The Big Picture

The Journey of Asset Management

The Journey of Asset Management is a tool for starting conversations about Asset Management
within your organisation as well as with customers, suppliers and wider stakeholders. It was built up
from stories shared by hundreds of IAM members over a series of workshops in 2014. The intention
is not to provide a model or a template for how to do Asset Management, but rather to capture what
it feels like, depicting the cultural as well as the technical barriers.

The picture is part of a series of materials, including a nine minute video, which explains the
structure and key points of Asset Management. These are designed to be accessible to
professionals across all organisations.

The picture can be used in all sorts of
ways, for example:
As a strategic planning tool in a workshop, or to
crystalise and articulate your organisations
purpose.
To support diagnosis of current approach, and
carry out a gap analysis with desired state.
To build common purpose with partners and
support business development.
Across your organisation, or in roadshows, to
generate conversation or to illustrate where you
are going as a business.
Within transformation programmes, to help team
members position the programme in a broader
context of change.
On office or meeting room walls, to generate
interest and invite conversation with visitors and
those passing by.
For stakeholder engagement, to find out which
barriers and opportunities are most significant to
them within your organisations context.
Here are some things to think about if you
plan to use the picture in a structured
session (e.g. workshop):
Use the video to help familiarise delegates with the
purpose and structure before they start talking.
Be sure to allow enough time if you want to have an
in depth discussion (90 minutes works well).
Encourage people to stand up and move around to
take in the detail of the picture. Display it on a wall,
window, partition or poster boards to create a much
more fun and interactive session.
Dont have too many people in each group.
Five to nine is ideal. 10 or more people using one
poster risks becoming a presentation or excluding
some participants, rather than holding an inclusive
conversation.
Have clear objectives and a desired outcome.
Provide a set of questions for groups to address
and/or brief facilitators, one per poster.
Post-it notes can work well for capturing thoughts
directly onto the picture

The Big Picture User guide Ver1 www.theIAM.org/BigPicture

2014 the Institute of Asset Management Created in partnership with visual-meaning.com

 The picture contains a very large number of issues and situations, any of which could prompt
an in-depth conversation in its own right. Depending on the objectives on any particular session
it can therefore help to break the overall picture down into separate themes. This will focus
discussions and make the conversation more manageable. Example questions are included
below to get you started.

The overall journey:

Where are we now? Where do we want to be? Whats holding us back?
Whats the evidence we see or hear that tells us where we are, and how much
of the journey is still to go?

Our organisation:
Do we have tribes / silos? What are they, and what are their characteristics?
What holds you back from collaborating and working in a joined up way?
How many levels or layers are there between strategic decision-making and
day-to-day asset decision making? What can we do to make them more
aligned?

Our leadership and culture:

How committed are the top management to Asset Management? How do you
know? What are they doing and saying that lets you know this?
Does Asset Management have a function, and if so why?
What level of trust exists between different individuals, disciplines and teams?
How do you know? What do they say about each other?
What needs to change to get to an aligned organisation that makes optimised
Asset Management decisions?

How we plan and make decisions:

What and how many different planning meetings do we have? Who takes part?
Do we have the right people from the right divisions and levels of management
involved? Is this an effective approach?
How do people treat the resulting plans? How integrated are they?
What do different people mean when they use the word risk? How is risk
quantified and how is it managed?
How do people know that their Asset Management plans are consistent with the
organisations objectives?

How we manage information:

What is the quality of your asset data, and how do you know?
Where do people typically get the information they need to do their jobs?
Who is capturing what data and why? How many systems are there? What do
people think of them?
What do people do when they cant get the information they need?
How do you know if your Asset Management activities are delivering value?

How we deliver lifecycle activities:

What does the term Asset Management mean to the people who interact with
the assets on a day-to-day basis?
How do project managers, operators and maintenance staff view and describe
each other?
How do people know what to do next?
What does a typical incident response look like? Who is involved? What sort
of preventive measures are taken and by whom?

Let us know your feedback and how youve used the Big Picture here: Technical@theIAM.org

The Big Picture User guide Ver1 www.theIAM.org/BigPicture

2014 the Institute of Asset Management Created in partnership with visual-meaning.com