I define and deliver the plant systems scope on capital projects, and recover the value of the systems process plants already own. The work that sits between a control system at one end, an ERP at the other, and twenty years of undocumented equipment in between.
Thirty five years in heavy industry across methanol, pulp and paper, petrochemical and local government, in North and South America, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Based in New Zealand, delivered across time zones.
What I do
I take ownership of the plant systems scope: the maintenance system, the historian, the engineering document management, and the integrations between them and your ERP.
On capital projects, from the EPC package to startup. On running plants, from what you already own to what it actually delivers.
Two situations, one person
Your plant is running, and half the work still happens in spreadsheets. The systems are bought, the licences renew every year, and nobody can say what you are getting for them.
Where that starts: Plant Systems Value and Utilization Assessment, two to three weeks, fixed price.
You have a capital project, and nobody owns the plant systems scope. The EPC scope stops at the process, your own systems people are not on the project, and operations turns up when it is already too late.
Where that starts: EPC Digital Handover Requirements, two to three weeks, before EPC award.
I have been in both, and on both sides of the handover.
Work
Four programmes, and what changed.
The full plant systems stack, and the team to run it
Greenfield methanol plant, Egypt
A new methanol plant, with the EPC scope stopping at the process and no owner systems presence on site. Nothing existed to receive the engineering information, and nobody had been hired to operate what would eventually be installed.
Specified, procured and built the whole stack from nothing: maintenance management, process historian and engineering document management. Ran the RFP and the contracts, then recruited and trained the team that would operate it.
Result. The plant started up with maintenance, engineering documents and process data live from day one, run by people already hired and trained.
A brownfield acquisition and a new build, on one system
Two methanol plants, Trinidad and Tobago
The acquired plant ran an ad hoc maintenance system with no ERP link, no equipment hierarchy and missing data sheets, while the new build next door needed a working maintenance system from day one. Auditors had already raised findings.
Ran the RFP and award, wrote the specifications and target processes, then implemented the EAM integrated with the ERP and the engineering document system. Built the missing asset hierarchy and decommissioned the legacy system.
Result. One maintenance system across both plants, a documented asset register, and the audit findings closed.
Five processes off spreadsheets, one day of paperwork gone
Pulp and sawmill operation, New Zealand
Two production lines packed, weighed and quality-checked pulp under PLC control, and the data stopped at the plant boundary. Dispatch, export documentation, customs clearance and invoicing all ran on manual CSV handoffs, rekeyed by people who already had other jobs.
The systems to do this work were already bought and paid for. They were not connected. Real-time PLC data was integrated with the historian, packages were allocated to customer orders straight off the line, and the logistics system was connected by API to rail, customs and the port. Each connection removed a spreadsheet and the person maintaining it.
Result. Customs documentation went from one day to under one hour. Billing disputes and rail scheduling errors both fell, because the numbers stopped being retyped.
Fixed assets out of spreadsheets
Methanol producer, five countries
Fixed asset accounting was handled plant by plant, in spreadsheets and local systems. Reporting was slow, depreciation treatment varied by jurisdiction, and the control gaps were a standing audit risk.
Migrated fixed asset data from every site into the global ERP, with automated workflows replacing the manual reconciliation and a single repository behind group reporting.
Result. Consistent depreciation and reporting across every jurisdiction, with audit trails that satisfy SOX.
Thirty five years, in numbers
35 years on the systems side of heavy industry, across 7 countries lived and worked in
EAM. Five Maximo upgrades in under two years, across five countries. Maximo since version 3.0.8.
Historian. PI System implemented in Chile and Egypt, and upgraded across seven sites in six countries. Every one of them integrated to a different control system.
Business integration. Ten or more integrations from plant systems to the business: Maximo to Oracle ERP Cloud via OIC, covering general ledger, procurement and payments, plus PeopleSoft financials.
Services
Two situations, and what a first stage looks like in each.
If the plant is already running
Plant Systems Value and Utilization Assessment
Where your plant systems are not doing the work you already pay for, and what it takes to close the gap. Licence cost against actual usage, functional utilisation and adoption, manual workarounds, duplicated functionality, integration gaps and process alignment. Two to three weeks, fixed price. Ends with a costed plan, not a report.
Getting the plant off spreadsheets
The plan, executed in waves. Each wave takes one process out of Excel and into the system it was bought for, with the configuration, the integration and the people trained. Six to ten weeks per wave, starting with the most visible.
EAM upgrade and standardisation
Upgrade, migration and standardisation across sites and jurisdictions, with ERP integration and the reporting controls your auditors expect. Includes the part most vendors leave out, the asset hierarchy and data the system needs to work. Five upgrades in under two years, five countries. Maximo since version 3.0.8.
Independent selection and RFP
Requirements, RFP construction, evaluation criteria that survive contact with vendor demos, scoring, and support through to award and contract. Independent of any implementer or reseller. Six to twelve weeks, requirements through to signed award.
If you have a capital project
Owner-side work, before the EPC contract is awarded, which is the last point at which any of it is contractual.
EPC Digital Handover Requirements
What the contractor must hand over, structured and loaded rather than as PDFs in a data book: engineering documents in your document system, historian tags and asset framework, and the asset hierarchy behind your EAM. Written into the Statement of Work, with acceptance criteria that define what complete means before you sign it off. Two to three weeks, fixed price, against the owner's engineering budget.
Owner's plant systems requirements
The full owner-side package: architecture, functional requirements, interfaces, cybersecurity and data requirements, the boundary between what the EPC delivers and what you do, and the testing, commissioning and acceptance criteria. Plus the operating team you need hired and trained, and by when. Six to ten weeks, delivered before EPC award.
Plant systems, EPC package to startup
Owning the delivery, not just the specification. Technical exhibits, integration architecture, implementation, commissioning, and the operating team recruited and trained before handover. Greenfield and brownfield. Priced by phase, through to a plant that runs on its own data.
Already awarded, or already running
If the contract is signed, the same work becomes a costed variation, and the deliverable tells you what it costs to ask now against what it costs to rebuild later. If the plant is already running, this is the wrong product and the assessment above is the right one. Said on the first call, not in the third invoice.
How I work
From first call to handover.
How an engagement runs
A call, at no cost.
Forty five minutes on what you are trying to do and what is in the way. If I am not the right person, I will say so on that call.
A scoped proposal.
Written scope, deliverables, duration and a fixed price for the first stage, within a week of the call.
Assessment or mobilisation.
Either a diagnostic with findings and a costed plan, or straight into delivery if the path is already clear. Both end in a document you own.
Delivery.
I run the programme against the plan, with a reporting rhythm your steering group can act on. Risks surface early rather than at gate reviews.
Handover.
Documented processes, trained owners, and a support window so the thing keeps working after I leave.
Who you are actually hiring
I am Julio Medeiros. I trained as an engineer, then formally in both halves of this work: a master's in Industrial and Systems Engineering, which is the reliability and asset management frame, and a master's in Information Technology Management, which is the systems and delivery side. Thirty five years on the systems side of heavy industry since.
I built the full plant systems stack on a greenfield methanol plant in Egypt, from requirements and RFP through contracts and implementation, and hired the team that operated it. I ran the maintenance systems programme across two methanol plants in Trinidad, one a brownfield acquisition with no equipment hierarchy and one a new build. I founded and led the IT function at a methanol plant in Chile, which is where the twenty year view of what these systems look like long after handover comes from.
Then four years as head of IT and OT at a New Zealand pulp and sawmill operation, responsible for the business systems and the control network. That is the side that finds out what the data books were missing, and almost no project consultant has sat in it.
Plant engineers and finance teams usually describe the same problem in two vocabularies that do not overlap, and someone has to hold both. That is what the two master's degrees are for, and it is the reason clients call.
Credentials
I am the person doing the work. Specialists are brought in where a programme needs them, and you are told who they are.
- MSc Industrial and Systems Engineering, Universidad del Desarrollo
- MSc Information Technology Management, Tecnológico de Monterrey
- BEng, Universidad de Santiago de Chile
- PMP, Project Management Professional, PMI
- PMI-ACP, Agile Certified Practitioner
- PMI-PBA, Professional in Business Analysis
- Change Management Foundation, APMG
- Member, Institute of Asset Management
Tell me what is stuck
A short description of the programme, the systems involved and where it is stalling is enough to start. I reply to everything within two working days, including the ones I am not right for.
Plant floor to general ledger, owned end to end