“Line of Sight” is all about how an organisation is organised around its core reason for being, and how this is visible to all the people engaged with that organisation’s delivery.
As a rule, organisations should have a point. The point of a railway is to move things from one place to another place. The point of a power station is to produce power. And so on.
Another way of describing the point of an organisation, is the organisations ‘unified purpose’: The thing that everyone in that organisation is there to do.
There is a very famous story about President John F. Kennedy visiting NASA during the space-race. During his visit, Kennedy asked a janitor what he was doing. The janitor responded:
“Mr. President, I'm helping put a man on the moon.”
“Line of sight” is about making the unified purpose of the organisation obvious to everyone who needs to deliver that purpose. That includes the President and that includes the Janitors.
Where does “line of sight” come from?
Honest answer – I’m not really sure where the expression comes from (if you know please do comment below or get in touch!).
However, the concept is well defined within the ISO 9000 family of standards about quality management systems first published in 1987 and last updated in 2015.
Essentially, these standards say that the point of an organisation should be written down, so that people know what the point is. It also advises that you might need to be more specific about the point of the organisation for specific people.
So why are asset managers so excited about “Line of sight?”
As I mentioned in a post last week:
Engineering is about using logic to solve problems. Asset management is about applying engineering logic specifically to the ownership of physical assets.
This doesn’t explain why we care about solving problems, which is where Line of sight comes in. Asset managers want to solve problems so that the unified purpose of the organisation is delivered.
Brilliant asset management presents a clear line of sight. Where the purpose of the physical assets is understood by everyone delivering that purpose. From senior management, to accountants, to maintainers, to operators.
While it very much depends on the specific organisation, the documents typically considered to define the asset management line of sight are set out in the following table:
Simplified Asset Management Line of Sight, © 2019 Joe Inniss Consulting Ltd.
While this is a simplified diagram, it is worth making some notes:
The asset management objectives should be mutually exclusive. That is to say, they should not all be achievable at the same time. Consider a rail passenger going from one place to another place, by train. The perfect journey is instantaneous, free and has zero safety risk. In reality, there will be some compromise between journey time, safety, and cost.
The asset management strategy might also be called a strategic asset management plan. Without being too niche, it’s not always got the same name, but an organisation should have a strategy for asset management.
Would you like to know more?
How this aspect of ISO 9001 is applied in asset management, is described in detail in the Institute of Asset Management Subject Specific Guideline 1, 2 & 5 - Asset Management Policy, Strategy and Plans as well as Asset Management – an anatomy.
ISO 9001 can be purchased directly from ISO.
The BSI have significant experience in both the quality management standards (ISO 9001).
P.S.
For help defining or improving your asset management line of sight, please do get in touch, or find out about how I can help you!