MechChem Africa February 2017

MechChem Africa

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February 2017

Asset management

and the state of our nation

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

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