The advantage of leading practices

No matter which company I work with they all have the crushing pressure of reduced operational budgets. Sometimes caused through competitive necessity  new taxes reducing bottom line earnings, or even the need to just stay in business. 

In fact, recent studies have shown that this is overwhelmingly the case for most organizations, closely followed by the need to maximise the return on assets and reduced capital budgets.

Pressures driving asset management

When confronted with these pressures most organisations fumble around in the dark trying hard to find something that sticks. Something that is able to turn unplanned downtime into planned stoppages and reduced the overall costs of ownership. 

How are they performing in relation to other asset intensive companies in their sector? How far is the gap that they need to close, which areas represent the greatest value for money, and how can they do all of this rapidly?

The good news is that this is not philosophy, this is a physical science. There are companies that are achieving best in class performance, there are methods and techniques that do deliver results, and there is a roadmap that suits their economic drivers, suits their operating environment, and doesn't come in shrink wrapped disks.

Benchmarking Asset Management

Despite what you read on consultant websites or in industry magazines, there really are acknowledged benchmarks for performance. Surveys commissioned by reputable companies to discover real leading performance, and real leading practice. (Not just the practices that fit their software models)

Our asset management review services are called Value Quadrant™ surveys.

A Value Quadrant™ survey starts with determining where your company sits in relation to other companies. By understanding where your company sits in relation to others in the sector, you are able to take informed decisions about which areas need the most effort. 

The Value Quadrant™ survey contains up to seven corporate benchmarks to determine whether your company is Best-in-Class, Mid-Tier or Bottom-Tier performer. it helps to know the truth of the matter.

Acknowledged Industry Benchmarks

Reliability Success provide a combination of audits across four specific areas depending on what your company is trying to evaluate and improve. 

• Asset Management reviews are designed to analyse performance against recognised standards such as PAS 55 and ISO 55000.

• Useful for infrastructure and utilities organizations where defensibility of capital maintenance and opex spending is paramount. Also provides strong insight into risk management and framework for asset management decisions. 

• Maintenance reviews test against acknowledged leading practices in maintenance execution and short term planning. This was a dramatic oversight in the PAS 55 process due to the industries involved in its creation.

• Useful for all industries, particularly those where maintenance costs are deemed to be high, and are issues for ongoing concern. Frequently used with AM reviews, Reliability reviews and P_TIVE maintenance reviews. 

• Reliability reviews compare against acknowledged leading practice as determined in a range of standards such as SAE JA1011, AS 61508, AS 13000, ASX principle 7 and many others. reliability reviews provide a strong indication of current reliability management in terms of both cost and risk.

• Used regularly in high risk industries, and industries requiring an increase in their return on assets. (Increased Uptime)

• Condition Monitoring reviews provide companies with a strong gap analysis between accepted leading practice and current condition monitoring (P_TIVE maintenance) performance. 

• Used regularly by companies that are starting down the path of implementing P_TIVE maintenance, or those that have already started and are keen to understand where they may be able to make improvements. 

Modified Asset Management Framework

The Results

Aside from the benchmark against leading performance, any review also needs to provide a defensible gap analysis between leading practices. 

This is one of the end results of the survey. A list of comparisons to leading practice, supported by evidence and able to be challenged if required. 

The review must be done using a combination of factors, not just opinion. 

• Observation - Interviews, reviews of documentation, work order records, incident records and other information.

• Empirical data - review of the data to determine what it says, and what it tells an experienced analyst.

• Anecdotal - What do the organizations people say about the area and their performance. (Be careful here, people ALWAYS think they are perfoming at a lower level than they really are!)

High level report card for maintenance only

This is accompanied by principal and secondary recommendations for closing the gap, based on observed practices, acknowledged leading practices and measured performance. 

In summary

Asset management reviews are vital tools to understand where your organization currently sits, where your efforts would be best spent in improvement, and what underlying concepts have you actually doing well. 

Benchmarking helps to remove the fog, and to remove the doubt, providing companies with a cost effective and clear roadmap forward regardless of whether you are a utility, infrastructure, food manufacturing, chemical producing or mining company. (Or whatever)