1. Background

The site is a long-established petrochemical production facility in South Texas. For decades, the site has produced essential chemical intermediates for a wide range of industrial customers. Its assets are technically complex, highly utilized, and, in some areas, significantly aged.

For many years, the site’s performance was largely sustained by the experience, commitment, and operational discipline of its local teams. Production, maintenance, and engineering worked closely together to keep the assets running reliably.

At the same time, pressure on the site continued to increase. Over many years, only limited investments had been made in the existing asset base. The number of unplanned disruptions increased, availability came under growing pressure, and the maintenance budget had nearly doubled within two fiscal years.

The leadership team was therefore facing a fundamental challenge: How can maintenance and asset performance be sustainably improved without relying solely on more budget, more people, or additional external support?

2. Key Challenges

Before the implementation of vysr, the site was strongly shaped by operational firefighting. Many decisions were made reactively, under significant time pressure, and based on short-term urgency. While the organization had deep experience, it lacked a consistent, data-driven decision-making foundation. Typical challenges included:

• a high number of unplanned asset outages
• sharply increasing maintenance costs
• frequent short-term break-in work
• recurring failures on critical assets
• unclear priorities between production and maintenance
• budget discussions with limited connection to performance
• limited transparency on the largest economic sources of loss

A particularly critical issue was that many problems were known within the organization, but they were not systematically translated into financial impact. As a result, there was no shared view of which actions would create the greatest economic effect.

Production, maintenance, and management often looked at the same challenges from different perspectives.This led to improvement initiatives being launched, but not always focused on the areas with the greatest performance leverage.

The real challenge was therefore not purely technical. The site did not simply have a cost problem.Above all, the site had a prioritization and decision-making problem.

3. Performance Analysis with VYSR

The site management team made a deliberate decision not to start with a traditional external opportunityassessment. Instead, the goal was to use the existing data foundation toidentify performance gaps in a systematic, fact-based, and value-oriented way.

With VYSR, the site’s performance was analyzed along relevant value drivers. The objective was not tocreate another report or dashboard. The objective was to derive concretedecision and action recommendations from existing data.

Using VYSR, the local project team analyzed, among other areas:

• production losses caused by unplanned downtime and their financial impact
• maintenance costs by cost type and root cause
• the ratio of planned to unplanned work
• break-in work and its impact on weekly scheduling
• causes of recurring failures on critical assets
• optimization potential in budget allocation
• gaps in strategic asset management
• value-relevant action fields for a performance roadmap

The analysis showed not only where performance was being lost, but also which decisions and priorities were contributing to those losses.

Only a few hours after the site data had been uploaded, the first analysis results were available. The team then spent two weeks discussing and verifying the findings together and placing them into the operational context of the site.

Based on this process, the action fields proposed by vysr were validated, adjusted, prioritized, and translated into an executable roadmap.

4. Results

After eight months, the site achieved a clear performance impact. The decisive factor was not one single measure, but the combination of data-based transparency, clear prioritization, and disciplined execution by the local team. The key results included:

• 53% reduction in unplanned break-in work
• USD 24 million in avoided profit margin losses due to fewer asset outages
• USD 7 million reduction in ineffective maintenance costs
• USD 2.7 million in targeted additional investment in condition-based maintenance
• 33% cost reduction in cleaning shutdowns
• 17 additional production days through shorter cleaning shutdowns

Beyond the measurable financial impact, the way teams collaborated at the site also changed.Discussions between production, maintenance, and management became more fact-based, more focused, and more clearly linked to the economic contribution of asset performance.

Conclusion

This use case shows how a highly reactive site can gradually develop into a data-driven high-performance organization.

vysr helped the local team translate existing data into clear priorities, concrete actions, and measurable results. As a result, operational firefighting was turned into a structured performance improvement process.

Following the successful pilot, the customer decided to roll out the VYSR Performance Mining Platform across additional production sites.

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Introduction

Asset‑intensive industries are the backbone of the global economy, contributing more than $30 trillion* worldwide. This represents roughly 25% of global GDP, despite which, these industries consistently lose circa $1.5 trillion** in annual value due to underperformance.

Underperformance ranges from reactive maintenance cultures to ineffective operating frameworks, leading to increased budget pressures. Many organizations struggle to break out of firefighting mode even though the consequences are well‑known - unplanned downtime, rising costs, declining output, and operational stress that plagues the entire system. In fact, large industrial sites lose more than $150 million** annually to downtime alone.

We believe there is a better way. The way is built on clarity, intelligence, and execution.

A New Paradigm for Asset Management

Traditional asset management frameworks often focus on isolated fixes rather than systemic transformation. We are introducing a new approach defined by six core elements:

• Forward‑Looking: Prioritizing prevention instead of cure
• Zero‑Based: Re‑imagining high performance from the ground up
• Demand‑Driven: Aligning maintenance with market needs
• Benchmarked: Comparing real‑time performance against high performers
• Prescriptive: Detailing actionable, data‑driven asset management plans
• Strategic: Ensuring alignment between corporate goals, org objectives, and asset management plans

This framework is built for implementation, traction, and measurable results. More on this in a future blog post.

Our Mission: Performance That Lasts

We support asset‑intensive companies with implementation, training, and advisory services tailored to their operational reality.

We’ve worked with organizations across utilities, energy, hydrocarbons, chemicals, transportation, metals, mining, life sciences, healthcare, and manufacturing. Amongst the 3 co-founders, we've generated more than $925 million in cumulative savings through structured improvements in reliability, maintenance, shutdown management, and operational excellence.

These results come from precise gap identification, boots-on-the-ground execution, and a commitment to solving the root causes of underperformance. We go a step beyond just treating the symptoms.

Leading companies have achieved a lot with our help

Case Study 1: Petrochemicals — $65M in Savings

A major chemicals complex faced a multiyear decline in output and sharp increases in maintenance costs. Combined planned and unplanned downtime exceeded $45 million annually.

Through targeted planned downtime elimination, focused reliability improvements at an equipment class level, and optimized operating practices across the business, the site saved $15 million in reduced losses within six months and $65 million by the second year.

Case Study 2: Mining — $30M more production in 7 Months

A mining operation required a rapid reliability turnaround in its treatment plant ahead of a critical mining process change. Production had fallen by 25% while maintenance costs doubled in the year leading up.

By addressing root causes, prioritizing precision maintenance of hydraulic systems, and controlling scope creep, the site achieved:

• 16% reduction in total downtime losses
• 2 percentage point uplift in OEE
• Achieved $30 million of the $47 million in identified improvement potential within the first 7 months

These examples highlight a pattern: when companies align operational discipline, maintenance strategy, and data‑driven reliability improvements, significant value is realized.

Our Methodology

A Structured approach

We apply a structured, five‑step approach designed to capture value fast and sustain it long term:

1. Identify business needs and value targets
2. Assess processes, practices, and operational data to quantify the available savings
3. Design improvement initiatives and roadmaps to improve performance
4. Improve business results by implementing enhancements to assets, processes, data, and workflows
5. Sustain by embedding continuous improvement and track value creation with our proprietary performance intelligence platform

The first major step of assessment includes deep analysis of master data, work order quality, maintenance costs, system maturity, and reliability performance. Organizations get a business case containing quantitative and qualitative visibility into gaps, risks, and opportunities for improvement.

SHIFT: Our Change Management Framework

Improvements succeed when the people within an organization want them and are ready for them. Our SHIFT methodology ensures that teams are prepared to sustain improvements:

• See the need: build the business case for high performance with data, facts and employee engagement
• Harness support: sync asset management objectives to corporate goals so that everyone's daily work drives the right KPIs
• Implement the plan: upgrade and deploy the new business processes, tools, techniques, systems, and data
• Foster action: assist teams to build habits with knowledge, coaching, clear feedback and reinforcement
• Track & tune: Monitor improvements, track value and refine performance with an AI-enabled tool

This helps create an environment where change is embraced, and results are sustained.

Technology‑Enabled Performance Intelligence

What truly differentiates us is the combination of advisory expertise with a Performance Intelligence Platform that enhances transparency for better decision‑making across asset management domains.

Organizations benefit from:

• Reduced maintenance costs
• Lower equipment risk
• Higher production output
• Less organizational stress

Finally, deployable tools like the OCM Navigator, Planned Work Order Repository, Anti‑FMEA PM Library, and off‑the‑shelf training modules, enable rapid implementation. This means improvements can scale instead of just being one-time gains.

Conclusion: High performance can be achieved faster than ever

Industrial operations are becoming more complex, with increasing pressure on costs, reliability, and environmental performance. Organizations need advisors who combine strategic clarity, operational depth, and practical execution expertise.

We offer a new model for asset management; one that is forward‑looking, benchmarked, prescriptive, and built for real‑world results. Performance improvement no longer needs to be slow or uncertain. With the right insights, tools, and implementation approach, it can be faster, even more data‑driven, and sustainable.

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_Sources:

_{* 2024 World Bank Data}

_{** Siemens report: The True Cost of Downtime 2024}

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Introducing the Vysr Performance Framework (VPF)

Across industries such as utilities, energy distribution, chemicals, petrochemicals, and oil & gas, asset‑intensive organizations share a common challenge:

How to measure asset management performance consistently, objectively, and across all disciplines?

Most companies track dozens of KPIs, yet very few have a unified way to quantify and understand whether their asset management function is performing well and delivering the highest value possible.They typically require a deep-dive analysis to figure out where performance gaps sit, and what the potential is for improvement.

To solve this, we built the Vysr Performance Framework (VPF)—a universal, data‑driven model that quantifies asset management performance end‑to‑end.

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What the VPF Is

We've structure the VPF in 4 levels:

• 1 Performance Score and Value for Asset Management overall
• 4 Value Areas – Cost, Production, Sustainability, Organizational
• 13 Value-Enabling Domains – core processes and levers that shape asset management success
• 39 Value-Driving Insights – the drivers of value that translate directly into operational, financial, and strategic outcomes

Together, these levels create a complete view of how asset management creates value today, and where future value lies.

Value Areas → Value-Enabling Domains → Value Insights

How the Framework Works

What makes the VPF really powerful is the intelligence behind the the structure

For each of the 39 value-driving insights, we combine:

Advanced algorithms

We score performance and available value through best-practice models, proprietary algorithms, benchmark comparisons, and value calculations across all disciplines.

Automated data enrichment

Our model pulls, cleanses, and enriches data to create a single, consistent performance view from content available in systems such as ERP, EAM, CMMS, finance, and operational data platforms.

Scoring & Value Potential Calculation

For every insight, the VPF calculates:

• A performance score
• A performance gap
• A quantified value potential (efficiency gains, cost savings, production uplift, downtime reduction, etc.)

This allows organizations to understand where they stand, and also what improvement is worth in real terms.

What Makes VPF Different

Many frameworks already exist, e.g. PAS 55, ISO 55000, maturity models, KPI dashboards, however, they fall short in one of three ways:

• They simply describe what good looks like, without quantifying performance.
• They are qualitative, based on interviews, impressions, and/or checklists.
• They are siloed and only look at one or two topics at a time, failing to capture asset management as a strategic business function.

VPF solves all three:

It’s objective and quantifiable

Every score is backed by algorithms and real operational data.

It’s cross‑disciplinary

Maintenance, operations, supply chain, H&S, ESG, engineering, finance—every relevant discipline is included in one model.

It reveals value potential

t goes beyond just how the business performs, and also gives a target for how much value can be realized by improving performance.

The 4 Value Areas

1. Cost

Evaluates spending efficiency, cost drivers like labour, materials, spare parts, and contractors, and optimization opportunities.

2. Production

Assesses how effectively asset management contributes to production stability, throughput, and reliability.

3. Sustainability

Captures health, safety and asset risk, environmental impact, ESG alignment,  for sustained asset operation.

4. Organization

Includes digitalization, governance, process discipline, workforce capability, and culture.

The 13 Value-Enabling Domains

We went through several iterations to conclude that  the core levers enabling high performance, are:

• Labour - where workforce utilization, organizational structure, and productivity make the biggest impact on the value that can be generated from personnel
• Contracts - for spare parts, production supplies, contractors, and inventory
• Work Management - in terms of routine maintenance, reactive or emergency repairs, planning details and schedule adherence
• Budget - opex adherence, capex performance, and cash liquidity
• Production Planning, Execution, and Losses
• Asset Risk
• Health & Safety
• Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)
• Operational discipline
• Team enablement
• Data & AI

Each domain influences a value area—cost, production, sustainability, or organization.

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The 39 Value‑Driving Insights

The framework is built on real operational value drivers that fit neatly under each one of the above domains. Some of these are:

• Labour, Asset and Plant Utilization
• Emergency repairs
• Opex & Capex
• Production Automation
• Asset integrity
• Risk management
• Precision execution
• Digitalization
• Skills & training
• IT/OT
• Quality
• Culture & NPS
• Business processes
• Improvement realization

Each insight is measurable, visible, and tied to both the performance score and value potential.

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Why This Matters

Organizations can use the VPF to:

Identify improvement opportunities with real financial impact

Teams learn exactly where inefficiencies exist—and what unlocking them is worth.

Benchmark performance objectively

Across plants, regions, business units, or against industry peers.

Align leadership, operations, and finance

Everyone sees the same numbers, the same priorities, and the same value potential.

Drive a focused, evidence‑based asset strategy

Instead of intuition or isolated KPI dashboards, decisions are grounded in proven value drivers.

Conclusion

The Vysr Performance Framework fundamentally changes how companies understand, measure, and improve asset performance. It turns complexity into clarity, data into decisions, and operational maturity into measurable value.

It gives senior leaders, asset managers, and operational teams a shared, data‑driven way to answer the most important question:

Are we unlocking the full value of our assets—and if not, how much more is possible?

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