John Hardwick, AM Council Board Member, attended and presented at MAINTCON 2014 in Bahrain.
John presented on the Business Benefits of the Journey from Maintenance to Asset Management, which generated a lot of questions and indicated that asset management discussions in the Middle East are far more widespread than they were a couple of years ago. Asset management is clearly a subject of poignant interest.
He was on a panel session on the Effect of Maintenance & Reliability on Financial Performance. This panel focussed on investment and getting a return on assets, which sparked a lively debate amongst delegates.
Of the conference, John noted “the event attracted 950+ delegates with a real thirst for knowledge. Like all these types of events when you share your knowledge it is amazing what you learn in return. The key theme that resonated was that people are the difference between high performing organisations and those that are not”.
John was one of 13 GFMAM members who attended MAINTCON, 8 of whom presented papers at the event. The GFMAM had a strong presence in Bahrain, and added a lot of international content to the conference.
The GFMAM delegates continued their discussion and debate on AM Maturity and why it is important. They gathered feedback about the characteristics of a mature organisation, and John is currently putting a draft together for circulation. It is expected there will be a GFMAM release next year as an outcome of this work.
Finally, John represented the Asset Management Council at the very first face-to-face meeting of the board members of the World Partners in Asset Management (WPiAM).