While technology plays a vital role in Asset Performance Management (APM), it's the people who breathe life into the process. A successful APM strategy hinges on building a skilled and empowered workforce that can leverage technology effectively. Here's how people play a crucial role in achieving APM success:

• Domain Expertise: A thorough grasp of the particular assets and their operational environment is necessary for effective APM. This domain expertise is possessed by engineers, technicians, and operations staff and is essential for data interpretation, problem identification, and well-informed asset maintenance decisions.

• Analysis and Interpretation of Data: APM systems produce enormous volumes of data. The transformation of raw data into useful insights is mostly the responsibility of data analysts. Effective communication of insights, trend analysis, and anomaly detection are critical for proactive maintenance planning.

• Adoption and Change Management: Changing current maintenance procedures and workflows is a common part of implementing APM. Promoting the APM vision, successfully managing change, and encouraging adoption among staff members at all levels are all important tasks for leaders.

• Collaboration and Communication: Effective APM necessitates smooth teamwork throughout diverse groups. Effective collaboration among maintenance staff, data analysts, and operations teams is essential for information sharing, problem solving, and data-driven decision making.

• Continuous Learning: As technology and analytics develop, the field of APM also continues to change. Employees must be part of a culture that values lifelong learning if they are to remain current with developing technologies, best practices, and trends in the APM space.

Creating a Lucrative APM Team:

• Invest in Training: Offer thorough training courses to give staff members the abilities they need to use APM technologies efficiently. This covers instruction in data analysis, asset health data interpretation, and decision-making with the APM platform.

• Empowerment and Ownership: Give your team members the freedom to accept responsibility for their contributions to the APM process. Invite them to share their knowledge and offer suggestions for further development.

• Encourage Open Communication: Create an environment where employees feel free to voice their issues and provide recommendations. This makes it possible to identify problems early on and promotes teamwork in fixing problems.

• Acknowledge and Reward Success: Give credit to people and groups that uphold APM principles and use proactive asset management to produce favorable results

Real-world Example: An APM system was implemented by a manufacturing facility staffing approximately 250 individuals, of which 50 were maintenance technicians and 3 were data analysts. They had a hard time at first getting meaningful outcomes. The problem was a lack of coordination between data analysts and maintenance staff. Despite using trend analysis to spot possible equipment problems, data analysts found it difficult to explain their findings to maintenance teams because there was a lack of common language and comprehension of how the equipment worked. However, they lacked the analytical tools to quantify their valuable experience in identifying equipment irregularities through sound and vibration patterns, which was reserved for maintenance personnel. The plant promoted cooperation by putting in place cross-functional training sessions and creating open lines of communication. While data analysts got training on specific equipment types and the practical consequences of various equipment health indicators, maintenance technicians received training on basic data analysis and sensor data interpretation. Employees were able to take advantage of their collective experience. Now, technicians could provide data points to support their observations for more thorough analysis, and data analysts could customize reports with useful information pertinent to the duties performed by the maintenance team.