Advanced asset management
The assessment involved 26 business functions which are seen as the core governance groups that report within the E&B function at Heathrow. These were categorised across their four core priorities: Performance, People, Safety and Compliance.
This review ensured that function-specific status, priority, actions, and timings are related to assets and asset management tasks. The most important aspect was that it contributed to advanced asset management, improving data capabilities and enhancing operational processes, alongside being prescriptive and standardising this approach across other business areas which don’t also follow this process.
Known weaknesses with corresponding recommendations were finalised to accommodate continual improvement of status across the board. This aimed to make all governance activities viable in Power BI, without overlapping current processes. Such factors reflected the maturity of the use of data to automate activities that support the Asset Management System and enhance the integration of Heathrow’s Central Management System (CMS) and day-to-day operations.
Enabling transparency through data management processes
Our scope of work aimed to specifically capture how Performance, Safety and Compliance, and People within E&B report on and track performance. Tracking was achieved through the separation of these priorities into business functions, focusing on those that are responsible for providing core services within E&B at Heathrow Airport. Reporting provides senior leadership assurance that it is hitting its targets, alongside providing the necessary information as to why functions may not be currently achieving set targets.
We were also charged with uncovering each function’s data management processes to enable transparency. In instances where current data sources were manual and not suitable for Power BI reporting such as Excel or PDF, it was advised to use more robust data sources, such as Maximo or SharePoint Lists, for greater automation and Power BI functionality.
Solutions to generate continual improvements
Our scope of work included a dual phase approach to assessing Heathrow’s governance, including current processes and tools for their core priorities Safety & Compliance, People, and Performance. This involved undertaking a complete governance assessment, before creating individual Power BI dashboards for the core reporting processes and data sources.
We conducted various workshops and engagements with multiple core owners across the 26 business functions to understand the status of the assigned areas and what processes fed into governance. Through this, we uncovered gaps – specifically certain tools used, performance targets, and KPIs. Alongside this, opportunities arose throughout these discussions and contributed towards the final recommendations that followed for continual improvement.
This aimed to make all governance activities viable in Power BI, without overlapping current processes. These factors reflect the maturity of utilising data to automate activities that support the Asset Management System and enhance the integration of their central management system and support day-to-day operations.
Our approach:
- Identified individuals within the organisation who had knowledge about how a business function would report. Extensive mapping included engaging with additional leads to satisfy understanding and data.
- Discussed with business functions what is useful to report in governance as well as how that is currently done.
- Agreed on what performance targets are useful to include in the metrics for each of the reporting processes.
- Created Power BI dashboards for each area with unique performance metrics and individual data sources that supplied assurance into reaching targets.
- Investigated where manual processes in data and information transferral can be automated in the future.
- Identified where additional Power BI dashboards or Power Apps could be created for other business functions or processes.
- Produced individual summary reports for each function within the primary dashboard that specify key inputs and outputs for the function, specific performance and governance insights.
- Compiled hard findings into a main report with associated risks, opportunities, issues, core recommendations, and high-level next steps and priorities to be focused on.
Benefits
We slim-lined and automated processes for Heathrow, helping to save important time and effort alongside a single version of truth between business functions, enhancing the integration of Heathrow’s Central Management System (CMS) and day-to-day operations.
The project demonstrated how current processes are being utilised between functions and encouraged more efficient data management where required to allow for improved processes and systems for effective governance management.