Chicago, we found an eager little calibration company that wanted our business. During a tour of their facility, my interest was captivated by a bell jar sitting on a pedestal in the exact center of their shop. Inside the container was a perfectly smooth, brush metal item roughly the size and shape of an old Zippo cigarette lighter. I was transfixed by this metallic object. I asked the owner what this metal item was and he told me that it was three inches. I asked, “Three inches of what?” “It’s exactly three inches,” was his response.
I had never seen such a thing in my life. I was looking at an object that was precise to 10 millionths of an inch. I’m still fascinated by that experience to this day.
Here is my hope for you, the reader. We may or may not know each other. I would sincerely love to meet and get to know everyone that is interested in advancing the profession of maintenance and asset reliability. We are a small fraternity so we need to work together, but my immediate hope for each of you is that you have great success in this journey towards asset management. Also, that you travel down your own path and at your own pace to become wildly successful. However, do it in the spirit of enjoyment, and have fun. Don’t forget to learn something along the way and share it with others.
Helpful Hints to Get the Most from This Book
In 2018, I completed a bucket-list level ambition and published my first book. My first offering exceeded my greatest expectations and I was very pleased with the work that I had created. The feedback from my first book was 100% positive.
It was during the creation of that book, The Reliability Excellence Workbook: From Ideas to Action that I hit on a method, a genre of book writing. In essence I had stumbled upon a workbook format that delivered exactly what I was hoping to achieve. At an SMRP (Society for Manufacturing and Reliability Professionals) annual conference in Kansas City, MO in 2017, I met the lady who would eventually become my publisher. When Judy Bass asked me to tell her about my book idea, this is what I told her: “I want to write a book that is as if you and I are sitting around a dinner table, drinking coffee, and we are just talking about stuff and I’m sketching out some thoughts on a napkin.” That is literally the first conversation Judy and I had.
That first book delivered on my idea, completely. I wanted a book that allowed me to introduce an idea, ask what you thought about it and we would both generate some anecdotal stories to support the concept. I’d share some world-class principles with you and together we would start to piece together a comprehensive maintenance strategy for you at your location.
I’m adopting that same theme for this book. I have broken down the concept of asset management into the working elements that I believe are relevant. I am a constant learner, so I will interject points of view from other authors, making this a bit of scholarly work. I’m going to ask you what you think, and how things are back at your place. This will be a workbook of sorts because I want to give you space to jot down your thoughts. Throughout this text, we will be working side by side to put together the strategy for how asset management could and should be implemented at your location.
Mechanically, you will be asked to fill in the blank spaces. I’ll highlight those spaces in light gray so you will have some indication as to where to record your thoughts.
I ask that you let others participate and record their ideas as well. I think everyone in your organization could benefit from this level of discussion and engagement. There is a lot to share and discuss.
This is a very shareable book in the sense that we are going to touch on the major elements of asset management. It is interesting, and absolutely essential, to first determine what an asset is. This should surprise most of the people reading this book. If you truly gave it some serious thought, you would conclude that although we might label something as an asset, we certainly don’t treat it like one.
Since this is a book on asset management, and we are focusing on industrial assets (manufacturing, service, and facilities), we will eventually be narrowing our discussions down to capital assets, essentially the equipment we utilize to provide the product or service. I call capital assets the ‘stuff that makes the stuff.’ That is an easy way to differentiate capital assets from human assets (the people who make the stuff) and financial assets (the money to make the stuff), and so on.
The aforementioned ISO 55000 standards will be reviewed in the text of this book. Much of the three books (55000, 55001, and 55002) are open for interpretation, similar to my story about my introduction to ISO 9000. Remember, “Say what you do and do what you say.”
Once we’ve begun to put some framework around our interpretation and intent towards capital assets, we will create roles and responsibilities around the assets and begin to nip at an actual asset management approach.
Many of you reading this book will be interested to know that there is a section on Bill of Materials and Spare Parts. This is a greatly untapped topic and one that I personally believe we need to get smarter on and quickly.
Production has a key role to play in asset management, so we will be spending a great deal of time exploring exactly what is needed there.
As you can see from just this short teaser, there is much to discuss on the topic of asset management, and the intention of this book, and specifically the format of this book, is to drive a larger strategy on how we are going to work together in our facilities to make all this happen. I believe the layout of the book and key learning ideas will contribute to your success.
I need to make a very significant remark considering the remainder of this book and the manipulation of physical assets. For this book, I will be referring to the assets of a company that help to generate revenue. For manufacturing plants this is very straightforward; I’m talking about the production equipment. For facilities and services, I’m talking about the assets that allow a facility to be of use (roof, walls, doors, boilers, chillers, etc.) and possibly any vehicles or transportation equipment. We will discuss the term organizational objectives later in this text. One of your organizational objectives might be to be compliant with EPA laws and be good stewards of the environment. In that effort, there are many physical assets that would be used to fulfill that objective. I really just want this book to focus on the assets that allow for revenue generation. I believe that each organization has, as a core objective, to be profitable. That will be a focus of this book. The asset management processes in this book also adapt to the non-revenue generating assets as well (sprinkler systems, backflow preventer, etc.), so please use them. I really wanted to call out this significant element because I wanted you, the reader, to know that business isn’t just about making money and I certainly don’t mean to imply that it is.
Every chapter in this book will end with a review of the chapter’s main points. These synopses will form segments of your overarching approach to asset management located at the end of this book. Depending on the particular dynamics and circumstances, some of these chapter abstracts will fit, in the end, to outline a strategy for a commitment to asset management at your location.
In the end, you will be able to review, edit, compile, and pull together the thoughts and ideas to form a very obtainable vision for the future, and make a conclusive argument, on any merit, for a purposeful drive forward. Promise me that you will have fun reading and working through this book, because I intend on having fun while I write it.
