Insight
Supporting IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS) Implementation from the Ground Up
Jason Smith
Director, Business Development
Jason Smith, Business Development Director at ABS Consulting, discusses the importance of a holistic approach to implementing the IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS) to enhance asset management, improve operational efficiency and transition from reactive to proactive maintenance strategies.
Jason has over twenty years of experience in sales, focusing on SaaS products, CRM, EAM, CMMS Services, Reliability Services and Technology Solutions. He has helped a multitude of fortune 500 organizations improve their operations and achieve business goals. Jason has held director roles in sales and operations, providing SaaS document management software and services.
Supporting IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS) Implementation from the Ground Up
The maintenance and reliability industry has shifted drastically in recent years, led by the digital transformation of industry 4.0. With the IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS) being a critical piece in the transformation process, organizations trying to undertake MAS implementation or upgrades without considering what the full reliability journey will look like, or what they may need to do to prepare for its implementation, can create more confusion than progress.
With current Maximo users facing a September 2025 deadline to transition to MAS, Jason Smith – Business Development Director at ABS Consulting – discusses the benefits of taking a holistic approach to asset management, beginning with the evaluation of operations and strategy development, all the way through to the process and systems implementations.
Taking a more considered approach can, says Smith, solidify an organizations’ preparedness to successfully integrate MAS into its operations, thus reaping the associated benefits that the new system offers.
Benefits of Asset Management in Developing Proactive Maintenance Strategies
More companies are now turning to enterprise asset management applications to gain better visibility into their critical assets, supporting more effective maintenance and management decision making, helping to maximize asset reliability and minimize maintenance costs.
Predicting issues before they occur is at the heart of Reliability Based Maintenance (RBM). And through a data and analytics-driven approach an organization can typically help reduce unplanned asset outages by up to 50%, whilst reducing scheduled repairs through predictive maintenance by up to 12%, helping to save valuable time and resources.
Taking a more holistic approach to equipment maintenance can help to identify any ‘bad actors’ within a business. And by identifying critical problems, an organization can focus where they place their time and effort rather than trying to deal with every problem.
Good maintenance is about effective resource management, and central to this is computerised maintenance and management systems (CMMS)– typified by the latest version of MAS. Much of the information required to make better-informed decisions is already available to organizations, but experience shows that whilst they may have the information, the vast majority are not using it to their greatest benefit or to support an increase along the reliability continuum.
So, the question is: where to start? And the answer to that is numbers speak volumes. We should start by setting metrics – establishing a base-line picture so that you can see a much more comprehensive process moving up the maturity continuum.
Everything revolves around a continual improvement wheel. The goal is to relate what you do with maintenance and reliability at the heart of an organization - ideally through identifying critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
KPIs can help present a better business case. Examples could include:
| Total Maintenance Cost as a Percentage of Replacement Asset Value (RAV) |
| Availability - How often the asset is running or capable of running compared to its actual operational schedule. |
| Unscheduled Downtime - The amount of time the asset is unavailable due to repairs that are not on the weekly maintenance schedule (break-in work) |
| Wrench Time - The actual time maintenance crews are affecting repairs. |
| Stockouts - The frequency at which parts are requested from the stock system but not available. |
By establishing and measuring key metrics an organization can start to identify what is causing the most loss. And any loss that can be prevented is positive – both in time and money.
Through this approach an organization can better position itself to measure Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) – looking at the full productive time of equipment.
Everything is related. If you want to run a business at a world class standard, all this should be considered. Furthermore, this approach is both achievable and affordable.
You should be aiming for 80-85% of planned maintenance work with not more than 15% unplanned via this method, not the 30-40-50% emergency work levels which are common when this approach is not utilized.
The more unplanned work you are forced to react to, the heavier the cost incurred. This can be the most inefficient and the least safe way of operating because the machine is dictating what is happening within the organization, not the organization planning what will be done, and when.
The goal should be to move from reactive (repair after failure), through to planned (repair before failure), predictive (measure and repair), reliability (not only repair, but improve) and ultimately an enterprise approach (improve and sustain).
Most businesses will have the capability of undertaking this process themselves, but just don’t know where to start or the processes to take. They know they want to be more efficient, but there are often cultural dynamics between maintenance, reliability and operations teams within the organization.
It is very difficult to move up the maturity continuum if you are not planning and managing your maintenance and repair schedules. It’s about having a maintenance action before there is a functional failure. And MAS is a key tool that can help to achieve this.
Business Excellence: Leveraging the Digitalization of MAS for Industry 4.0
MAS now leverages automation and smart data, providing customizable dashboards, live health statistics, advanced AR capabilities and more.
It allows an organization to set a single metric or request specific equipment alerts by utilizing both current and historical data trends, helping to move a business from reactive to proactive through data-driven decision-making.
Maximo Application Suite Benefits
MAS represents the next level of asset maintenance. Asset health scoring is available, allowing hidden risk conditions to be revealed before they impact business, and can accelerate ROI with the capability to start realizing maintenance savings in weeks.
Key Steps to Implementing MAS
One of the first steps in moving to MAS is to consider the existing position and knowledge within the business from a MAS perspective, helping determine how ready it is to move to and utilize the benefits MAS delivers. One of the key success factors could be to bring in support to help make a successful transition.
You should consider migrating data to the new system, providing training to ensure proficiency in the new system and conducting testing to help ensure that the system is working as expected.
MAS implementation starts with acknowledging the role that Change Management will play. Leadership engagement and a willingness to adopt the changes that MAS will necessitate are critical success factors and a foundation for a successful MAS journey.
Identifying the changes in approach to maintenance strategies that will be required is essential. Where are you today and where do you want to be tomorrow are fundamental questions to ask at the start of the process.
From there an organization will need to consider its:
- Master Asset List
- Asset Criticality Listing
- Required Reliability Strategies
Effective reliability strategies are rooted in key RBM methodology and looks at the following steps:
Why Is Asset Criticality Important?
Identifying asset criticality is a key step in the process, as it provides a detailed profile of the characteristics that make each asset critical, allowing you to better ensure that your reliability strategies and improvements are made based on calculated risk rather than perception.
This approach also supports the prioritization of daily CMMS workflow processes such as planning, scheduling and material procurement, acting as a primary mechanism for prioritizing improvement activities.
Reliability Strategies in MAS?
- Focus on Critical Assets
- Simplify and Shorten Process to Implement Strategies
- Deliver Performance Monitoring
- Offer Continuous Improvement
While previous updates were more straightforward, MAS has distinct differences from its previous incarnations, including a new interface, updated integration authentications as well as other technical changes.
Conclusion
Overall, IBM Maximo helps in extending asset lifecycles, reducing operational costs and improving the reliability and safety of pipeline operations.
While the benefits of MAS are considerable, successfully transitioning to it is not always straightforward, and organizations should plan specifically for the move if they are to take advantage of the benefits MAS provides.
MAS specialists within organizations such as ABS Consulting can help to support the migration process, helping set the successful foundations to make MAS a fully integrated tool that can significantly increase pipeline maintenance and reliability programs.
