To ensure that maintenance operations are controlled and
managed effectively, those involved need access to the right
information at the right time and in the right format.Mick
Saltzer,managing consultant for Mainnovation explains how
an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system can help

EAM systems are commonly used by
companies around the world to
collect, store and manage maintenance
data relating to their assets, providing
facilities such as the ability to view
equipment histories and to check whether
spare parts are available in the stores.

Collecting and providing access to this
mountain of data, however, does not in itself
automatically guarantee that the right
analyses and decisions will be made.

For the data to be of real value, it is
essential to bridge the gap
between strategy and
operational execution by, for
example, formulating
department-relevant metrics
on the basis of the
company’s business goals,
ensuring accountability and
making provision for
intuitive modelling,
monitoring and analysis. It
is to achieve these
objectives that the concept
of Value Driven
Maintenance (VDM) has
been developed.

VDM provides a clear
relationship
between the
working processes
within an
organisation’s
maintenance
environment and
the contribution
that these processes
deliver to value creation for that
organisation. VDM will show, for example,
whether the organisation needs to focus its
efforts on improved equipment availability,
strict compliance with legislation, smarter
application of resources such as spare parts
or, indeed, some combination of these.

In other words VDM, which is already
being applied by companies such as Volvo
Cars Manufacturing, GlaxoSmithKline,
PepsiCo and Smurfit Kappa Packaging, helps
the maintenance department develop a clear
strategy with prioritised targets. In particular,
VDM makes it possible to quantify the value
potential of improvement activities using a
set of formulas and, when this information is
combined with benchmarking against a
database of other users in related sectors,
ensures that realistic targets are set.

To derive the maximum benefits from
VDM or to derive the maximum benefits
from your maintenance organisation/EAM
system, effective monitoring is needed to
provide continual confirmation that the
maintenance department is moving in the
right direction, and to provide reliable
guidance relating to future process
enhancements.

Due to the volume and complexity of the
data available in a typical EAM system,
significant challenges are involved in
developing a monitoring system that
provides the user with essential information
in a form that is easily and quickly
assimilated, yet also allows easy access to the
underlying data that may be needed to
address specific issues.

One of the best features of a monitoring
system is that it provides an at-a-glance view,
on a single screen of, say, the 10 most
significant Key Performance Indicators.

Good practice is to choose one KPI per
competence. The norm for the KPIs is based
on validated benchmarking and achievable
improvements. Once norms have been set
correctly, a good monitoring system will
enable the user to focus on deviations.

To support every KPI on the overview
screen, the system should provide predefined
information that allows users to
positively identify the causes and trends that
underlie the summary data. The necessary
graphs, trend lines, pie charts, overviews and
correlation diagrams should be calculated
automatically, without the need for
additional data entry.

In a well-designed monitoring system,
every pointer in a graphic is a convenient
starting point for further analysis. Every click
gives a drill down to additional detailed
information relating to the selection made
until, at the lowest level, the works orders
and/or notifications that are the root cause
of deviations are identified.

To meet the need for a powerful yet easy
to use monitoring system,Mainnovation,
working with VCD Business Intelligence
(Partner of SAP) and IBM, has developed
the VDM Control Panel (VCP) application.

Meeting all criteria discussed in this article,
VCP is more than a set of colourful graphics
and meters; it is a step toward continuous
improvement, underpinned by VDM as the
chosen maintenance steering philosophy, and
integrated with SAP EAM or IBM EAM
(IBM Maximo) as powerful asset
management systems.

VCP provides a link between strategy,
processes and performance in maintenance
operations, ensuring that these operations
support the primary objective of every
business – to maximise efficiency and
profitability.