Early indications of leading practices

After only a few short months running online surveys we have already been able to get some pretty interesting interim results on the environment of modern asset management, its business drivers and some of the leading practices that have helped companies to become Leading performance in the area.

Our second survey on Asset Performance Management can be found here and is scheduled for completion in late October. All respondents will receive a copy of the survey results.

So far we have around 160 respondents representing 93 different companies.

Geographically these come from mainly the USA, Australia, the UK and the Middle East. By sector they range from petroleum refiners, mining companies, transport companies, rail land water utilities.

Overwhelmingly all Leading Performers have indicated that the primary drivers for their asset performance management initiatives is one of increased profitability. And the strategies they employ show this to be the case.

Interestingly the second driver among all of those completing the survey is the need for regulatory compliance in asset management. Reasons included financially regulated markets (such as the UK utilities industry), Contractual constraints (such as in large outsourced maintenance companies) and changes in water and electricity regulations in the USA.

The third most influential driver for businesses throughout the world has been that of reducing the risk of safety incidents from asset management. Key reasons for this driver were stated as including recent explosions at the BP refinery and the Buncefield refinery in the UK (40%), changes to laws around the world (30%) and other high profile cases such as Westray in Canada and the Hatfield Train Disaster in the UK. (27%)

One of the criteria we have identified for the Leading Performers is a level of asset availability exceeding 95%. Our studies so far have shown that of all initiatives those of RCM and Planning and Scheduling.

As can be seen 40% of the Leading Performers consider their companies to have fully integrated the RCM approach, while 33% of the Lagging Performers (<85 are="" br="" even="" implement="" not="" planning="" rcm.="" to="">
This is further supported by Mid Performance companies. All of whom are either planning to implement, in the process of implementing, or in the early stages of managing the process of RCM.

Other results are equally compelling with Leading Performers demonstrating consistent downward trends in operational budgets in direct correlation to their maturity with planning and scheduling processes along with other useful insights into what leading performers are doing to control risk, maximize profitability and sustain momentum in their change programs.

There are also some interesting trends in terms of technology providers among our survey group.

If you are interested in participating the Asset Performance Management survey can be found here and is scheduled for completion in late October. All respondents will receive a copy of the survey results.

During October we will be running a series of Deep Methodology Surveys for RCM, RBI and RCA in particular.