Using Work Management Best Practices to Achieve Asset Optimization (5)

Stage Four: Best in Class

Once a company has established a culture of reliability and has put in place maintenance best practices to optimize asset utilization, it can begin to work toward becoming a best-in-class organization. What does it mean to be best in class? It means being able to maximize profit margins and asset availability. Just as importantly, it means being recognized as an industry leader.

Each industry has its own benchmarks to define what a best-in-class company looks like. PeopleSoft and PCA have identified just a few of the benchmarks that asset-intensive companies should measure themselves against (see below table).

To become best in class, companies must be able to measure themselves against benchmarks such as those shown in above table. They must have access not only to the raw data but also to the KPIs and management reports that allow them to translate data into actionable information. And, in the current environment of increasing regulatory control, Sarbanes-Oxley, and mounting financial and shareholder pressure, having the actionable information to continually improve performance levels is essential.