Overview

As time continues on, we are flooded with new sets of acronyms and abbreviations that designate little more than old strategies renamed. These acronyms seem to be point solutions that do not allow the optimization of the maintenance business function, including the CMMS / EAM system.

Currently, the enterprise asset management (EAM) community is swimming in a new alphabet soup, a new collection of acronyms and abbreviations MROI (maintenance return on investment), TEAM (total enterprise asset management), e-comm (electronic commerce), CW (collaborative workplace), CAM (collaborative asset management), etc. Unfortunately, the soup appears to be the result of using new letters in old recipes. It appears to fit a trend of "when something doesn't work, rename it, and try it again." Each of these relabeled attempts take resources that should be utilized in optimizing the CMMS / EAM system.

This trend is nothing new. EAM practitioners have seen similar attempts with CMMS, PDM, RCM, TPM, and so on. An AMR Research Report for Oct. 6, 2000, states that only 10% of companies have optimized their asset performance. The real question is: Why haven't companies been successful with improvement initiatives that, on paper, appear to be strategically valuable?

Once convinced of their value, many companies have undertaken strategic initiatives, but the results fall far short of projections. Why do companies fall short of expectations when implementing World Class or Best Practices strategies, which include fully realizing their investment in their CMMS / EAM system?

When the failures are closely analyzed,...