Operations
Addressing the top 12 obstacles to achieving asset management excellence
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At a glance:
- 78% of WA organisations collect more data than they can analyse, creating decision-making barriers rather than insights
- Maintenance professionals spend 38% of their time on data-related activities instead of value-adding work
- Only 34% of organisations achieve expected ROI from digital technology investments, despite 83% investing heavily
- 37% of critical technical knowledge remains undocumented, putting organisational capability at risk
- The research identifies twelve interconnected challenge domains preventing maintenance excellence
In November 2025, MAINSTREAM released their 2026 State of Asset Management Report - WA supported by Obzervr as the Research Partner. This definitive report gathers the insights from over 210 asset management leaders from mining and heavy industry organisations in West Australia.
The quantitive and qualitative research reveals that heavy industry organisations in Australia aren't facing one or two isolated challenges when it comes to asset management excellence, but twelve interconnected obstacles that are undermining the efforts of organisations working to improve their asset management operations.
In the article we summarise the findings and what caught our attention.
The 2026 top 12 obstacles to asset management excellence:
The top twelve critical challenge domains that asset leaders in West Australia identified are:
1. Data governance, quality and utilisation
Heavy industry and mining organisations collect unprecedented volumes of data and information about their assets, operations and maintenance while struggling to transform it into decisions that improve maintenance and asset management outcomes. The data exists, but turning it into actionable insights remains elusive.
2. System integration and technology transition
Organisations are facing substantial difficulties integrating disparate systems and managing technology transitions, particularly affecting data accessibility and work management effectiveness.
Some asset management teams navigate 8-12 separate systems to access critical asset information with each new technology adding complexity rather than delivering a "single source of truth" or the promised digital technology ROI - leading to digital disappointment.
3. Work management standardisation and consistency
Despite the benefits of standardised maintenance work and processes being well documented, execution varies wildly across sites and teams. The gap between designed processes and actual practice undermines efficiency and creates persistent quality issues. The common misconception is that technology adoption alone solves the problem. However, realising consistent standardisation requires managing human behaviour and organisational culture alongside process and technology change.
4. Financial justification and resource allocation
Budget reductions and resource mandates arrive without an implementation guidance, while asset management leaders are struggling to translate maintenance requirements into business language that will secure the funding they need to achieve asset and reliability KPIs'.
5. Business alignment and performance measurement
Technical metrics don't resonate with executives. Demonstrating asset management's value contribution requires translation frameworks that most organisations haven't developed.
6. AI integration and adoption barriers
While 72% of organisations have explored AI applications, 76% fail to achieve expected returns. The research points to infrastructure limitations and unrealistic expectations rather than technology problems.
7. Workforce capability and knowledge preservation
Across multiple technical domain, Australia faces a 25,000 professional deficit by 2027, with 37% of technical knowledge undocumented. As experienced workers retire, critical expertise disappears and organisations struggle to preserve institutional knowledge.
8. Reliability function positioning and development
A significant underlying issue affecting multiple challenges is the undervaluation of reliability engineering and it's strategic contribution to organisational performance - during a time when reliability requirements are increasing due to economic pressures, aging assets, and changing operating contexts. This undervaluation is also impacting recruitment challenges can contributing to the skills gap shortage.
9. Maintenance planning and execution excellence
The gap between documented processes and actual practice creates substantial efficiency losses. Planners lack trade experience, technicians spend time on admin rather than tools, and coordination failures cause persistent delays. Beyond the challenges of standardising maintenance work and making it stick across all teams, organisations struggle with fundamental work management process effectiveness that encompasses planning quality, execution efficiency, and continuous improvement capabilities.
10. Human-Centred maintenance: workforce wellbeing and inclusivity
The asset management profession faces a critical recognition that organisational performance fundamentally depends on human capability, wellbeing, and inclusive participation across diverse workforce demographics. Maintenance professionals experience mental health challenges 23% higher than the general workforce. Diversity gaps limit innovation, with women representing only 16.8% of the maintenance workforce.
11. Decarbonisation and sustainability pressures
The transition to low-carbon technologies is adding increased pressure and complexity for asset leaders. Increasing stakeholder expectations, regulatory requirements, and economic incentives are driving the need for fundamental change in how assets are designed, operated, and maintained. The challenge for these organisations is to adapt asset management practices to support decarbonisation and broader sustainability goals while maintaining aging fossel fuel assets while managing budget and resourcing constraints.
12. Integration of safety, risk, and asset management
27% of serious incidents have maintenance factors, yet only 31% of organisations achieve integrated safety-asset management. Heavy industry organisations are continue to struggle with effectively integrating safety management, risk assessment, and asset maintenance processes. While these functions are inherently interconnected, they frequently operate with different systems, processes, and decision frameworks.
What caught our attention as research partners
As the Research Partner of this report produced by MAINSTREAM, we've been working through the findings with particular interest and how they align with what we're observing across the mining and heavy industry sector ourselves.
DATA OVERWHELM AND QUALITY CHALLENGES
Mining and heavy industry organisations often come to us with challenges around managing multiple disconnected systems generating reports nobody uses using siloed and inaccurate data. The issue isn't lack of data itself but capturing the right information at the point of work through workflows and tools that fieldworkers will actually use - get making this available in real-time as insights that can actually be used.
How to cut through data noise and achieve actionable asset management insights →
EMBEDDING STANDARDISED WORK
The gap between documented maintenance work processes and the reality of executing work in the field is substantial. Digital workflows need to be designed to align with how maintenance technicians work in the field - dusty environments, gloved hands, and poor connectivity – not office ideals – or they simply won't get used consistently.
How to accelerate standardised maintenance work and make it stick across teams and sites →
SAFETY & MAINTENANCE CONNECTION
We're seeing that when safety requirements are embedded directly in maintenance workflows rather than managed through separate systems, compliance improves and the administrative burden decreases.
Why safety and maintenance must be considered together →
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ROI:
Many organisations experience digital disappointment not because of technology limitations, but due to implementation approaches that don't account for change management and user adoption realities.
How to simplify your tech landscape, avoid digital disappointment and achieve tech ROI →
And importantly... the recognition of the critical maintenance workforce.
A consistent theme across the report was the need for maintenance and reliability professionals to be recognised for the significant contribution and critical nature of the work they carry out - "the real Reliability Heroes are those who keep critical infrastructure operating despite increasing pressures."
The research reveals these fieldworkers, supervisors, asset maintenance planners, technicians, and asset managers face mental health challenges 23% higher than the general workforce, alongside change fatigue from competing improvement initiatives and persistent tension between production demands and maintenance requirements.
It is therefore critical that any changes to processes, technological advancements and digital tools align with how these professional work day to day.
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Why the full report is an essential read for asset leaders
The full 48-page Mainstream report provides depth and context beyond what we can summarise here. For asset managers, maintenance planners, reliability engineers, and supervisors, it offers:
Industry voices and validation
Raw, unedited responses from WA maintenance professionals describing their challenges. The data backs up what many already suspect – for example, that 76% of AI implementations fail to achieve expected returns, or that 38% of maintenance time goes to data activities.
Practical approaches from leading organisations
The report showcases specific strategies that organisations use to overcome each challenge domain, including implementation approaches, success metrics, and honest assessments of what works versus what disappoints.
Strategic prioritisation frameworks
Rather than attempting to address all twelve domains simultaneously, the report helps identify which interconnected challenges create the biggest obstacles for specific operational contexts.
Evidence for stakeholder conversations
The industry data, financial impacts, and frameworks strengthen conversations about maintenance investment with executives who speak business language rather than technical metrics.
Insights on emerging challenges
Beyond immediate operational obstacles, the report addresses pressures from decarbonisation, workforce demographics, and digital transformation that will reshape asset management over the next decade.
Download the full report
The 2026 MAINSTREAM State of Asset Management Report - WA provides the depth, context, and practical guidance for addressing your organisation's specific challenges. The research represents nearly three decades of Mainstream's engagement with WA asset management leaders and the collective wisdom of hundreds of professionals.
Download the State of Asset Management Report 2026 →
The download is free and provides immediate access to the complete 48-page report including all research findings, industry voices, and practical solutions.
About the Research
The 2026 State of Asset Management Report was produced by Mainstream in partnership with Obzervr, based on five facilitated roundtable discussions with 79 senior professionals, an online survey of 113 professionals, and 14 one-on-one interviews with heads of asset management, maintenance, and reliability. Participants represented WA-based organisations across mining, utilities, oil and gas, manufacturing, rail transportation, infrastructure, defence, and public sectors.
