In fact, SAPPHIRE Orlando has been a while ago, and we are heading SAPPHIRE Madrid now. But, there are topics that are not a flash in the pan; they will influence they way we are doing business over years. PAS 55 is one of those.
PAS 55 as an asset management framework describes and defines essential key attributes and good practices for the management of physical assets. It was developed by the Institute of Asset Management in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the British Standards Institution and along with the assistance and valuable input of many other organizations and individuals.
PAS 55 reflects a growing understanding of the importance of asset management as a driver of profitability. It also reveals an understanding of operational
risks and safety issues when asset management is not handled in a holistic manner.
The guidelines were first published in 2004 and then updated in September 2008. They consist of two parts:
- Part 1: Specification for the optimized management of physical assets
- Part 2: Guidelines for the application of PAS 55-1
PAS 55 is currently evolving into the ISO Standard 55000/1/2. For a good explanation about the relationship you can for example have a look a http://www.assetmanagementstandards.com/.
So what is the essence of all this? Still today, we see maintenance engineers and technicians, operators, reliability engineers, IH&S people out there in the field, who in many cases work in separation. PAS 55 tells another story. It's about integrating operations, maintenance execution, risk management, worker safety, and financials as a key to a holistic asset management. Moreover, it asks for one unfied responsibility in a company for asset management.
This notion is well-known in the military for decades. There are people telling you that it all starts with the configuration control of a weapon system. From there, you can take decisions about MRO strategies, spare parts, qualification of the technicians, needed infrastructure and tooling, and so on. Even from an asset-centric view you instantaneously see the link to human resources, financials, asset information, and even intangible assets like the safety culture in a company.
Now what is the role of software in this regard? Of course you could do holistic asset management using pen and paper. But, let me give you some examples of the advantages of an integrated software system:
- There is one version of the truth everybody can have access to.
- Information can flawlessly be integrated between the different lines of business, may it be operations, asset management, financials, HR, or whatever.
- In times of an aging workforce you have a chance to bring people's knowledge into the system, so that younger people have a chance to learn.
- Collaboration is becoming much more efficient when being founded on the same knowledge base.
- You can document all your activities around asset management in a way that you will not face any challenges with an audit.
- You can drive efficiency gains by benchmarking and solid analysis of asset behaviour.
- Finally, you can turn data into information into actionable and decisive knowledge.
Obviously, this does not come along with the information system itself. Let's be clear that proper asset management first of all requires a management system and then support by information technology. But, establishing the right software support today is crucial for making good asset management happen. If you like to read more about PAS 55, please have a look into the white paper that you can find on http://www.sap.com/eam.
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