Complete Guide to

ASSET STRATEGY
MANAGEMENT (ASM)

Everything you need to know to transform the way your organization manages asset reliability 1
Contents

Introduction

Part 1: What is Asset Strategy Management

Part 2: Making the Case for Asset Strategy Management

Part 3: How to Get Started With Asset Strategy Management

Part 4: Building Your Asset Strategy Management Program

Part 5: Leveraging Excellence and Continuous Improvements

Conclusion

About ARMS Reliability

About Cordant™ Asset Strategy

2
Introduction
Is your reliability program living up to its true potential?

The principles and tools of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) have been around for decades, and most
organizations understand the key elements that underpin a sound Reliability program. They invest time and
money into creating and implementing Asset Management and Reliability improvement initiatives, in the effort
to avoid unexpected failures, outages, safety exposures and costs to meet business performance goals.

Why then, time after time, do we see organizations When organizations are plagued with these common
struggle to deliver performance improvements and problems, there is often one vital, but overlooked, area
realize value from their efforts? in their approach to asset management.

Are you experiencing any of these problems? The effective development, deployment and ongoing
management of asset maintenance strategies to
• High maintenance costs and unplanned downtime
realize reliability.
• Uncertainty in the quality of strategies across the
asset base Whether it’s process, people, technology, data related,
• No line of sight from the tasks being executed in the if you aren’t effectively managing the strategy on how
field to reliability strategy decisions your assets are maintained, you will fail to make the
• Creating and deploying optimal maintenance step change in your reliability improvement efforts to
strategies is an excessively time-consuming deliver value.
process
• Challenges in benchmark asset performance and
measuring continuous improvements
• Inconsistent maintenance plans and Master Data

3
Real Life Example

We were asked to lead a project to review We got to work collecting the asset
the maintenance strategies for sites and hierarchy, work order history, and current
assets not meeting their availability targets, maintenance plans. Using all this data, we
suffering frequent unplanned failures, and/ applied sophisticated methodologies to
or high maintenance costs. build an optimized maintenance strategy.

18% The resulting revised

strategies were forecasted to
reduce maintenance costs by

3%
-18% per annum and improve
availability by +3%.

4
Real Life Example (cont’d)

This is a great
outcome.

But – and herein lies the problem –

the site failed to effectively There’s the
implement and execute the money down
strategy and continued to suffer the drain.
from unplanned failures and
poor availability.

60%
Ten years ago, when RCM was really hitting its strides,
more and more organizations started investing in
the task of developing maintenance strategies. But,
according to research*, a massive 60 percent of these
strategies were never implemented. Think of the of strategies never
money wasted. It’s money that can easily be saved if
implemented
you know why it’s disappearing and how to save it.
*Source: reliabilityweb.com

5
Real Life Example (cont’d)

To truly realize the value of a reliability program, optimal

strategies need to be developed, implemented and
then updated over time. The strategy needs to be
managed. Many Reliability Managers find themselves so
busy putting out day-to-day fires, so to speak, that it is
hard to focus on more strategic issues.

It doesn’t have
to be this way.

ASM
You can utilize the data and equipment
expertise that your already own to
drive performance improvement with
Asset Strategy Management (ASM).

6
Part 1

What is Asset
Strategy
Management?
7
 Asset Strategy
strat·e·gy Management Defined
[stradejē]
noun Asset Strategy Management (ASM) is a best
a plan of action or policy designed practice approach to managing your asset
to achieve a major or overall aim. strategies, organization-wide. It is a process, that
is enabled by people, technology and data, to
connect physical assets and independent plants
and sites to a central system, allowing you to
effectively develop, implement, maintain and
optimize asset strategies.

Implementing an ASM program ensures that

optimal strategies are always deployed,
quickly and efficiently, to all assets, across your
whole operation. It will deliver performance
improvements through increased Reliability and
the reduction of failures, downtime and risk, and
consequently, a lower cost of operations, helping
you to achieve your business performance goals.

8
Asset Strategy Management Defined

What does strategy management cover?

PORTFOLIO:
Optimization of budget
allocation for a portfolio TACTICAL PLANS:
to maximize value The maintenance plans that will
given the financial and be executed. Including the tasks
resource constraints. to be performed, when they are
done, how they are done, who
does them, materials required.

ASSET/FLEET:
The decisions made at an asset
level such as major component
or asset replacement ages,
major shutdown or system
outage schedules.

9
Asset Strategy Management Defined

In short,
Asset Strategy
Management means that:  he best strategies, developed
T
by your best subject matter
experts, are in place

 hey are deployed to all your

T
assets, all the time;

 hey continually evolve based

T
on real data and an effective
review process

 hey can be easily updated, be

T
customized for site variations,
and redeployed with ease

10
ASM and your Enterprise Asset
Management infrastructure

ASM and Work Management

Work Management is a well-established, However, inconsistent or sub-optimal
integrated process, supported by software, strategies are still executed, which can
that has been implemented into most mid to hamper performance and lead to variable
large scale organizations to help schedule work results, continued under-performance, and
more efficiently, to meet consumer needs and significant failures and outages.
to utilize assets and evaluate performance.
Essentially, most organizations are trying to
Given how embedded the work management deliver Reliability through work management,
process is in many organizations, there is instead of strategy management – yet
a tendency is to focus on maintenance they are entirely different processes with
execution alone, in the belief that reliability completely different objectives. The focus of
will improve. To improve execution, the focus an organization needs to differentiate between
is placed on the work management process, strategy management and work management.
work management KPIs, and Master Data
and as a result an organization can realize Work Management = Managing execution of work
benefits due to shorter outages and increased Strategy Management = Managing the strategy that will be executed
availability and production.
Think about it. Work management is all about
executing tasks. Strategy management is
all about deciding what tasks should be
executed, when.

11
World-class execution of a poor strategy won’t deliver on
operational objectives in a predictable consistent way.

Let’s look at what happens when you focus on improving work

management. The mean time to repair decreases which is
a good thing, however the mean time between failures stays
the same as the core driver behind the performance has not
been addressed through strategy review. When you focus
on Asset Strategy Management, the mean time between DAILY CAPACITY %
failures increases which means less downtime, and increased 100
SHORTER OUTAGES

availability and productivity. 80 MTBF

60
MTTR

DAILY CAPACITY %
100 40
AVAIL
IMPROVING
80 WORK MANAGEMENT 20
Plant Production
Capacity
60 0

40 DAILY CAPACITY %
100
FEWER OUTAGES
20
IMPROVING ASSET
STRATEGY MANAGEMENT 80

0 MTBF
60

AVAIL
40

Plant Production
20 Capacity

12
World-class execution of a poor strategy won’t deliver on
operational objectives in a predictable consistent way. (cont’d)

Focus on improving both processes TOGETHER, will see the

overall performance improvement of shorter and fewer outages.

DAILY CAPACITY %
100
SHORTER & FEWER
IMPROVING WORK & ASSET
STRATEGY MANAGEMENT
OUTAGES
80

60

40

20

13
 ASM and Asset Health
Management

ACM manages the risk of catastrophic It is important to note that ACM does not
failure, particularly on critical assets, by manage asset strategy, but rather that
monitoring current conditions and providing ASM and ASM work in conjunction to deliver
alerts when an intervention is required. performance and manage risk.

ACM applicability is expanding due to

recent technological advancements and a
subsequent reduction in cost to implement.
With these tools becoming more affordable,
organizations can deploy condition
monitoring on not only critical assets but
across their balance of plant.

Asset Health Management = Monitors asset health and condition and alerts
when remedial action is required
Asset Strategy Management = Manages the strategy to maintain asset health

14
Integrated Asset Performance Management
Seamless digital connection

Together, ASM, AHM and Work

Management sit alongside one
another to make sure that routine
maintenance strategies, whole of
life asset strategies, and condition
monitoring and plant protection,
are best-in-class and aligned to
business performance requirements.

15
Part 2

Making the Case

for Asset Strategy
Management

16
Addressing the Challenges

Having optimal maintenance strategies, 1. Strategies are not reviewed or updated

deployed to all assets always, should be a 2. Informal approach to strategy
goal for every reliability and maintenance development
program, yet there are several challenges
3. Subjective strategies
that can hold an organization back.
4. Poor Master Data
5. Strategy work has a disregard for
Specific Operating Context

6. Varied strategies across like assets

7. Lack of governance
8. Using an EAM system or Excel to manage
maintenance strategy decisions

17
1. Strategies are not reviewed or updated

The operating environment is a dynamic one whereby

operating context may constantly alter, required operating
Common Setbacks:
duties may change, the cost of downtime may change, and
all the while assets are aging and perhaps what we expect Why aren’t strategies reviewed?
from them is subject to change also. It is important then that
the maintenance strategies we implement, stay up to date ¾ A lack of formal triggers to drive strategy review. In other
with all these changes. words, there is nothing that initiates a strategy review to occur.

If you have not reviewed or updated your maintenance ¾ Limited or no formal process in place to manage the review
strategies recently or worse still you don’t have a defined and evolution of strategies and content.
process of review, it is likely your strategies are out of alignment
¾ Lack of metrics to successfully review or benchmark strategy
with your current assets and their performance targets.
performance and identify key areas for review.
The maintenance strategies you execute are one of the
¾ A belief that following OEM recommendations is the best
single biggest contributors to performance. Ensuring your
strategy. Where OEM recommendations are likely suboptimal,
strategies are up to date is a key to successfully meeting
as they are not tailored for your operating context.
your operational targets.
¾ A reactive maintenance culture can hinder strategy review
because the focus is on fixing failures rather than identifying
areas of improvement.

¾ False perceptions that strategy review can be lengthy and

arduous, and so a perceived lack of time and resources means
the process is never started.

18
2. Informal Approach to Strategy Development

If you follow an informal approach to maintenance strategy

development, the changes made are ad hoc and generally
Common Setbacks:
subjective. There tends to be little structure, consistency or
justification. Over time, strategies can “wander”, often being Why is the approach informal?
modified and then changed back to the original several times.
¾ A lack of Reliability skills and expertise within the organization
However, the worst part about an informal approach is the
that then leads to an informal approach to strategy changes.
inability to leverage sound strategy improvements across the
entire asset base for any similar equipment types. ¾ Limited technical system or lack of tools to effectively conduct
and record Reliability Study and Decision data
Basically, sound changes are only implemented on the specific
asset involved and the communication of the change and the ¾ There is no agreed defined structure for strategy review and
benefit does not translate to the rest of the organization. change within the organization. The structure should include
process, systems and required capabilities.
In this environment the ability for the organization to
capitalize on the true subject matter experts on specific asset
types is significantly limited.

19
3. Subjective Strategies

In the absence of agreed structure for strategy review,

many times changes are based on claimed “expert
Common Setbacks:
opinion”. While expert opinion is a valuable input to
strategy decisions, there are also other equally valid Why are strategies subjective?
inputs for that specific operating context and history
with the specific asset. The real danger is that strategies ¾ Inability to conduct data-driven analysis to justify tasks and
are changed based on peoples experience with similar associated intervals, usually because of a disconnect between
assets, not that specific asset, based on previous roles, EAM systems and any reliability analysis solution.
sites and organizations.
¾ A lack of governance and review of strategy changes leading
Subjective decision making can lead to difficulty in to localized experienced based strategy changes at times
justifying strategies and therefore they are constantly based solely on opinion.
being challenged and as a result adjusted or changed
based on competing opinions.

20
4. Poor Master Data

Generally, Master Data is not complete or structured

consistently, which leads to enormous difficulty in
Common Setbacks:
reviewing current plans and making sense of strategies,
let alone being able to compare and benchmark Why is the Master Data poor?
against other assets. In the absence of an Asset Strategy
Management process, the build of master data is ¾ There is typically a lack of, or inefficient data governance
typically manual or based on formulas and queries in procedures to mandate the capture and recording of specific
multiple excel files or disparate applications. data

It is tempting to try and fix master data first and then ¾ Lack of Master Data guidelines and requirements that support
embark on strategy. If you take this approach, the consistent master data
likelihood is that you’ll never get there. Starting with
¾ Inconsistent asset hierarchy driving different maintenance
strategy ensures you are generating the content that you
plan structures for like equipment
want to correctly compile into Master Data.
¾ Any strategy development or review process is disconnected
from the master data generation process and implementation

21
5. Strategy work has a disregard for
Specific Operating Context

It is natural to look for fast track ways to generate or

review a maintenance strategy. On the surface, the use of
Common Setbacks:
libraries seems logical and as a starting point they often
are. The problem however, is that it is critical to review Why don’t we account for specific operating context?
any library or template strategy for specific operating
context, and if that is done, the connection point to the ¾ Lack of systems or tools to support effective strategy
library information is now out of date. management and decision data on a continuous basis.

If the process you are using cannot account for

modification to the generic content, to allow for specific
operating context changes, whilst still maintaining the
connection, you are heading for a one-off review rather
than a continuous process of improvement.

22
6. Varied Strategies Across Like Assets

If you have similar assets in similar duties across your

organization, and you have different strategies of each
Common Setbacks:
(or worse, you don’t know if they are dissimilar) you can’t
possibly have the optimal strategy on each asset. Why do we have inconsistent strategies on like assets?

The opportunity to rapidly make a change to an asset type

¾ A decentralized strategy management approach across
strategy, based on new information, is also lost if you have
sites. In the absence of a technical solution to support this
dissimilar strategies on like assets. This translates to lost
approach, the true value of strategy improvement work cannot
opportunity, as any improvement initiative is deployed on
be realized.
only one asset, instead of the entire asset base.
¾ Lack of generic strategy templates available for like assets,
leading to effort spent recreating the same strategies over and
over.

¾ Disconnected systems. If you have no technical solution to

connect strategy work across the organisation with your EAM
system, it is difficult to get consistency.

¾ The typical authorities for EAM & strategy systems means

that Work management (planners) have the ability to change
strategy with little or no oversight, meaning that even if a sound
strategy is implemented it can be changed and altered.

23
7. Lack of Governance

We’ve seen it all too often. New, optimized maintenance

strategies are created and entered into the system, then
Common Setbacks:
months later the strategy has been changed back. Why?
Why does the strategy get changed without review?
People who were not involved in the strategy decision
tend to turn it back to how it was and how they are used
¾ Lack of formalized processes (Accountability, change
to doing things. The problem is there is no management
management, workflows, consistent methodology)
around that decision. People can go into the system,
change the strategy, which has a significant impact on the ¾ No restrictions on ERP & Strategy accessibility. Work
performance, without governance. management (planners) have the ability to change strategy

When your management team at a head office are laying ¾ Maintenance tasks are individual and lack business / grouping
down the maintenance strategies for physical assets at rules to enable ease of execution
the company’s various sites around the country and world,
¾ Lack of visibility and inability to track strategy execution and
confusion can reign.
compliance
The corporate group has an agenda and often, the on-site
maintenance manager has a different one. If a physical
asset is on the brink of break-down on-site, then of course
the on-site manager is going to do what they can to fix it —
whether it’s in the corporate rulebook or not.

The confusion arises when there is no way to track what’s

happening on site compared to the maintenance strategy
set down by the corporate group or site strategy owners.

24
8. Using an EAM System or Excel to Manage
Maintenance Strategy Decisions

Creating and deploying generic content cannot be done singularly and globally. Reliability studies seamlessly interact
effectively within an organization’s EAM system. These systems with the EAM system without version issues and/or loss of data.
are designed to support the execution of strategy, they are not
We have seen it take almost three years to develop a
designed to develop, maintain and manage good strategy.
maintenance strategy using Excel spreadsheets. Using an
The secret of successful strategy management lies in looking enterprise ASM system, complex maintenance strategies were
beyond the SAPs and Maximo’s of the world to try to deliver up and running in six months.
Reliability. You can try to standardize these systems for a
“generate once, use many times” approach, but it will not work.

An EAM system is designed to support efficient execution. Common Setbacks:

To be effective it needs to be continually populated with
Why do we try and use our EAM system to manage
appropriate Master Data and optimal strategies. By their
strategy?
very nature, they cannot truly utilize generic content in a
continuously deployable and connected way.
¾ Lack of systems or tools to support effective Strategy
Because EAM systems are not equipped, organizations fall Management and Decision data so we try and support the
back on spreadsheets to manage things like predictive requirement with what we have.
failure analysis, failure mode effects criticality analysis, and
¾ No restrictions on EAM & Strategy Master Data accessibility.
reliability simulations.
Work management contributors (eg planners) have the ability to
If you’re using spreadsheets to manage maintenance change strategy related data.
strategies, it’s common to have a different spreadsheet
at each site. A change that needs to be deployed globally
requires a huge effort and carries the risk of error. When data
is consolidated into one ASM system, changes can be made In the following section we’ll guide you through the process of
implementing Asset Strategy Management.

25
Part 3

How to Get
Started With
Asset Strategy
Management?
26
Organizations at any reliability maturity level
can start taking the necessary steps towards
building a world-class Asset Strategy
Management program. Here, we’ll walk you
through the process from start to finish.

27
Benchmarking -
Understanding the Current State

It is important to understand the current position of your strategy

management program. A self-assessment is a good starting point;
however, you also need to back up the assessment with data.
Some metrics to consider include, but not Metrics can also be determined by asset
limited to; class to allow for industry benchmarking
to determine any gaps, issues or areas of
■ Number of assets with an active strategy
the plant that are not in line with industry
■ Adherence to the strategy
standards.
■ Percentage of unplanned maintenance
With the correct metrics, areas for
■ Availability
improvement will be identified and
■ Reliability
quantified, allowing you to build the
business case and emphasize the
importance of Asset Strategy Management
to key stakeholders.

28
Targets for Improvement

Use the data to understand the current

health of your assets and then set targets
Targets can be as simple as;

10%
to be able to measure improvements and
effectiveness once ASM is implemented.
Increasing
There are many simulation methods
Availability by +5%

5%
that can predict the amount of cost
savings, however without a benchmark,
the information is useless. Setting clear Reducing unplanned
objectives allows for improvements to be
maintenance events
tracked and justifies the effort.
by -10%

Improvement goals must be measurable As an example, targeting an availability of

and attainable. Having a clear 95% in some instances is not achievable. A
understanding of industry benchmarking plant that operates 24/7 and has a 3-week
will provide insight into targets and help you shut-down every year can only achieve a
to understand what achievable targets may maximum of 94.2% availability. That means
be. Please note that these can only provide in an entire year there can be no unplanned
a guide though for, as always, to set realistic outages. A target of 92% availability would
and attainable goals, you must take into be more reasonable as this allows for 7
account your current state, what is a days of unplanned outages per year which
realistic improvement and does it take into is a marked improvement from the current
account operating context and capacity. 15 days of unplanned outages.
29
Blueprinting -
Laying the Foundation

Blueprinting is the foundation that helps you map out the business needs and identify gaps in your
current process. During the blueprinting phase it’s time to define the direction at a high level. It is
important not to overlook this step, as a software configuration will focus on delivering functionality,
rather than addressing business needs and direction.

Process People Strategy Development

Business process mapping should be Clearly defined roles and responsibilities While ASM describes the entire process for
completed by first reviewing the current should be a major consideration as you managing multiple asset strategies, there
process and identifying challenges, issues map out an Asset Strategy Management are many methods that can be used to
and shortcomings. From those learnings, a process. Make sure that your entire determine effective strategy at an asset
“future state” process should be defined to team has a solid understanding of the level. It is important to understand the
pinpoint improvements and efficiency gains expectations and skills or tools required to available methods and which ones will
that meet the objectives of the process. This complete the job. A common outcome is a deliver the most value to your organization.
will also inform the functional requirements RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted
For example:
for software tools that may be required to and Informed) matrix.
Reliability Centered Maintenance is very
drive the new business process.
A process without the right people will effective when paired with Monte Carlo
not be effective. Skilled, motivated and simulation and can deliver huge returns,
dedicated people will be the difference however, this may not be applicable to every
between success or failure when adopting asset. A low-critical asset may only require a
a new process. task-based approach or a template/generic
strategy and save you time and effort.

30
Blueprinting -
Laying the Foundation

Planning & Gap Analysis The following items should be considered to

As the blueprint ends, a gap analysis between
ensure success:
the current and future state process will assist
with identifying the actions needed to embed
an Asset Strategy Management process ■ E
 stablish the core project team,
within your organization. It is time to put project charter, and project controls
together the project to achieve the vision.

■ D
 evelop a detailed implementation
plan, including scope, activities,
milestones, and resources

■ C
 onduct an organizational
readiness assessment to gauge
employees’ ability to adapt to the
new system

■ C
 onduct a risk assessment and risk
mitigation plan

■ D
 efine a business benefits
realization plan, including KPIs and
performance improvements

31
Standardization and Governance
Building Out the Framework

Until this step there has been no mention of software or enterprise

systems, and for good reason, as the process should be defined without
the consideration of software. Theoretically speaking, developing a
new process could still be achieved with pen and paper (though very
inefficient and will likely suffer from quality issues).
Software or enterprise systems are tools that enable the user, deliver the required
functionality, remove any potential avenues for the introduction of errors and allow for an
organization to achieve their goals in the most efficient manner possible.

When you move on to building out the framework to achieve your desired business
outcomes, as defined in the blueprinting phase, you should look for technology that enables
you to make informed decisions in an efficient manner. In Asset Strategy Management that
means determining the best method to manage asset strategies focused on lowering costs,
mitigating risks and reducing unplanned downtime.

32
Here’s an example of how ASM might fit into your current systems:

ASM
NEW PROJECT BUILD DATA BUILD ASSET
HIERARCHY
ASSET HIERARCHY
EQUIPMENT LIST
OPERATING CONTEXT
CRITICALITY FORECASTING DOCUMENTS
MATERIALS

DOCUMENTS
PACKAGING
ASSET FOR CMMS MAINTENANCE TASK PMI DOCS
VARIATIONS PLANS LISTS
DEPLOYMENT
STRATEGY REGIONAL
LIBRARY VARIATIONS
MASTER DATA CREATE OR CHANGE CMMS

SAP MAXIMO

FLOC ASSETS
DASHBOARD PLANS PM
GLOBAL REGIONAL LOCAL
CHANGE CHANGE STRATEGY WORK ORDER, PLANS, HISTORY ITEMS PM ROUTES
CHANGE TASK LISTS JOB PLANS
OPERATIONS JP TASKS
PERFORMANCE COST B OM S B OM S

CHANGE REQUIRED
DOCUMENTS
RELIABILITY COMPLIANCE
WORKFLOW
TRIGGER OTHER SYSTEMS
CHANGE REQUEST (AS REQUIRED)
REVIEW
APPROVE RCA INVESTIGATION
NOTIFY
CHANGE REQUIRED
DEFECTS
5 WHYS TRIGGER PROBLEMS
CAUSAL ANALYSIS
EVENTS

33
Connecting Enterprise Systems

Connecting to an enterprise level system

REQUIREMENT TRACEABILITY MATRIX
that allows for collaboration, data
Test # Test Cases for
management and centralized data across Case ID
TC_1 TC_2 TC_3 TC_4 TC_5 TC_6 TC_7 TC_8 TC_9 TC_10 respective Requirement

the organization is the best method for

Req. ID
delivering on business goals. Not only will
it allow an organization to align all areas Req_1 Ð Ð Ð 3
of the business, but it delivers on process
Req_2 Ð Ð 2
efficiencies and data standardization that
can’t be achieved with desktop applications. Req_3 Ð 1

Req_4 Ð Ð 2
When selecting a tool to support the
process, it is important that the functional Req_5 Ð Ð 2

requirements are aligned to the business Req_6 Ð 1

requirements as outlined in the blueprinting
process. This can be achieved through a Req_7 Ð Ð 2

Traceability Matrix.. Req_8 Ð 1

Req_9 Ð 1

Req_10 Ð 1

34
Connecting Enterprise Systems

In the world of ASM, some elements to

consider are: Note, there are other considerations that
align with any enterprise system, such as;
¾A
 bility to create global component strategies
¾ Security permissions and control
¾ Ability to apply global component
strategies to physical assets and maintain ¾ Workflow and workflow management
the connection ¾ Dashboard and reporting
¾ Ability to create local variations per physical ¾ Data and system integrations
asset based on operations context or other
reasons for changes to the global strategy ¾ Ability to configure and align with your
process
¾ Ability to provide analysis feedback for
decision making ¾ Implementation and ongoing support

¾ Ability to apply strategy updates globally ¾ Onboarding and training

¾ Ability to see information/decision metrics

across the organization
It is highly recommended to avoid customization.
¾ And most importantly, is the analysis
When customization is introduced, it becomes
method best in practice or aligned with
hard to improve and adapt as future changes
your business requirements?
are required. Customization not only costs
more, but it will also make it difficult to
upgrade systems as new technology, methods
and functionality become available. Instead
you should aim for an off the shelf solution that
allows for flexible configuration.

35
Data Standardization and Migration

Poor data in means a poor decision out. As part of defining an ASM process, data
Data standardization is the process of migration plans, and data standards should
bringing data into a common format be put in place before any data is moved.
that allows for collaborative analysis, You need to consider why the data is
large-scale analytics, and sharing of needed and how it will be used.
sophisticated tools and methodologies.

This applies to data migration as well as

methods for capturing data. Whether it
is a work order failure code, condition
monitoring result, or data classification of
strategies for work planning, there should
always be a corresponding data standard
which describes the need, standard, and
format. Applying data standards results in
a more accurate analysis and allows you to
make informed decisions that lead to the
best outcomes for your organization.

36
Visibility
Some examples of reporting may include:
When building out the framework, visibility
within the system is paramount. Users, ■ Local Variation Comparison Report
supervisors, and managers need to - Showing the differences from global component
quickly and easily see the relevant data strategies to the strategies actually deployed.
to make informed decisions. With today’s
- Allows for visibility into differences in strategies and
technology, this can be in the form of KPI’s,
sharing of learnings.
automated reports and data analytics, or
role-based dashboards. ■ KPI Dashboards

Defining the key report requirements up - Align to the metrics and goals that were used to define the

front will help guide data standards, tool process, it is important to continually monitor and track.

selection and more important alignment to

■ Prediction vs Actual Dashboards
the business process.
- Decisions in Asset Strategy Management are made
based on predicting likely outcomes, plotting those
against actual can provide the user more information to
determine if the strategy is effective.

■ Pareto Charts
- High contribution to downtime/cost can be effective to
determine where to focus effort to reduce downtime and
lower costs downtime and lower costs.

37
Execution and
Change Management
Enabling People and Processes

A business process has been put in place, an

implementation plan determined, systems
and tools selected. It is now time to actually
do the work to make it all happen.

38
Developing Strategies

A common concern that arises at the Start by reviewing the current strategies being
start of establishing an Asset Strategy executed within the organization and engage
Management program is a lack of quality all subject matter experts to determine what
data to support the process and the data the best practice strategies are for your
requirements, however, that is not the case. organization. In addition, data can be sourced
from OEM and from similar industries.
When developing strategies, you should
capture the knowledge of your best subject- With a global component structure and a
matter experts and make that knowledge connected enterprise system, this knowledge
available for all to view and use. Optimal will be easy to deploy across the business,
approaches can be leveraged to build out across sites and is typically used by most
maintenance strategies to be used for all reliability and maintenance leaders across
your assets across the organization rather multiple industries.
than in silos. Applying the best work from
individual sites to the entire organization
is the path towards a truly world-class
reliability program.

39
Training

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It is critical that

everyone involved in the process is on-board and well equipped
with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed. Proper training
in Asset Strategy Management could be structured as follows:

Process
- Everyone involved should receive an introduction to how the process
fits into the business as well as an overview of the entire process

- Role-specific training to introduce each role in the business process

so they are familiar with the roles and responsibilities of their position

Systems
- Training in all the systems based on roles is very important

- Enabling people to have knowledge of how to best use the systems

in line with the business process Will ensure seamless adoption

Reliability
- An “Introduction to reliability” training course would benefit all
persons involved

- An advanced reliability course, introducing elements such as

failure analysis methods, reliability centered maintenance, strategy
optimization, defect elimination and root cause analysis, risk-based
inspections, and reliability block diagrams would benefit core users

40
Execution

It cannot be stressed enough, having the people, that will be owning

the project after the implementation, involved in the process will
have major benefits. This can be as simple as an information session
held at regular frequencies or scheduling a workshop aimed at
developing maintenance strategies. Either way, involvement is key.

During this stage, the knowledge of current asset strategy may not
always be available, however involvement from subject matter
experts and maintenance technicians will greatly increase the quality
of the strategies and improve the embedding of the process.

41
Part 4

Building Your
Asset Strategy
Management
Program
42
Now that you’ve laid the foundation and
established the framework, it’s time to
develop the key elements of an Asset Strategy
Management program that will allow you to
deploy the best strategies to all your assets,
efficiently and effectively, by leveraging the
knowledge of your entire organization.

43
Build Generic Strategies
Generic strategies are a great starting point for developing an asset strategy.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Component Strategies
At the core of an asset strategy management solution sits an
asset strategy library which houses reliability-based tactics
and execution know-how. Component based maintenance
strategy development allows for rapid development, review and
optimization of an entire asset base. The Component based
library reflects best practice strategies for all components that Capturing key data such as;
form part of the asset base. These FMECA (Failure mode, effects ¾ Functions, Functional Failures, and Failure Modes
and criticality analysis) based strategies are deployed to all
¾ Failure coding aligned to a ERP/CMMS system
relevant assets and support regional or local variations to cater
for different operational or environmental conditions. ¾ Failure Rates

The fundamental aspect here is that the strategies utilize a failure ¾ Impact of Failure

model analysis approach to determine the optimal strategy at ¾ MTTR

a generic level. By having an optimal starting point, deploying
¾ Operation Context
strategies becomes easier and operational context can be
applied to make those strategies specific to any physical asset.

44
Build Generic Strategies

> 50HP
Component Strategies (cont’d)
Before building generic strategies, you must define your component
types. These can include categories such as pumps, motors,
transmitters, switches, breakers, etc.

Sometimes it is ideal to break out equipment classes beyond just

basic equipment types. Component types could be further broken
down into size, such as small motor (e.g. <50HP), medium motor
(e.g. 50-150HP), and large motor (e.g. >150HP). 50 - 150 HP
Creating generic strategies raises the question: how generic is
generic? For this methodology, a generic strategy is defined by failure
modes and maintenance tasks that are common among that asset
class. For example, when it comes to motors, generic strategies
would include tasks such as lubrication and vibration analysis tasks.

> 150 HP

45
Build Generic Strategies

Nomenclature is important when defining

component types, as these terms will later be
applied to specific assets. A good practice is
to abbreviate types into four characters, e.g.
the ID for a pump can be PUGN, specifying it is
a general (GN) pump (PU).

Note that the abbreviation of PUMP was

not used here as there are several types of
pumps (hydraulic, diaphragm, submersible,
etc.). This practice should be considered for
all other equipment classes.

46
Build Generic Strategies

Cost and Risk Justified Strategies

As part of the tasks optimization process, cost and risk benefit
ratios should be calculated. These benefit ratios can be used
to identify which tasks mitigate the least amount of risk. These
are the tasks to be turned off in order to meet the maintenance
budget. The analysis will then identify the increase in risk that will
occur with the reduction in the maintenance budget.

Task Phrase Library

With each strategy, it is important to be consistent with task
instruction. In this guide, we refer to the task instruction as
the information that tells us what to do. By introducing a task
instruction library, we can ensure that when a task is applied that
the terminology is consistent and understood, organization wide.

These types of libraries mean that it is easy to build-up strategies

as the best-in-class task instructions are available and again can
be modified to suit local context or language.

47
Deploying Strategies
How do you develop a strategy for a specific piece of equipment?

Deploy to Physical Assets Local Variations

With generic component-based strategies, After the generic strategies are deployed The centralized database then becomes
developing an entire strategy for an to their corresponding physical assets, the a great tool for change management, as
asset can be completed quickly. More next step is to generate variations on the it will notify the user when variations are
importantly, by leveraging an enterprise maintenance strategies. This means that made on their strategies.
system, you can find similar equipment and failure and repair data previously established
A sense of governance of the maintenance
apply strategies by reviewing similar assets. in the generic strategy can be modified to
strategy will begin to emerge from inception
reflect the physical asset’s operating context.
to implementation as the maintenance and
In addition to varying failure and repair data, reliability program becomes increasingly
other data such as functions, functional more collaborative.
failures, failure modes, and consequences can
be modified. It is important to keep track of
what was changed and who has changed it.

48
Deploying Strategies

49
Deploying Strategies

Task Effectiveness Analysis

It is important to understand what impact
variations have on strategy. These changes
can just as easily improve the performance
of an asset as well as hinder. That it is why it
is important to document information that
supports any changes.

This can come in the form of asset-specific

failure analysis, applying factors to key
parameters to increase the effect of production
downtime or by performing optimization to
determine optimal task intervals..

If you combine this analysis with a review

and approval process, you can be sure
that the best and optimal strategy is
applied to every asset, every time.

50
Implementing Strategies
Once a change has been made, you need it to easily flow through to the ERP / CMMS.

Packaging Rules
A work plan is a collection of tasks and activities that are completed
by a work management or maintenance function. When developing
work plans, you may find it difficult to answer the question, “How do we
execute maintenance?” However, when the layers of data are pulled
back, there are usually a few simple rules that govern how a work plan
is packaged together.

Once you understand this, rules can be put in place to assist and
automate the work plan packaging, overcoming one of the biggest
challenges to implementing an Asset Strategy Management program.

51
Implementing Strategies

Work plan packaging rules can

typically be broken down as follows;

￭ Asset/System
- Route
• Labor
• Interval
• Operation Condition

- Planned
• Labor
• Interval
• Operation Condition

- Inspection
• Labor
• Interval
• Operation Condition

￭ Statutory/Safety
- Interval

This is only one example, we have implemented many systems that are as simple as four
key characteristics and some that involve up to 20 rules sets and site-based variations. The
important thing to keep in mind is that it can and should be defined to remove any roadblocks.
52
Implementing Strategies

Lastly, most strategy development exercises

live and die within the reliability and
maintenance team, not often involving the
planners and schedulers. By broadening
the borders of these teams, maintenance
planning becomes a part of the reliability
framework.

This stage can help alleviate data migration

pains, as an enterprise solution can integrate
directly with any ERP/CMMS. Having a link
between the enterprise solution and the ERP/
CMMS bridges the common gap between
reliability strategy and implementation.

53
Part 5

Leveraging
Excellence and
Continuous
Improvement
54
Continuous Improvement

As with any scientific method approach, we

identify and track continuous improvement
by what we can measure.

Work orders will provide feedback on the maintenance

strategy to help determine whether it is indeed
optimum or if it still needs modification.

An enterprise solution eases process improvement

and makes everything more visible to stakeholders. It
allows management to measure progress on strategy
development in real time and allows them to act as
gatekeepers, authorizing changes that might affect
different areas of the organization.

55
Continuous Improvement

Global Updates
Leveraging excellence from an entire
organization should be a simple process. If a
new failure mode is seen on one site, then it
stands to reason that all similar assets would
need to be protected as well.

By leveraging a connected ASM system,

pushing out global updates, updating the
physical asset strategy and combining it
into a work plan through packaging rules
is a simple process, completed in minutes
rather than months.

When you couple this with the visibility of the

asset strategy across an entire organization,
down to the specific variations, learnings can
be found in multiple places. This is the key
for your organization to learn, rapidly deploy,
and make reliability a reality.

56
Continuous Improvement

Failure Analysis
Using a FMECA based approach to optimizing maintenance, utilizes cost and risk analysis to
evaluate potential maintenance tasks. The process identifies potential failure modes, effects
of failure, failure likelihoods (using failure distributions), and corrective task details. Potential
maintenance tasks are then evaluated to determine the optimal task and task interval.

If available, use real work order data to

generate the likely distribution of failure
modes. If a strategy is changed, and as data
becomes available over time, a comparison
can be made between the original
performance and the new performance
related to the strategy change.
57
Continuous Improvement

Defect Elimination
The identification of defects through obvious
breakdowns, undesirable availability and/
or reoccurring problems can be achieved
through RAMS studies, CMMS notifications
and/ or Process Reliability studies. These
studies will prioritize the defects that have
the biggest impact on the business.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is the foundation

of a Defect Elimination process. RCA
should identify causes, using input from all
stakeholders to produce an evidence-based
understanding of the problem which ensures
selected solutions prevent recurrence of the
problem. The defect elimination program
should include:

¾ Cause and effect charting

¾ Action and solution tracking

¾ Visibility of systemic issues across the

entire organization

¾ Integrated RCA methodology with

Maintenance Strategy Development

58
Integrations

As described in the introduction, Strategy Management and Work

Management should go hand in hand. Integrations to CMMS and
ERP systems are the first point of call. Passing strategy information
from an Asset Strategy Management solution to your CMMS means
changes to a strategy are driven by an informed decision.

Geospatial system for asset-intensive industries can also yield

benefits as operational context data can be automated to the
strategy system to assist with determining the optimal strategy,
again enabling people to make better-informed decisions.

The key consideration for any direct integrations is that the data
movement is required for the process and the result delivers either
an efficiency and/or quality improvement.

59
Continuing to evolve the process
If the implementation of Asset Strategy Management was completed, what are the next steps?
How can the process be improved?

Management and Control

Not only is it important to understand the condition of your
strategies through reporting, KPI’s and dashboards. It is also
important to understand the health of your systems and process.
It is important to review the process the ensure it is meeting your
requirements, any bottlenecks are removed/addressed and if any
new technologies or methods exist to increase process efficiencies.

A successful Asset Strategy Management program is not only about

determining the optimal strategy but also about determining the
optimal process to achieve those outcomes. Keep improving and
keep striving for world class.

60
Conclusion

61
Conclusion

It is critical to note that Asset Strategy Of course, for the process to work, Asset
Management is not: Strategy Management allows for local
variations of content to account for different
¾J
 ust an FMECA library
operating contexts or duties, environments,
¾ Just a maintenance tactic library local workforces or regulations – while
¾ Just a project to review or develop maintaining the link to generic content for
maintenance tactics rapid deployment of the latest thinking in
the future.
Rather, it is a process that continually
manages asset strategies over time. It No matter what your current maturity level,
supports delivery of your target performance an effective Asset Strategy Management
and allows you to effectively manage and can be put into motion. To begin, you need
deploy generic maintenance plans at a to understand where you are and establish
speed that matches the decision making. a clear path forward. If you haven’t already
completed it, the results of our self-
assessment will let you know where you
currently stand and provide clear steps
forward on how to proceed.

B EG I N S E LF ASS ESS M E NT

62
Cordant™ Asset Strategy
Cordant™ Asset Strategy is the next evolution of ARMS
Reliability’s solution formerly known as OnePM. It acts as a
thread across all systems and allows organizations to capture
and review data from all sources. This enables you to leverage
learnings and enhance asset strategies by identifying areas of
high-performance and deploying those strategies across the
Ready to get started transforming
organization wherever they are relevant. asset performance with ASM?
We can help.

G ET STARTE D TO DAY

ARMS Reliability is a leading global provider of reliability solutions

to some of the world’s largest resource, power and utility
companies. Through a unique blend of innovative technology,
advisory services and decades of reliability engineering
experience, we are transforming the way companies manage
the reliability of their assets. ARMS Reliability was acquired by
Baker Hughes in April 2021.

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63
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