In a recent discussion with an executive leader of operations of one of the largest transportation entities in the country, he talked about a key strategic challenge the industry faces in asset uptime. “Our assets run for between 30 to 60 years – that’s decades more than the time any of our crew spends with us; every time an employee retires or decides to change jobs, we lose knowledge that has been accumulated over years and has no way of being transmitted to his or her replacement”.
We rarely think of the competing lifespans of assets vs the crew that works to keep those assets in excellent working condition, especially when day-to-day firefighting is the norm. Yet, executives at top-performing asset-heavy businesses are increasingly focused on retaining knowledge that is typically lost when an employee leaves the organization. This is especially critical where their profitability and KPIs depend on asset-uptime, optimizing spares and managing schedules – all of which are in turn dependent on the skillset of the employees that are tasked with managing these aspects of business.
What is Institutional IP?
Connixt sees Institutional IP (Intellectual Property) as the knowledge accumulated by experienced hands at any business. This knowledge could be by virtue of working at the same company for many years or handling the same job across more than one. McKinsey refers to Institutional Superpowers – and we believe that protecting, nurturing and propagating Institutional IP is one of those key superpowers.
Consider, for instance, a trucking company where trucks need to be subject to Preventive Maintenance after the first 20,000 miles. A back-end CMMS / EAM system generates a work-order for this job. The technician – let’s call him Charlie – is expected to follow a standard checklist of tasks which, once completed, he enters into the system to close out the WO. But, since Charlie is a “good” or “expert” tech, he leverages his specialized knowledge that factors in a complex set of variables to complete the work on hand. For instance, “this particular year, make and model of truck running on this specific brand of tires using these specific brand of brake pads requires special attention in February after 15,000 of those 20,000 miles have been through challenging winter conditions”. Charlie has a “feel” for the things that need to be checked, changed or fine-tuned, and even requisitions the parts that he believes will likely be required. Truck rolls in, he completes his work, truck runs without any challenges. Charlie is recognized as a great technician.
But this is not a replicable situation across the organization if the same maintenance task were to be carried out half-way across the world at a different maintenance facility by a technician speaking a different language. The knowledge that Charlie has is siloed and almost impossible to catalog as it stands now. And when he retires or moves to a different company, that knowledge is gone for good.
In other words, what Charlie knows needs to be banked and available for use across the organization. This is a great example of Institutional IP.
This is a necessity across all parts of the organization – especially at the strategic level (e.g. how does a business respond to a crisis, bad weather, a supply chain challenge etc.). It is also a necessity at the functional level – an area that is often neglected. There needs to be specific effort towards a process of cataloging the learnings, mistakes and successes across the organization for later use.
So, how do you go about capturing Institutional IP?
Enter Connixt.
The first step is to digitize work, capturing information from the field and contextualizing the information so captured.
Let’s head back to Charlie now. What if he were to use Connixt iMarq™ which allows him to not only follow a set process (a necessity for any organization of any scale), but also add his own “color” to the process? He now not only completes the process, but can also speak his comments into the digital system in whatever language he is most proficient in – iMarq’s iBot AI Maintenance Assistance automatically transcribes those comments. Charlie is also able to add photos, annotate them pointing to specific issues he has seen, videos of how he tackles those issues and more. Half-way across the country his colleague, Joe, uses iMarq’s diagnostic tool to help answer an issue he is facing. The system now quickly zeroes in on the use-cases that Charlie has created – Joe can now view these instructions in his own language, can access those photos for guidance and complete his work. He can further add his own comments and photos and so on. Charlie and Joe have collaborated without ever having to meet or even know of each other’s existence. This is how Institutional IP is built, cataloged, assimilated and used on a daily basis across this business – it relies on a set process to capture input from the individual and to continually enhance it.
One downstream effect is that iMarq also now provides an easy means to train young professionals and other new employees. And with all the data now accumulated globally, analytics & insights become easier – for instance, comparing Standard Repair Times across divisions, geographies, asset models. And, yes, this can also help address the issue of technician shortage, while garnering operational efficiencies. And make life easier for the technician.
About Connixt iMarqTM
Connixt develops mobile apps that solve maintenance challenges for crews around the world. iMarq, an enterprise-grade, mobile-first solution simplifies crew’s life by digitizing asset maintenance, workshops, inspections, audits, and compliance. iMarq’s no-code platform seamlessly integrates with any CMMS/EAMs like Trimble, and ELDs to automate service requests, work orders and time tracking.
Trusted by customers like United Road, Fluke, and Mid-South Transport, iMarq sees adoption rates over 90% and efficiency gains of over 20% with its customers. It improves labor efficiency resulting in higher ROI, requires minimal IT involvement to deploy and enables organizations to achieve their sustainability goals
