Profile: Chris Genin, Head of Asset Management at DP World Ports and Terminals

Stop, collaborate and listen Chris Genin, Head of Asset Management at DP World Ports and Terminals, talks to Louise Parfitt about how dreams of being a fighter pilot led to a career in asset management, teamwork, and the Lions This is where my introduction to asset management started because I was looking after army kit, ranging from tanks to radios Growing up, I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but I soon realised I didnt have the coordination! Chris Genin is now Head of Asset Management, Global Engineering, at DP World Ports and Terminals, but his career started somewhere completely different. After going to an army college in England that trained people as technical officers, he was commissioned into the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and studied for a Bachelor of Engineering at the Royal Military College of Science. This is where my introduction to asset management started, because I was looking after army kit, ranging from tanks to radios. When he left the army 11 years later, Genin went travelling and settled for a while in Australia, where he started work as a reliability engineer for mining company Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto had recognised that it needed to invest to improve the condition of its assets and to expand its business. It really embraced asset management its where I first heard the term, and it really opened my eyes to the scope of the profession, he says. My next role was as a maintenance manager on the Dublin Port Tunnel. This was an interesting project because, despite being relatively new, the tunnel was experiencing issues that led to frequent closures. I was brought in to help turn this around and make it reliable and safe. It accelerated my interest in asset management it was at this time that I joined the IAM. IAM involvement When I joined the IAM, a lot of my experience had been working with mobile equipment in the transport and mining sectors. I was also involved with the National Standards Authority of Ireland mirror committee, working on ISO 55000, but I noticed that I very rarely met somebody with similar experience to me at IAM conferences. I decided it was something we should address, because there are opportunities for the profession and Institute to grow. I am now on the IAM Council as a members representative, and have been involved in discussions to set up an IAM Gulf Chapter. Id really like to see not just traditional sectors involved, but also other local Gulf companies, such as Emirates. Im really interested to hear how Emirates makes its fleet decisions in terms of when it buys assets, and how it has had to change its thinking over the past couple of years with the challenges that aviation has faced. I did some work on outreach and engaging with other sectors last year, which was so interesting. It has been a real pleasure to be on the IAM Council I have met so many like-minded and passionate people. Smart working Genin moved back to Australia, where he worked as an asset management consultant for various projects, including mining and transport. When DP World wanted to bring asset management expertise in-house, he jumped at the chance, and moved to Dubai seven years ago. My career has morphed over the years, but its always been around assets, he says. In the early days, it was much more hands-on; now its more strategic, but having that kind of involvement has always been central to how I see myself as a professional. DP Worlds core focus is on its global network of ports and terminals run by its worldwide operations and engineering teams but it also has a broader vision as an end-to-end solution provider for supply chains and logistics. Genin is keen to ensure that the joined-up approach at global leadership level is replicated in the port and terminals teams and he believes IT has a huge part to play in achieving this. Asset management, for me, is about integrating different functions and different departments to work together in a coordinated way. At a digital level, its about integrating systems so you have a coherent picture of what is going on and make informed decisions. This helps move away from silo thinking to a more collective and collaborative approach to achieving our objectives. Asset management for me is about integrating different functions and different departments to work together in a coordinated way Sustainability and resilience Genin is an advocate of the lean approach of management adopted by companies such as Toyota where principles include a focus on the customer, continual improvement and quality through waste reduction, and tightly integrated processes. He says a lean approach helps connect the companys longer-term asset management concepts and objectives with peoples daily roles. We can have a very detailed view of what is going to happen in the next five years, in terms of expansion or sustaining our assets, but underpinning all that is how we optimise the use of our assets in relation to productivity and efficiency to achieve those goals, Genin says. I have found using a lean approach a very efficient way of using cascaded key performance indicators and objectives to show people how what they do on a day-to-day basis contributes to these high-level goals. Carbon reduction Genin on IoT and asset visibility A key challenge for the sector and wider society is reducing carbon emissions. But, Genin points out, the normal metrics around payback or net present value (NPV, the difference between the present value of cash inflows and present value of cash outflows over a period of time) do not always add up and make sense in a traditional financial interpretation. We can overcome that by using internal digital mechanisms to price in carbon to help make that NPV calculation. In my company, that remit sits with another team, but they are taking an asset management approach to make sure the decisions we take are the best ones we can make, and drive us towards our carbon-reduction goals. The flip side of the carbon-reduction challenge is building resilience to climate change, as more extreme weather costs companies time and money. Last year, a searing heatwave in the Pacific Northwest affected operations at DP Worlds terminal in Vancouver, Canada. They dont have sufficient air conditioning because it never usually gets anywhere near that hot. But suddenly it did and when theres no relief from the heat, it obviously has an impact on the people operating the equipment, and on the equipment itself, Genin explains. We have a safe operating envelope for our assets for example, we dont operate above certain wind speeds because its just not safe to do so. But we also have to think, whats it going to look like in 2030 or 2040? What do extreme weather events mean in terms of asset damage or degradation? We should also ask what resilience really means. Resilience could mean using larger ships to bring in goods to our terminals fewer journeys, less carbon. But then pilots may struggle to operate these larger vessels during high winds, for example so there are more aspects to consider as we start to explore this issue in detail. Cheering on the Lions My wife is Irish and we are very fortunate that we get to spend time in the summer in Ireland. We love hiking, and the west coast of Ireland is breathtakingly dramatic and beautiful. The weather can be inclement, even in July and August, but when you get those sunny days, I dont think theres anywhere better to be. Im a big rugby fan. I dont play, but one of my sons does, and I love watching him. As a family, we also watch a lot of rugby together. Theres always some good-natured tension and banter when we watch something like the Six Nations, because my children also identify as Irish. The only time we all support the same side is once every four years when the Lions [British and Irish rugby squad] play! Maximising efficiency Genin believes that, if we can make better use of existing assets, we can reduce carbon and build resilience. Again, he comes back to IT to automate some of the more manual parts of terminal work, which can make processes slicker and more efficient, but also reduce accidents, because the manual roles are where people are most at risk of injury, particularly in inclement conditions. Its not just about buying new assets to meet additional demand, or replacing assets on a one-for-one basis; its also about how you improve the use of those assets. For example, smarter use of our straddle carriers [vehicles that move containers around a terminal] means they are not idling as much and, therefore, they generate fewer emissions. With less unnessecary wear and tear, we may not need to replace them as quickly. Then, when it comes to replacing, say, two of them, we may be able to just buy one, because we have improved our efficiency in how we use them. Critical contacts Genin is an advocate for shared learning, including with other industries that traditionally have not been part of asset management. Emirates, Amazon, Toyota: all these companies have assets, and theyre making investments and decisions about their assets. So, what could they learn from us, but, also, what could we learn from them? Asset management has traditionally been quite infrastructure heavy, so we should make and seize opportunities to engage with other sectors and other areas, such as finance. For example, what drives investment decisionmaking; do investors consider how proficient an organisation is at asset management? If we aspire to be the pre-eminent institution for asset management globally, then that outreach to other sectors as well as other functions within organisations will increase the overall attractiveness of the IAM as an organisation to be part of. Also, if we can broaden our reach to different sectors, we get a much more enhanced view of what asset management can be. Personal best One of the things I am most proud of is the way we have been able to use lean management tools to really engage people and empower them to work on issues that they come across. Its not about having a small number of problem solvers in the management team or as team leaders. Its about saying, well, no, actually I want the teams to be able to solve the problem themselves.