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The Asset Management & Maintenance conference discussed the importance of implementing frameworks for a structured approach to asset management. Speakers from the Asset Management Council, IPWEA and the Independent Transport Safety Regulator came together to discuss best practices.
Asset management, in simple terms, is one of those key business strategies that can sometimes be left on the sidelines. An asset in short, exists to provide value to the organisation so thinking about the potential productivity of the asset, rather than the physicality of the asset itself was a recurring theme throughout this event.
Leadership and culture
Peter Way, Chairman at IPWEA, opened the discussion on the ISO 55000 standards by discussing why it is important for businesses to implement standard frameworks into their asset management systems.
“It is good business practice to foster better organisational management processes to drive continuous improvement”
“Asset management is not just about the assets, but the value they can provide the organisation and the stakeholders”. It is then from here that organisations need to align their business objectives, with the technical and financial decisions revolving around asset management and maintenance.
Leadership and workplace culture was discussed by both Peter, and Dr Gopinath Chattopadhyay, who discussed the importance effective governance to guide asset management within an organisation. Peter also discussed the basic break down of an asset management plan with the main factors being:
- What will be done and by who
- Timescales
- Costs and resources to cover
- Risks and how they are dealt with
- A review period for the plan
Non-physical value of assets
Adrian Rowland, Executive Director of the Independent Transport Safety Regulator reiterated this point by stating that asset planning is one of the most critical, and prudent things an organisation can do.
“Throughout the assets life cycle, asset integrity is incredibly important, but the knowledge and wisdom around the asset is just as important as the asset itself.”
“We’re fortunate that in NSW there is a lot of investment in asset management, and strategic leadership is one of the key factors to asset planning as you need to make sure the cogs at the bottom as well as the top are functioning. Asset planning makes it easier to maintain new assets, especially rolling stock”
Inventory Management
Andrew Williams, Vice President of Business Development at Oniqua, spoke about the need to get your inventory management right.
“It’s not just about inventory reduction”, you need the right materials, in the right numbers, at the right location at the right time and cost in order to fulfil your goals of “Inventory Optimisation”.
Andrew’s discussion also presented the importance of analytics and how it helps to uncover the meaning behind the data, as the optimisation of assets requires the use of foresight rather than hindsight.
Technical documentation & engineering
Nick Ruddock, Partner at Maintenance Partnerships Systems focused on the importance of engineering and technical documentation as a critical resource for AM. According to Nick, the new ISO 55000 standards provide “an opportunity to re-examine and refine asset management and maintenance practices” in order to exploit measurable productivity gains.
Nick also cited a recent report that found an overall 10% productivity gain for maintenance users associated with a solution to better manage new and legacy engineering data.
Moving into the future…..
Scott Losee, Director at Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia, discussed the importance of looking at asset management through a sustainability context.
“People tend not to think about the outcomes of building things such as tunnels. There is a global movement in quantifying sustainability in infrastructure. Transport infrastructure and how it fits in the community is a key issue to asset management
“We’re looking for things that go beyond business as usual, you need to measure data and performance. Sustainability is not purely about putting solar panels on things.”
For more information you can view the approved presentations on the Informa Australia Slideshare profile.
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