From script by Lou Cripps

What’s the responsibility of Asset Management? In my mind, there’s no question.

The output from an effective Asset Management system is a better allocation of resources to physical assets.  It’s all about allocating $ and people where they are most needed, and not to spend or do where that is not needed.

And that can mean only one thing. AM – the system, not the team – should be the major input to the budgeting process for asset-intensive sectors such as power.  And a major input wherever there is a significant amount of budget at stake.

The Asset Management input to the budgeting process is what Penny originally called the AMP. Given that ISO 55000 didn’t quite get it, I wonder if we should now spell it out – the asset management planning process (AMPP). One integrated, co-ordinated process that looks across the whole asset base with consistent principles on which to base decisions about priorities for the medium and long term. 

We should expect – hope, indeed! – that this will over time have a major impact on business budgeting. That asset-related budgets will change significantly when we have a more optimising system, to make better use of information and plan further into the future.

The focus is not individual decisions, but the wider decision processes.

• What are the priorities for asset renewals, that is major work to replace or refurbish assets?
• What is the appropriate level of planned maintenance to optimise cost, risk and performance?
• Given the current state of the asset base, what is a realistic level of allocation to reactive work going forward?
• How do any growth or new assets fit within the overall strategy (and how important are they in relation to sustaining the assets/ services we already have)?

And this is not planning just about the physical assets. Both the money and the resources have to be considered: there is little point in arguing for money if there is not also a realistic plan for the people to deliver the work.

If we agree this is what Asset Management has to deliver, that also tells us what the main job of a dedicated AM function is and its key relationships with other functions.  We can work through what kind of skills and capabilities we require, and where AM sits in the organisation.

It’s why I don’t consider Asset Management in any sense a sub-branch of Engineering – or the capabilities what we teach on current engineering degrees.  It’s also not Finance, or HR, or Procurement, though it involves all of these.

And the bigger the amount of dollars at stake, the more vital that we do good Asset Management.

Talking Infrastructure is looking again at the AMP and the asset planning we require for future-friendly infrastructure. If you would like to be involved, contact us!