Provenance

Art Auction

In the art world, knowing the provenance, or the ownership history, of a piece of art, is critical to establishing its veracity and value. The same should be true of any ‘fact’ that you wish to use to support an argument in asset management. We speak of ‘evidence-based’ decision making, but how valid or reliable is our ‘evidence’?  In other words, how do facts become facts?  As you think about this, consider the following:

I had been asked to review a paper about disability access and the author was keen to get my comment. As I read it, I noted his use of substantial and very favourable benefit-cost figures. Knowing how difficult it is even to conceptualise some of the benefits, let alone measure them, and finding no explanation of the figures in his paper, I ask him for the source.

“Oh, never mind that”, he airily replied, “what do you think of the paper overall?

I told him that I wouldn’t be able venture an opinion until I understood the data and, after a fair amount of applied pressure on my part, he eventually said:

“Look, I made them up! But it doesn’t matter because I am giving this paper at an international conference and someone will quote me, and then someone will quote that person – and pretty soon, it will be fact!”   Unfortunately, this is a true story and he may not the only one acting in this manner. 

Much of the time, however, mis-representation is not as blatant as this. It can be simply a matter of not paying enough attention to labelling the axes. Often we slap up a graph without identifying the axes and expect the audience to fill in the gaps from the context of the conversation. This is a lazy habit that is responsible for many subsequent misunderstandings. For example, what we think is a trend line showing full life cycle costs, might simply be a trend of operating costs. With very different implications!

What other examples do you have where presentations or papers, have or can be, misinterpreted with ill effects on Asset Management?

Where to now?

Ten years ago, after 20 years, I brought SAM to a close. I asked past contributors what the key issues then were, and what we – as asset managers – should do. What did they say – and what would you say today?

Here is that issue, SAM 400. What are your favourites?  Top of the list for me was Melinda Hodkiewizc, Professor of Engineering at the University of Western Australia, who bluntly stated it was time to ante up and provide evidence to support our claims for asset management. I could not agree more, but have we done it?

Several referred to the need to make things simpler – both in terms of action and communication and Peter Way, then Chairman of the IPWEA, while recognising the difficulty, spoke of the critical need for asset managers to speak out whenever they see their political masters moving in a questionable direction.  If only!  After all, if we who know don’t do it, who can?  

Many recognised the importance of the quality of our people in AM and the need for us to continue to think and to develop our abiliies, not mindlessly react. The ever practical Ashay Prabhu, implored us to ‘stop measuring the gap and start plugging it’. 

While most focused on developed countries, Jo Parker, the only engineer I know who has had to build a bridge under duress with limited resources – whilst wearing a burka! – argued that “To spread AM to developing countries, first understand their world!”  Is it ignorance or arrogance that drives so many ‘advisors’ from developed countries to assume what works for us will work everywhere?

What were the key issues then?   Alan Butler, then Director of the Australian Center of Value Management, now retired, identified the following:

  • depletion of core skills and the resultant dumbing down of the asset portfolio “clients” who need to be responsible for effective briefing and critical review of solutions being delivered on their behalf – the asset client must remain an informed client
  • the politicising of the public service where whole agencies are wrapped up in the short term priorities of the incumbent colour of government at the expense of strategic, portfolio-wide context – impartial advice, without fear or favour must exist;  
  • changing the procurement models that place specialist consultants in a position of technical influence where smaller solutions or non-build solutions are not in their commercial interest to present to the engaging “client” – no matter whether the arrangement is called an Alliance, Strategic partnership, Design & Construct, the “non-asset” or smaller solution must always be sought and tabled for real consideration;
  • not understanding what “value for money” means for each client – these words are written everywhere including White Papers, policy, business cases and project briefs with very little understanding or ability to explain, measure or demonstrate what levels are sought and achieved – We have the tools and institutions to address this.

I think that this was a pretty good list for the time.  What are the most critical issues we should now address? Thoughts?

Coffee – and Job Creation

Me at my favourite coffee shop

Most mornings I have coffee in my favourite coffee shop and have a chat with George, the barrista. I like George and I want his coffee shop to remain viable – difficult in these times of rising prices – so, in addition to the pleasure of the coffee itself, I get satisfaction from knowing that I am contributing in a small way to his continuing income.  I could have spent my $6 in another coffee shop or not on coffee at all and then those dollars would contribute to someone else’s income and job sustainability so I know that my expenditure is not increasing the number of jobs in total, I am simply impacting (admittedly in a very small way) where the jobs are being created or preserved.

But let us consider this same type of transaction – purchasing something for money – on a far larger scale.  The government decides to build more infrastructure, say for a billion dollars, and it justifies that expenditure on the grounds that it is ‘creating thousands of jobs’.   Let us set aside for a moment that the number of jobs is usually greatly exaggerated, never validated, and many of them may last only a few weeks or months.  The real question is:  are these jobs ‘additional jobs’, which is the way we are expected to view it and generally do, or have we simply changed the type and location of the jobs? 

The government could have spent that one billion on community services (doctors, nurses, teachers, police etc or, indeed – if infrastructure is so important – on the maintenance of existing infrastructure ), or it could have left it in your pay packet instead of raising taxes to fund its infrastructure spend, but it chose to spend it on bricks and mortar.  We like the idea of ‘more’ jobs being provided. We are less thrilled about the idea of jobs being lost.   Fortunately for our peace of mind we do not see the jobs that are lost and although we do experience the lack of services that results we do not necessarily associate the two. So let us look at a typical project.

In December 1985 when the Adelaide Casino was established by the state owned Lotteries Commission, there was much hype about how many jobs would be ‘created’ by the Casino. And indeed, for the first six months, there was great excitement about this novelty. People flocked to it, abandoning their usual venues.  It was the first Casino in the state and many went there to drink or eat, and some to gamble and the Casino employed many. After a while, however, the novelty wore off, fewer people went and the number of service people employed by the Casino declined. Customers sought to return to their previous venues but some of these, having to cope with reduced incomes in the interim but still pay high city rental prices had gone broke and moved out.  Trouble was, in calculating the increase in jobs, no attention had been paid to where the new Casino customers were coming from or how long they would remain customers.  The lovely little coffee shop I frequented in the city, which provided chess sets and boards for its customers, was sadly one of those that went out of business.  

The moral of this story is when thousands of new job are vaunted, stop, look closer.

Asset Management – Necessary, but is it sufficient?

In case you haven’t caught up with it yet, ALGA’s ‘2024 National State of the Assets Report: future proofing our communities’ was released a week ago.  You can download a copy of the Summary and Technical reports here:

Sometimes reviewing a report is a chore. This was a pleasure. It ticked all the boxes: it was very readable; honed in on the important issues and provided useful, verified data.  It would be impossible for anyone to read this report and not gain a great appreciation for the pressures being faced by all councils, but especially smaller and regional councils, as they face the combined effect of asset ageing, climate change, increasing consumer expectations and more stringent regulations – and very little access to funding.

My overwhelming reaction, and it may be yours too, was to realise that better asset management is unlikely, by itself, to be sufficient. And this may be the most important take away. Asset Management is often presented as a panacea, it is not – but it is where we must start, for if we cannot manage effectively what we already have, how can we ask for more?

The good news is that this ALGA report indicates improvements are being made.   How we express data has a major effect on how it is received. I particularly appreciated having infrastructure costs expressed per ratepayer.  There was a time when we felt that large aggegate numbers had more impact and everybody tried to make their future costs as big as possible ‘to be impressive’, but expressing costs on a small personal scale, i.e. per ratepayer, enables greater understanding.  We are more able to feel it.  I also like the way that averages were dealt with. When I started work on life cycle renewal costs, realising that averages concealed more than they revealed, I put a lot of effort into calculating full age distributions.  But ALGA has realised we don’t need to do all that work if we supplement the average with an indication of the extent of the most urgent of renewals. Very sensible.  Indeed the entire report is very sensible.  There is a lot of data, but it is carefully designed not to overwhelm. 

It is a useful base for arguing for change. Change in the way we fund councils, change in the way we record and use depreciation figures are the first two that come to mind.  What else would you like to see changed?

Our 40th

A lovely sunny day in the Blue Mountains with Ruth Wallsgrove and Jeff Roorda

“ It was great to celebrate Asset Management’s 40th year with many old friends and new, a celebration that started with AM Peak in Adelaide and finished with the IPWC Conference in Melbourne. At both ot these gatherings about 30% of the attendees were women, mostly young women, such a very good sign for the future of AM. Also good signs of ethnic diversity. I recalled the beginning of both associations and so had occasion to reflect on how they have grown and developed over the years. 

In between these events I was able to spend time in Brisbane and meet with AM friends and colleagues of #Chris Adam at Stantec and #Joe Mathew at QUT, while enjoying the company of my long time friend #Kerry McGovern.  Then it was on to the Blue Mountains to meet #Lis Bastian and to stay with #Jeff Roorda, Infrastructure Director with the BM City Council. This was shortly after a major landslide had caused the  collapse of the only road into Megalong Valley. A new temporary road was built within days but was only able to cope with light traffic putting Jeff in the position of dealing with simultaneous environmental, economic and social disasters in this very beautiful and highly sensitive area.  Then just a day ago came news of a sink hole in a Sydney suburb, the result of heavy rains and it is likely that many more of us will be dealing with triple disasters soon.

The truth is that across the country we are facing major challenges and major change and much that we think we know now needs serious reconsideration. I am now taking a Sabbatical or “Time Out” for the next six months to research and reflect on what those of us in the Infrastructure and Asset Management game can do, but I am happy to receive your ideas If you are also concerned.

PS. I have today done what I should have done weeks ago and that is to upload all the remaining chapters of Norman Eason’s “Maintenance and Asset Management Information Systems“.  Now this link will get you the lot!  Do have a look. I am sure that you will be surprised by how much you can still learn from work that was written 25 years ago!  Then the idea was to develop understanding so we tackled the ‘why’ of different issues. Today the emphasis has been on the ‘how’.  But the ‘Why’ is still critically important – because likely different .

Maintenance and Asset Management Information Systems by Norman Eason

Today we uploaded Part 4 of this serial. See what is available – and come back next week for more. .. May 15. All remaining parts have now been added. This is now the whole thing. Enjoy!

CONTENTS

Part One

Chapter 1, p.01  Scope of this book – what’s in it and what’s not

Chapter 2, p.12  Maintenance and Asset Management – the difference between them

Chapter 3, p. 22 Data and Information, Pt 1 – not the technology but the use

Part Two

Chapter 3, p. 35 Data and Information, Pt 2 – differing needs of Maintenance and Asset Manaagement

Chapter 4, p.45 Objectives of Maintenance and Asset Management Systems – differences due to the attitudes of company management and maintenance operations

Part Three

Chapter 5, p.58 The nature of the problem – and the problem of lock-in

Chapter 6, p.71 Codes – the way an organisation describes itself in an information system

Part Four

Chapter 7, p.83 Functions – how to ensure the functions you need are fhe functions you get

Chapter 8, p.87 Technology – trends to be aware of

Chapter 9, p.99 Culture – a new and different framework for thinking about information systems

Part Five

Chapter 10, p.110 Evolution – when does the implementation of a new system end?

Chapter 11, p.120 Interconnection – maintenance systems are not the first to be computerised

Chapter 12, p.130 Methodologies – with the maturity of methodology comes a new are of divergence

Chapter 13, p.135 Traditional approach to product development – evolution v revolution

Part Six

Chapter 14, p.142 Successful procurement for through-life effectiveness – 5 areas that need to be addressed

Part Seven

Chapter 15, p. 172 Objective assessment of progress – productivity is the act of bringing a  company closer to its goals.

An antidote to thoughtlessness

Nobody likes being told what to do. So ‘Maintenance and Asset Management Information Systems’ doesn’t. Norman Eason’s vast experience and insightful observations will simply help you think it out for yourself! Much more enjoyable.

Part 2 of our serialisation of Norman Eason’s ‘Maintenance and Asset Management Information Systems’ addresses the problem of data into information.  

My own experience – and I suspect yours also – is that when data storage became so cheap as to be ignored, we also tended to ignore data relevance.  Early tendencies were to collect whatever we could – and figure out its use later. Are we still doing this? 

Are you really sure?

Why not check? In Part 2 of Norman’s book, now available on the Talking Infrastructure website, Norman addresses the practical needs of both maintenance AND asset management – and makes a clear distinction between the two.  

His work is easy, and it is fun to read.

Norman Eason

Norman Eason, founder UK IAM, was not only an information systems innovator but a business strategist. Great combination!

We are now serialising Norman Eason’s major work “Maintenance and Asset Management Systems” and chapters 1-3 are already available.  Don’t miss this. 

I first met Norman in 1996 and later interviewed him for Strategic Asset Management when he visited Australia in 2000. In 2002, he came to Heathrow airport to see me off and gave me the manuscript of this work to edit and use ‘as I saw fit’.  I felt enormously privileged to be entrusted with this work. So I did a light edit and in 2004 I published it, serial fashion, with side annotations, a chapter a week on my original website. 

In the twenty years that then passed, that website was closed and I lost the original. It was only after he died, and thanks to my friends, Geoff Webb, who had printed out the entire thing as it was being published and sent me his hard copy, and Kerry McGovern, who patiently scanned the whole thing for me, that I again have a copy that I can share with the Asset Management Community.

Re-reading this work now makes me even more appreciative of Norman’s insight. For example, even some 30 years ago, when many were still thinking that asset management was simply ‘maintenance plus’ he was urging his readers to consider that: 

‘movement from a traditional maintenance operation to asset management will take much more than the procurement of an asset management information system; it requires a fundamental change in culture that could take years to achieve. Indeed, the procurement of an asset management information system by a traditional maintenance operation without an accompanying change in culture could have a negative, rather than a positive, effect on the organisation’. 

This is a message which is as relevant today as it was then. So don’t miss our serialisation of Norman’s work. It seems appropriate that after 20 years, we again make this available – and in the original web format.  So enjoy!  

Chapters 1-3 are available now.

In the dark?

Don’t be!  Today we start a new serialisation of “Maintenance and Asset Management Information Systems” by Norman Eason, founder of the UK Institute of Asset Management whose ideas are as useful now as when he wrote them when Asset Management was at its beginning.

See Chapters 1-3 Here.

Norman Eason died two years ago today, February 24th.  Not only was he the founder and first president of the UK Institute of Asset Management, he was the most innovative thinker of his time on the subject of information systems. He was one of the earliest to apply computer technology to maintenance and his Rapier system won a European Award in the early ’90s.

When he realised that companies were buying computerised maintenance systems without having a maintenance strategy and without linking their information requirements to their business, he decided it was time to address this serious issue, which led to his lobbying and the founding of the IAM in the UK in 1995 of which he was their first President.

It also led to his writing one of the most interesting books on maintenance and asset management information systems you will ever read.  

In 2002 he gave me the manuscript of this work and asked me to do with it whatever I could as he now wished to spend his time in his garden. So I lightly edited it and, in 2004, I serialised it on the amqi.com website but did not keep it permanently available in case he should change his mind and decide to have it professionally edited and published. But he never did. Which is a pity since it is such a valuable work.

It was his view that the reason for procurement of an information system for maintenance or asset management is to make use of the information that it accrues. Pretty basic, but there are signs that some have forgotten what should be obvious

“The system should be a fundamental part of the Data to Wisdom Ladder – Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom – and the choice of the system will determine its effectiveness. Without an awareness of how data and information interact and how best they can be managed, no system will be effective. Chapter 3 addresses this subject and also introduces the concept of data as an asset, whereby users of information systems are encouraged to view data (and information) as valuable company assets that should be managed in a similar way to all other corporately important assets” 

Read the first three chapters now.

Growing an Idea

Note: Print copies of The Story of Asset Management are available, go here and choose the direct Amazon link for your location. (and my thanks to Matthew Hughes who drew my attention to the fact that this was not at all obvious.)

A writer for the Guardian described ‘The Story of Asset Management’  as the ‘inside story of a major change’.  She said:  “While discussions about government reforms make take centre stage, the behind-the-scenes processes of problem-solving and innovation remain less documented”  and this is very true.

I am grateful to her for this insight, for it tells me that this story of how AM grew, can also be used as a rough guide to growing any idea.   I can’t say that I knew this at the beginning, but looking back, I think that there are three keys to growing an idea. 1. You have to be fully committed to your idea which doesn’t mean knowing exactly how to do it, but rather having, and believing in, a direction you want to move in. 2. You can’t expect others to do the work, you have to be prepared to do much of it yourself. 3. But while you are doing this, you must actively share the excitement, fun – and the credit – as widely as you possibly can. 

As you read the many anecdotes in this story I would be interested to hear from you whether you believe this to be true. I hope you enjoy the story, simply as a story, our story.  But I would be very pleased if you were able to use it fo further an idea of your own, either in asset management or elsewhere.

Penny