AMPLE - Asset Management Program Learning Environment

AMPLE is a knowledge management system that helps asset owners, managers and operators to manage assets. The system includes:

• A database for storing many manuals, each of which includes world's best practice guidelines for an aspect of an asset life cycle
• A performance analysis tool for benchmarking an organization's performance in each aspect of the asset life cycle, to identify areas for improvement
• A benefit assessment component to assist the organization in determining which improvements have potential to deliver the greatest benefits.

The TEAMQF analysis tool compares the organization's performance in each aspect of the asset life cycle to one or more of the following:

• World's best practice
• Practice being used by a set of similar organizations
• Best appropriate practice for the organization concerned
• Assessing which improvements have potential to deliver the greatest benefits
• Determining a confidence level rating based on the quality of data used, providing a logical structure for the organisations to manage their assets through all aspects of the asset life cycle
• Defining one or more goals in accordance with the benefit assessment, the goals forming the basis of an asset management strategic plan
• Providing implementation guidelines to assist the organisation in achieving the goals
• Monitoring the organization's progress along the asset management strategic plan.

The gap (gap-ex) tool allows us to:

• Show what world's best practice is by demonstrating examples and case studies
• Agree with our current level or practice, our Current Quality Rating (CQR)
• See how other similar businesses perform and rate ourselves against them
• Decide on a best appropriate practice (BAP) level that suits our organization and forms our target
• Identify all the improvement tasks that will need to be completed.

We need to understand the costs and benefits that are associated with closing the gap. The business case module relates the gap to benefits achieved by other organizations in closing this gap. It shows the optimal and minimal benefits achieved.

Once we know the benefits and the cost we can really identify the quick wins, the quick starts (those tasks that are needed to be completed early but may not represent the best benefits / costs) and develop the full long term roadmap, which is our AM improvement plan.

Finally we can develop an Effective Implementation Plan. This covers all the people and organizational issues and the critical change management items that are essential to a fully successful AM improvement program.

But we must remember it is the total assembly of the TEAMQF™ tool which ties this all together. The ISO aspects of the tool, its repeatability and the way it is all tied together to achieve logical and justified improvements in AM across the entire enterprise are its unique strengths. Making diverse and distributed divisions or business units work as one TEAM is it's greatest benefit.

The change process is cemented in place to become sustainable change in the organisation's culture by using:

• Training modules
• Specialist tools
• Case studies to prove the benefits of making the change.

The whole tool is underpinned by the Quality framework, TEAMQF, which will allow:

• ISO accreditation
• Monitoring progress and improvements
• Providing as logic to the overall improvement process.

For further details go to www.gap-ex.com