Every asset-intensive business has three pillars: • people • processes • technology • to make it work.

People, whether they are staff and hourly employees, or third party consultants, contractors, and vendors — all have skills and competencies.

Processes in this context refers to business processes, distinct from shop floor production processes.

Technology refers to both Information Technology (IT) at the business layer and Operational Technology (OT) that supports the production process on the shop floor. Historically an invisible wall has divided these two areas of technology. Operations refused to let other stakeholders have access to their data. Security and response time were their main concern.

Considering the state of technologies, applications, and employee readiness in these layers, that’s a tall order.

An example — We performed an inventory of the number of IT applications that a major hydro electric utility (serving millions of residential customers and thousands of industrial customers) used to maintain their power generation and transmission-and-distribution assets. We found 57 applications! These applications were siloed, many were spreadsheets that are unauditable, and most were legacy custom-built systems. Their SCADA system was out of date. Data was not shared, but reentered into other applications providing an opportunity to introduce errors while wasting people’s valuable time. This organization had no flexibility. It was stuck. It had to change to be flexible, agile, and able to move.

People in the business have recognized the value of operational data and want to use it to better understand how the business is doing. They need it to make informed decisions. Operations’ issues of response time and security have now been addressed and should no longer stop business people from accessing operational data.

The 3 pillars of people - process - technology are at the heart of the future of every asset-intensive business.