THE JOURNEY FROM INDUSTRIAL MAINTENANCE TOWARDS ASSET MANAGEMENT.
The Evolution of the Regulation
We are witnessing a paradigm shift in what companies ask of maintenance managers. Today, a profile that manages maintenance as a business as well as a technical discipline is increasingly needed. This need arises from the need for companies in a competitive environment to optimize their costs and their management, but also to assess what their real cost is over time.
Not long ago, maintenance was based on OPEX or the current cost of maintenance operation. However, major investments must be made in the facilities every few years to update them (for example, the overhaul of a gas turbine). Therefore, the concept of TCO or Total Cost of Ownership arises, which integrates during the life of the installation the cost of maintenance plus the periodic capital investments necessary to update it. Therefore, we are now moving on to the need for the maintenance manager to manage this situation as Asset Management. Here the responsibility and skills of the maintenance manager must be increased by becoming an Asset Manager or, in fact, a Facility Manager.
The regulations go in this direction. The standards that are relating maintenance to asset management or Asset Management are:
· UNE-EN 15341: 2020 Maintenance. Maintenance key performance indicators.
· UNE-EN 16646: 2015 Maintenance. Maintenance in the management of physical assets.
· UNE-EN 17007:2018 Maintenance processes and associated indicators.
. CEN/TS 17385:2019 Method for condition assessment of immobile assets constructed
· UNE EN 17485 Maintenance- Maintenance within the framework of the management of physical assets. - Framework for improving the value of physical assets throughout their life cycle
. prEN 17666 Maintenance - Maintenance engineering - Requirements
In this blog we will highlight
UNE-EN 16646: 2015 Maintenance. Maintenance in the management of physical assets
The standard describes the relationship between maintenance and asset management. It describes how the organization should be implemented for companies to manage the asset during its life cycle and the maintenance responsibilities on it.
Interrelation of maintenance with asset management processes. Source: Fig. 2 UNE EN 16646:2015
Asset processes in this standard are defined at three levels:
1. Physical assets.
2. Portfolio of assets.
3. Asset system.
For each of them the maintenance responsibility is defined.
This standard, therefore, describes how asset management should impact maintenance, affecting its organization, its strategy and its control processes.
UNE EN 17485 Maintenance- Maintenance within the framework of the management of physical assets. - Framework for improving the value of physical assets throughout their life cycle
The standard describes how business activities work with maintenance. The standard also describes tools for decision-making in the field of asset management and promotes effective tools to support decision-making in an uncertain context.
This standard, together with 16646 described above, is the body that relates asset management regulations to maintenance.
Asset management and maintenance. Source: UNE17485 2021 figure 1]
In the standard we have chapters such as:
. Strategic plan for the implementation of maintenance as part of physical asset management
· Sustainable Management of the Life Cycle.
· Performance management of physical assets.
As we talk about planning, maintenance must be at the root of the company's strategy and be part of its definition for it to be optimal. We are talking about TOTEX = CAPEX + OPEX strategist.
Conclusion:
As we can see, the regulations are in the direction of what the market is demanding from maintenance:
· Greater responsibility.
· Strategic level management.
· Increase the capacities to not only carry out the technical maintenance management, but also the economic and investment management.
Therefore, we see that the maintenance manager is being asked for other responsibilities that make his profile go towards that of a Facility Manager. In other words, we have the advent of the figure of the industrial Facility Manager, which is the figure that will manage the assets of the industrial company from a total Asset Management perspective.
Autor: Mario Jimenez
Fecha Publicación: 07/02/2022