Tribute A wise head and a natural mentor In February this year, we told members of the death of our founding President Norman Eason, aged 81. Here, David McKeown shares a little more about Normans interests and contribution to the IAM T Norman Eason he IAM was formed officially on 30 June 1994 and the founding members unanimously appointed Norman as the first President (1994-98) of the Institute of Asset Management. Throughout his life, Norman retained an enthusiastic interest in our development and he was appointed the first Life Fellow of the IAM in 2014, at our 20th anniversary. In the 1960s and 70s, Norman worked on industrial, military, scientific and medical applications of computers, initially with room-sized mainframes (having only 4k of magnetic core memory!) through to networked minicomputers and the eventual introduction of microcomputers in the late 1970s. He was working on computer-aided design and shared the campus with The National Terotechnology1 Centre, whose Director, Dennis Parkes MBE, wanted to know if there was any way that computers could help maintenance (the state of the art system then being, typically, index cards, albums of work schedules and stock cards!). Norman said: I was a bit surprised to find that maintenance was so very far behind. But wasnt that always the case? Maintenance was a necessary evil where budgets were grudged and where career paths were dead-ended! Dennis persuaded Norman to give a paper at the Euromaintenance Conference in 1978, entitled Why should I use a computer? There was a lot of interest but, of course, no products on offer! The birth of an institute Norman was a great supporter of understanding the whole asset life-cycle and the value of asset care far beyond the limitations of a maintenance perspective Around this time, he and Dennis had been meeting regularly with maintenance people from various industries in a user group called CAMM (Computer Aided Maintenance Management). Norman was Chair of the CAMM Group throughout its existence and the idea for a new institute grew from discussions in that committee. Normans vision made him impatient with the rather staid pace of developments at the Electrical Research Association (ERA) and in 1980 he left his safe job as a Divisional Manager to have more freedom. His vision was to run software on any hardware owned by the client. For a long time, this was a pipe dream: each computer had its own software structure, and each user would require customisation. Remember that this was more than 10 years before the introduction of Windows! Normans innovation was central to the RAPIER software system. He collaborated with Oracle; and their leading product resulted in a massive increase in sales spanning a wide range of industries. Norman said: We were solving customers problems. The customers were getting systems that provided them with better data not just for operations, but for planning, development, inter-communication and many things that made them capable of thinking as asset owners rather than just asset fixers. We had initiated a substantial step on the road to asset management. The uniqueness of our product and its effect on maintenance gained us the UK Service to Maintenance Award in 1983. CMMS (computer-based maintenance management systems) is now a well-understood concept, the forerunner of modern Enterprise Asset Management Systems, and now digital twins, having vastly improved capabilities. Norman was a great supporter of understanding the whole asset life-cycle and the value of asset care far beyond the limitations of a maintenance perspective. This remains critical to the IAMs vision and differentiates us from a focus on maintenance and reliability without the context of strategic asset management. Ahead of his time Norman would have been hugely interested in the IAMs current work on digital and its implementation, and would probably have continued to contribute with his unique insight. As long ago as 1985, he published a paper, called Data as an Asset. Norman was also one of the founders of The Woodhouse Partnership in 1994, providing expert advice around the world for many years. John Woodhouse recalls: he taught me how to recognise, understand, navigate and make best use of the full hierarchy of data > information > knowledge > wisdom (and the differences between these!). Norman would certainly have encouraged continuing innovation. Laurie Mather, MIAM, said: I was lucky enough to work for him and learned a great deal under his tutelage, which has stood me in good stead throughout my career. He was always very approachable, obviously a wise head and a natural mentor. It is with the greatest pleasure that IAM Council announces that our annual Digital Innovation Award will be renamed henceforth as the Eason Award for Digital Innovation, in tribute to, and in memory of, Norman Eason. REFERENCE: 1 Wikipedia defines Terotechnology as a system for the care of equipment. It includes the management, engineering, and financial expertise working together to improve the installation and operations. It involves the reliability and maintainability of physical equipment regarding installation, operation, maintenance, or replacement. Decisions are influenced by feedback throughout the life-cycle of a project.