A free sample from The Operating Model, Book 1 of the NJN Consulting Asset Management Series.
If you have inherited a maintenance organization that is firefighting, missing its targets, and burning out its people, this book is for you. If you are building an asset management programme from scratch, this book is for you. If you have a working programme that has quietly drifted in the years since it launched, this book is for you.
Every one of these situations has the same root cause: a missing or broken operating model. Not a missing strategy. Not missing technology. Not missing people. A missing operating model — the system that holds everything else together.
This book is the foundation of the eight-pillar Practical Asset Management Framework. It builds the governance, the roles, the cadence, and the management discipline that the next seven books rely on. Without it, the technical work of criticality (Book 2), tactics (Book 3), and work management (Book 4) doesn't add up to a system. With it, those technical pillars compound — every improvement holds, and every quarter the operation gets a little more reliable.
What you'll find in this book is operational, not academic. There are worked examples from operating sites. There are templates you can adapt. There is a 100-day Rapid Results plan in Chapter 11 designed for plants that need to stop the bleeding before they can think about long-term improvement.
Twelve chapters across the operating-model journey.
Introduction — Why operating models fail
Chapter 1. What is an Operating Model?
Chapter 2. ISO 55001 alignment & the Strategic Asset Management Plan
Chapter 3. The Eight-Pillar Practical Asset Management Framework
Chapter 4. Roles, responsibilities, and the cross-functional team model
Chapter 5. The Six-Step Work Management process and RACI
Chapter 6. AM Plan, management review, and the operating cadence
Chapter 7. Performance management at the operating-model level
Chapter 8. Leadership in the engineering journey
Chapter 9. Maturity Journey — From Firefighting to World Class
Chapter 10. Maturity vs Business Performance — the four positions
Chapter 11. The 100-day Rapid Results implementation plan
Chapter 12. Leadership and change management
An Operating Model is the framework that defines how an organization delivers value through its people, processes, and systems. In asset-intensive industries — mining, utilities, manufacturing, and process plants — the operating model answers a fundamental question:
"How do we ensure that our physical assets deliver the performance required to achieve our business objectives — safely, reliably, and at the lowest sustainable cost?"
The operating model defines the structure within which all asset management activities occur. It is not a document — it is a living system of aligned roles, consistent processes, enabling technology, and accountable people.
Every effective operating model rests on three interdependent pillars: People, Processes, and Technology. Weakness in any one undermines the entire system. ISO 55001:2024 recognizes this explicitly.
A practical guide to asset management organization, governance, and continuous improvement.
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