How effective is your RAM strategy? Know where you stand against peers with unique data-driven insight.
Sustained high reliability is key to surviving the challenges of industry globalization, fuels demand destruction, and environmental sustainability. Is your RAM strategy keeping up? Solomon’s International Study of Plant Reliability and Maintenance Effectiveness Performance Analysis (RAM Study) yields valuable insight into the performance, strategy, and culture of top performers. Regardless of your current performance, uncover hidden opportunities that can help improve your performance and enhance profitability.
Since 1996, >10,000 production units have relied on Solomon RAM Study results.
- How reliable are my facilities compared to top-reliability performers?
- How do my scheduled and unscheduled downtimes and rate reductions due to RAM issues compare to my peers?
- How does my workforce size and productivity compare to my peers?
- Is my availability and spending optimized?
- How effective is my RAM program in driving reliability outcomes?
- How reactive or proactive are my facilities compared to my peers?
- How do my labor, materials, and indirect expenses compare to my peers?
- How efficient and effective are my turnarounds?
- How do my reliability and maintenance work processes compare?
- Where are my centers of excellence and how can I leverage them internally?
- Where are our company, sites, and units on our reliability journey?
- How effective are our corporate, site, and unit RAM strategies?
Solomon’s 40+ years of benchmarking data proves sustained high performance requires a clear and robust strategy focused on reliability. This strategy improves the entire organization from top to bottom.
How important is it to have an optimized RAM strategy? Comparing the best performers to the worst shows a significant financial gap associated with Asset Reliability and Maintenance Cost Performance.
In the short term, cost cutting is easy, while reliability improvements ensure true, long-term profitability and lead to sustainable maintenance cost reductions.
Solomon’s best performing clients are continuously improving and adapting faster than their peers. Knowing how you are keeping up is invaluable in deciding how to focus your resources to adapt and strive to be or stay ahead. The RAM Study helps you focus on your performance gaps with the highest value as well as reinforce the strengths that make you successful.
The RAM Study illustrates the importance of proactive behavior, which helps all employees understand their role in working proactively to:
- Optimize maintenance spending.
- Reduce the probability of unplanned events.
- Increase mechanical availability.
“The Solomon RAM Study deliverables provide a solid basis for setting short and long-term performance targets for developing improvement plans based on the characteristics of high performing organization and for monitoring our progress in closing performance gaps.” GENERAL MANAGER, CHEMICAL FACILITY
“We have found the Solomon RAM Study to be of benefit in assessing our maintenance and engineering practices to our site and provided valuable insights on reliability issues of our assets and identifying performance gaps." GENERAL MANAGER, CHEMICAL FACILITY
Why Participate?
- Identify, quantify & optimize areas for improved reliability & maintenance performance.
- Confirm performance capabilities across the site & company.
- Understand performance compared to competition.
- Provide justifications for capital investment & staffing plans.
- Achieve a sustainable reliability culture.
- Add cash value to your business.
- Develop or enhance a strategy for growth.
- Set achievable improvement targets.
- Become more profitable.
Study Deliverables
As part of the study, you will receive the following:
- Executive summary presentation with actionable insight supported by study data.
- An opportunities report including data tables, performance rankings, aggregated peer group results, detailed gap analyses, and historical trends.
- Workshop covering how to review and use the data analysis delivered.
- Document on how to get the most out of your RAM Study experience.
Recent Study Enhancements
- More process family options (more accurate comparisons to peer groups)
- Turnaround performance details (management, strategy, and execution)
- Workforce breakdown for routine and turnaround work
- Maintenance contract types (time and materials, unit rates, lump sum, etc.)
- Non-RAM maintenance hours (cleaning, catalyst, building, and grounds)
- Measuring rental and lease costs
- Maintenance rework (measurement and recording)
- Piping system events (piping system for both process and utilities)
- Asset inspection intervals
- Predictive analytics/machine learning
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
A: An international study that helps you identify your greatest opportunities for improvement in RAM performance compared to others in the industry. The study uses propriety data to uncover performance gaps and make informed business decisions.
A: After completing the RAM Study and receiving your results, you will understand what you are doing well and what operational gaps require attention and present your biggest opportunities to improve. The best performers routinely participate in the study to understand if their strategies are effective.
A: The study delivers invaluable information detailing the performance of upstream, refining, petrochemicals, utilities, and other industrial segments. The RAM Study includes performance information on RAM for routine, turnaround, equipment performance, and organizational staffing. These data are included in the results files provided to the client.
A: Participating in the RAM Study allows you to compare your performance to your process family peer group as well as your industry segment. This comparison identifies gaps with peers.
A: Client performance gaps are monetized for both maintenance and production losses. This monetization allows the client to know the value of gap closure efforts. Gaps are segmented into specific categories allowing the client to focus on the most value added efforts.
A: More than 75% of participants are repeat clients. Repeat participation helps validate adjustments made in the past, adjust to industry movements and understand the impact of market shifting events in different geographies. Top performers continue to raise the bar by focusing on the most value-added opportunities demonstrated in the results of the study.
A: Absolutely. The RAM Study complements other Solomon studies by digging deeper into many areas, including cultural behaviors to determine reactive versus proactive characteristics and whether a company focuses on reliability or cost cutting.
A: Solomon looks at the underlying behaviors which generate consistent high reliability performance. Some of these topics include proactive versus reactive work, projects with life cycle cost analysis, resolution of “bad actor” lists, and root cause analysis performed along with work execution practices for routine and turnaround maintenance plus many more.
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Learn How You Can Participate
Whether you are a large or small organization, participating in the RAM Study is a valuable exercise. The analysis identifies your gaps with peers and delivers data and insight that helps you implement a roadmap to achieve performance excellence in reliability and maintenance.
Data Quality, Benchmarking Methodology
A Foundation for Effective Comparative Performance Analysis and Decision Support
We prioritize the integrity and confidentiality of participant-submitted data and rigorously review that data before benchmarking begins. Then, we employ our normalization process and benchmarking methodology to provide valuable and trusted peer group comparisons that deliver meaningful KPIs. Finally, our staff of senior consultants apply their deep industry experience to develop practical insight and recommendations to enable your success.
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