process is deployed across all crews using the WorkD app on mobile devices, capturing delays, conflicts, and improvements.

Iterate: Process continues to be improved using information captured during Execute. Key causes of delays are addressed including interactions among departments.

Case Studies

Mobile Maintenance of CAT793F routine servicing reduced total hours by over 57%

Overview
Members of the Vexillum team worked with a major miner in Australia to increase the availability of their 50-truck Caterpillar 793F haul truck fleet by reducing both the duration of preventative maintenance services and the total labour hours consumed in each service.

Facts
This project delivered over 8000 Truck Hours back to production, generating a marginal value of $70M in additional ore moved, and reduced maintenance labour spend by over $1M annually.

Solution
The team applied production system thinking and lean tools to re-design how each of the eight services (250-hour to 2000-hour) were performed.

Location: Western Australia Industry: Mining

Fixed Plant Crusher Sizer Shutdown

Overview
Vexillum team members were challenged to help a major miner reduce the duration of Fixed Plant Crusher Sizer Shutdowns, at both the 14 and 28 week shut intervals for a total of four annual shuts.

Facts
The team delivered over 220 additional crusher hours to operations after deploying improvement methodology. Assuming the crusher was the constraint to production, these hours represent an increase in marginal income of over $100M. During this process over $800k in contractor labour spend savings were identified.

Solution
Tooling and part kits were optimised and repositioned around the job site to reduce number of times a maintainer needed to come off tools to go looking for items.

Industry: Mining

Rail Ore Car Fleet Engineering Modification

Overview
A mining company had 5000 rail cars that needed to be modified to carry more ore. The challenge was to complete these 5000 modifications as quickly and safely as possible, without using excessive additional labour.

Facts
Via the implementation of the improvement toolkit the project was completed 18 months earlier than originally planned. A savings of $27M in labour costs was realised. The project duration reduction translates to 45-million tonnes being moved at an estimated market value of over $3.5B.

Solution
Prior to engaging with Vexillum resources, the plan was to modify 7 railcars, across a 2-shift day. When Work Design™ was deployed, the process was improved by both eliminating waste and optimizing how the value-added steps in the process were performed, the number of railcars per 24-hours increased to 50.

Location: Western Australia Industry: Rail

Reducing CAT 793F 500hr Service Duration by 41%

Overview
A major iron ore mine invited Vexillum to complete a proof-of-concept trial of the Work Design™ methodology, including deploying both the Work Design™ software, and the WorkD app to be used on the shop floor. Specifically the goal was to reduce the duration of the Cat 793F service duration by 20% in less than 90 days. This included deploying the improved process across all 4 crews.

Facts
The integrated Vexillum and client productivity team achieved a 41% reduction in duration, including 30% of trials delivered in approximately half the baseline duration. There were zero safety incidents during any of the services where the improved process was deployed.

Solution
Both Work Design™ & WorkD were deployed. The improved process being drafted in Work Design™ upon completion of the Value/Waste analysis and a collaborative review of requirements across engineering, safety and maintenance. Improvements included establishing a standard bay layout prior to start of service, working with warehousing to open 30 minutes earlier to ensure parts were available, and working with operations to ensure trucks are delivered on-time and queueing for washing was reduced.

Location: Western Australia Industry: Mining

Vexillum supports heavy industrial producers where plant and fleet equipment is complicated, expensive and critical for production.

Our Team
Michael White
CEO

Michael is the CEO of Vexillum Consulting, bringing over 45 years of expertise in leading operational improvements and transformation programs across the automotive and resource sectors. His experience spans major organisations including Toyota, Rio Tinto, Newcrest, BHP, Valé, and South32, where he has driven impactful change both in Australia and internationally.

Before founding Vexillum Consulting, Michael played a pivotal role at BHP as Head of Development and Deployment. He was the chief architect behind the BHP Operating System and oversaw its successful implementation across three global regions. Additionally, he has hands-on experience in the resource sector, having managed a processing plant for a global gold miner in Papua New Guinea, where he enhanced operational stability through the introduction of a Management Operating System (MOS) and a visual information centre.

Michael’s leadership and strategic vision continue to deliver exceptional results, positioning Vexillum Consulting as a leader in operational transformation.

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Simon Kay
CPO

Simon is the CPO of Vexillum Consulting, with over 30 years experience in manufacturing, technology and mining industries. With a strong engineering focus, Simon is passionate about driving process improvement through the application of lean methodologies and cutting-edge technologies.

Over the past decade, he has successfully delivered improvement projects in mining operations and maintenance, building a proven track record of enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.

Simon’s background in process and systems engineering has enabled him to pioneer unique lean tools that have been effectively applied across industries, including mining, construction, healthcare, and automotive manufacturing. His expertise in increasing productivity while minimizing operational expenses makes him a key innovator in process optimisation.

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John Jessop
CTO

John is the CTO of Vexillum Consulting, with over 30 years of experience in developing and deploying software systems for the resource sector. He has successfully launched multiple commercial products and is passionate about creating software solutions that are built to last for decades.

With a deep understanding of how operational and support processes integrate within the mining industry, John’s extensive experience in product management, deployment, and support makes him a leader in delivering sustainable, high-impact software solutions. His expertise ensures that technology serves as a long-term enabler for efficiency and growth in the resource sector.

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Barry Daniel
Business Development & Implementation

Barry specializes in delivering precise, data-driven support to help clients make informed business decisions and drive continuous performance improvement. Before joining Vexillum, he led Operational Excellence teams for dss+, Lodestone Partners, and Partners in Performance, working across Brazil, Australia, the United States, and Canada.

With a solid foundation in frontline leadership, Barry held key roles at Vale, BP, and United Technologies, including positions within UTC’s Pratt & Whitney, Chubb Security, and Kidde operating companies. His diverse background and global experience make him a valuable asset in optimizing business performance.

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Vexillum supports heavy industrial producers where plant and fleet equipment is complicated, expensive and critical for production.

Contact us

Get in touch with Vexillum today to explore how our Work Design™ solutions can benefit your business

Because detail matters.

We are located in Perth, Western Australia and Washington, DC USA

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