According to a recent report published by the U.S.-based Aberdeen Group, nearly 87 percent of asset owner/operators in asset-intensive industries agree that proper maintenance of their production assets is crucial to their organizations.

The report titled: “Collaborate Asset Maintenance Strategies” (www.aberdeen.com) further reveals that leading companies have achieved success with key performance metrics, including a larger return on invested capital, greater asset productivity, improved asset uptime and lower maintenance costs.

Report findings were based on the results of a study, which examined how 300 companies (i.e. Coors Brewing, DuPont and Nova Chemicals) in asset-intensive industries are excelling with process definition, organizational alignment, data management, technology integration and performance management.

“We found proactive maintenance processes that augment regularly scheduled preventive maintenance routines tend to boost companies into the best-in-class category,” says Michael Israel, research director, service chain research at Aberdeen and author of the report. “Corollary data strongly suggests that best-in-class organizations operate in a ‘break-fix’ mode far less often than do their laggard counterparts.”

Israel offers the following recommendations, which he says will lead to maintenance improvement:

• Implement aggressive proactive maintenance strategies;
• Use analytics software to measure actual asset performance against established goals;
• Centralize management and control of asset maintenance;
• Build a case for the CFO that focuses on the importance of investing to support proper service and maintenance practices; and
• Consider spare parts/MRO inventory planning and strategies.

More than ever, maintenance managers require the financial support from management to get the job done. Check out the useful online report and push it up the corporate ladder.

Robert Robertson, Editor
PEMAC Allied Member
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