The Too Smart For Our Own Good Hierarchy. Nothing is simpler or shows your creativeness like using smart numbering systems for your asset hierarchy. The brain power necessary to create a numbering convention that accounts for all locations, systems, asset classes, and number of assets in that class is astounding. Imaging when no one else can figure it out and comes to you for understanding. You will literally be “the go-to person” for how to number new assets. To be successful at this approach all you have to do is forget all about the pesky problem replacing an asset poses. Let someone else figure that out.
The Minimalist Hierarchy. Why spend time putting together a hierarchy with any level of complexity. Stick to systems only. Line 1 is good enough. Let all the work orders just go to Line 1. Better yet, don’t even put the assets in. Stick to locations only: production, offices, bathrooms, shipping/receiving. This makes it easy to select where the work order is charged to. No one is going to do any analysis on asset costs or parts used anyway, so why waste the time building in complications.
The Who Responds Hierarchy. Improving on the Minimalist approach, why not just list the types of issues as assets. Plumbing, automation, electrical, mechanical, HVAC, Utilities. In less than a dozen locations you can account for all work. Just like with the Minimalist approach, this approach takes advantage of the fact that no one is ever going to look into the data to get any better.
The Engineers Know Best Hierarchy. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just take the P&ID drawings and build your hierarchy accordingly? Nothing is easier than taking the numbers assigned by engineering drawings and applying them as your asset hierarchy. After all, it’s not like Pump 1 is used on more than one drawing, right? As an added benefit, you have the simplicity of asset naming such as PRV12, AV113, VAV35, TT20, etc. Everyone knows what these mean, so no need for asset descriptions.
As you can see, there are many ways to create a successful hierarchy. Pick the one that makes you the hero you know you were meant to be and run with it. ISO 55000 defines an asset as anything that adds actual or potential value to an organization, so don’t forget to list Captain Unreliability as one of your assets.
This story originally appeared in the April 2022 issue of Plant Services. Subscribe to Plant Services here.
About the Author: The Captain
Captain Unreliability is a satire of the state of the manufacturing industry in ’Merica today and is written by an industry professional known for using humor to get the point across. Stay tuned for more useless advice, and if you have topics you’d like to see covered or questions you’d like The Captain to weigh in on, contact The Captain directly at [email protected] or follow on Twitter @CUnreliability. Also, consider becoming Unreliable today by getting your Captain t-shirt at https://reliabilityx.com/product-category/gear.
