Maintenance is no longer just about keeping the lights on. How you manage your assets directly impacts your company's bottom line and market position. This presentation shares the real story of transforming a reactive maintenance operation into a reliability-focused organisation.

Phil is the Chief Maintenance Officer at United Utilities, the UK's largest listed water company. Phil will walk you through what actually worked, what didn't, and the hard-earned lessons from building a structured excellence program from the ground up.

Baseline Assessment – Getting an accurate picture of where you really stand (not where you think you stand) in terms of maintenance practices, skills gaps, and organisational readiness

Building Your Roadmap – Creating a practical transformation plan with realistic milestones and getting buy-in from operations, finance, and the shop floor

Dealing with Reality – Why your plan won't survive first contact, and how to adapt when priorities shift, resources get cut, or equipment breaks at the worst possible time

Getting Everyone Speaking the Same Language – Breaking down silos between maintenance, operations, and engineering so reliability becomes everyone's job

Upskilling Your Team – Practical approaches to training and knowledge transfer that actually stick

Leading Through Change – Maintaining credibility while driving improvement, dealing with sceptics, and recognizing progress along the way