1/3/2019 The struggle for data quality is real for asset management leaders

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Asset Management

The struggle for

data quality is real
for asset and
facilities
management
leaders
October 30, 2018 | Written by: Joe Lonjin

Categorized: Asset Management

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Today’s facilities are swiftly moving towards a smarter ecosystem, with thousands of physical asse
manage. To support this complex infrastructure, data management is crucial, and has conventiona
education facilities. Without quality data management, organizations will struggle to define missio
supported decision making. This blog explores common data quality challenges, and how to appro

Common data quality challenges

A facility can only reach optimal performance if its data management plan supports alignment and
common example of the impact of poor data management:

A maintenance organization defines a primary mission objective as ‘maintaining assets to provide

to deliver service and support to customers, who could be manufacturing or end users. The team i
measure that is closely aligned with this objective. The uptime information is captured through a h

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1/3/2019 The struggle for data quality is real for asset management leaders

initiatives have been attempted or completed in the past to ensure the data is available in the Ente
(EAM).

Asset uptime information is captured by entering data into work order records when maintainers o
failures. Uptime numbers are not consistent, and customers report the opposite of what is shown
are verbally reporting higher numbers than EAM data and are frustrated at criticism resulting from
Uptime reports are being generated by multiple personnel in the organization, but it is not clear to
calculated or where the data is coming from that is presented.

A quick look at the EAM data shows that some work orders where uptime (or downtime) is reporte
identified. Many of the work order fields are not populated even though the records are completed
or how they were addressed is present on the records. In this case, data quality and confidence ar
identified to be a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the organization.

The organization in the above example is struggling to meet its strategic objectives because of poo
by four common challenges:

• Lack of guidance from leadership on Master Data Management

• Increasing amounts of data with no objective or quality-driven purpose

• Lack of confidence in the data available in enterprise systems

• Lack of alignment of data requirements to organizational goals and business processes

So, how can asset and facilities managers tackle challenges like these? First, and most importantly
easily accessible. Once the data are available in clear, concise views, they can better support decis
insight into performance issues and trends.

4 steps to achieving quality data management

Below are four recommendations for quality data management:

1.      Create a Data Management Plan

2.      Define what objectives and processes are critical to strategic objectives, and the data neede

3.      Locate process gaps through definitions of what a “good” record is in your enterprise system

4.      Identify initiatives for improvement that are aligned to your processes and objectives, and m

Let’s address each of these in turn.

Managing your data: Step 1: define your objectives

Data management includes defining which data are critical to the mission and operations of your o
sources, consumers, permissible values, and analysis capability to support decision making. Mana

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1/3/2019 The struggle for data quality is real for asset management leaders

business processes for capture or entry, removing duplication, validating values or presence befor
standardizing data types and values to simplify these tasks.

Organizations need to know their mission and objectives first. Only then can they define what data
Setting a mission objective defines why are you doing what you are doing. Many data, software, or
couple the ‘why’ with objectives, and this misalignment is a source of pain and dissatisfaction for n
or consumers too.

Step 2: validate, monitor and improve

Once objectives are known, data requirements are defined, and expectations are set, the process
and improvement can commence. This should be done by providing a single source of clear and co
Good performance happens when trust and transparency are present.

If the performance is now clearly available, exceptions and anomalies will be easy to identify. The
confidence is reached in small steps, so do not expect performance and quality out of the box. Sim
attribution is available on work records for assets – will start to show insights immediately into wh
meet expected levels. You may be completing work on time, but if only 40% of the work records co
logs, the value of the work record and system is diminished.

Step 3: document tribal knowledge to see future rew

Tribal (or undocumented) knowledge within an organization can be a source of value – but it needs
By defining what data should be present, and logging historical trends around performance, we ca
stays available for future decision making.

Any system tracking performance must be able to harness and provide access to insights that peo
their day-to-day work.

Continuing the journey to data quality

In my next post, we will work through the pain points and issues identified as the journey to data q
Desired Destinations? – Engaged employees and customers, transparent expectations and results
performance and mission success.

Watch a demo on IBM Maximo.

Learn more about Cohesive Solutions.

Joe Lonjin

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1/3/2019 The struggle for data quality is real for asset management leaders

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By Joe Lonjin on October 30, 2018

The struggle for data quality is real for asset and facilities ma
Today’s facilities are swiftly moving towards a smarter ecosystem, with thousands of physical a
manage. To support this complex infrastructure, data management is crucial, and has conventio
higher education facilities. Without quality data management, organizations will struggle to defi
and achieve supported decision making. […]

 Continue reading

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