Complexity Doesn't Need to be Complicated - Part 3
Why focusing on maturity will cost you performance
For decades, the asset management industry has been guided by a familiar image: the maturity continuum. This is a ladder with several rungs, representing progress from reactive disarray to predictive, optimized efficiency. The idea has been to climb this ladder step by step, with the ultimate goal of reaching a specific "maturity level."
But what if this ladder is another version of the wish list problem?
The Maturity Trap: Technology Preceding Process, Again
In part one of our blog series on data, I discussed some thoughtfully organized spreadsheets asking for "AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics to process large datasets" and "prescriptive maintenance strategies with automated insights"? The maturity model creates the same fundamental problem: it puts the focus on developing capabilities for their own sake rather than on solving actual business problems.
The pursuit of maturity, while well-intentioned, often misses the point entirely. It encourages organizations to chase abstract milestones instead of asking seven fundamental questions:
- Which assets do I own and where are they?
- What are they worth?
- What condition are they in?
- What needs to be done to them?
- When does this need to happen?
- How much will I need to spend?
- How does this fit with the organizational strategic plan?
The industry has been stuck in "maturity myopia" for 30 years and it's time we acknowledge that our obsession with maturity has been largely ineffective.
When Maturity Models Become the Enemy of Progress
The maturity model in asset management often creates unrealistic expectations, leading to disappointment and failure. Here's how:
It Becomes an Excuse for Inaction: When presented with a maturity diagram, many plant managers see the higher levels as years away and conclude they aren't "ready" for advanced approaches. This creates an "immaturity complex" that kills opportunities for real improvement before they start.
It Reinforces False Prerequisites: The maturity model tells organizations they must first perfect their data quality or achieve some mysterious qualifying level before they can benefit from modern asset management tools. This is like telling someone they need a perfect credit score before they can start building credit: it's a circular requirement that prevents progress and leads to unrecoverable value loss.
It Misaligns Maintenance with Business Goals: Chasing maturity means maintenance teams will focus on internal metrics, such as percentage of preventive maintenance, without connecting those activities to what the CFO actually cares about: risk containment, revenue and margins. This reinforces the perception of asset management as a "pipeworks" cost center rather than a strategic value driver.
The result? Seven out of ten transformation efforts fail to meet expectations. This isa pattern that mirrors what Brynjolfsson and Hitt documented in their research on information technology and organizational transformation. They found that successful technology implementations require complementary organizational investments that are often an order of magnitude larger than the technology investment itself. The maturity model completely ignores these organizational complements, focusing instead on technology capabilities in isolation. It's just like those brutal fitness programs that are designed to change only one metric without considering the sustainable behavioral changes needed for lasting success.
A Reality Check: What Performance Actually Looks Like
The Seven Questions reminds me of my childhood and how my father didn't teach me to achieve "maintenance maturity level 3." He taught me to keep my bike working safely and reliably so I could deliver newspapers, get to baseball practice and maintain my independence. The goal wasn't the process; the process served the goal. These seven questions are intuitive, even to ten-year-olds with bicycles.
ISO 55001 doesn't talk about maturity but about value, alignment and performance. It encourages a systematic approach where asset management activities directly contribute to achieving organizational objectives. Instead of asking when you'll be "ready" for better asset management, the right question is: "How quickly can we start realizing value from what we're already doing?"
A high-performing asset management system does three things exceptionally well:
Manages Risk Effectively: It provides clear visibility into asset risk exposure relative to the board's tolerance. When the Vice President of Manufacturing knows the condition of critical assets as well as the condition of their golf clubs, leadership can confidently balance performance goals with acceptable risk.
Creates Measurable Value: It demonstrates clear return on investment by shifting from expensive, reactive work to proactive strategies that are demonstrably cheaper and more effective. Remember the blowout preventer on Deepwater Horizon? Its "maturity level" wasn’t important and what mattered was whether it could perform its protective function when needed.
Drives Continual Improvement: Like elite cycling coach Dave Brailsford's "aggregation of marginal gains," a performance-focused system relentlessly monitors what's working, watches for emerging threats and compounds small improvements over time. This creates a feedback loop that enhances the organization's collective knowledge without getting lost in abstract capability assessments.
The Path Forward: Process Before Technology (Finally)
The secret isn't waiting until you're "mature enough" for better asset management. It's about starting with your actual business needs and building capabilities that serve those needs. This means:
Begin with the Seven Questions: Before you worry about what "maturity level" you've achieved, make sure you can answer the basic questions about your assets. Most organizations discover they have significant gaps in these fundamentals. Addressing those gaps immediately creates value.
Focus on Integration, Not Sequential Steps: Stop thinking about foundational tools and advanced analytics as steps on a ladder. When implemented thoughtfully together, they create a system where basic asset management provides the data, and advanced tools operationalize the insights. Organizations see ROI within 12-18 months instead of waiting years to climb maturity rungs.
Measure What Matters: Track metrics that connect to business outcomes, not just process compliance. Strategy value creation, risk containment effectiveness and asset health trends tell you whether your approach is working, regardless of which "maturity level" an assessment says you've achieved.
Complexity Doesn't Need to Be Complicated
Asset management is inherently complex, but the path to improvement doesn't have to be overwhelming. The first step is recognizing the difference between achievable progress and maturity model promises that sound as unrealistic as "prescriptive maintenance" without the foundational data to support it.
Rather than chasing the latest maturity framework, organizations should focus on understanding their actual needs, building solid processes to address those needs, and implementing approaches that serve those processes, not the other way around.
The goal of asset management isn't to reach the top of a maturity chart; it's to build a resilient, high-performing system that consistently delivers value and enables the organization to achieve its strategic objectives.
It's time to leave the “maturity ladder” behind and start focusing on what truly moves the needle. See how HxGN APM helps you focus on performance that drives real results. Visit our website to learn more.