Ensuring ROI from your APM Solution
Too often the implementation of enterprise software systems will focus specifically on the deployment of technology. However, technology is just an enabler of a work process, and your people are what generate business value through execution of the process. Integration of people, processes and technology are a critical success factor for any enterprise system implementation and are sometimes referred to as the ‘three legs of the stool’ meaning when one is not working the stool will fall over. When it comes to asset performance management (APM) systems, if you do not have all three legs of this stool working together, it becomes very difficult to drive value creation, or more specifically ensure you are getting the most productivity from your equipment at the optimal cost profile.
The Itus Digital team has had the opportunity to work on some of the largest and most complex global roll outs of APM solutions. From our experience, one of the most overlooked aspects of implementation is ensuring the technology is underpinned by a sound business process that fits the organization and has full engagement from the reliability and maintenance teams.
Why is this? Most enterprise projects will receive a lot of attention and energy during the initial implementation activities. Executives are engaged, users are trained and usually some quick wins will emerge by finding some ‘low hanging fruit’. Unfortunately, once this initial push is complete, it is easy for organizations to fall back into the traditional way of doing things unless you put the appropriate measurements in place to track system usage, assess business process governance, and enable leadership to drive accountability.
Take this classic example which we have seen repeatedly. An organization establishes a business objective to increase equipment availability and improve production throughput to drive revenue growth. An analytical method and solution are chosen to track availability. Work history data sources are supplied to the solution, beautiful displays are built to visualize the results and users can now see where they may want to attack downtime issues. Sounds great so far! Then the organization realizes that the availability metrics are only accurate for a small sample of the overall equipment population. Why? The work histories are not appropriately identifying the difference between preventative maintenance activities and actual failures. So here we have a case where the technology is deployed, users are engaged but we have a fundamental work process breakdown in the documentation and closing of work histories in the EAM system. To remedy this problem, process measurements, leadership visibility and proper work history closure accountability need to be put into place.
To help organizations ensure they are getting the most from their APM solution, we have developed a comprehensive assessment for APM solutions across multiple dimensions including foundational data readiness, system usage and work process governance. The approach is quantitative, prescriptive, and designed to allow an organization to continually monitor the APM solution to ensure value creation.
The assessment works directly from the data in your system and answers key questions such as:
- Is the system technically implemented and is the required core data in place?
- Is the system being used?
- Are the prescribed APM processes being executed and are they targeted at critical equipment?
- Where are the ‘value bottlenecks’ and how can they be corrected?
Best of all, our base APM Solution Health Check is available completely FREE!
If you are struggling with adoption of your APM solution, have not seen the expected ROI or maybe just looking for some insights on how users are utilizing the solution, connect with us today HERE.