Asset Management

Organization

Every Fleet operation has a different role for their maintenance staff. The Fleet Manager may control all the asset acquisition and disposal or may only be used as a reference for reliability information.

• What is best for your organization?
• Do you have accurate maintenance and availability data to make intelligent decisions?
• What skill sets do your staff possess for managing fleet assets?
• How does Operations communicate with Fleet Maintenance?

These basic organizational questions are rarely answered well by employees who are fully tasked with daily activities and who probably don't have the skill sets to reengineer process.

Acquisition

Typically, the purchase decision for equipment is based on features and initial cost. Initial cost, however, is less than half the lifecycle cost of an asset, excluding fuel, insurance and tracks or tires. How would the purchase decision change if:

• The maintenance costs on brand of equipment proved to be 30% more than another?
• The availability of equipment with one powertrain specification proved to be 10% more than another?
• The fuel mileage of one power plant was 3% better than another?

Maintenance

How should you manage your fleet maintenance? Fleet owners can choose to set up and run their own facilities or rely on a third party to perform all or some of the fleet maintenance.

In house operations should regularly be reviewed to determine if:

• The shop is using best practices to minimize lifecycle costs. See Maintenance 101.
• The policies and procedures ensure compliance with the provisions of the National Safety Code.

Third party service providers should also be audited to ensure that:

• They are providing value driven repairs
• Maintenance programs are cost effective
• Billing methods are consitient.

What about warrany? Does your organization have a method to ensure that manufacturers and vendors honor all stated warranties?

 Disposal

Disposal timing is also has some questions which need to ne answered.

• What is the "Sweet Spot" for disposal timing? Should it be the same for all similar assets?
• Should disposal be handled internally or by a third party?

Many times disposal timing is based on a dramatic rise in maintenance costs or a dramatic drop in availability. Frustration often triggers the decision. This is usually poor process for companies which want to minimize lifecycle costs.

KelRoy's experienced consultants can analyze your state of affairs and provide cost saving solutions.