Is your facility prepared for hurricane disaster? Tips from a survivor.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, the difference between downtime and recovery at Baxter Healthcare’s North Cove plant came down to one thing: data discipline.

When the hurricane shut down the facility, maintenance and reliability teams weren’t just facing a crisis—they were facing a test of their systems. With the facility buried in mud and cut off from power, access to critical equipment data and spare parts lists became the difference between chaos and coordinated recovery.

Armed with a laptop, the computer maintenance management system (CMMS), and a cup of coffee at a cafe with Wi-Fi, Reliability Engineering Superintendent Bobby Lee Gilliam used Baxter’s asset hierarchy and spare parts database to help rebuild what the storm destroyed. To learn more about how Hurricane Helene devastated the facility and how Baxter rebuilt under pressure, read this article. Here, Gilliam’s story is a reminder that reliability isn’t built during a disaster—it’s built in the data discipline, asset hierarchy, and spare parts accuracy that happen long before one.

About a week after Hurricane Helene, Gilliam was hauling supplies from Raleigh to McDowell County in partnership with the fire department to help local folks start to rebuild. On the road, he got a call from his boss, who needed him to come in to do equipment assessments, and “Is there any way that you can try to start building a spare parts list?” Gilliam recalled. Much of the area was still without power and internet. "This is why there's power in a coffee shop," he said, when he pulled off the road into one that still had Wi-Fi. "I was able to go into Maximo and retrieve the spare parts associated."

No spare parts list? Inaccurate asset hierarchy? Here’s where to start

After Hurricane Helene, Gilliam’s team at Baxter Healthcare had to rebuild fast—and their CMMS became the backbone of recovery, even when they couldn’t access equipment buried in mud and water. For maintenance and reliability leaders, the experience highlights a critical truth: reliable data drives reliable performance. Here are Gilliam’s best practices for using your asset hierarchy and spare parts list to strengthen readiness and resilience during regular operating conditions before disaster strikes:

1. Move beyond spreadsheets.
   “Leverage your CMMS to manage your spare parts inventory. Don’t just have it on a spreadsheet.” A CMMS provides visibility, control, and connection between parts, assets, and maintenance tasks that static files never could never achieve.
2. Verify your hierarchy—regularly.
   “Do you have a hierarchy process? Do you check it for accuracy?” Gilliam asked. An accurate spare parts list also requires an accurate asset hierarchy in the CMMS. Even the best CMMS won’t deliver results if the hierarchy isn’t maintained and reviewed.
3. Make sure the data tells the truth.
   While any CMMS ultimately can help manage parts and maintenance, the associated parts and PMs need to be entered correctly. “Go out and do a vital check on your assets that are installed in your line,” Giliam said. For example, after an RCA on a failed component, Gilliam’s team found that a project engineer left an asset inactive in the CMMS, which turns the PM off. After repairs, the asset needed to return to active in order for the PM to turn back on.
4. Go to the equipment experts: your mechanics.
   Without a spare parts list, go to the mechanics and ask them what they need to maintain each asset. “That’s a great place to start for a bill of materials,” Gilliam said. “They do not want to spend 30 minutes looking for a part. If they do, they will write it down and they will keep it in a special little black book,” he added.
5. Don’t forget decommissioning.
   Every end-of-life asset should trigger a cleanup in the CMMS. “Create a good decommissioning process and incorporate the removal of spare parts for those assets when they're decommissioned,” Gilliam said
6. Put planners in charge of BOM accuracy.
   Planners should manage the bill of materials (BOMs) because they see the work firsthand. “They're the ones that are generating your corrective maintenance work orders. They should be walking down these jobs. They should be looking at it and seeing what components they need to build to complete this task,” Gilliam said.
7. Use hierarchy data to drive improvement.
   A solid hierarchy isn’t just for organization—it’s a lens for reliability analysis. “You can start to see the usage. You can start to see what's eating your lunch. What are we going through the most? Should that sensor be failing that often? These are great questions to ask with your asset hierarchy process. It's important to incorporate this into a quality management system,” Gilliam said. Integrate these insights into your quality management system to identify weak links and improve long-term performance.

Ultimately, you can empower mechanics with reliability knowledge, and they will, in turn, better understand why documentation and processes are done a certain way. “What I have to do with those maintenance guys is teach them the reliability engineering principles. They already know the maintenance side. They already know how screwed up their PMs are. I'm just giving them the power and the tools to be better, to make change. I'm taking the handcuffs off, right? ‘You're sick of that sensor eating your lunch every day when you run maintenance, let's do something about it. Let me empower you,’ ” Gilliam said.

Building an accurate asset hierarchy: ISO 14224 best practices (with a Disney twist)

Asset hierarchy does follow an industry standard: International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14224. The standard hierarchy has nine different levels. One through six represent the location and seven through nine are the assets themselves:

1. Industry
2. Business Category
3. Installation
4. Plant/Unit
5. Section/System
6. Equipment/Unit
7. Subunit
8. Component/Maintainable Item
9. Part

To make the concept of asset hierarchy more approachable, Gilliam turns to a surprising example: Monsters Inc., the Disney/Pixar film from 2001. By mapping the plant’s systems and assets to the movie’s power-generating world, he illustrates how each level of a hierarchy—from industry down to individual parts—creates structure and traceability in real-world (and fictional) operations. Below is the Monster Inc. asset hierarchy and an explanation for each category: