You can’t be in the contemporary world and be unaware of data: its volume, its importance, and its pitfalls. Whenever we download an app, or buy something online, or even just sign up to a newsletter, we are giving the business our personal data. That business then has the opportunity to leverage that data to its own benefit.
Take Google, for example. The powerhouse began as a simple search engine in the late 1990s, but has woven its way into knowing every aspect of our lives: job searching to dating, where we travel and what we buy. The data—to say nothing about the huge breach in privacy currently being investigated by the ACCC—held by Google is beyond anything we can possibly imagine.
Google admits that the company does not have better algorithms than other companies, they simply have more data. Putting aside Google’s alleged dubious methods, no one can argue with the fact they have used the data at their disposal to build value for their business.
For a business intent on enabling value from asset management, using analytics is a must. The Asset Management Council’s Asset Management Concept Model outlines the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) process. The PDCA process encourages people within the organisation to challenge the status quo and review what is currently happening and learn from the findings and is a pillar in any successful asset management plan.
Leveraging data can aid the PDCA process in the following ways:
- Plan how to use data to improve asset performance and revenue. Identify a suite of actions to create physical system to achieve a defined need.
- Do use data to execute the plan. It’s no use planning something and never following through.
- Check the stated intent was achieved and all requirements of the plan were done. Do this through data, of course.
- Act on any variances discovered. This ideally should be acted upon while checking. And make sure the necessary data shows the process.
Data helps businesses to make informed decisions. Informed decisions increase an asset’s lifecycle and the value within your business. It’s a flow-on effect, leading the way to enabling value from asset management.
What is your business doing with its data? Let us know by leaving a comment, we’d love to hear from you. And don’t forget our Data in Asset Management Special Interest Group – it’s a space where you can grow your network and knowledge in data in asset management.