Maintworld 2/2020

ASSET MANAGEMENT
stricter control rules and mitigated all
risks, with implications for ordinary individuals
and entrepreneurs.
In any case, this crisis will have consequences
and change our general behaviour
and our specific functioning, be
it social distancing or something else. We
will most likely be subject to new, modified
safety rules that will make the work
for our and other industries much more
difficult or at least a lot more complicated.
But on the other hand, this crisis also
offers opportunities to transcend such a
challenge and ourselves as a sector. After
all, technology can reduce or even completely
solve many of the new corona related
problems and challenges within asset
management. It is better to embrace
technology yourself than to be overrun
by a foreign tech tsunami. So, we make
sure that we as a progressive region can
once again be participating in the start of
a new industrial transition as earlier in
the 19th and 20th centuries.
Change is difficult, but inevitable.
Of course, we can opt for security and
“business as usual”, just as Kodak, Nokia
or Bank of America did with all its consequences.
The knowledge, data and
technology to transform our traditional,
reactive, preventive and predictive way
of maintenance into a proactive and
prescriptive way of maintenance are
available today.
If AI and AR are sufficiently accessible,
intuitive and people oriented, we can
thus predict, analyse and execute safety
and maintenance problems better than
ever before. Algorithms can constantly
learn and, thanks to advancing insight,
predict and prevent asset failures better
than us humans, and this through
a smarter mix of forecasting models
based on richer historical, contextual
and current data. AR can support technicians
and operators in a consistent and
standardized manner when performing
tasks and thus reduce the risk of failure.
Moreover, our efficiency could increase
exponentially using new technology.
Why let 10 engineers walk around when
the F1 car can be perfectly monitored
from a distance?
For example, we will evolve from
reactive (What do we see?), through
diagnostic maintenance (Why did it happen?)
to prescriptive, proactive maintenance
(What could happen best?), which
can make our industry grow and diversify
exponentially. And if we choose to become
the bravest among asset managers,
we may be at the cradle of a new, thriving
economy which has no equal worldwide
with an exponential revival of industry
in Europe, Belgium and Flanders.
TIMES ARE CHANGING
Every hour, every minute, every nanosecond
changes the world, and asset
management changes. We are evolving
into a world where people become less of
an executive centre, but rather a creative
innovator.
As mentioned, this will require adjustments
from everyone within asset
management. Our role in maintenance
is changing drastically, so we will have
to learn new skills. The classic maintenance
profile will gradually evolve into
an operator context, such as the F1 driver
or the aircraft pilot who not only controls
the aircraft, but also monitors and
adjusts the operation. A maintenance
manager with the right tools and support
can become a change manager and game
changer for the entire company.
Because maintenance has a higher
purpose than just running machines. We
are vital in running our economy and life
itself. From food supplies for our growing
world population to new pandemic
medicines, asset management plays a
vital role for everyone. And we also need
to fulfil that role in the future.
If we want to offer ourselves and the
future generations in Europe and Flanders
a future, we will have to make our
industry better, more efficient and more
innovative. Not only out of pure cost
efficiency but also to provide a powerful
counterweight to the emerging markets.
As a result of the corona crisis, we might
eventually evolve towards a “new form
of globalization”, one of institutional
diversity and heterogeneity, or do we
continue to “sub-optimize” in a globalization
aimed at institutional harmonization
and convergence? Or else: we opt
for an over-globalized world, in which we
depend mainly on imports from the Far
East and other emerging markets. Or do
we choose to invest with all our knowhow
and resources in new high-tech
industries which will conquer the world
themselves? The choice is ours.
Let us make an opportunistic use of
this crisis and achieve something big. Let
us have the courage to go further and to
transcend ourselves like the Netherlands
did after the disaster of 1953. It is time
for asset management 4.0.
2/2020 maintworld 15