Twelve years ago, the book Value Driven Maintenance: New Faith in Maintenance was published. With this book two young ambitious maintenance consultants Mark Haarman and Guy Delahay had the goal of changing the global maintenance market. In their view, the maintenance department no longer was to be considered a necessary “evil” for the company. It was to become a professional organization capable of delivering demonstrable economic value to the business.

Since the early new millennium, Value Driven Maintenance, or VDM, has grown into one of the most authoritative management methods in the maintenance market. Meanwhile, thousands of companies throughout the world have used VDM to professionalize their maintenance organization, often with impressive results.

How about today? Although the principals of VDM are still relevant, today’s European industry is facing a new type of challenge – increased international competition combined with an ageing European manufacturing industry.

– Recent research shows that almost half of Europe’s industrial equipment will need to be replaced between 2015 and 2025. Because of the economic crisis, many companies are lacking the financial resources needed to do so, and this is raising the risk of new closures in Europe, says book author and maintenance expert Mark Haarman.

According to Haarman, to survive in the globalizing industry, we must increase the competitive strength of our ageing assets. In other words we must broaden our horizon and no longer focus solely on the reliability of our assets.

– In addition to our traditional task of optimizing the safety, technical availability and maintenance costs of assets, we must devote more attention to extending service life and to technological modernization. Consequently, maintenance no longer focuses on the current year alone. The maintenance departments of the future also have a long-term focus on the continued evolution of the assets.

Global Competition – A Driver of Change

Europe’s industrial equipment needs to be replaced, but at the same time the economic crisis has led to a situation where many companies are lacking the financial resources needed to do so.

As closure becomes a growing threat, Haarman says that lengthening the service life of machinery is often the only way to keep industrial production in the West rather than from moving to low-wage countries, which are home to relatively new and modern plants.

–Technicians of the future must be drivers of improvement. Their maintenance work must include extending the service life of machinery, replacing parts that need to be replaced, and modernizing the systems that are in place.

But how can organizations do so in an economically viable way? Which maintenance strategy gives the maximum competitive value to your assets?

Following the big success of their first book, Mark Haarman together with Guy Delahay developed a new methodology that answers this question. Their new book Value Driven Maintenance & Asset Management (VDMXL), Competing with Ageing Assets has just been released.

VDMXL explains how a combination of maintenance, lifetime extension, and modernization can add maximum economic value to an existing plant, fleet or infrastructure. The methodology is based on an economic value driver model, a KPI control panel, industry-specific benchmarks, a standardized process map with over 50 best practices and a proven change management approach.

The book is divided into three sections. Part 1 describes how you can increase the competitive value of your assets and how you can design your Winning Maintenance & Asset Management Strategy. Part 2 describes the twelve competences that make up a professional Maintenance & Asset Management organization according to VDMXL. For each competence, various best practices are presented that can be used in your Winning Maintenance & Asset Management Strategy. Part 3 focuses on the change success factors of VDMXL, taking into account the behaviour of people and organizations.

From Maintenance to Asset Management

With the expanded focus on the entire and extended asset lifecycle, VDMXL has evolved into a fully-fledged Asset Management model. This is also where the term XL comes from: 1) an expansion of the existing VDM model and 2) the need for eXtending the Lifetime of our industrial assets.

With this expansion to Asset Management, they are anticipating the increased popularity of ISO 55000, the new Asset Management ISO standard. However, in actual practice, VDMXL goes a step beyond this. While ISO 55000 specifies what you must do; VDMXL explains how to do this so as to add maximum economic value to the operating result. Another distinction with ISO 55000 is that VDMXL also provides reference points to improve the operational maintenance processes, such as scheduling, planning, execution, inventory management and tools management. This is why VDMXL is positioned as a Maintenance and Asset Management model.

Haarman emphasizes that the book is for all professionals involved in managing and improving Maintenance & Asset Management organizations.

– First and foremost, we are obviously thinking of asset managers and maintenance managers in the capital-intensive industry.

The book also provides valuable information for operations managers, finance managers, safety managers, engineering managers and general managers in these companies, because it helps them understand what the economic relevance of Maintenance & Asset Management is and how the responsible departments can be managed accordingly.

Meanwhile, the book also addresses the suppliers of technical equipment, spare parts, tools, service contracts, temporary personnel, consulting services, IT solutions and other knowledge-based products. n

Nina Garlo-Melkas
nina.garlo@omnipress.fi