My experience in asset-intensive organizations began when I was hired as an advisor to user groups assigned the responsibility to seek out the best-of-breed computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to support their asset-intensive business. Many organizations had 500 tradesmen or more; some were smaller but had the same need. I noticed that no matter what industry I was consulting to — pulp and paper, hydro electric utility, port terminal handler, global marine shipping company, rail transportation, a university — 85% of the fundamentals for every industry were the same when it came to managing their mission critical assets.

I noticed a gap in the market. Few business leaders at the C-level in asset-intensive organizations seemed to take asset care seriously. Some ran run-fail-fix operations. Others did what they always did, thinking this was good enough to justify their approach. Many were sceptical of advice from their equipment and spare parts vendors.

With these insights, I abandoned a lucrative management consulting career to create a scalable solution, powered by technology, that could be reused by any asset-intensive organization. I knew I needed a repository. This solution is FORTIG, meaning strong, brave, fierce — all attributes that are essential in the maintenance - reliability - asset management business.

In parallel, The Institute of Asset Management in the UK was developing PAS 55 (a Publicly Available Specification) in response to the privatization of the utility industry. Regulators did not think that these assets, that were created with public funds, were being managed responsibly; nor did they think that these assets were generating sufficient value.

When I checked out PAS 55, I found that PAS 55 and FORTIG were aligned. Both took a similar view regarding how asset-intensive organizations should / must manage their mission critical assets. After all, what can an asset-intensive organization do without their assets? Nothing.

NOTE — I deliberately use the term ‘organization’ to include both private and public sector businesses.