The Growing Strategic Importance of Maintenance

The years of 2003 and 2004 have been watermark years for the importance of physical asset management. During this period there were numerous events throughout the world that have highlighted the importance that this activity has at a corporate level. However four events in particular have had effects that continue reverberating throughout the world.

• The disaster of the space shuttle Columbia

• In August of 2003 New York was struck by a power outage, a failure of physical assets that caused thousands of people to be stranded and left it without power for over 24 hours. This was followed shortly after by similar but briefer outages in the United Kingdom and Italy.

• Four charges of manslaughter were dropped in August of 2004. These were placed on people in charge of maintaining or managing the railways in the United Kingdom in relation to the Hatfield train disaster. They included the ex-CEO of the company that owned the asset base. This has reinvigorated the debate in that country regarding corporate killing.

• Enactment of legislation in Canada to impose criminal liability on businesses and individuals in the event of workplace accidents.

The reaction to these dramatic events has been the culmination of decades of change in the area of asset management. Even in the most cavalier of board-rooms, more attention is being drawn to asset management as an area where corporate risk exposure can...