South African asset management specialist group PRAGMA has expanded its international presence with the completion of its Asset Management Improvement Program (AMiP) assessment at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in The Netherlands.
AMiP is PRAGMA`s best practice methodology, developed with partial funding from the Department of Trade and Industry`s Competitiveness Fund, designed to improve the asset management practices and increase the maturity of teams involved in asset management optimisation.
"AMiP`s methodology forms the backbone of all our products and services," says Adriaan Scheeres, CEO of PRAGMA Holdings. "It has already been translated into five languages, including Dutch, to ensure a smooth entrance into international markets where we have found companies hungry for new and effective asset management solutions."
Cape-headquartered PRAGMA makes use of channel partners to provide the local presence and expertise required for successful asset management projects in the international sphere.
IES Asset Management Services, an accredited value-added reseller (VAR) based in Holland, undertook the Schiphol project. Jelle Gernaat, MD of IES, says the company focuses on PRAGMA`s offerings due to the high quality of its solutions and the measurable results clients obtain in short project timeframes.
The initial project at Schiphol was a five-day process to audit the airport`s parking management system. The first two days were spent on client preparation, a process involving the creation and training of the team responsible for the audit and the preparation of Assessor, an assessment software tool developed by PRAGMA.
"It`s imperative that the people involved in the assessment process are employees who will continue running the show once the AMiP assessment is complete," notes Gernaat.
The following day was devoted to going through the AMiP best-practices benchmark, followed by a day in which improvement actions were defined and the results were discussed among the project team. The final day consisted of feedback and assisting the airport in establishing goals and priorities for optimal asset utilisation.
"AMiP is a structured approach for implementing and improving the asset management process in organisations," says Gernaat. "It ensures that operation, production, maintenance, working methods, systems and procedures are optimally aligned and that staff follow the same set of policies and procedures in asset use. The methodology highlights and prioritises weak areas that need attention, and also provides a clear focus on what steps need to be taken to improve corporate asset management."
He adds that AMiP aligns the company`s asset management strategy with business strategy, tests the maturity of asset management processes, sets goals for improvements in a broad asset management improvement master plan and follows through to the actual implementation of the plan.
"The implementation of the AMiP methodology in a sophisticated environment such as Schiphol illustrates that locally developed intellectual property can compete effectively in world markets," adds Scheeres. "Proof of the AMiP success and the effectiveness of our solutions is the decision by Schiphol management to employ AMiP for another asset management improvement project at the airport."
Gernaat adds that Schiphol is just the first step in the Dutch market for PRAGMA and IES. The Amsterdam Public Tranport Company has also successfully conducted an AMiP assessment of the airfield maintenance department. Since its international launch last year, AMiP has been well received at a number of international sites including Anglo Gold in Brazil, an Intel factory in Ireland and TetraPak in Sweden.
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