Author | Henk Wynjeterp – Regional Lead – Europe
The missing link in EAMS implementation
The key to a successful EAMS (Enterprise Asset Management System) implementation lies in integrating the software into the organisation’s maintenance and asset management processes.
Far too often, the focus of selection and eventual implementation lies in integrating the EAMS into the existing technology landscape or gaining user acceptance through slick user interfaces. Furthermore, we drive change management activities to integrate the software into the organisation’s culture. Yet, despite these integration-focused activities, the EAMS implementation often fails to deliver improvement in the maintenance organisation’s performance.
Much has been written about successful software or EAMS implementations, focusing on topics such as project management, data management, and change management. This article does not focus on the implementation of the software itself, but rather on the integrated approach to effectively leverage the EAMS implementation to deliver value using Pragma’s Asset Care Centre methodology.
The Asset Care Centre methodology
An integrated Asset Care Centre approach is shown in Figure 1 below. In asset management (AM) and its corresponding management framework, ISO 55000, there is a two-part approach to ensure that systems are “in place” and subsequently “in use”.
This can loosely be translated to the implementation and execution phase of the system. Care must be taken to ensure that there is a feedback loop to implementation through continuous improvement actions.
Deming’s cycle describes a continuous focus on improving the performance of assets and the asset and maintenance management system. Herein lies the crux of the integrated approach; the most common implementation pitfall is focusing on “plan” and “do” without considering “check” and “act.”
In Figure 1, we distinguish between blue and grey, where blue refers to typical EAMS-related activities and grey refers to the management processes the EAMS. The EAMS implementation often delivers a system that perfectly executes “doing” processes. However, the management processes to actively review the data and drive continuous improvement are frequently neglected or not part of the implementation.
Figure 2 illustrates that the initial steps in creating the required structures, roles, and responsibilities are crucial for improving activities utilising EAMS data. Also, using an AM framework to prioritise and communicate the improvement activities is fundamental to the structured improvement process.
Implementation approach
1. Design and implement an improved meeting structure
Many organisations have already established a hierarchy of daily and weekly meetings to review operational performance and drive problem-solving throughout the organisation. Pragma does not aim to replicate these systems but to ensure that meetings effectively coordinate improvements daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. The logic and structure of such a management system are explained below:
- Daily meeting: Shift-based meeting for operational teams and maintenance, led by supervisors. Discuss progress, performance, issues, and allocate daily tasks.
- Weekly meeting: The purpose of the weekly meeting is to review KPI performance trends, identify and analyse causes of poor performance, prepare improvement actions, and finalise the work schedule with Planning, Maintenance, and Operations.
- Monthly meeting: The purpose of the monthly meeting is to review progress on previous actions, assess AM KPI performance, address gaps, discuss concerns and recommendations, confirm corrective actions, review FI and capital projects, monitor AM system implementation, and identify change management issues or strategic decisions.
- Quarterly meeting: The quarterly AM steering committee meeting aims to review progress on the AM System Implementation Plan milestones, discuss KPI results and necessary corrective actions, and address change management issues.
2. Define the AM structures and roles
To effectively execute these meeting structures, tasks should be assigned to existing staff where feasible while identifying those that require additional resources. For in-house initiatives, options such as hiring new staff or promoting current employees should be considered. Ensuring that new roles align with best practices and current responsibilities is vital.
Care should be taken to ensure that job descriptions are not impacted, and the HR department must be involved in designing and executing the changes. Corresponding performance management systems must align with the new job descriptions if necessary.
This step requires senior leadership involvement since there will be challenges to overcome, such as collective labour agreements, individual contracts, and potential operational changes to allocate space and time for implementing these structures. Without clear leadership involvement, tasks will be unallocated and subsequently not completed – the result is a potentially efficient EAMS without effective improvement.
For guidance on role descriptions, various reference materials, such as those from the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM) or any local asset management body of knowledge, are available.
3. Stakeholder analysis and training plan
Changing or implementing new structures that alter roles and responsibilities or require new human behaviour requires active change management. Communication and training are key for this change.
We have found that role-based learning pathways are crucial to the success of the implementation. The training should focus not only on the software, ie, which buttons to push, but also on the processes that will be executed to ultimately improve the performance of the maintenance and asset management system.
To address the training plan as part of the implementation, the following steps are applied:
- Define roles, competencies, and individual learning pathways by mapping processes, applying a RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) model, and mapping the required competencies against existing competencies to identify gaps that must be addressed.
- Customise existing or generic training with client-specific terms and procedure updates to ensure relevancy for the participants.
- Provide training materials on a learning management system (LMS) in-house or externally. An LMS is essential for recording progress and tracking the required versus available competencies.
- Training is delivered either as blended, online or classroom training. The focus should be on short, impactful interventions since the availability of resources for training is limited. Online training is evolving rapidly and transitioning from pre-planned to on-demand training.
- Follow up with mentoring and coaching during the execution of the processes and through the implemented AM structures.
4. Use an asset management framework to define the improvement measures and actions
This step is also referred to as the Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) and could evoke images of extensive theoretical consulting reports. This is far from the truth.
The plan should evolve as the need for more comprehensive measures increases. A practical approach is to start with only a few initial key performance areas (KPAs) focused on maintenance management and embedding the basis for improvement. The primary outcomes of the AM framework approach are to identify:
- The KPIs that will be measured by the AM structure, with their respective targets and trend requirements. These KPIs should be considered during the EAMS implementation to ensure the required data is available and the necessary reports and dashboards are configured. Often, KPIs, reports, and dashboards are configured after implementation, and as a result, the required data is unavailable, or process adjustments must be made. The initial focus should be on maintenance work management KPIs, such as backlog, schedule attainment, work distribution, top 10 downtimes, etc.
- Best practice improvement initiatives are prioritised for implementation as part of the management system improvement. A comprehensive and deep understanding of each KPI is not required upfront; something like Pragma’s AMIP executive assessment is a good initial starting point. Once the management system matures, more extensive gap analysis assessments can be conducted selectively to identify further improvement actions.
Keep it simple and make it possible to communicate the plan widely
A roadmap indicating prioritised actions and measures assists with implementation and change management. The plan should address all of the following functions over a period of time.
Challenges inhibiting an ACC approach during EAMS implementation
Why do organisations decide not to choose an integrated EAMS implementation approach? In our experience, we have found that clients face the following three challenges:
- Cost considerations: The inclusion of structures, roles, and frameworks in the implementation results in consultants with extensive experience becoming involved in the project, and these activities incur additional costs.
Not only do the costs of resources differ, but the integrated system also requires additional project days. The primary cost, however, is not necessarily external but rather internal, as more departments and senior leaders are involved in implementing changes to processes and roles.
Comparing implementation costs between suppliers requires a keen understanding of the difference between software implementation and an integrated system integration. Our recommendation is to focus on the value benefit vs short-term costs.
- IT versus business ownership: When another or a new EAMS replaces an existing software platform, this is often part of an IT project and budget. While most organisations have an IT department that understands and supports business requirements, IT projects still tend to favour technical solutions over business solutions. The projects thus have a defined start and end date, whereas asset management implementation, by its nature, has a much longer timeframe.
Our experience shows that a holistic budget, combined with focused intervention-based proposals and projects, leads to a targeted approach with the long-term plan in mind.
- Change management implication: The implication of changes to roles and responsibilities requires greater internal change management than a solution-based approach, where, for instance, data needs to be collected or templates created. Thus, including change management already creates resistance, as the implication shifts from transactional to transformational. Focusing on transactional implementation without corresponding change management will only temporarily mask the pain of change, primarily resulting in increased internal costs.
We recommend starting with a light gap analysis to understand the implications of the change. The organisation may already have structures in place, and the change management is negligible. Alternatively, if a significant change is anticipated, the organisation has more time to prepare before implementing the EAMS.
Building for the future – turning your EAMS into a strategic advantage
Implementing an EAMS is not just about integrating new software into the organisation; it’s about embedding a culture of continuous improvement. Organisations can ensure that their EAMS delivers tangible value by adopting an integrated approach that includes structured meetings, clear roles, comprehensive training, and a robust asset management framework.
Addressing the challenges of cost, ownership, and change management head-on will pave the way for a successful implementation. Ultimately, the goal is to create a dynamic system that meets current needs and evolves to drive long-term maintenance and asset management performance improvements.
