Since I first published the article on the Maintenance Productivity Factor metric it has opened up a whole world of investigations and analysis in to issues preventing companies from achieving high MPF, highly productive maintenance workforces.
However, one of the key errors people make when trying to implement high productivity is to immediately go for the global "measure everything" approach. My experience has been that companies need to ease into regimes that measure and discuss productivity of the workforce, or it can be seen as a cost reduction exercise only.
Showing posts with label Innovation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Innovation. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Saturday, 11 July 2009
What the economic crisis means for asset management...
In a nutshell it reveals how cities in California are struggling under the shrinking tax base from the crisis, meaning they are looking for alternative methods to fund their estimated $2.2 trillion in infrastructure maintenance spending over the next 5 years.
And even though they didn't say it there is another side to this as well. The USA, along with many other Western nations, have been on a spending spree to try to circumvent the fallout of the economic crisis.
Regardless of what you think of this one day somebody has to pay... so there will be even less cash for cities, states and nations to spend on something as un-sexy as infrastructure maintenance.
Their take was on the Public-Private Partnership (P3) model which sprung out of Europe. In fact the London Underground is probably the most prominent case of a P3 contract worth billions.
The financial model is somewhat complex, but the end result is private industry sharing the costs for funding, and managing the public infrastructure such as trains, roads, water and electricity where this is still in government hands.
So what does a PPP contract mean to California or the USA?
First, there are far more options that just the PPP option. The UK in particular has stood out as a leader int he utilities infrastructure industry for the way that they privatized their water and electricity utilities.But in the area of PPP by itself there are many advantages for consultants, contractors and maintenance professionals.
There are arguments to and fro regarding whether they are a good thing or a bad thing. And of course everyone can easily point to the costly and potentially dangerous collapse of Metronet.
However, my experience has been:
- Decision making becomes more diverse. With more players in the game there are more decision makers, hence more decisions made.
- A variety of strategies and activities spring up as each looks for the leading practice to try to shine brighter than others in the field.
- The imposition of harsh regulations and penalties, (As per the Severn Trent Water fiasco) means that a lot more work goes into accountability, and getting it right.
- New techniques and focus emerges in asset cost management generally, and in CAPEX justification specifically. (E.g. the PAS-55 work)
The list goes on, but for me it is a no-brainer. Their just isn't the cash in the state coffers to continue to fund this directly, and ways and means are needed to share the immediate costs. Even if this does mean merely putting the full cost off until a later date.
Despite what the naysayers may come up with, I have no doubt that this and a raft of other measures will need to be taken to address the problem of infrastructure maintenance spending on an already neglected US infrastructure sector.
An unexpected but totally obvious side effect of the economic crisis.
Thursday, 2 July 2009
The risk payoff
Maintenance is one of the more risk averse professions. Strangely, we are one of the management professions that has been most affected by change over the past thirty years also.
Even at the start of the 21st century the tendency to lean away from risk is pretty strong.
I have met maintenance managers who wanted to run the optimized RCM regimes alongside their old ones for a while to "see how they go".
The same mindset that makes managers who were adamant that the plant still needed to have the 9 month turnaround even though we had proved conclusively that there were no time based failures to deal with.
The reason is always the same, falling back on our unique responsibility for safety and performance. A valid reason, but often one that is misused and misquoted to win an argument. (You know what I mean)
But if we can learn anything from the entrepreneurial history of the past few years it is that a little risk often pays large dividends. In fact, it is often a tie breaker that sets the leaders out in front of the pack.
Here are a few small risks that you could take today...who knows, they might even make a huge difference to your bottom line.
1) Get rid of the expensive on-premise SAP style architecture CMMS you have been running with since the 1990's. (A long time in technology years)
The world is moving online. SAP realizes that their future is online. Oracle founder Larry Ellison has already dipped his toes in the water.
Instead of on premise, closed systems that require a lot of infrastructure and networking... have a look at eMaint. A pioneering company who have been online delivering Software as a Service since the 20th century. (Sounds like a long time when you say it like that)
(The risk... you could upset the IT dept. The benefit - You could upset the IT dept!!)
2) In fact, if you want a niche reliability system you can have a go at building your own now using the free software platform from Force.com.
3) Take a good resource off the front line, off the tools I mean, and use her to develop a comprehensive lubrication plan. From audit to execution. (The risk - you might not have enough resources to do the work! The benefit - you never did anyway)
4) Set up an internal mentoring program, possibly using recently retired employees, via DimDim.com or similar. (It's free by the way)
Good luck.
Sunday, 21 June 2009
SaaS Software for Maintenance
One of the most exciting things going on in the world today is the Software as a Service revolution in technology. This is an entirely new model of delivering technology via the internet which makes the software more economical, wrapped in a layer of high level services.
In recent time we have seen SAP, ORACLE, and Microsoft rushing into this area trying to capitalize on this new trend. However, before SaaS was a global trend, eMaint was in there pioneering a new way of doing business.Since the 1980's the eMaint team, led by Brian Samuelson, have been building new markets in terms of making maintenance improvement more affordable.
I recently caught up with company President Brian Samuelson about this area, and about his outlook for the future. Fantastic company, great vision - and I have always loved true dedication to service int he consulting industry.
Q1. Is the area of physical asset management benefiting from the global surge in interest in SaaS?
Absolutely! The benefits of SaaS offer substantial benefits over the traditional software models and users of EAM/CMMS are no exception in wanting best of breed applications, delivered in an on-demand environment, with a pricing model that is buyer-centric.
I believe the emergence of the term Saas (Software as a Service) over ASP (application service provider) actually illustrates at a high level why there is this global surge in interest – ASP sounds like a technology – perhaps simply a new way of delivering the same old thing – and in fact, many of the early entrants into the ASP market were simply quite that – delivering legacy apps over the wire via some sharing technology like Terminal Server or Citrix.
True SaaS vendors provide software and services in a model that, if done right, provide a higher level of value through the combination of service and product. There is a sales technique which has the salesperson ask the prospect if they were presented with a triangle and the three corners of the triangle represented Service, Quality, and Price – which two would they pick? I believe the value in SaaS is that the prospect doesn’t have to pick – SaaS delivers all three!
Q2. Commentators talk of SaaS being purchased at department level rather than at corporate levels. Is this the case with on-demand maintenance management systems?
I definitely see that department level purchasing of SaaS is leading the trend in on-demand EAM/CMMS. And why not?
Corporate decision makers take way too long in making those decisions and, more often than not, don’t make the resources available to the maintenance department (financial, technical, and personnel ) to properly implement legacy-style products. In the meantime, has the maintenance organization gone into “hibernation”?
Of course not – the potential realization of benefits from a maintenance management system only increase with time. So, the ability to reduce the overhead required to get started with a SaaS maintenance system along with often eliminating the need for capital requests is a perfect match for the predicament maintenance departments often find themselves in.
Q3. In other areas on-demand technologies have also opened doors for vendors to provide more outsourcing services than they have done in the past. Are you seeing this in your field? And if so, in which sectors or functional areas specifically?
In our case, when our customers realize that our SaaS mentality and delivery means that we are a service provider as opposed to a commodity provider, the doors begin to open. Customers will naturally ask any vendor who provides exceptional service – “how else can you help us?”
Consulting services ranging from CMRP consulting for assisting clients in the areas of reliability and efficiency, integration projects tying the maintenance system into the corporate level app (SAP/Oracle/etc), and extending the desktop into the mobile arena are some of the main areas that are well suited to be driven be the success customers are able to experience with the SaaS solutions they employ.
Q4. What do you think is missing in the on-demand space for asset maintenance?
I believe this is related to the question of the department level vs corporate level purchasing. I am optimistic that the next couple of years will really present opportunities that ARE driven from the corporate level. We are now beginning to make headway with corporate level decision makers who see the value in the SaaS model.
I suspect that the cost benefits combined with the increased acceptance of hosted solutions will continue to drive SaaS into the “boardroom”. Industry leaders like Salesforce.com are paving the way and we only see the acceptance levels increasing with time.
Q5. What is the future for eMaint in terms of continued expansion and growth? Are there other markets and sectors on the horizon for you or is there still space in your natural sectors now?
The good news is that the “natural sector” for eMaint is so large that there still exist huge opportunities for growth. We have put significant energies into relationship building with other providers in the maintenance and reliability marketplace and feel that those relationships will provide significant opportunity for growth. Time and again, we see the SaaS model as really providing an excellent platform for partnering with other organizations to provide value-added solutions to our customer base.
Our solutions have been engineered from the ground up for scalability and expansion – so our main challenge will be will be keeping up with the demand from a sales and marketing perspective. So that is an enviable position to be in.We continue to have subscription renewal rates over 90% and the great thing about SaaS is that the vendor who provides exceptional service will share in the rewards equally with the customer.
So while we are currently working on further expanding into areas such as mobile technologies and targeted consulting services – our core competency will continue to be service, service, service backed by a great software product.
Brian is one of those rare leaders who had a vision before most people even knew the concept. I really appreciate his time in answering these questions.
Brian is one of those rare leaders who had a vision before most people even knew the concept. I really appreciate his time in answering these questions.
Sunday, 14 June 2009
The Devil's Advocates
The devil doesn't need an advocate, he's doing pretty well as it is. Brave people need supporters.
How many times have you seen this? A mid level manager who believes it is his or her right to poke holes at all the unworkable elements in every improvement proposal that comes their way?
As a consultant I see it a lot, although generally it is more aimed at internal staff than at me.
Sad to watch. Brave people who have put themselves out there trying to make a difference, and instead of praise and support they get their idea torn down, and there is absolutely no consideration of its potential value or merit.
It is a shame because it is soul destroying for them, and potentially stupid for the company. I have seen people with ideas that are brilliant - both industry changing and world changing.
I was there when the guy came up with the idea of a strip that lit up when street lights fell below a predetermined level of brilliance, and also when the idea of using LED's instead of filament globes for Haul truck indicators.
Both were Velcro moments, things that would change the way that industries operate...both were supported by managers with vision.
But the guy who was criticized instead of supported, even if it was only to guide him... do you think he will ever volunteer any of his ideas again?
How many times have you seen this? A mid level manager who believes it is his or her right to poke holes at all the unworkable elements in every improvement proposal that comes their way?
As a consultant I see it a lot, although generally it is more aimed at internal staff than at me.
Sad to watch. Brave people who have put themselves out there trying to make a difference, and instead of praise and support they get their idea torn down, and there is absolutely no consideration of its potential value or merit.
It is a shame because it is soul destroying for them, and potentially stupid for the company. I have seen people with ideas that are brilliant - both industry changing and world changing.
I was there when the guy came up with the idea of a strip that lit up when street lights fell below a predetermined level of brilliance, and also when the idea of using LED's instead of filament globes for Haul truck indicators.
Both were Velcro moments, things that would change the way that industries operate...both were supported by managers with vision.
But the guy who was criticized instead of supported, even if it was only to guide him... do you think he will ever volunteer any of his ideas again?
Sunday, 15 February 2009
No crisis for online systems
Most of us have gotten to the point that we cringe every time we read the financial pages on the web or in the newspaper. What disasters will today bring? Who else is going to line up to tell us that things are tough and getting tougher?
It is a frightening situation. However, something that everyone often loses sight of is that times like these are probably the best times to launch a reliability or improvement initiative.
There is a lot of pain out there, and there are many (MANY) companies who are really in need of a product or service that will enable them to reduce costs, increase uptime, and/or increase productivity.
This brings me again to my favorite topic. Online maintenance technology. Since the start of the year eMaint has posted three great wins for them in the USA. And each of them is from a different sector!
ResortQuest is the largest marketer and management company of vacation condominiums and home rentals in the U.S and they chose eMain for their property management requirements.
All West Container , a custom manufacturer of boxes, packaging products & POP displays
And lastly they talk about Cargill's in Tampa . This last one is a bit ambiguous. Cargill has three different operations in Tampa, in three different industry sectors. So I am not sure if they got one or all three!
Not a bad start to a year when the economy is in its worst state of affairs since the great depression. (Depending on who you listen to about that) Why is this so? Are they super duper salesmen? Do their clients have oodles of spare cash laying around?
I have no clue about any of that, but what I can say is that it doesn't surprise me!
I like eMaint. They have a good product and they were into Software as a Service (SaaS) before the rest of the world even knew it was an acronym. I really like gutsy pioneering types.
But regardless of that, the thing that is pushing all of this towards a tipping point is the economic crisis itself. Companies still have problems, they always will and as long as it is not their core business they will always be needing some for of additional help.
But, they have to be pretty wise about what they spend their money on and where.
In the December quarter Oracle managed a 5% increase in revenue , but missed analysts expectations, posting revenue of $5.6 billion against expectations of $5.84 billion. While Societe General has issued warnings on SAP stock , expecting them to issue a warning in January in response to hardening financial times.
SaaS leader Salesforce.com, however, reported a whopping 43% revenue increase compared to last year. A record quarterly revenue for them.
This is not going to stop. In fact, we may see the beginnings of a tipping point this year. Where companies are forced to look again at their spending in light of limits on credit and collapsing demand and prices. In short, this could be the opportunity that eMaint and others in the online maintenance technology field have been waiting for to really shine as a superior deployment and implementation approach to enterprise systems.
It is a frightening situation. However, something that everyone often loses sight of is that times like these are probably the best times to launch a reliability or improvement initiative.
There is a lot of pain out there, and there are many (MANY) companies who are really in need of a product or service that will enable them to reduce costs, increase uptime, and/or increase productivity.
This brings me again to my favorite topic. Online maintenance technology. Since the start of the year eMaint has posted three great wins for them in the USA. And each of them is from a different sector!
ResortQuest is the largest marketer and management company of vacation condominiums and home rentals in the U.S and they chose eMain for their property management requirements.
All West Container , a custom manufacturer of boxes, packaging products & POP displays
And lastly they talk about Cargill's in Tampa . This last one is a bit ambiguous. Cargill has three different operations in Tampa, in three different industry sectors. So I am not sure if they got one or all three!
Not a bad start to a year when the economy is in its worst state of affairs since the great depression. (Depending on who you listen to about that) Why is this so? Are they super duper salesmen? Do their clients have oodles of spare cash laying around?
I have no clue about any of that, but what I can say is that it doesn't surprise me!
I like eMaint. They have a good product and they were into Software as a Service (SaaS) before the rest of the world even knew it was an acronym. I really like gutsy pioneering types.
But regardless of that, the thing that is pushing all of this towards a tipping point is the economic crisis itself. Companies still have problems, they always will and as long as it is not their core business they will always be needing some for of additional help.
But, they have to be pretty wise about what they spend their money on and where.
In the December quarter Oracle managed a 5% increase in revenue , but missed analysts expectations, posting revenue of $5.6 billion against expectations of $5.84 billion. While Societe General has issued warnings on SAP stock , expecting them to issue a warning in January in response to hardening financial times.
SaaS leader Salesforce.com, however, reported a whopping 43% revenue increase compared to last year. A record quarterly revenue for them.
This is not going to stop. In fact, we may see the beginnings of a tipping point this year. Where companies are forced to look again at their spending in light of limits on credit and collapsing demand and prices. In short, this could be the opportunity that eMaint and others in the online maintenance technology field have been waiting for to really shine as a superior deployment and implementation approach to enterprise systems.
If you are a vendor in the maintenance and reliability technology fields and you are not online then... I think you should be. if you are a company who is looking at an upgrade or a new solution and you are not looking at the online products then you definitely should be!
Having said that - it is definitely not for everyone. Systems need to be transactional, they need to be required by people separated by geographical boundaries, and they need to be cheap. Volume wins over price, and the key to the market is service. Service, service, service.
Watch this space, a fascinating evolution is hotting up here.
Condition Monitoring online
I am not too sure when DLI engineering became Azima DLI, but it seems to have been a step in the right direction for them.
This press release points to one of the things I am truly passionate about. That is moving the asset maintenance and reliability technologies onto the web. They talk here about their WATCHMAN™ product. An online condition monitoring solution.
But... I am not so sure that it is entirely unique, or that it is entirely a new thing. Bureau Veritas, the company that I work for by the way, also has an online condition monitoring solution . And one that has done very well in transforming the clients who use it and their use of information. Not insignificant in this discussion is that BV is a truly global giant of an engineering company.
Regardless, I am keen to learn more about their product and might even give them a call. For me, any product that moves the delivery of reliability services from the old SAP-style solution to an online model is a good one.
eMaint are champions in this field and I think that the market is going to be calling for it more and more in the near future. Some research I did recently showed that the giants like oracle and SAP were suffering during these uncertain times while online providers of similar products were seeing extraordinary growth.
Why? Cheaper, quicker to implement, no updates and infrastructure is generally a browser. I like the model and I think it is only a matter of time before the industry begins to pass a tipping point in relation to this mode of software delivery.
I think this is worth posting on separately over the next week or so.
This press release points to one of the things I am truly passionate about. That is moving the asset maintenance and reliability technologies onto the web. They talk here about their WATCHMAN™ product. An online condition monitoring solution.
But... I am not so sure that it is entirely unique, or that it is entirely a new thing. Bureau Veritas, the company that I work for by the way, also has an online condition monitoring solution . And one that has done very well in transforming the clients who use it and their use of information. Not insignificant in this discussion is that BV is a truly global giant of an engineering company.
Regardless, I am keen to learn more about their product and might even give them a call. For me, any product that moves the delivery of reliability services from the old SAP-style solution to an online model is a good one.
eMaint are champions in this field and I think that the market is going to be calling for it more and more in the near future. Some research I did recently showed that the giants like oracle and SAP were suffering during these uncertain times while online providers of similar products were seeing extraordinary growth.
Why? Cheaper, quicker to implement, no updates and infrastructure is generally a browser. I like the model and I think it is only a matter of time before the industry begins to pass a tipping point in relation to this mode of software delivery.
I think this is worth posting on separately over the next week or so.
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Technology Notes: Online Maintenance Management
During the last twenty years the defining aspect of working in the field of asset management has been change. This is particularly true in the last ten years. Today’s asset maintenance is seen as a creator of value rather than as a cost to be managed.
Fortunately we respond well to change; generally we have been quick to adapt new technologies and methods. Whether it be reliability-centered maintenance, mobile working technologies, bar-coding solutions, or sophisticated outsourcing strategies; asset maintainers have been quick to take advantage of advances in thinking, technology and management practices.
But for some reason we are lagging behind one of the more recent and dramatic changes in the way business solutions are delivered. Software-as-a-Service (SaS.) is one of these areas. The model is extremely simple, online systems, cost effective implementation and running, no IT infrastructure, accessible anywhere / any time.
Sounds like a great solution, and for many business areas it has changed the way that technology is bought and used. For example, Salesforce.com is an online sales management tool, (CRM) it costs less than most of its competitors (a lot less!) and is a great tool. It has about 27,000 licenses today.
Likewise we can see this trend in other areas, Net Suite provides a cost effective alternative to modern ERP systems, and its majority shareholder is Larry Ellison of Oracle™. Throughout the word we see similar systems with similar success stories.
From Time Sheet management, to Facilities Management helpdesks, through to Payroll Management; all delivered over the internet at a fraction of the implementation price and with virtually no ongoing costs aside from the annual license fees. Google gets it. They are now gearing up to deliver a whole host of business applications over the web. From email to documents, spreadsheets to commerce, they are taking the business world by storm. (The author is a committed user of Google products)
Yet for some reason the level of take up within the fields of asset management has been very slow, even though we were early movers in this area. A company called eMaint started out in the USA in 1986 and has pioneered the software as a service industry from a maintenance perspective. Today they provide their system to companies in facilities management, manufacturing and processing, utilities and energy companies and a host of other sectors.
So if the technology is available, the total cost of ownership is reduced, the functionality is similar (or even better in some cases), and an end to upgrades (lucrative IT industry cash-cow) why isn’t every asset-rich company now using this way of managing their assets?
Unfortunately where there is great change there is great opportunity, and sometimes progress gets hijacked. In virtually every industrial sector literally billions of dollars are spent needlessly every year implementing outdated technologies, maintaining and sustaining the infrastructure to keep it all going, and then implementing the latest upgrade to hit the market.
Why - because the EAM / ERP industry (Selling, implementing and providing services for enterprise management systems) is a gigantic product driven sector with a lot of momentum. According to the ARC Advisory Group 2006 Worldwide EAM Market Study the top ten EAM providers raked in around US$1.5 billion in 2006 in software license and support revenues alone.
So there is a lot at stake. And when companies come to the conclusion that they need to invest more effort in asset management, they are generally not fully aware of the options they have.
For example, in recent time, the past four years say, the UK water industry has been struggling to come to grips with some of the requirements placed on it by the industry’s financial regulator.
More than at any time in their past their future revenues are now tied to asset planning and how well they embrace risk management within their asset plans. While they have been lost in the detail of what they have to do, and how they can use their multi-million dollar systems to do this, the entire opportunity of low cost asset management systems has been overlooked.
This sort of reaction to crisis is more common than we would think. Outsourced asset management providers, infrastructure managers, equipment vendors providing after sales maintenance services all tend to get caught up in the emergencies of the moment and miss the opportunities that Software as a Service presents to them.
As a professional within this area I see one advantage that online systems are able to offer above and beyond anything else on the market. They are cost effective and rapid to implement!
This means more time and resources available to do the work of asset management, rather than doing the work of managing a system!
Fortunately we respond well to change; generally we have been quick to adapt new technologies and methods. Whether it be reliability-centered maintenance, mobile working technologies, bar-coding solutions, or sophisticated outsourcing strategies; asset maintainers have been quick to take advantage of advances in thinking, technology and management practices.
But for some reason we are lagging behind one of the more recent and dramatic changes in the way business solutions are delivered. Software-as-a-Service (SaS.) is one of these areas. The model is extremely simple, online systems, cost effective implementation and running, no IT infrastructure, accessible anywhere / any time.
Sounds like a great solution, and for many business areas it has changed the way that technology is bought and used. For example, Salesforce.com is an online sales management tool, (CRM) it costs less than most of its competitors (a lot less!) and is a great tool. It has about 27,000 licenses today.
Likewise we can see this trend in other areas, Net Suite provides a cost effective alternative to modern ERP systems, and its majority shareholder is Larry Ellison of Oracle™. Throughout the word we see similar systems with similar success stories.
From Time Sheet management, to Facilities Management helpdesks, through to Payroll Management; all delivered over the internet at a fraction of the implementation price and with virtually no ongoing costs aside from the annual license fees. Google gets it. They are now gearing up to deliver a whole host of business applications over the web. From email to documents, spreadsheets to commerce, they are taking the business world by storm. (The author is a committed user of Google products)
Yet for some reason the level of take up within the fields of asset management has been very slow, even though we were early movers in this area. A company called eMaint started out in the USA in 1986 and has pioneered the software as a service industry from a maintenance perspective. Today they provide their system to companies in facilities management, manufacturing and processing, utilities and energy companies and a host of other sectors.
So if the technology is available, the total cost of ownership is reduced, the functionality is similar (or even better in some cases), and an end to upgrades (lucrative IT industry cash-cow) why isn’t every asset-rich company now using this way of managing their assets?
Unfortunately where there is great change there is great opportunity, and sometimes progress gets hijacked. In virtually every industrial sector literally billions of dollars are spent needlessly every year implementing outdated technologies, maintaining and sustaining the infrastructure to keep it all going, and then implementing the latest upgrade to hit the market.
Why - because the EAM / ERP industry (Selling, implementing and providing services for enterprise management systems) is a gigantic product driven sector with a lot of momentum. According to the ARC Advisory Group 2006 Worldwide EAM Market Study the top ten EAM providers raked in around US$1.5 billion in 2006 in software license and support revenues alone.
So there is a lot at stake. And when companies come to the conclusion that they need to invest more effort in asset management, they are generally not fully aware of the options they have.
For example, in recent time, the past four years say, the UK water industry has been struggling to come to grips with some of the requirements placed on it by the industry’s financial regulator.
More than at any time in their past their future revenues are now tied to asset planning and how well they embrace risk management within their asset plans. While they have been lost in the detail of what they have to do, and how they can use their multi-million dollar systems to do this, the entire opportunity of low cost asset management systems has been overlooked.
This sort of reaction to crisis is more common than we would think. Outsourced asset management providers, infrastructure managers, equipment vendors providing after sales maintenance services all tend to get caught up in the emergencies of the moment and miss the opportunities that Software as a Service presents to them.
As a professional within this area I see one advantage that online systems are able to offer above and beyond anything else on the market. They are cost effective and rapid to implement!
This means more time and resources available to do the work of asset management, rather than doing the work of managing a system!
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