1. Integrating:
1. Equipment and system location
data
Without this, we would not be
able to direct the required flow of
resources to the right place at the
right time, let alone that we would
be able to allocate the resulting
cost to the right accounting level.
2. Materials and Tools Specification
data
Essential to allow our detailed
planner (work preparer) to be able
to select the right materials and
tools from the bill of materials and
add them to the work order firing
up the procurement, warehousing
and logistics processes.
3. Documentation data
Without technical documenta-
tions, our technicians must work
blind, or by memory, when per-
forming the job. A necessity to en-
sure the job can be done with the
right quality.
4. Safety, Health and Environment
data
Without it, we would not be able to
ensure all the necessary work per-
mits would be in place at the right
time, introducing the risk of not
having our technicians and spe-
cialists working under the correct
safety instruction set.
5. Work Centre Data
Without it, our schedulers would
not be able to balance the workload
against available capacity making
our planning and scheduling ef-
forts void.
6. Personnel Data
Without it, we would not be able
to line up the jobs to be performed
with the skill sets required.
7. Logistical data
Without it, our colleagues taking
care of picking, packing and trans-
porting required materials and ser-
vices to the right place at the right
time would not be able to do so.
8. Procurement data
Without it, we would have no clue
about sources, prices, delivery
times, and so on and so forth, again
making planning and scheduling
efforts void.
9. Financial Data
Without it, we would not be able
to run budget forecasts nor would
we be able to perform cost-benefit
analyses supporting our periodic
review of strategic and tactical de-
cision making.
10. Fault diagnosis data
Who reported the fault? Which
part of the equipment is not func-
tioning? Necessary to perform
Root Cause Analysis.
11. Asset risk data
What is the impact on people, pro-
duction, environment and reputa-
tion? Required to prioritize and
control risks.
Back to the case: The company had
established a gap-analysis revealing a
1,5 to 2 Billion USD annual opportunity
to improve the total cost of operation.
In theory, it should therefore not be dif-
ficult to decide for a major reconstruc-
tion effort on data- and information
management including instigating the
appropriate amount of cultural change
one would think. Reality though was
much harder.
The infamous “silo” mentality that
we so often find in big companies ap-
peared. Combined with the tendency
to only focus on “quick wins” and “low
hanging fruit”, amplified by the per-
sonal career building plans based on 1
to 2-year job changes, works wonders to
build walls against creating the neces-
sary platforms for departmental change
and to form the bridges between the
departments needed to overcome the
barriers.
Departments and Their
“Proprietary” Tools
Despite the availability of information
technology and the fast development of
“the internet of things” / ”Industry 4.0”,
“Big Data” and swats of software solu-
tions, in practice we often witness how
a missing 10 USD gasket, or the delivery
of 6 instead of the required 8 tightening
bolts, can grind a complete maintenance
job (if not a complete project) to a halt.
This naturally results in all the ad-
verse consequences of late startups,
missed product delivery dates, etc. All at
immense costs, as well as agony and frus-
tration in meeting rooms.
Respecting the fact that organisations
are doing a good job with combining
knowhow and skillsets into depart-
ments, this doesn’t mean that we should
allow departments to freely go out and
buy (or even invent) complete solu-
10 maintworld 4/2016
ASSETMANAGEMENT ASSETMANAGEMENT
DECISIONS HAVE to be made on all levels.
Operators and technicians make deci-
sions on how to operate the equipment
and what to do about failures. Supervi-
sors and managers make decisions on
priorities of work, allocation of resourc-
es, and progress.
For good decision making we need
true, reliable, information. Facts if you
will. Access to this leans heavily on our
ability to compile data from different
sources, and roll these compilations up
into information we can communicate
and act on.
When data is wrong, outdated or
missing, our assumptions are more er-
ror prone and our decisions will more
likely to lead to wasted effort; we will
not be able to do the right things at the
right time with the right people having
the right skills, materials, and so on and
so forth.
Case Example
An analysis for one of our clients re-
vealed that the way their work manage-
ment process was reflected in EAM,
was not on par with the principles of
good Asset Management. Planning and
Scheduling was virtually impossible. Ap-
propriate linking with logistics and pro-
curement was nearly non-existent. Cost
of maintenance was not retrievable.
The CFO reacting to our proposal to
start working on a radical rebuild: “OMG,
this is going to touch everything on our
company”. And how right that was!!
From a software coding perspective,
the maintenance module is the smallest
module in most EAM systems.
Paradoxically, the necessity to inter-
face this module with all other business
management functions has the tendency
to make it the most complex, and most
misunderstood.
Let us make a quick overview to show
the point:
We know that a work order (and its
work request as predecessor) forms the
heart and soul of a work management
system. These two “documents” are the
main “data collectors” needed for look-
ing ahead (Plan and Schedule) as well
as looking behind us (Analyse and Im-
prove). These are the “building bricks”
for capturing your Equipment History
thus enabling true Asset Performance
Management reporting.
Top-and senior management are appraised for good strategic and tactical decisions.
First line management and their operatives are on the other hand appraised for
effective collaboration and efficient work performed against quality standards.
Communication in business is key.
PETER.A.M.BROOSUS,
Senior Consultant at
Nexus Global,
p.broosus
@nexusglobal.com
With contribution from
RAFAEL TSAI
r.tsai@nexusglobal.com
COMMUNICATIONIN
BUSINESSISKEY.
Data Management
in Reliability Related
Processes
Figure 1:
From data to
direction
4/2016 maintworld 11

2. 12 maintworld 4/2016
ASSETMANAGEMENT
tions, including managing systems of
their own. Good intentions easily end up
leading to disintegration of business pro-
cesses, disconnect, waste, and return to
endless crisis control and firefighting.
As an example, from the Oil and Gas
sector, we see for instance a clear distinc-
tion between departments taking care of
maintenance of:
• Structures, pipelines and vessels
(Integrity Maintenance)
• Equipment maintenance (Process
Maintenance)
• Wells and related equipment
(Wells Services)
• Buildings and offices (Facility
Maintenance)
The maintenance strategies pro-
cessed through these departments often
require some very specialised measure-
ment, data-collection and decision mak-
ing tools to fulfil their function and meet
their targets.
It’s truly marvellous to see some of
their solutions at work. The ingenuity,
ambition and expertise of their employ-
ees in applying the latest technology
to bring about performance is often
astounding. However, at the same time
sometimes stubborn, and short sighted
behaviour sometimes kills the power of
these solutions. By department heads
desiring to have full control of what they
seem to experience as proprietary kno-
whow of their department, thus destroy-
ing the results that could be reached by
collaboration and realistic integrated
scheduling of work.
What to Do?
So how do we lead people to change their
behaviour?
While not simple
1. Encourage (empower, if not: “de-
mand”) department leaders to aim
for long-term solution integration
while focusing on the taking away
of barriers on the short-term.
Make part of performance reviews
be based on ability to integrate and
improve processes across depart-
ments, reward Manufacturing
Reliability, not mere Production
quantity, low percentage of emer-
gency work, or budget adherence.
2. Make it clear, starting from man-
agement, that it is in order to have
mistakes, but that learning from
them is key! To pinpoint the gaps
and find solutions to close them
permanently. Shifting from ‘How
can I make my KPI green’ check-
box mentality to ‘I need to see the
reds (gaps) and understand how to
improve’ would be a big step for-
ward from most organisations. “
3. Invest in integrated solutions and
avoid solitary solutions.
Vendors will not say ”no” to
creating and delivering standalone
solutions when there is a market
for them. However, when you have
invested in your own EAM system,
making sure that the core func-
tionality for collection and pro-
cessing of specific data is fulfilled,
and tailored to the end user. The
Operator, the Maintenance Tech-
nician, the Supervisor, the Planner.
Refrain from accepting attempts
to implement parallel Work Man-
agement and materials/services
ordering solutions.
4. Communication is gold, informa-
tion is silver, data is the ore for
both. The success of your company
depends on these.
While investing in software
solutions may allow us to become
more efficient, we will always need
people to get the work done and
manage our work processes.
A software solution for a manu-
al process does not automatically
mean better results!
5. Badly executed implementation,
unclear work process interaction,
and not addressing culture and be-
haviour can mean that a more effi-
cient software solution only makes
your problems worse.
The paradox is that automation
tends to be sold on the argument
of headcount reduction, while the
truth is that we may indeed need
fewer people to perform labour in-
tensive or low value adding work.
The people we do need however,
will often have to be better educat-
ed and trained and are therefore
more expensive!
Do not fall into the open trap of
thinking that automation will solve
all your problems.
If you get it wrong it will result
in very efficiently making a lot of
errors!
FORGOODDECISIONMAKING
WENEEDTRUE,RELIABLE,
INFORMATION.
Figure 2: Information Superhighway
Figure 3: Combining different departments into a single stream