Events in the last five years have amply demonstrated the growing strategic importance of maintenance - more generally physical asset management. There have been a number of very high profile events, across the world, that have highlighted the importance of this activity to the highest levels of the corporate world. Five events that have had effects that continue to circulate today:
- The disaster of the space shuttle Columbia.
- In August 2003 New York was struck by a power outage that resulted from a failure of physical assets that caused thousands of people to be stranded, and left without power for 24 hours. This was followed by similar outages in the United Kingdom, Italy and then the great Northeast USA power outage of 2005.
- The Hatfield train disaster in the UK in 2004 resulted in manslaughter charges being leveled at people in charge of maintaining or managing the railways, including the ex-CEO.
- Canada has recently enacted legislation to impose criminal liability on businesses and individuals in the event of workplace accidents.
- A major oil company had an explosion and fire at a refinery in Texas that resulted in 20 deaths, and the subsequent investigation cited poor training, and an effort to shortcut maintenance as causal factors. The same company also had a oil pipeline leak in Alaska that was attributed to maintenance cost cutting efforts.
The result of these events (and others) have been that corporate boardrooms, and other executives are devoting much more attention to physical asset management as they realize that this is a major area where corporate risk exposure can be managed.
Risk exposure to be sure, but we believe physical asset management can also be a source of substantial strategic advantage. Synchronous experts are ready to help you assess your asset management programs and help you develop sound, practical, and cost effective strategies. Send us an information request at Sales@SynchronousLLC.com , or review our complete service portfolio on our web site www.SynchronousLLC.com
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