I vividly remember sitting in the conference room in central Florida with my trusted colleague Jim Oldach and our client, an old hand from NASA who was now the operations manager for a public utility. We had just completed preparing the team for three months of evaluating systems and assets for criticality, condition, and risk.
Following the meeting, with only the two of us present, our seasoned client asked the simple question, "Isn't there a better way?" I remember taking a pause before answering. I knew both Jim and our client had world-class experience and training. And both would likely follow traditional approaches.
With a bit of hesitation, I replied, "I think so. I have been wanting to try something new, something that will get us to the same place with a lost less effort." The client charged us to put our heads together and left the room.
Jim surprised me as we caught each other's eyes. "We think a lot alike, he said. I have been thinking this for years and just haven't had the right opportunity or partner. Let's do this."
The journey began.
The Solomon-Oldach Asset Prioritization (SOAP) Method
The Solomon-Oldach Asset Prioritization (SOAP) method offers a practical, facilitation-friendly approach for identifying which assets matter most. SOAP was developed as a streamlined alternative to the exhaustive (and exhausting) criticality assessments that often bog down teams. SOAP delivers a defensible, operationally relevant ranking with a fraction of the effort involved in traditional processes.
You will quickly run out of time, budget, and patience if your organization treats every asset as if it were the center of the universe.
How Long SOAP Has Been Around
The SOAP method was first prototyped, tested, and peer-reviewed in the mid-2010s, with initial presentations to the reliability community in 2016. These early rollouts helped refine the structure, scoring, and facilitation techniques that now define the method.
Over the past decade, SOAP has shifted from an experimental approach to a recognized, field-tested tool for organizations that need structured yet resource-effective criticality assessments. This history gives SOAP a proven foundation while remaining modern enough to respond to today's operational realities.
Core Benefits of SOAP
SOAP’s primary benefit is efficiency. Organizations consistently report that SOAP requires significantly less staff time and preparation than traditional criticality methodologies.
A key strength is the two-tiered approach. At the system level, cross-functional groups use preference ballots to identify what matters most. At the asset level, SOAP applies straightforward, function-based scoring that captures operational consequences without requiring deep failure-mode modeling.
The result is a prioritization framework that is easier to explain to executives, simpler to defend during audits, and directly useful for maintenance, inspection, and capital planning.
Why Leaders Appreciate the Method
Beyond efficiency, leaders appreciate SOAP because it reinforces alignment. The method requires operations, maintenance, engineering, finance, and leadership to participate in a structured way. Using SOAP reduces the tendency for any one group to dominate the conversation or to set priorities based solely on personal experience.
SOAP is also facilitation-friendly, meaning it can be completed efficiently with the right preparation and a skilled facilitator who can keep teams focused.
The clear outputs help leadership translate the prioritization into funding allocation or risk management actions.
Challenges and Tradeoffs
Like all streamlined methods, SOAP introduces tradeoffs. The method depends heavily on good facilitation and representative participation.
If the workshop participants do not reflect the full range of operational reality, the prioritization may be skewed.
SOAP also relies on expert judgment rather than deep analytical modeling, which may mean it does not fully capture low-probability technical failure modes that a detailed RCM or FMEA analysis might uncover.
These limitations do not diminish the value of SOAP. They simply mean users should treat it as a rapid prioritization tool and apply deeper analysis where the stakes justify it.
Where SOAP Has Been Used Successfully
SOAP has been successfully implemented in water and wastewater utilities, industrial facilities, manufacturing plants, and public infrastructure agencies. Its speed and clarity make it particularly useful for pilot programs, capital renewal planning, maintenance strategy development, and strategic asset management plan (SAMP) projects.
Several organizations have used SOAP to establish an initial risk-based asset list that becomes the foundation for more detailed studies.
Others have used it to demonstrate early wins during broader asset management rollouts, helping secure leadership buy-in and organizational momentum.
The Practical Takeaway
If your organization needs clarity without unnecessary complexity, SOAP is a strong first step. Begin with a facilitated system-level ballot session. Follow with function-based scoring at the asset level. Document decisions clearly. Then convert the highest-priority assets into targeted maintenance, inspection, or capital improvement actions. SOAP helps teams move quickly from unclear priorities to aligned direction, making it a practical tool for leaders who want both speed and rigor in their asset management decisions.
JD Solomon is the founder of JD Solomon, Inc., the creator of the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram®, and the co-creator of the SOAP criticality method©. He is the author of Communicating Reliability, Risk & Resiliency to Decision Makers: How to Get Your Boss’s Boss to Understand and Facilitating with FINESSE: A Guide to Successful Business Solutions.
JD Solomon Inc. provides solutions for program development, asset management, and facilitation at the nexus of facilities, infrastructure, and the environment. Visit our Asset Management page for more information related to reliability, risk management, resilience, and other asset management services.
