The concept of KBAM

Thinking of the title "Knowledge based Asset Management" shows that this is what it takes to be successful. Organizations has assets and utilize these assets according to the existing knowledge. This knowledge determines how competent an organization is. The role of people is first to improve and extend their knowledge to be able to manage their assets in a manner that can drive them towards excellence.

It is a very important aspect as Deming described "Experience without knowledge is useless". being proactive in capturing the desired knowledge will help companies in understanding their journey and what do they need to do to achieve the organizational goals.

When going back it would be useful to link our maintenance system with explicite knowledge that lies within the company, from their, we can understand what knowledge is out that should be acquired and what knowledge needs to be developed. This can be achieved by continuously self assessing our knowledge and measuring the department performance. This will create a loop for feedback on what we are good at to use it as our USP and what we need to increase our competitiveness.

Ahmed Alali : 16 Jun 2013 23:04 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The role of knowledge management

Knowledge is what organizations utilize to create a product or a service. Frey (2001) describes KM cycle in 5 steps; creating knowledge, capturing and storing knowledge, organizing knowledge, deploying knowledge and using knowledge. These are exercised in a cyclic pattern when processes are repeated. A useful method to increase existing knowledge is reflecting on our experience.

Practising reflective writing as a part of the job is very important as it not just help in increasing the existing knowledge of individuals and organizations but it also make people conscious of what they don't know and need to know. Coupling reflective writing with knowledge management can be utilized as a tool for continuously improving the organizational knowledge. This practise will help companies stay proactive and developing to cope with such a dynamic market.

I passed through on-job-training of 3 years, if i had used reflective writing through training i would have been able to capture more learning and increase my knowledge. When i go back i intend to keep i live journal of my daily learning and self assess to understand what do i need to know to stay a competent engineer.

Ahmed Alali : 16 Jun 2013 22:55 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The role of improvement initiative in asset management

Both asset maintenance and improvement initiatives has a common denominator which is optimizing resources to increase both customer satisfaction and financial performance. In TPM implementation JIPM provides an assessment criteria for TPM excellence award. performing self assessment can identify the gap between current and desired state. This gap can be closed by deploying incremental and radical improvements.

It is important to couple asset management with improvement projects using self assessment. implementing this approach will help to align the asset management with the organizational vision and strategy as improvement projects always validate its objectives through the VOC. being aware and continuously improving will defenitly support an organization's journey towards excellence.

it would be useful to implement this in our department. Using TPM assessment criteria can help the department link its quality tasks with the business strategy. After having this link employees will understand that carried out quality tasks are taking us towards the organizations vision, rather than feeling like a bolt on tasks to tick the box. Self-assessment is more appropriate as we are the engineers that know the asset conditions the most and with assessment we can identify the most suitable methods to improve and allow our assets to support the organization success.

Ahmed Alali : 15 Jun 2013 19:49 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

creating the asset management plan

Asset management implementation can be viewed as a major project, especially if the company is new to the company. Although the implementation has to identify the most suitable method, it is important to keep in mind that proper planning is the key to success. a useful plan should be able to include the tasks, actions, measure progress and mitigate possible risk. More importantly, all this has to be based on the desired end result. differentiating between process measures and results measures is also important to understand the value steam of the project. as all know failing to plan is planning to fail.

Asset management projects usually cost millions, it would be silly to fail due to poor planning, the bit that costs nothing. Moreover plans should be viewed as a life document which should be updated, such a dynamic market can change the customers requirements, and these changes should be captured to avoid failure. having measurement system that is reliable is also important, if the end result did not meet the desired performance, by analyzing the process measures it would be possible to pin point the section that requires modification or alignment with the requirements of the assets utilization.

When planning any maintenance project at work, i can create a plan that links thedesired operations requirements. This will start by capturing the VOC to control the assets as needed by the users. Moreover, when having a plan that identifies possible risks and measures performance it would be easier to link the asset management and performance to the organizational goals.

Ahmed Alali : 15 Jun 2013 12:13 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

TPM implementation

various researches have identified different methods to implement TPM. however, most methods revolve around Najajima (1988) 12 steps method. This plan comprise of two sections, organization for implementation and TPM implementation. The first section is responsible for communicating change and adjusting the culture to be supportive. The second section is responsible for the technical implementation.

It is important to understand that change involves technical and emotional parts. Communicating change and promoting TPM to involve everybody can make the emotional change smoother and positive. The technical plan includes task, techniques and methods to optimize the equipment through maintenance to achieve the production goals. having two sections plan will lead to have employees support and management buy-in when technical implementation takes place.

This way of planning major change taught me that facilitating the change through gaining commitment and involvement can lead to higher gain as everybody is interested and as Deming said, quality is everybody's job. When going back to work, it would be useful to implement Nakajima TPM 12 steps. but the more important is that if major technical change is needed adjusting the culture has to happen first.

Ahmed Alali : 15 Jun 2013 11:58 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Asset maintenance strategic planning

Strategic planning is an important step for businesses to recognize what is needed to stay competitive. One of the most effective planning tool is Technology Roadmap (TRM) which was created by Motorola in the late 80s. The TRM is simply a roadmap that helps in identifying what is needed to obtain a certain technology to gain competitive advantage. It is usually comprising of 5 years plan. The TRM comprise of 3 sections against a timeline. The sections are Technology, product and market/business drivers. some of its benefits are:

External benefits:(McKeen & Smith, 2006)

• Achieving business goals by identifying the current technological gaps and fulfilling them.
• Reducing complexity of technological advances by focusing on one area.
• Increase the speed of implementation resulting in a faster time to market.
• Reducing difficulties with the deployment of technology.

Internal benefits:(McKeen & Smith, 2006; Lee et al., 2011; Phaal et al., 2003)

• Building a consistent technology base
• Implementation is simplified by moving in planned phases
• Creating a global solution for international and global companies
• Reducing the cost of development and maintenance.
• Improve communication and coordination
• Supports planning and decision making
• Supports the business strategy and planning even beyond the product and technology planning phase

This tool is important for Asset Management as it helps to identify if a certain technology can help in increasing the benefit of it. Moreover, it gives an insight on how it can be linked to the business strategy than using it as a stand alone management tool. Furthermore, creating such a plan by the cooperation of management and R&D can give a path on what needs to be done to achieve this state. An important aspect to remember is that it has to be updated constantly as business conditions change rapidly and strategic planning should be aware to control the situation.

Continuing on maintenance strategic planning, TRM can be used to plan on how our department can acquire the technology of electrical servo-actuators. This will demonstrate what business drivers are their to justify this project. Moreover, workshops can be created to include market, product, technology and roadmapping (Phaal et al., 2011).

Ahmed Alali : 11 Jun 2013 17:28 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Redifining maintenance

Many organizations utilize maintenance approaches such as TPM, RCM and PM. However, some organizations started to look for radical improvements to support production and operations. This was achieved by following an approach known as preventing maintenance. Although this is developed by equipment manufacturers, some companies that has world wide production and others that require optimum operations and asset availability work along sides with their suppliers to develop this function. This focuses on increasing components reliability and expected life. A typical example is in the automotive industry, some older cars require a check every 5,000KM while new designed cars can go up to 30,000KM.

This provides the asset user with more space for utilization leading to more effective operations and lower total cost of ownership. This can be worked on by a company provided products or by developing suppliers of core business assets.

This maintenance prevention approach is applicable to my job. One of the most maintenance demanding components is the motion system hydraulic servo-actuators. It would be very beneficial for the department operations to work with the simulator manufacturer in developing an electrical servo-actuators. Some design techniques such as NPD and DFSS can be incorporated as well. achieving this goal can reduce maintenance tasks by around 35% leading to a lower ownership cost and more availability of the device.

Ahmed Alali : 10 Jun 2013 17:36 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Maintenance method selection

Continuing on the previous blog, to have a successful maintenance management a maintenance strategy is needed to support in achieving the organizational goal. Based on this strategy, a maintenance method can be selected based on "Best Fit".

Maintenance methods differ in their approaches and goals, hence, to use a method that can optimize maintenance tasks in an effort to achieve the organizational goals, there has to be a direct link to the maintenance strategy.

In my work for instance, The maintenance strategy can be to increase the reliability of the flight simulators. This might require computerized maintenance management even if the availability is reduced, having a downtime with pilots time being wasted it can be more costly to flight operations than having an extra hour on the device for thorough maintenance. It would be useful to create a matrix which shows the link between the department strategy and RCM strategy. by doing this as a workshop with the department management suitability can be ensured.

Ahmed Alali : 10 Jun 2013 17:01 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Creating the maintenance strategy

There is a simple concept to understand about maintenance, equipment are maintained to support production or utilization of the equipment. Therefore, the maintenance strategy should be part of the production strategy and to act as a support for acheiving the overall business strategy. A very effective means is strategic planning and especially by using Hoshin Kanri to deploy a detailed plan on what maintenance has to do for the company to achieve its vision.

The use of hoshin kanri can help in planning to show what is the gap in cureent maintenance performance and accordingly create a maintenance strategy that can overcome this gap and raise the overall organizational performance.

In my department, we work on maintaining flight simulators to support training pilots. Therefore, the maintenance strategy should be derived from the flight operations strategy. It also has to be working towards acheiving the organizational vision. This approach will help us address the gap in flight training department performance and create a maintenance strategy among other functions to close the gap and optimize the performance.

Ahmed Alali : 10 Jun 2013 15:31 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The need for Maintenance management strategy

maintenance management is an essential factor as asset management. Although maintenance is much more advanced than old practises "fix it when it breaks", many companies donot follow the optimum maintenance approach. With an objective thinking, maintenance role is to reduce the overall cost of ownership by making the equipment available, reliable, and extend expected life among other factors such as safety and environment. That is why engineering departments need to set up a maintenance strategy.

Maintenance strategy is important, although the objectives are usually similar "availability and reliability" the method of going about it varies depending on the working environment and equipment design. for instance, some equipments can be maintained during operations or others has contingency system. a maintenance strategy would be a suitable method for achieving the objectives.

When going back to work, it would be useful to negotiate with the manager to set up a maintenance strategy for the department, and if it exists it should be disseminated for others to contribute towards it. The strategy can be designed to best fit the department goals. a following blog is created to focus on this point.

Ahmed Alali : 09 Jun 2013 23:08 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem