Considerations of Alignment in Asset Management

 ISO 55000:2014 Asset management - Overview, principles and terminology considers that asset management is based on a set of fundamentals, one of the fundamentals is Alignment, it means asset management translates the organizational objectives into technical and financial decisions, plans and activities.

 Asset management decisions, such as technical, financial and operational, collectively enable the achievement of the organizational objectives. This includes:

• The implementation of risk-based, information-driven, planning and decision-making processes and activities that transform organizational objectives into asset management plans.

• The integration of the asset management processes with the functional management processes of the organization, such as finance, human resources, information systems, logistics, and operations.

• The specification, design, and implementation of a supporting asset management system.

 The development of benchmarking and key performance indicators (KPIs) is an excellent tool to ensure Alignment.

 ISO 14224:2016 Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries - Collection and exchange of reliability and maintenance data for equipment - Annex E (informative) Key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarking proposes the following process for using KPIs and benchmarking:

• Benchmark performance, to determine the performance of the organization in key areas, these benchmarks can then be used for comparison, usually external, against organizations in the same or similar industry, or against organizations in different industries that have similar business processes.

• Identify areas for improvement, these areas are not necessarily the areas where the performance is poor against the other benchmarks, as the areas of poor performance might not correspond with the areas that are critical for the business objectives.

• Develop KPIs for improvement, each one should have a targeted performance level, the target should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based. The frequency at which the KPI is measured is determined by a realistic expectation of the amount of time required for any corrective action to have an impact on the performance level.

• Measure KPI, it is necessary to compare the result against the target and to identify any causes for deviations.

• Take corrective action, the causes for deviations should be addressed and corrective actions performed, and the process should be repeated continually.

 KPIs are aligned to the organization's objectives for the assets and improvements are identified and implemented in order to achieve the organization's planned objectives.

 Benchmarking helps determine the reference point and standard from which world-class performance can be measured. the process of benchmarking can be broken down into three steps:

• Evaluate and measure your own operation or specific process to identify weaknesses and strengths using a data collection. 

• Initiate a benchmarking study and document processes by referring to peer groups that are more productive or efficient than yours.

• Identify best practices and implement them.

 Two peer-group distinguishing factors that have been found in studies on asset management are:

• Process family, for reasons of equipment types, process severity, and operation and maintenance complexity.

• Geographic region, for reasons of labor regulations, employment and contracting practices, safety and environment-protection norms, climate, management culture and industrialization level of the region.