The Nama Group, is the major provider of electricity, water and wastewater services in Oman. The group companies provide all water and power transmission, distribution services. They manage all wastewater services and produce some power and water.
Nama was keen to revolutionise the sector companies to improve operational efficiency, ensure regulatory compliance, and to improve service delivery. Implementing asset management best practice was seen as the catalyst to achieve the desired operational excellence it was aspiring to.
We were approached to help Nama as a result of being recommended after our similar work in Abu Dhabi, which was highly regarded.
We conducted a comprehensive gap analysis against the ISO 55001 and other relevant standards for all eight of the sector companies to identify improvement areas. We supplemented the assessments with more in-depth reviews of the organisational structures, staffing levels and IT systems. We produced reports for each sector company and meet with and briefed each management team.
We then developed implementation roadmaps for each company and another one for the sector and Nama Group as a whole. This set the objectives of each sector company achieving the ISO 55001 standard within two years and other bespoke targets for best practice as required.
The project was supported with awareness and training activities, and included an exemplar visit to the UK by the company CEOs and other senior managers.
NAMA procured our services in future years, to assess the current capabilities, report the progress of the transformation, and advise them and the companies on the way forward.
We became the trusted consultant, and over the next two years, all of the companies employed us to provide support for the transformation in some areas. Knowledge was shared between the companies to speed up and reduce the cost of the transformation. Some of the areas that we supported the companies during this time were:
The outcomes and benefits of the asset management transformation initiative were substantial. All companies achieved ISO 55001 certification at the first attempt and most within the stated timescales.
More importantly, capabilities were greatly improved across the sector, with much better knowledge sharing and consistency in approach. We managed to cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, professionalism, innovation, and best practice adoption within the companies.
The quality of the investment plans, regulatory submissions and investment business case were improved. This enhanced regulatory compliance and led to more efficient use of funds. We also succeeded in improving the capital project delivery performance and achieved operational efficiency gains through optimized maintenance activities and resource allocation.
Overall, the strengthened sector positioned the Nama Group as a leader in asset management practices within in Oman, and a a sector leader in the region.
