Nature of Opportunity: In January 2003, the government turned over management and majority ownership of providing power, water, and waste handling services to MARAFIQ. In July 2004, under the visionary leadership of their President and his management team, MARAFIQ initiated a project to develop a strategic plan for Asset Management. SAMI was selected to support the development of the strategic plan based on proven strategic planning methodology, a logical model of maintenance and reliability progression (the SAMI Asset Healthcare Triangle), and a track record of successful implementations. MARAFIQ appointed a Strategic Planning Team and a Senior Management Steering Committee to conduct the Strategic Planning.

• The site visits and analyses that the Strategic Planning Team (SP Team) performed for this Strategic Plan, found three broad themes or issues consistently:
• The organization structure and functioning did not support or align with Asset Management requirements
• There was no unified process to manage the flow or objectives of maintenance work
• In Asset Management, the emphasis in previous years had been on the tools (SAP) of work management, not on efficiency or effective application

The Strategic Planning Team developed a vision for the company's future state: "To implement the Asset Healthcare program (later renamed the Palm Program) to meet customer needs at competitive costs leading to higher company profitability, by ensuring plant availability and optimizing business processes."

This vision is being achieved through the execution of the Strategic Plan by implementing standard business processes, coupled with consistent KPI's to measure performance and productivity.

What We Are Doing:

• Establishing standard work management business processes coupled with consistent KPI’s to measure performance and productivity
• Enhancing SAP utilization to measure and manage all maintenance and related material activities
• Improving Asset Healthcare related competencies, including Risk Management, Root Cause Failure Analysis and Human Resources’ policies
• Adopting a ZERO failures strategy and reducing unplanned downtime
• Ensuring equipment is operated within specified operating limits
• Optimizing equipment maintenance strategies
• Improving Material & Warehousing management systems
• Improving Maintenance Planning & Scheduling processes
• Implementing effective contract management processes to ensure that work meets performance standards

Results: The Business Case for implementation is shown in the Realization Chart below. MARAFIQ expects an annualized financial return that exceeds four times the project cost.