What is an asset? Discussing asset management strategies and solutions leads to definitions as varied as type of manufacturing done at a facility and kinds of assets required. Types of solutions offered by suppliers are almost as varied as the number of suppliers. Solutions range from monitoring control valves in process manufacturing to managing maintenance inventory. All the solutions have one common element—they all are designed to provide significant returns by helping companies prevent downtime.

Houghton LeRoy, research director at ARC Advisory Group Inc., in Dedham, Mass., says he looks at many kinds of assets in his research. There are plant assets, ranging from valves to units to equipment. Then there are enterprise assets. In addition, he also follows fleet management, facilities and “linear assets”—for example pipelines, railways and the like.

Drilling down into asset management strategies, LeRoy says, “There is a downside to preventative maintenance (PM)—a strategy in which equipment is fixed before it breaks. Lots of PMs are unnecessary. Sometimes they even cause infant mortalities (or early failure of a device or piece of equipment). Condition-based maintenance, on the other hand, can minimize the number of PMs and lower the incidence of infant mortality, thus keeping machines running longer. Sometimes maintenance can make the situation worse. Maintenance and repair are not time sensitive, they are incident sensitive. Things fail based on condition or health.”

Todd Stauffer, PCS7 product manager for automation vendor Siemens Energy & Automation Inc., in Spring House, Pa., defines assets as valves, transmitters, motors, drives, smart motor control centers, analyzers and distributed control system infrastructure—in other words whatever’s in a plant. Says Stauffer, “Where asset management gets the most bang for the buck is monitoring motors and drives. The point is not just doing predictive maintenance on the motor, but in operating it at its most efficient point. An important point to consider as part of your maintenance strategy is that it is estimated that 60 percent of scheduled visits for maintenance are unnecessary. So most of the time you are checking on things, it’s a waste of time.”

Straighten up your crib

Imagine beginning a new job as maintenance manager for a Pepsi bottling company and having the regional manager walk through and comment on the sorry state of the maintenance parts crib. It happened to Tony Yanora in the Pepsi bottling plant in Detroit.

“I began looking for a solution to the numerous sensor and drive issues we had during the storeroom remodeling in March of 2003,” says Yanora. “Based on the number of parts we stored, it was obvious we were out of control in our ability to manage the inventory. Our personnel had to have a direct match of parts in order to complete a repair to an optic or proximity sensor, or we would order—in most cases on an emergency basis—a replacement.”

Many of the parts required by the production processes were from Milwaukee-based provider Rockwell Automation Inc., and Yanora worked closely with his representative from a local Rockwell distributor, McNaughton-McKay Electric Co. “When I was approached with a proposal from Rockwell, it appeared to meet all of my needs, and we were off and running. We developed a plan to assure that all of the expectations between us were reasonable and could be met.”

Ramp it up

Yanora entered into a Rockwell Automation Asset Management Program (RAAMP) agreement by which the supplier assumes responsibility for the maintenance stores. The supplier took an inventory and recommended ways to consolidate the inventory and also recommended types and amounts of spare parts required to keep the plant running. The business benefits from this parts management agreement include reduced inventory, less training expense, lower overtime cost and the ease of finding a part. Yanora adds, “We are in the midst of a step change in our efficiency averages. A number of factors are responsible for the increase, but the parts management agreement is a part of that reason. On average, we’ve seen about a 3.5 percent improvement over last year and we are still in an upward trend. I cannot comment on how many dollars a 1 percent efficiency gain is worth to Pepsi, but let me assure you it is substantial.” And the regional manager? He was delighted upon his return.

Another bottling company experiencing excellent returns from partnering with its supplier for maintenance of assets is Paris-based Pernod Ricard S.A. This company is the second largest operator in wine and spirits in the world.  Managers at its North American bottling ...