Operational Readiness Diagnostic | Fixed-Fee Assessment

Operational Readiness · The first step

The Operational Readiness Diagnostic

You know roughly where your project sits on readiness. You do not know precisely, and neither does anyone else, because nobody has measured it against the schedule. This measures it.

Book a 20-minute scoping call See a sample report

Fixed fee. Three to four weeks. Scored against the nine streams of the HolisticAM Operational Readiness Framework, measured against your first ore date.

✓ISO 55001 aligned

✓Certified Apollo RCA trainers

✓Sole ANZ ReliaSoft distributor

✓Tier 1 gold & processing assets

What you get

Six deliverables, yours to keep

✓

A weighted readiness score

Across all nine streams of the HolisticAM Operational Readiness Framework, based on evidence seen rather than intent stated.

✓

A schedule exposure analysis

Which readiness criteria should already be complete at this point, and are not.

✓

A prioritised gap register

Impact, effort, accountability and close-by date for every gap found.

✓

A closure roadmap

Sequenced to your first ore date, not to convenience.

✓

A findings presentation

Delivered to your project leadership team.

✓

The completed assessment instrument

Yours to keep and re-run as the project progresses.

The framework behind it

Assessed against the HolisticAM Operational Readiness Framework

The diagnostic is not a generic maturity survey. Every criterion traces to the HolisticAM Operational Readiness Framework: nine readiness streams under a Policy, Standard and Procedure hierarchy, aligned to ISO 55001:2024, with requirements set by lifecycle phase. Several criteria must sit in the EPC contract before it is executed, which is why the diagnostic measures against your first ore date rather than a generic scale.

1 · Organisational Readiness

The readiness program itself: budgeted, resourced and governed before delivery begins.

2 · People & Capability

Roles, competencies and resourcing to operate and maintain safely from first work.

3 · Operating Model & Processes

Operating philosophy, work management and procedures defined and tested before start-up.

4 · Asset Mgmt & Maintenance Readiness

Criticality, maintenance strategy and reliability disciplines established and evidenced.

5 · Systems & Technology

Asset data, CMMS/ERP and digital tools specified, configured and populated.

6 · Supply Chain & Logistics

Spares, materials and contracted services identified, sourced and in place.

7 · HSE, Risk & Regulatory Compliance

Statutory, safety, environmental and community obligations identified and controlled.

8 · Finance, Commercial & Working Capital

Operating budgets, commercial contracts and working capital ready for start-up.

9 · Stakeholder & Community Readiness

Communities, regulators and social licence conditions engaged and met through start-up.

Day One Value

Assets deliver value only once operations can capture the intended outputs from the moment of handover.

Handover Alignment

Readiness translates the asset management plans into the conditions that must exist at handover.

Single-Point Accountability

Readiness gaps close before go-live only when one named lead is accountable across all nine streams.

Verified Readiness

Assurance that is evidenced, not assumed: the organisation can sustain performance from day one.

How we score

Evidence seen, not intent stated

Every criterion is scored 0 to 5 against evidence seen, not intent stated.

A documented plan to build maintenance strategies scores a 2. Strategies loaded and tested in your CMMS score a 5. That distinction is the entire point. It is also why most projects score lower than their own status reports suggest.

The bar the diagnostic measures against

Five conditions before first productive work

Under the framework, these are pass or fail at every tier of project before first productive work on a new or modified asset. The diagnostic tells you whether your project is on a trajectory to meet all five, while there is still time to correct it.

Lifecycle context transferred

Design intent, operating envelope and maintainability requirements formally transferred from project to operations.

Maintenance strategy loaded

Developed from criticality analysis and loaded into the CMMS or EAM, linked to asset criticality.

Spares on-site and receipted

Spare parts and materials determined by the maintenance strategy physically on-site.

Personnel assessed as competent

Operating and maintenance teams assessed against the specific requirements of the asset and its environment.

Asset information loaded

Drawings, equipment files and manufacturer documentation accessible, current and in the system of record.

A readiness plan that cannot evidence these five conditions at handover was never real. Most projects discover that at commissioning. The diagnostic exists so you discover it now.

How it runs

Four stages, three to four weeks

Preparation

Document review: project schedule, OR plan, org chart, EPC and EPCM handover requirements. Required-by dates set from your first ore date.

Assessment

Structured interviews with project, operations, maintenance, commissioning, supply chain and systems leads. Evidence review. Site walkthrough where included.

Analysis

Scoring, schedule exposure, gap identification and prioritisation.

Presentation

Findings and closure roadmap presented to your leadership team.

Options

Scoped to your project, not the other way round

Desktop

Remote assessment

Document review and video interviews.

2 weeks

Standard · Recommended

Remote prep plus one week on site

The full diagnostic with evidence review and site walkthrough.

3 to 4 weeks

Multi-asset

Group or multi-site

Per-asset results with a consolidated group position.

4 to 6 weeks

Fixed fee, quoted on scope. Usually approvable on a purchase order rather than through a procurement process.

When to run it

The window is 12 to 30 months before first ore

Earlier than 30 months and there is not enough to assess. Later than 12 and several of the findings cannot be acted on, because asset hierarchy standards, tagging conventions and vendor data requirements have to sit in the EPC contract before it is executed.

Too early

Not enough to assess

The diagnostic window

Findings can still be prevented, not just triaged

Triage

Still worth running — the conversation changes

30+ months out30 → 12 monthsInside 12 months

See what you get

The sample diagnostic report

A redacted sample of the full deliverable: the weighted scores, the schedule exposure analysis, the gap register and the closure roadmap. Judge the product before you book a call.

Readiness scoreNine stream scores, weighted

Schedule exposureOverdue criteria against first ore

Gap registerPrioritised, with close-by dates

Closure roadmapSequenced to start-up

Findings presentationTo your project leadership team

Request the sample report

Tell us where your project sits and the sample downloads straight away.

Goes straight to us. No mailing list, no drip sequence.

Questions

The diagnostic, answered

What is an operational readiness assessment?

An operational readiness assessment measures how ready a project is to operate and maintain the asset it is building. The HolisticAM diagnostic scores every criterion from 0 to 5 against evidence seen rather than intent stated, across the nine streams of the HolisticAM Operational Readiness Framework, and measures the result against the project’s own first ore date. It delivers a weighted readiness score, a schedule exposure analysis, a prioritised gap register and a closure roadmap sequenced to start-up.

When should a mining project run an operational readiness assessment?

The window is 12 to 30 months before first ore. Earlier than 30 months there is not enough to assess. Later than 12 months several findings cannot be acted on, because asset hierarchy standards, tagging conventions and vendor data requirements have to sit in the EPC contract before it is executed. Inside 12 months the diagnostic is still worth running, but the conversation changes from prevention to triage.

We already have an operational readiness manager. Why run a diagnostic?

The diagnostic is built for exactly that situation. One operational readiness manager cannot build a maintenance system for an entire plant in eighteen months while also running the readiness process. The diagnostic measures where the project actually sits and what has to be resourced, so the readiness manager has an evidenced position to take to the project leadership team. It complements the readiness manager rather than replacing them.

Does our EPCM contract already cover operational readiness?

An EPCM delivers the plant. It does not build the operating organisation, the maintenance strategies, the spares holdings or the CMMS master data, and its obligation ends at handover while yours starts there. Two questions settle it: what does the contract actually require to be handed over as data, and who has verified that it will arrive in a usable state. Compare the three delivery routes.

What is included in an operational readiness diagnostic report?

Six deliverables: a weighted readiness score across the nine framework streams, a schedule exposure analysis showing which criteria should already be complete and are not, a prioritised gap register with impact, effort, accountability and close-by date, a closure roadmap sequenced to first ore, a findings presentation to the project leadership team, and the completed assessment instrument to keep and re-run.

What is First Work-Level Readiness?

First Work-Level Readiness is the pass or fail bar applied before first productive work on a new or modified asset. Five conditions must be met: design intent and maintainability requirements transferred from project to operations, the maintenance strategy developed from criticality analysis and loaded into the CMMS or EAM, spares determined by that strategy on site and receipted, operating and maintenance personnel assessed as competent, and asset information loaded into the system of record.

Book a 20-minute scoping call

No proposal, no deck. We will ask about your schedule, who owns readiness, and what is already in place, then tell you plainly whether the diagnostic is worth running.

If it is not, we will say so on the call.

Book a call Take the 5-minute readiness scorecard