In today’s economic climate a maintenance manager must
be proactive in focussing on activities that will directly
impact the bottom line. Here, Mick Saltzer, managing
consultant for Mainnovation, discusses how to develop an
effective maintenance strategy based on Value Creation

When asking a maintenance
manager what is their most
important strategic objective,
typical responses may include:
To serve production the best way we can
(without production there would be no
need for doing maintenance anyway)
To stay within budget at all times
To become (or remain) a world class/best
in class maintenance organisation
To make money for my company
The common theme here is the desire to
sustain or improve performance. However, to
achieve this objective will require challenging
current ways of working to optimise existing
or introduce new practices.

The maintenance manager must learn to
anticipate the changing needs of the business
and align himself with the strategic aims of
the board, developing smart objectives and
talking the same financial language.

Understanding how value can be created
with an effective strategy is the key to
success. Value Driven Maintenance (VDM)
defines four value drivers:
Asset Utilisation: Increasing the
availability of assets will increase revenue
(in the right market conditions).

Cost Control: Sustainable cost controlling
measures (critical in a declining market)
SHE: Compliance with safety, health &
environmental legislation is essential if not
to compromise a business and risk losing a
license to operate.

Resource Allocation: Holding spare parts
is expensive and requirements must be
clearly assessed.

To establish which value driver is
dominant requires collection of reliable and
industry-specific benchmark data and
comparison with current levels of
performance. The value potential = realistic
achievable level of professionalism x
incremental value.

Calculation of the value potential of each
of these drivers will provide a quantifiable
target that can be achieved in each. In most
cases one value driver will be significantly
higher than the others and focus on this
dominant driver will speed up business
results. It should be noted that the value
driver changes over time, influenced by both
internal and external factors. The successful
manager will anticipate these changes and
adopt his strategy as the business dictates.

Conducting a benchmarking audit can
provide a compelling case for change and
identify attention and improvement
priorities, utilising both quantitative and
qualitative assessments of performance. It
will also facilitate the setting of realistic but
stretching targets and help define the future
organisational requirements.

An effective strategy will consider current
CMMS functionality and capability and the
effectiveness of existing maintenance plans in
achieving desired levels of performance. It
should consider the scope of necessary
processes and the roles and responsibilities of
those involved.

VDM defines 10 competences and a
strategy based on value creation must select
the core competences that drive
improvements in support of the dominant
value driver.

Too often organisations attempt too many
improvement activities with long lead times;
the key to success is to focus on a few and
adopt external best practices to accelerate
improvement.

To sustain the improvements requires
formalising and standardising work
processes. Clearly defining, roles and
responsibilities will provide management
confidence that the selected best practices
and CMMS are being applied in an effective
manner. This will of course require training,
assessment and engagement of staff to ensure
the processes and practices are truly adopted
and embedded in the organisation.

Use of an effective KPI reporting tool
combined with an appropriate meeting
framework will drive improvement and
support effective decision making.

Conclusions Key steps to a Value Driven Maintenance
Strategy are:
Understand your Dominant Value Driver.

Understand how good you are and where
you need to improve.

Use proven best practices maintenance
processes to accelerate improvement.

Measure performance regularly and
continue to improve.