Dave Woods with Cohesive Group

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

asset management, processes, industry, industrial, Cohesive, dave, maintenance, nuclear, utilities, absolutely, asset, industry best practices, solutions, software, codify, conversation, build, commercial operations, power, maximo

00:04

Welcome to the Industrial Talk Podcast with Scott MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go.

00:21

Alright, thank you once again for joining the Industrial Talk and thank you for supporting a platform that is dedicated to industrial professionals all around the world. You are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly. you innovate, you collaborate, you solve problems. That's why we celebrate you on Industrial Talk and we are broadcasting on side New Orleans Louisiana PowerGen 24 is the event. And it is a absolute collection of problem solvers in the Power Generation business and then some it's it's absolutely incredible. Couple of points of action, go out to Industrial Talk find out more of all of the incredible professionals out there and make a commitment to learning. Dave Woods is in the in the Oh hot seat. Cohesive is the company let's get cracking. Acid management is on the topic of discussion. Asset Management and much more. Good morning. Good morning. Do you have a good evening last night? Absolutely. New Orleans

01:24

been a gracious host city. So a lot of fun and a lot of opportunity to to meet colleagues here within the industry. But then the locals always had a little bit of flavor. So where do you go geeky burnin Steakhouse, did you? Yes.

01:38

Let me tell you a story about Dickie Brennan. He was I went there he was there was for Christmas. And I gave Dickey my Christmas tie. There it is. That's that's what made me famous, and he ran off with it. So I didn't have my Christmas tie was cheap. All right, but you are having a good conference? Absolutely. What makes this conference Good?

02:00

Well, we've actually it's getting to rub elbows and meet colleagues within the industry potential clients. So it's a great way to network and make connections, but then also going to the different tracks available. hearing, hearing the solutions and the issues that our clients and potential clients are looking looking to solve both, you know, here in the near term, and then the long term strategy that's going to influence the market. So always, always good to get the pulse of the industry side.

02:30

Oop, all right. For the listeners out there, give us a little 411 on who Dave is.

02:36

So Dave, Dave Woods, I'm the Energy and Utility Services Director for Cohesive. So Cohesive provides enterprise asset management solutions in the power industry, amongst others. So Dave Woods is a longtime nuclear utility person. So I've got a background starting in the nuclear Navy, and it led into commercial operations for for a number of yours. And following commercial operations. I spent five years on the new nuclear build outside of Augusta, Georgia plant Vogel. So I

03:10

didn't know that. Yeah, sure. I'm a I'm a former Southern California Edison guy. So you have to send it over. Yes. And if I don't keep I should keep more current. But are we building nuclear facilities? Or are we trying to reconnect? I mean, redesign or so there's figure out a better way.

03:30

There's a number of of areas where we're, you know, the industry as a whole was going through license extensions on existing plants. Yeah. So there's a lot of engineering and licensing evaluations and component replacements associated with that. As far as new nuclear plant Vogel was the first new nuclear built in 30 years. Yeah, us, right. So a massive project, you know, the industry really didn't have the muscle memory of executing such a large new nuclear build. But Unit Three is online, and Unit Four is close behind. So it'll be coming online here shortly.

04:08

So But that begs the question of like, where's one and two? Yeah, well,

04:13

04:24

That's a heck of a lot of power

04:27

going for her 00 emissions.

04:30

So let's talk we haven't had a conversation around asset management, enterprise asset management in the, let's say, the power space and you're the first one to be able to do that, which is really interesting to have that conversation because you know, I work with SMRP and a lot of the asset management organizations out there. Give us some of the challenges. Your Maximo partner Give us some of the challenges that face utilities right now from an asset management perspective. Sure.

05:05

So from it from an asset management perspective, it's, you always want to do the right maintenance at the right time, right. So anything you're doing that's not efficient is costing you time and money. And it could you could be, it could be pulling your focus away from where you really should be focused, right? So Cohesive, we were the leading implementer of IBM's Maximo software for enterprise asset management, and utilizing that software properly, we bring business process consultants, industry advisors, right, so we don't just want to implement the software, we want to help you design the processes to execute your initiatives efficiently and safely, and in a sustainable manner. So we bring the expertise along, you know, for the for the process, and the industry, along with the software to our clients.

05:55

See what this is interesting, because utilities in general Power Generation in general, been around forever. And it's just constantly fascinates me that we have still have conversations around the processes, optimizing the the maintenance of this asset, this valuable asset, and quite frankly, it's, it's, it's not an option for the thing to go down. You just did you just don't do that. system operators don't like that. Many don't Nordic customers. So lately, you know. So how do you how do you begin to approach utilities and say we can, we can definitely improve? And I hate to say it, but so on that?

06:38

Well, it, it really, it starts with understanding where they're at, right? So every, you know, you can't be all things to all people. And you don't want to offer solutions, where there's not a problem, right. But for a nuclear, for example, and industries, in general, if you're not trying to get better, you're actually in a state of decline, right? So you always need to be seeking continuous improvement. And so understanding what their current state is where they think their gaps are in asset management, asset performance management, and even, you know, streamlining and making more efficient, their business processes that support that, right. So it's really understanding the current state helping develop a strategy and supporting that through either through advisory and consultant work or the implementation of the software that's going to do it efficiently for him.

07:28

What is the general? Let's say, I'm a, I'm a PowerGen guy, and I have I must have pain, I must be realizing some pain. That's where we begin that conversation with you. What is it? What is the typical, what's typically painful for them.

07:51

So that the pain points come in, when they they understand that they're, they have the realization that they're not doing the right maintenance at the right time. And they could be over maintaining equipment that really could be performed on on a less frequent basis, or in some cases, maintenance is actually you can potentially inject a failure mechanism by by performing maintenance, right, that asset was it was performing properly. So really, it's understanding that, and then, you know, in addition to the pain they feel and know, you know, our our consultants and advisors come with decades of industry experience, industry best practices. So it's not just eliminating the pain, it's helping them move towards the industry best practices, that that we're aware of.

08:40

Some of the challenges that exist within any of the maintenance and asset management and reliability solutions, is how do you sustain it? How do you culturally sustain it over a period of time? And I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, that being able to properly identify the map out the processes as is to be type of things, identify those gaps, lack of better term, codify it in a sense, and saying, that's how we, we we document it? Is that a way of being able to sustain that, that effort? Oh, absolutely.

09:15

And, you know, going back to your previous question about pain points, a lot of times it's the the data itself can be a pain point, right, the asset data and and orphaned data that have been created over the years that really isn't providing any value, right? So you can come in, you can implement, you know, asset performance software, asset management software, but if you haven't helped streamline and codify the processes that are going to support it, it won't be long until you're in a state where where it's not sustainable anymore and not returning the value that you want. Sure.

09:52

Absolutely. Well, it's a it's a never ending process, but tell us If I did my contact Cohesive, we go and we talk about our processes. And we, we leverage the technology that exists within Maximo. What do we realize what's the bottom line value?

10:16

So the bottom line value is being able to, again, inject less risk to your assets perform, you know, increase your uptime, or reduce downtime dependent, however you want to look at it. But then having that sustainability model built into your processes, right, and understanding the data, that you need to support those processes, you know, the data is foundational to being able to maintain that. But so building that foundation, the processes, and then the tool delivering that solution for you, right, so that's that. And as part of our services, we can also work with our clients to develop a business case for whatever strategy, you know, we think is best right at all the clients aren't the same. And that the end result they might be, you know, one client might want is a little different than the other right? So you help develop that case, and tailor the approach for them.

11:10

I'm always fascinated by the world of asset management. She has ideas think that there's, there's gold there, and and real significant bottom line value, not just from from a financial perspective, but from an operational perspective, too. How do people get a hold of you there, Dave?

11:28

Dave Woods at Cohesive group.com Dave.Woods@Cohesive you

11:33

asked about on LinkedIn. Absolutely. I'm just gonna have that link right there. I'll just put your stead card out on Industrial Talk. All right, we're gonna have all the contact information for Dave. Once again, we're broadcasting from PowerGen here in New Orleans, Louisiana, PowerGen 24. And if you have not put this on your calendar for next year, make it up. Make it so because there's just a collection of wonderful people have been stuck in the salt mine did. I know that it goes way beyond it goes over this way. Have you been walking around?

12:04

I have, but it can take like a half a day just to make your make your way through the maze.

12:10

Which is cool. Which is cool. All right. We're gonna wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned, we will be right back.

12:18

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

12:27