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MechChem Africa
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February 2017
Asset management
and the state of our nation
I
write this following the 2017 State of the Nation
address by South African president Jacob Zuma,
a violent, divisive affair that can surely donothing
for investor or rating-agency confidence. Once
again, Zuma’s SONA2017addresswas read toahouse
filledwith only his ownANC colleagues. Not a healthy
sign of a maturing democracy.
“In this 23
rd
year of our freedom, our mission re-
mains the quest for a united, democratic, non-sexist,
non-racial and prosperous South Africa,” said Zuma,
when he was finally able to begin speaking. Who can
object to this?
So why is it that the South African house of par-
liament, after 23 years of practice, cannot have a
constructive debate about how to achieve this noble
mission. And why is it that each individual aspect of
this quest is less attainable now than it was during the
first ‘Rainbow Nation’ parliament?
I amsurewe all have opinions about when andwhy
the wheels came off. Perhaps some will argue that
they haven’t. Most of the facts quoted by Zuma were
declared accurate by the ‘Fact Checkers’, certainly
more so than those coming out of the world’s bench-
mark democracy.
Yet the speechhas not sparkedabundant optimism.
And the tone, like the utterances of the newUS presi-
dent, rings populist rather than genuinely responsive
to the country’s needs.
One of the ANC’s ‘new’ policy directions is ‘radical
economic transformation’. Superficially, it is hard to
imagine itsmeaningdiffering from ‘economic freedom’
– is the ANC deliberately adopting EFF-like policies?
According to Zuma, radical socio-economic trans-
formation means, “fundamental change in the struc-
ture, systems, institutions and patterns of ownership,
management and control of the economy in favour of
all South Africans, especially the poor, the majority of
whom are African and female”.
“Twenty-twoyears intoour freedomanddemocra-
cy, themajority of black people are still economically
disempowered” …and “dissatisfiedwith the economic
gains from liberation,” he said. The clue as towhat this
radical transformation might mean in practice was
revealed in the statement: “This includes using the
state’s R500-billion annual budget to procure things
from black businesses.” Is this new?
For the lead
MechChem Africa
article in the Plant
maintenance, lubrication and filtration feature this
month, we talk to Karl Nepgen about Pragma’s Asset
Management Road Map. It is remarkable how multi-
faceted this ‘whole-solution’ is.
At its starting point is an evaluation of the matu-
rity level of an organisation’s maintenance strategies
relative to benchmarked industry best practices.
“Asset management looks at the whole lifecycle of a
plant or operation, from the identification of a need
for new equipment; through the conception, design,
construction andprocurement processes; the operate
and maintain phase; and all the way to winding down,
decommissioning and disposal,” says Nepgen.
Following thematurity assessment, Pragma’s Road
Map takes the organisation through gap analysis,
which indentifies the gaps between the actual and
aspirational maturity levels of the plant. This becomes
a starting point of developing an Asset Management
Improvement Plan (AMIP), typically implementedover
a period of between one and three years.
The detail is very comprehensively specified
through17keyperformanceareas(KPAs)and150best
practices withmonitored key performance indicators
(KPIs) carefully specified tomatch thematurity of the
organisation’s programme.
In the political space, improvement plans are being
formed and reformed continuously. Zuma referenced
several in this year’s SONA: theNational Development
Plan; theNinePoint Plan to reignite growth; SANRAL’s
plan to upgrade the Moloto Road; and a plan to lower
the costs of data “for the youth”.
But political plans tend to be viewed with scepti-
cism. Perhaps this is why when Zuma talked about
radical socio-economic transformation, he said: “We
are saying that we should move beyond words, to
practical programmes.”
Fundamental to ensuring that asset management
plans achieve their goals are a structured set of objec-
tive checks and balances. Systematic and transparent
monitoring of progress enables honest appraisals of
what is and what isn’t working. While managers are
held to account, theprocesses aredesigned toencour-
age responsiveness, responsible decision-making,
clarity of purpose and unity across the organisation’s
implementing team.
It is hard to see South Africa’s political maturity
level much above fire-fighting mode. Our goals are in
place, but our leaders are reacting, not implementing.
South Africa needs to create a Road Map like the
onePragmaisapplyingtokeepourassetshealthy–one
that embeds proper checks andbalances and effective
accountability.
Perhaps the keywords on Pragma’s RoadMapmay
help: diagnose, strategise, comply, stabilise, improve,
optimise, sustain and, as a general end goal, well be-
ing – for all.
Peter Middleton
MechChem Africa
is endorsed by:
Peter Middleton