Not moving forward with an APM initiative because of "bad data" is like saying "my dirty house is driving me crazy, but it's too messy to clean it up." If improved reliability, reduced downtime, and lower maintenance costs are really your goals, then you need to start analyzing the data you have NOW.
You must invest in, and make good use of, your data. Unless you do, your current ROI is negative and will stay that way - you're paying to collect data that you haven't and won't use! If you think that your data is in such poor shape that you can't implement an overall APM initiative for reliability improvements, here are a few questions to consider:
What can I do with the data I have now?
You might be surprised with what Meridium can do using the information you're already collecting. Nearly every customer we work with has pockets of good data on critical equipment that they can utilize as a place to start. (Reliability analysis can be done with as few as 3 valid data points!) Meridium can solve big problems you're currently facing because it isn't dependent on just CMMS/EAM/ERP data. Meridium can pull information from multiple sources of data in your enterprise to help you identify areas for improvement right now. UT readings, data from process historians, instrumentation and calibration data and even data extracted from text fields are all valuable inputs.
What is the current value of your data as-is?
What is the value of your "dirty" data? What is the cost of collecting and not analyzing this information to discover potential reliability improvements? In other words, you already have cost associated with bad data regardless of whether it's your inability to analyze it or whether it actually causes costly errors in operations and maintenance planning and scheduling. If you can quantify this cost within a reasonable range, you've already identified additional saving opportunities and ROI. Just think what you can do with good data to support improved overall asset strategies. A key element to cleaning up your data may be changing your work process or technology for collecting it in order to make sure that all the information being collected and stored is clean and useable.
Are you able to use the data that you're collecting right now for meaningful analysis?
Everyone has to collect data for compliance purposes. And most organizations use this information for maintenance planning and scheduling. But is it really useful enough to provide the basis for comprehensive improvements to your overall APM initiative that can result in serious financial gains? Meridium provides ways to create value with your data, keeping the bad-data issue from growing and increasing the financial impacts of bad information. This saves you money and improves the confidence in the system.
How much money from reliability improvements are you leaving on the table right now?
When improving reliability for financial gains becomes the goal of your organization (rather than just record keeping for compliance purposes), accurate data can be seen as way of achieving that goal. Do you have a sense of the actual value that clean data has to your company? Most Meridium clients agree that the answer is in the millions, just at a single plant. The investment of getting your information into shape is dwarfed by the overall return on investment, especially when data - and thus reliability and production - can be improved across the enterprise.
Good information, when properly used, has value and ROI. Bad information has no value and adds to cost and risk. Many times when companies tell us, "We have bad data, so we need 2 years to clean it up," we find that 2 years later the organization is still claiming to have bad data and has done nothing to improve either the data or the work process around collecting what results in bad information. No company has perfect data, however our experience has shown that you need to use it to improve it. Meridium is an ideal tool to help create value with your data and put a process in place to improve it.
Click here to download an overview of Meridium's capabilities and get started on your APM initiative now.
