A citywide electric utility spent several years designing and awarding consultant support for a large, multiyear asset management implementation best practices program of work. The program’s elements included maturity assessments in all maintenance and asset management functions, as well as the use of internal and external SMEs to adopt best practices. The organization also assigned an executive sponsor early on to lead the program design, integrate work with other leaders, and even reorganize a bit to accommodate and facilitate the needed changes.
The program kickoff went well and the management team settled in. The program was designed to engage cross-functional SME teams in workshop settings to identify and select best practices that could work within the organization’s culture. There were a few leadership team meetings held during the first few months, but then the executive sponsor resigned for a new opportunity with another employer. A new sponsor was assigned, but, unfortunately, the person came from a construction background and was required to maintain previous construction-related duties. So, the level of executive support, as well as interest in asset management best practices, was now watered down significantly.
In addition to this unseeingly minor impact, there was a concurrent CMMS upgrade project (i.e., initiative) underway led by the IT department. This CMMS project also was designed to engage cross-functional SME teams in workshops to develop new CMMS data and work standards. Unfortunately, the asset management and CMMS projects were led by different departments and project managers, but required workshop attendance by many of the same internal SMEs. Instead of joining forces, each department was being held to separate delivery/ROI expectations and, as such, forged ahead in isolation. In this case, attendance of internal SMEs at the asset management workshops took the hit. And with one project’s executive sponsor not fully engaged and not working collaboratively across departmental initiatives, this created a weak link for the asset management program.
A perfect storm was created that eventually canceled roughly three years of planning and initial implementation efforts for the asset management program and over one and a half million dollars of consultant investment time. So, there is a focused effort required in alignment and coordination of large investment initiatives, plus the selection and clarity of roles/responsibilities for the executive sponsor.