April 15, 2007

Utilities surpass other industries in asset maintenance practices

Michael Israel, Aberdeen Group Inc.

Good quality benchmarking data are hard to come by unless you are part of an organization like the EUCG (www.eucg.org) or write a big check to a consulting firm that makes a living collecting and analyzing data. Even regional differences can have a marked effect on the comparative operating statistics of plants within a single utility. But perhaps the most difficult benchmarking data to obtain are consistent data comparing maintenance practices across different industries. That is where the Aberdeen Group's benchmark report, "Collaborative Asset Maintenance Strategies," makes a significant contribution to the power industry (see box to download the report).

Utility companies that Aberdeen recently surveyed boast 92% asset uptime and availability, earning them top billing in asset management performance, above all other industries that participated in the "Collaborative Asset Maintenance Strategies" report. How'd they do it? In part, with effective use of technology solutions, including analytics, enterprise asset management software, and predictive maintenance tools.

The "Collaborative Asset Maintenance Strategies" benchmark report examines how leading organizations in asset-intensive industries are excelling in maintenance practices and differentiating themselves from the rest of the pack in areas such as process definition, organizational alignment, data management, technology integration, and performance management. The report found that leading companies have achieved differentiated performance in key performance metrics such as return on invested capital, asset productivity, and asset uptime (Figure 1).

1. Out in front. Best-in-class companies prove their mettle on all counts. Source: Aberdeen Group

The survey also found that proactive maintenance processes that augment regularly scheduled preventive maintenance routines tend to boost organizations into the best-in-class category. Corollary data strongly support the conclusion that best-in-class organizations operate in a "break-fix" mode far less often than do their laggard counterparts (Figure 2).

2. Eat my dust. Best-in-class companies use proactive maintenance strategies more frequently. Source: Aberdeen Group