Assets Unscripted | Episode 2 featuring Rui Melo Ferrera, Corporate Maintenance & Asset Manager, MAKEEN Energy
What does it actually take to shift from being a company that sells machines to one that guarantees outcomes? It's a question that more asset-intensive businesses are grappling with — and in the latest episode of Assets Unscripted, we got a rare, candid look at what that journey looks like from the inside.
In a special two-host episode, Berend Booms is joined by co-host Sarah Nicastro to sit down with Rui Melo Ferrera, Corporate Maintenance & Asset Manager at MAKEEN Energy. With over two decades in the energy infrastructure sector, Rui has been at the centre of a fundamental transformation — moving MAKEEN from fragmented legacy systems and reactive maintenance to an integrated, data-driven service model operating across more than 100 countries.
This is the story of that journey, and the lessons every asset leader should be paying attention to.
The Starting Point: Fragmentation Is the Enemy of Scale
MAKEEN's digitalization story didn't begin with a grand strategy. It began with a problem that will feel familiar to many: a patchwork of tools, inconsistent processes, and a missed opportunity hiding in plain sight.
When Rui revisited an earlier digitalization attempt that hadn't delivered, the question he asked was disarmingly simple: "Since we already had a powerful ERP system, why not use it?"
That question led MAKEEN to IFS, and to a deliberate decision to build the entire service and maintenance model on a single, unified platform. Portugal — where MAKEEN's service capabilities had been developing for over twenty years — became the proving ground. Once the model worked there, it became the internal benchmark that other regions, from Brazil to India, could learn from and adapt.
The governance lesson here is one worth underlining: standardise the foundation, then allow local relevance. Trying to roll out transformation everywhere at once, without a proven model to replicate, is where these programmes so often stall.
Building a "Picture of the Moment" — And Why That's Just the Beginning
One of the most compelling frameworks Rui introduces is what MAKEEN calls the picture of the moment — a structured approach to understanding the true condition of a customer's asset base.
But here's where it gets interesting. Rui is clear that assessing an asset's current condition is only one dimension of the picture. The real value comes from combining three perspectives:
- Current state — what condition is the asset in right now?
- Future performance — what can we predict about how it will perform?
- Original design conditions — is it still operating within the parameters it was built for?
This three-lens approach transforms asset analysis from a reactive checkpoint into a forward-looking strategic tool. And because MAKEEN designs and manufactures the equipment itself, they hold a significant advantage — they already have the OEM data, the design specifications, the installation records. They don't just service assets; they understand them at a level most third-party providers cannot match.
The outcome for customers? A clear line of sight into what their assets can reliably deliver for the next five, ten, or fifteen years — and what investment will be needed to get there. That kind of transparency doesn't just build trust. It fundamentally changes the conversation from cost to value.
When Data Stops Being Optional
There's a maturity ladder in asset management — from light-touch, on-demand agreements, through planned preventive maintenance, toward residency models and ultimately full asset performance management. And Rui is unambiguous about where digital capability stops being a nice-to-have.
"Today, I cannot imagine managing operations without reliability data. Everything revolves around it."
The moment a service provider takes on responsibility for the performance and lifecycle of a customer's assets — rather than simply completing maintenance tasks — the entire model depends on data infrastructure. Without the ability to monitor asset condition in real time, track maintenance history, and analyse performance trends, it becomes nearly impossible to manage risk, defend performance guarantees, or make the financial case for outcome-based contracts.
This is the foundational insight of servitization: you cannot take on risk you cannot see. Digital capability isn't just about efficiency. It's what makes new business models viable.
The Technology Rui Is Most Excited About
When asked what excites him most about where this is heading, Rui doesn't hesitate: machines that talk.
IoT systems, SCADA systems, gateway infrastructure feeding data into the cloud — all of it working toward a world where assets communicate their own condition in real time, and intelligent systems translate that data into predictions. Not just "this asset is underperforming" but "this system will fail in six weeks."
"To put the machines talking to us, saying what is happening every day, every time — and behind that, we have a strong system analyzing that data and informing us when the system will fail."
It's predictive intelligence at scale. And for an industry still working through the transition from reactive to preventive, it represents a significant leap in what's possible.
Transparency as a Competitive Advantage
One of the more striking elements of MAKEEN's approach is how they've turned transparency into a genuine differentiator — not as a marketing position, but as an operational practice.
When a field team is on site, the customer has direct, real-time access to MAKEEN's internal system. They see exactly what's being done, as it's being done. There is no gap between what the service provider knows and what the customer knows.
"It's impossible for us to lie to the customer. We are completely transparent."
Sarah Nicastro captures the opportunity in this well: when customers only see the outcome — the machine running, the target met — they can easily underestimate what it took to achieve it. That invisibility is a commercial risk. Transparency solves it. When customers can see the work, the data, and the decision-making behind the outcome, they develop a genuine appreciation for the expertise being deployed on their behalf. And that appreciation is the foundation of long-term partnership, not transactional relationships.
The Proof Point: One Visit, One Contract
Perhaps the most compelling illustration of MAKEEN's approach is what happens after a single on-demand service visit.
Rui's team doesn't just complete the work and leave. They present the results immediately — showing the customer exactly how their operation performed before the visit, and exactly what improved because of it. In one example, a single maintenance visit increased an LPG distributor's production capacity by 20 to 25%.
"In many cases, after just one on-demand visit, customers decide to sign an annual preventive maintenance contract with us, because they can see the results in their own eyes."
This is outcome selling at its most effective. It's not a pitch — it's proof. And it works precisely because MAKEEN has built the digital infrastructure to capture, measure, and communicate that impact in real time.
What Changes for the Frontline — and Why It Matters
Digital transformation is often framed as a leadership challenge. But Rui is refreshingly grounded about where it actually plays out: on the frontline, in the hands of technicians who are working in challenging environments and, frankly, don't want to spend their evenings writing reports.
The shift MAKEEN has made is significant. Technicians now have everything they need — tasks, tools, team information, location-based job routing — at their fingertips. Reports are generated almost automatically throughout the day, as a byproduct of how they work rather than an additional burden at the end of it.
"They want to be in action. They don't want to make reports. We know that."
And it goes beyond motivation. In environments like LPG infrastructure — physically demanding, often remote, not exactly glamorous — attracting the next generation of technicians is a genuine challenge. A modernised, digitally-enabled working environment isn't optional; it's part of the value proposition of the role itself.
The broader point Sarah raises is worth sitting with: the efficiency gains from digitalization shouldn't primarily be measured in headcount reduction. They should be measured in scalability and capacity — how many more customers a technician can serve, how many more high-value interventions become possible when the low-value administrative burden is removed.
The Human Side of Transformation
Rui's closing advice is perhaps the most important — and the most frequently overlooked — insight of the entire conversation.
Technology implementation is the easy part. Getting people to change how they work, when they've been doing it the same way for fifteen or twenty years, is where transformation programmes succeed or fail.
Rui's approach is simple, but requires real commitment: listen first. Visit the sites. Ask technicians what's getting in their way. Put their feedback on a transparent backlog — and follow up on it, even if the answer is "we can't do that yet."
"After they understand they need to change, listen to them. Help them improve their work also."
Sarah adds a dimension that any change leader will recognise: the company's "why" and the individual's "why" are different. A technician in a hazardous environment doesn't need to hear about operational efficiency gains. They need to hear that this change means they spend less time on paperwork and more time on the work they actually find meaningful. Personalising the message to the person, not the programme, is what breaks through.
What This Episode Is Really About
Strip away the technology, and what Rui's story is really about is trust — between a service provider and its customers, between leadership and the frontline, between the promise of transformation and the reality of delivering it.
Data creates the conditions for trust. Transparency makes it visible. Listening sustains it.
For asset leaders navigating the shift toward more sophisticated, outcome-based service models, this episode is a rare opportunity to hear from someone who has actually done it — not in theory, but in the field, at scale, in one of the most demanding infrastructure environments in the industry.