{"id":52354,"date":"2023-04-06T16:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abl-group.com\/abl\/?p=52354"},"modified":"2024-02-28T14:17:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T14:17:18","slug":"maintenance-during-mergers-and-acquisitions-the-challenges-and-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abl-group.com\/abl\/all-media\/blog\/maintenance-during-mergers-and-acquisitions-the-challenges-and-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintenance during mergers and acquisitions: The challenges and solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Honing in specifically on the maintenance function of the two entities, there are a range of challenges to overcome – from efficiently migrating from one CMMS to another while ensuring the integrity of your data, to managing the culture shift among maintenance teams and their different philosophies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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To help you plan for a seamless integration of your maintenance functions, we have asked our North America Operations Lead, Sam Leach, to share his insights around key challenges faced by maintenance teams during mergers and acquisitions<\/a>, as well as provide actionable solutions\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Challenge 1: Integrating systems and software<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA common challenge I often see when it comes to mergers and acquisitions is that the two companies have different CMMS software which need to be integrated into one. The most common CMMS software right now would be SAP and Maximo, but the way they\u2019re both structured and how each program identifies their assets are very, very different. As you can imagine, this is a really big undertaking and a significant challenge when companies merge or are acquired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the acquiring company were using SAP and the acquired company was using Maximo, you may be able to determine how Maximo is structured, how they lay out their function locations, identify their assets or plan their maintenance, but a lot of times what you don’t know is how all assets are actually identified in the CMMS and at what level. Maximo may not identify assets at the very lowest component level, for instance, whereas SAP might get right down into the component level or the construction level of a particular asset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat you really need is someone who knows both CMMS programs well so they can decode the data, move all assets over and integrate the two in an organised fashion. At ABL we have several people who can do that very well – we’re one of the best out there in terms of understanding CMMSs and we have experts who have worked a lot in the core programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDepending on how evolved the acquiring company is in terms of their CMMS standards – the codes they use to identify and format assets, equipment types, function location flocks and so on – we would follow that guidance 100%, but we do offer our expertise and suggestions in how we\u2019ve done it before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving our depth of knowledge and experience means there’s much less time and training involved to integrate the two systems. Our team has a really rich understanding of various CMMSs, as well as what\u2019s important when integrating two systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Challenge 2: Merging of data<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce you\u2019ve integrated all of the assets over to a single CMMS, you often find that there are unidentified assets. It\u2019s very common for the acquirer to have gone through several acquisitions over the years, resulting in losing track of a number of assets each time due to time and financial constraints. Every time they’re acquired, there’s a potential loss of data which can escalate into a huge challenge if the data isn\u2019t captured properly at a later date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, what do you do about all those assets? How are you going to know that they exist? Unless you have a project team and the budget in which to do it, it\u2019s very hard to do this internally. Everybody has a job right now, and that\u2019s what has to take priority. However, the longer you wait to get this data captured, the worse the issue is going to become – as you\u2019ll have work orders being produced and work being done on equipment that is not properly stored in the CMMS, or potentially no maintenance being done on equipment that is missing altogether from the CMMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a process that should happen immediately, but often there’s just not the realisation that this needs to happen until it\u2019s too late, and very few companies want to spend the money or understand the effort it takes to go through and identify all the parts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Solution:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo identify and capture the data<\/a> of all these missing assets, you can look at their P&IDs as part of a desktop asset verification – which we can do – but these documents are usually old and may not represent what’s actually out in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat you do then is actually go and carry out the field walk downs, look around the plant or the pipeline and identify these assets in a physical asset verification, which is another service we offer at ABL. We have a software application called ePAV<\/a> which allows us to capture a whole host of asset information, not just the tag with the equipment tag ID, but also things like the model, manufacturer and serial number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the biggest things we do is a bill of materials<\/a> or spare part analysis, where we analyse all of the parts that make up a piece of equipment, as well as spare parts strategies where we help our clients determine what parts to keep on hand. Again, this is crucial for filling in the missing data in the CMMS and ensuring that all the information for each asset is captured so that maintenance can be carried out efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Challenge 3: Combining philosophies and strategy <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen a company is acquired, it’s not only a process of merging of assets, it\u2019s also about understanding how<\/em><\/strong> the equipment is being maintained in the acquiree\u2019s plan. Each company will have its own way of carrying out maintenance, so there are a number of questions that need to be addressed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n