9/14/2021 Here I am again with another brain teasing question. I like those type of questions because it makes us think differently rather than thinking like everybody else. It allows us to question the way we are doing things and asking ourselves if what we are doing is good enough or should we change things around to get different results. Well, let’s get to the point.Is coordinated asset management activity in organizations sufficient to realize value from assets? This is

4/25/2018 After several months of absence, I am finally back to posting my blogs. I have been busy working on a few concepts which I will shortly introduce. As mentioned in my earlier blogs, managing physical assets requires a holistic approach, not only from a whole lifecycle phase perspective but also from an organizational perspective (I call it HPAM – refer to my blog dated January 8, 2017). Many organizations currently experience the silo syndrome, which can result in a

12/10/2017 Every time we talk about operationalizing whole lifecycle asset management there is a term that is constantly referred to – organizational silos. It sounds like it is a common problem in many organizations when it comes to implementing a holistic asset management philosophy. So what are organizational silos? Are they really a problem? How do we overcome them? In one of my previous blogs when I talked about theory of constraints I mentioned that ‘organizational silo

9/25/2017 There is this ongoing discussion about asset management in the public sector and the private sector. The debate is about who is doing the “real” asset management stuff and where can we find the best practices. The topic is even more prominent now, especially with its global magnitude. It is being discussed in various conferences, training programs, publications and messages from consultants/vendors. Is one doing asset management and the other doing strategic asset p

11/8/2016 For the last few years we have seen the emergence of Asset Management in many industries from the private to the public sector. Many organizations have been successful in getting started with Asset Management and embracing the new paradigm shift. The use of PAS55 and more the recently the availability of ISO 55000 suites have further ramped up the momentum of Asset Management on the global stage. It has become the trending topic in the industry and has created a sor

10/17/2021 In my last blog I wrote about Coordination vs Integration. This time it is about Implementation vs Operationalization. Why?Well lately I have been hearing the word “operationalization” quite a lot in the asset management realm. Or maybe it is just me. Regardless I wanted to make sure we understand its exact meaning and the difference with implementation.Let's make sure we all understand what “operationalization” entails and its implication rather than just being a

10/15/2017 While considerable progress has been made by many municipalities with respect to developing and implementing asset management plans, there are still quite a lot to accomplish. A few years ago we were hit with the blitz of ISO 55000. Since then there has been lots of buzz in the asset management field. Now there is another blitz coming – the regulation of asset management planning. The Province of Ontario, Canada has recently proposed an Asset Management Planning Re

9/10/2017 In several asset management literatures I have been seeing terms such as demand analysis, demand management and need analysis being used. I was a little curious to understand how these terms relate to Asset Management, the difference and linkages between them and most importantly when to use them. A good place to start is to understand what each term exactly means. A quick search on the internet gave the following definitions: Demand Analysis: Research into the desi

12/31/2019 It has been exactly a year since I launched the HPAM Board Game. An interactive asset management board game to better understand the challenges of implementing asset management based on my first book – Physical Asset Management – An Organizational Challenge. Thank you to Terry O’Hanlon and Maura Abad at Reliability web for believing in the Game and provided me the opportunity at IMC-2018. Over the year I have collected lots of feedback and suggestions. One of the c

9/16/2018 The HPAM Game® is a board game based on my first book “Physical Asset Management - An Organizational Challenge”. It is a highly interactive team approach game developed to better understand the challenges organizations face on their path to implementing organization-wide holistic physical asset management. The objective of the game is to look at the key physical asset lifecycle strategic & tactical activities and match them with corresponding key functional areas of

8/25/2021 The chicken or the egg causality dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. "Chicken-and-egg" is a metaphoric adjective describing situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the cause and which should be considered the effect, to express a scenario of infinite regress, or to express the difficulty of sequencing actions where each seems to depend on others being done f

8/13/2017 By now we know that the HPAM Value Chain consists of primary and secondary functions, critical to realize value from physical assets over their entire lifecycle. Organizations need to be aware that it is not just the functions that have to be considered in the HPAM Value Chain, but also the linkages between those functions. The linkages are key elements in the chain that contribute to realize value. Each link can be broken down into processes/sub processes so as to

7/18/2017 To get a good understanding of how to realize value from physical assets organizations need to understand what the value chain is in HPAM. But first let us see what "value chain" means. A value chain is a high-level model developed by Michael Porter in his book "Competitive Advantage" to describe the activities within and around an organization and evaluates which value each particular activity adds to the products or services. Porter distinguishes between primary a

3/12/2017 Welcome back everyone after some period of hibernation. In this blog we will talk about “value”. In my last blog on paradigm shift I mentioned that one of the stumbling blocks that can be experienced in HPAM is “defining value”. In HPAM value is the main focus and it is befitting to spend some time understanding what value is and how it can be realized. Organizations design, build, own, operate and maintain physical assets to obtain value from them over their full e

1/29/2017 But seriously, if you look around in the physical asset management field, a paradigm shift is desperately needed. In my last post, I mentioned that it is required for a successful execution of HPAM. It is required to ensure the activities/practices/ business approaches of the organization are well coordinated and integrated. By definition "paradigm shift" means "a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions". I agree that the word "paradigm" has been a

1/15/2017 In my previous post I mentioned that Physical Asset Management is the business discipline for managing physical assets over their entire lifecycle to achieve a desired level of service, while minimizing the lifecycle costs within an acceptable level of risk. The definition of asset management has come a long way since it was first formulated by Australian economist Dr. Penny Burns in 1984. At around the same time there has been some significant development in the fi

1/8/2017 HPAM - Holistic Physical Asset Management means applying the physical asset management discipline with a holistic approach. What does that really mean? We all know that Physical Asset Management is the business discipline for managing physical assets over their entire lifecycle to achieve a desired level of service, while minimizing the lifecycle costs within an acceptable level of risk. In a next post we will elaborate further on this topic. For now let's try to und

1/1/2017 HPAM stands for Holistic Physical Asset Management - another one of those acronyms! Physical Asset Management- An Organizational Challenge is the title of my first book published October 2016 by FriesenPress. There are two main reasons why I wrote a book specifically with this title: Physical asset management has been the focus for the last few years and will continue to be for many years to come, but I wanted to highlight the holistic approach, hence Holistic Physic